As always, click on the picture to enlarge for easier reading of original. Feel free to contact me with corrections, additional information, or comments. Click on the map link to the right of this entry to see more about where places are.Very interesting entries. Omar goes to Red Mill in Naples for horse feed and flour - ground from their own grain. Omar goes to Stoddards to get a thermometer. Henry lists some people, but doesn't mention anything about why -- were they there to visit? Some are just first names? Orva (sp?) Weld and wife, Aunt Catherine, Ella (?) and E?leanor Ca???, and Frank and Erma or Emma? Any suggestions on reading this gratefully received.... maybe some later entries will clarify some of these names. (later note - I think that light word might be "came". Maybe these are folks who came over to visit?)
Friday - A lot of visiting today! -- Henry and Sarah go to visit the John Averys -- William Blodgett and wife and Mrs. J.W. Lawton (preacher's wife) were there too. They head home early because some young people are expected at their house for the evening. Six couples spend the evening playing and engaging in "social chit chat". Not sure what "playing" would refer to. Playing cards would not have been a proper Christian thing to do --- perhaps board games, charades?? Dad says there might well have been music involved. Bart played fiddle, clarinet, and coronet later in life, and was an avid member of the Ingleside Band as an adult. Just a side note that I wish I knew more about their house, and the homes of their friends and neighbors. 6 couples, plus Henry and Sarah, plus the younger folks in the family, could add up to about 20 or 21 folks in the house that night? Omar, Jen, and Bart might have been included in the 6 couples - older "kids" in the family who might have had dates? Mills is 16 -- he might have had a date, but that still leaves Lois (14), Esther (13), Cad (10), Prudence (8), Stella (5), and Kent (3) What sort of house could host such a gang? Remember the bathroom was definitely an outhouse! Even with Hattie married and living in Wayland, there are 13 or 14 people living there all the time.
Saturday Omar and Henry go to Avery's shop -- a blacksmith -- and have the horse's hooves sharpened and shoed, at the cost of $1.00, and order some ice tongs made for 50 cents! They try the ice on William Johnson's pond, and find no water - frozen solid all the way! Henry and Sarah go to visit Mart and Julia in the afternoon, and to Grange in Ingleside in the evening. More visiting! While in Ingleside, they pay $5.67 on their bill at the store, and barter 10 dozen eggs for $1.90 off the bill - 19 cents a dozen.
Sarah, Henry, Jen, Ettie (Hattie), Omar, and Bart to to church. (Bart is my great grandfather) Ettie must be visiting? She lives in Wayland. Elder Hibbard gives the sermon. I'm not sure how leadership of the church is organized... several folks seem to give sermons, lead services, etc?? The church still is in Ingleside - not the same building - I wonder if I can find old records?? Omar and Jen go to church in the evening with dates - Omar with Hattie (Warren) and Jen with Hiram Warren. Omar will marry Hattie later (not sure of date). Henry throws in another little comment about Omar -- "Omar takes Hattie I guess". If I were counting, I'd say this makes three little asides about Omar so far this year.
5 comments:
And maybe there was a piano there...seems like once upon a time every living room had one! (I never have understood why they've disappeared.)
If Rowene's old place was typical of the size of those homes, I can see how you'd get that many people in...though of course folks would be milling around from room to room and maybe even moving outside to a porch. Likely if you've got that many people living in your house all the time, what's another half a dozen or so?
I just love how social these guys are! I know there was not much other entertainment to be had, but still. I know my own Alvin and Amelia certainly were not this social. Altho they did have a pinochle group.
I know so little about my great grandparents; just that Grandpa John was the one who scandalized the family by going to Florida in the winters (by train). And that's why my dad has ended up there in retirement. He listened to John's advice. *S*
I love his use of "forenoon". You'd think we would still use this term since we use "afternoon". I think Omar and Hattie must have been married in 1888, since they had first son (and my grandfather) Henry Warren Olney on 10/29/1889. I don't have their actual marriage date in my FTM database. I will check some other records to see if I can find it.
Seems like I remember using "forenoon" when I was a kid, but the term seems to have drifted away? I wonder if it was a regionalism? Anne is the family wordsmith ... I'll ask her.
Anne's response:
My grandmother used the word quite frequently too, though I don't recall
any of her kids using it, my mother or aunts or anyone from that
generation. My OED lists the word of course, and does not list it as
"obsolete." The first written record of the word appears in 1306--so it's
old--and in a British text--so it's old, AND crossed the Atlantic. If
you're interested I can send you the family tree of its appearances (but
not everyone's as wonky as me, I admit).
Sometimes words just fall out of usage and logic rarely has anything to do
with it (think of all the comedians who have written routines around that
premise, George Carlin, Steven Wright). Part of it's because people, I
think, tend to mimic what they hear. You could always try resurrecting the
word, and see if it catches on!
Anyway to answer your question no, I don't think it was just a regionalism.
I'm still pretty sure the earlier "mother goose" was, but no one, so far,
seems to know for sure. Try to ask the oldest person you know from these
parts. You never know!
Thanks Anne!
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