1851
March 23 Sunday. Have been to church to day and
stoped at noon to hear the bible class
with Alsons wife & others, got some subscriptions
for the blinds. Mother came home with
us from church to make a visit.
Orinthia & myself read to Mother a story in
The Boston Museum a long one but not worth
much Edwin called and Fred & Helen
A beautiful day it has been
Not only was Helen home from school for a visit, but her older brother Fred was back, too, from Philips Exeter Academy where he was preparing for college. How pleasant for Oliver Jr and Sarah Lothrop Ames to have their two children home, however briefly. Helen and Fred stopped in to say hello, as did another cousin on the Gilmore side, Edwin Williams Gilmore. Plus, Evelina’s aged mother, Hannah Gilmore, returned from church with the Oakes Ames family to “make a visit” of a few days. The old house was busy toward the end of the day, and tea this evening must have been especially sociable.
Earlier in the day, at the intermission between services, Evelina popped into a Sunday School class – perhaps for adults? She also did a little fund-raising for the church, or for a charity with which the church was affiliated. She and others raised some “subscriptions for the blinds” (which does not mean they were ordering new window treatment!) They were hoping to help the sightless.
Although Evelina was both devout and charitable, she was not sanctimonious. In her diary, she never mentions reading the Bible. She loved reading, and made note of various novels, stories and articles, such as today’s story that “was not worth Much.” But the Bible itself went unnamed. If she did read chapter and verse from time to time, which seems likely, she simply never said so. Perhaps reading from it may have been as automatic as looking something up in the dictionary might be for us. She didn’t feel the need to remark on it.
evelinaames 