*
1851
April 6 Sunday. Have been to meeting all day, and
as usual heard two excellent sermons from
Mr Whitwell. It rained very hard while
we were going and has rained fast all day.
Edwin called after meeting & Martin Carr &
a Mr Davenport from Attleborough. Oakes & Oliver
called at Mr Bisbees with them
The Ames family went to both church services today and, as Evelina had come to expect, heard “two excellent sermons” from Rev. Whitwell. Despite the rain, the Ameses had visitors this afternoon. Friends of Oakes Angier and Oliver (3) called: cousin Edwin Williams Gilmore, and friend Martin Carr, who brought a Mr. Davenport with him. The young men all went out together.
Martin W. Carr was the son of “Uncle Caleb” Carr, a long-time employee of the shovel shop, and brother of Lewis Carr, the young man who died back in January from consumption. The family was descended from Robert Carr, an early governor of Rhode Island.
Martin would find his own claim to fame. A jeweler by profession, he went on to found M. W. Carr and Company, maker of knick-knacks and souvenirs, including “gold and silver jewelry, hairpins, belt and shoe buckles, button hooks and garter belts […] matchbooks, cigarette cases, ashtrays, hatpin holders, letter openers, souvenir spoons, ink stands, magnifying glasses, lamp shades, bud vases, napkin rings and trays with imprints of the homes of American authors such as Emerson, Longfellow and Hawthorne.”** The factory was a mainstay of Davis Square in the City of Somerville, and Carr himself a prominent citizen involved in many civic activities. The city honored him in 1898 by naming an elementary school after him. The Easton boy made good.
* Martin W. Carr School, 1898, Somerville, Massachusetts, National Register of Historic Places, now condos.
**Somerville Journal, 1894/Coldwell Banker
evelinaames 