July 5 Saturday My finger is better and I have been
trying to do some mending A robe for Miss Burr
was brought to me to make but I cannot sew
on any thing nice and Mrs Witherell & Ames
made it. Mr Norris came unexpectedly in the
stage tonight with Mr Ames & Oliver.
The robe that Evelina was asked to sew was a shroud for Miss Burr for her coffin. Evelina and her sisters-in-law were often asked to sew such robes for the deceased, especially if the deceased had no family with the means or ability to make the robe themselves. We don’t know who Miss Burr was, but we can infer that she might have been poor and possibly alone.
Sarah Witherell and Sarah Ames sewed the robe, as Evelina’s finger was still too sensitive to push a needle around. Her finger was getting better, though, or she would have been unable to do any mending.
Oakes Ames and, probably, his middle son Oliver (as opposed to Oliver Jr.) returned from Boston tonight by way of stage coach. The train did not yet go to Easton and wouldn’t until 1855. Accompanying Oakes and Oliver (3) was Caleb Norris, an in-law of the Orr family in Boston. Caleb had recently married Melinda, one of the Orr daughters. Caleb worked in retail in the city. His purpose in traveling to Easton was unplanned and remains unclear. Possibly he was just making a visit; he was probably close in age to Oakes Angier and Oliver (3) and may have been friends with them.
evelinaames 
Just wondering if “Miss Burr” could in any way be related to the John Burr family ? John Burr married Joan Ames (Winthrop’s second daughter).
Hmm, don’t know about that. Certainly could be a connection there. Didn’t some of the Burrs live in Milton?
I don’t really know, Sarah. In the 1940s there were Burrs in Mattapoisett – the bay, building ships I think. Burr Boats are now in Marion, MA. Mattapoisett Burr Boatyard got wiped out by two hurricanes and then my Uncle John Burr (my Aunt Joan Ames) family moved to St.Croix and later to Florida. Winthrop Burr is in the Boston area, is he on your mailing list for Evelina? I know the Burr family is/was a big important family in the social scene of Boston, or so I was told. I am checking with my brother who is much more involved with geneology than I.
Joan Ames was born 1923. The Burr children have a lot of Ames family names….Evelyn!! Thomas, Jonathan, Winthrop.
I am not being successful at internet searching re: Burr geneology, but I am so curious about this.
Hmmm – http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=ROOT_CATEGORY&rank=1&new=1&so=3&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=ms_f-2_s&gsfn=John&gsln=Burr&mswpn__ftp=Massachusetts%2C+USA&mswpn=24&mswpn_PInfo=5-%7C0%7C1652393%7C0%7C2%7C3242%7C24%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C&uidh=000
Lots of Burrs in Mass, all over, in the 1800s. Joan Ames husband was John Thayer Burr. Can’t do a lot without the first name of “Miss Burr.”
Hmmm – we’ll save that research for another rainy day. Next time I read through the 1850 Easton census (no joke) I’ll keep an eye out for a singleton “Miss Burr.” Thanks!
How do you put these relationship the pieces together?!
Being nosy helps. I snoop around the internet, old census records, family diaries, business ledgers and more until the pieces of this puzzle, whose overall image I won’t know until I finish, come together. My goal is to bring to life the people of North Easton in the years before the Civil War.
Someone recently said that the best histories are the ones that find the familiar in the foreign. What I want to do is make Evelina and her circle of family and friends familiar to us. Despite changes in costume, communication and dentistry, we are so much the same people as they were. Isn’t it interesting to know that?