Tuesday Sept 16th Mrs Witherell Emily & Cousin H Mitchell
went into Boston this morning and are going to stop the
remainder of the week I made some cake
this morning & had to be away from Miss Eddy
more than I could wish Mrs S Ames & Helen &
Oliver here to tea Harriet came in but did not stop
long Miss Eddy will stop the night here
A visit from Miss Eddy, a woman who has been staying with various friends – or relatives – in Easton, may have been the impetus for Evelina to bake a cake this morning to serve at tea. It’s worth noting that despite having collected peaches and grapes during the last few days, Evelina didn’t make a fruit pie or tarts to serve. She was saving that fruit to put up for the winter, and wouldn’t have wanted to waste any of it on a tiny social occasion. Cake it was.
The Ames family from next door, Oliver Jr., Sarah Lothrop Ames, and their daughter Helen came for tea, ate some cake and presumably chatted with Miss Eddy. Sister-in-law Harriett Ames Mitchell stopped by briefly, too. Not making an appearance in the front parlour, however, was Sarah Witherell and her daughter from the other part of the house. They had departed that morning for a planned week in Boston, traveling with a Mitchell cousin.
Sarah Witherell had headed to Boston in anticipation of a special event, The Great Railroad and Steamship Jubilee. The Jubilee was to be a “celebration commemorative of the opening of railroad communication” to Canada.”* It recognized the creation of a railroad line from Boston to Burlington, Vermont that connected with a steamship to Canada via Lake Champlain. Travel in the United States had become international. The celebration would go on for three days, and many members of the Ames family would strive to attend some part of it.
*The Railroad Jubilee: an account of the celebration commemorative of the opening of railroad communication between Boston and Canada, Sept. 17th, 18th and 19th, 1851.
evelinaames 
Who on earth is Miss Eddy?
Miss Eddy seems to have been a favorite visitor – she was first at the Howard’s, where all three Ames sons went over to see her. Then at Alson Gilmore’s, and now at the Ames’s. I can’t find anything about her, however.