1852
March 15th Monday Gave the sitting room & entry
a thourough sweeping & dusting and then
went to sewing. Susan washed the dishes
Amelia & self carried our work into Edwins but did
not stop to tea, are invited there tomorrow. We called
at Mrs Bucks She has 41 schollars and 5 or 6 boarders
After “considerable rain” over night, Monday broke “cloudy in the morning but fair + warm in the afternoon and in the evening there was some rain + it grew colder [.] Mr Arnold came to day to sleight the hammer shop”* Thus wrote Old Oliver.
After Sunday’s respite, work on the rebuilding of the shovel shops picked right back up. A slate roof was going up on the hammer shop, thanks to the expertise of John Arnold, a local man who had done roofing for the Ameses before. Old Oliver seemed pleased.
At the Ames home, Amelia Gilmore continued her visit with Evelina. Once the morning chores were complete, with Susie washing dishes and trusted Jane McHanna doing the laundry, and midday dinner consumed, Evelina and Amelia walked across the way to visit Augusta Pool Gilmore, carrying their sewing with them. They must have spent several hours there, but didn’t stay for tea. Instead they headed home, stopping off to see another neighbor, Polly Buck. Evidently, Mrs. Buck was running a private school with day students and boarders. One imagines that the ruckus there might have been equivalent to the bustle of workers at the building site.
*Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection
evelinaames 