1852
March 31st Wednesday Have been to the sewing circle
at Mr Harrison Pools. Mrs S Ames & Augusta
went and we took Orinthia with us from Mrs Howard
Mother Henrietta Lavinia Rachel Mrs Nahum & Horace Pool
& Ann Pool were there It rained very fast as we were
coming home I left two shirts to be made that I
put in the circle last fall
The Sewing Circle was back. Female parishioners from the Unitarian Church had begun once again to meet on a monthly basis to sew. Like other sewing circles around the country, they met for fellowship, guidance from the local clergy, and the sewing of clothes and linens for one another or others. They hadn’t met – officially, anyway – since December.
On this weekday the group met at the home of Mary and Harrison Pool in southeastern Easton. From North Easton came Evelina, Sarah Lothrop Ames, and Augusta Pool Gilmore, the young bride who was returning to the area of town where she had grown up. The women stopped en route at Nancy and Elijah Howard’s to pick up Orinthia Foss. Hostess Mary Pool, who had three young children underfoot, welcomed them. Others who attended included Evelina’s mother, Hannah Lothrop Gilmore; Henrietta Williams Gilmore, Lavinia Gilmore, Rachel Gilmore Pool, Lidia Pool, Abby Pool and Ann Pool. It was a veritable family reunion. Except for Orinthia Foss, every women present was related by blood or marriage to at least one other woman there.
Such a gathering must have been good amusement, with less formality than the social calls that some of the women had paid the day before. But spirits may have been dampened by the “very fast” rain that pummeled the carriages when the meeting ended and the women returned home.
evelinaames 