1852
May 31st Monday Mrs Patterson & Jane have done
the washing and I have been about house
all day Mr Scott has painted the dining
room over the second time Jane will
go against the door in spite of all that I
can do Shall I ever get settled again so that
I can sew some Have got an Ice closet in the
wood house
Spring cleaning was almost finished, and Evelina sounded ready to have it be done. Mr Scott had to paint a second coat in the dining room, perhaps because Jane McHanna kept banging the door against the wall. Evelina was irritated with Jane and longed to get back to her sewing.
The weather had been dry for some time. Old Oliver, uncharacteristically, hadn’t written in his daily journal for nine days. When he finally picked up his pen, he noted that the fair skies had been “verry drying.” Being without rain at the start of the growing season endangered the crops and put him in an ill humor. Perhaps Evelina was feeling some of that, too. And, perhaps, she was still grieving.
One thing that pleased Evelina, though, was getting a new ice closet at the back of the house, in the wood shed. And one thing that pleased Old Oliver was that “Mr Seve began to frame the Cariage hous”* on this day. This building was going up on Ames property off of Main Street, on land behind the residence of Oliver Ames Jr and his wife, Sarah Lothrop Ames.
* Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives
evelinaames 