1852
Sat June 5th Mr Scott has been tinkering around in
one place and another to day has worked part
of the day here and this afternoon Holbrook
and another man came and put a coat of
paint on the plastering in the entry chamber
and whitewashed Franks chamber & painted
the closet I cut out two of the shelves and
the shelves in my chamber closet.
Mrs Patterson here
Consul & slab came
and Olivers furniture
The dependable Mrs Patterson was on hand again today, as workmen tinkered, plastered and whitewashed different areas of the house. Evelina herself tinkered with the shelves of her closet in the master bedroom, cutting away two of them, perhaps to make room to hang clothes rather than fold them.
The arrival of new furniture from Boston was exciting for both Evelina and Sarah Lothrop Ames. Evelina and Oakes were to have a new console table – probably for the parlor – with a slab of stone – probably marble – on top. The Oliver Ameses next door got a delivery of new furniture, too. The families were upgrading. It must have taken an industrial-strength wagon pulled by oxen to bring the pieces out from the city.
The delivery wagon had a “fair day”* for its route, and Old Oliver Ames had a good day to watch the new sills “for the cariage hous”* being laid down. He did enjoy building things, and his daughters-in-law enjoyed furnishing them.
*Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection
evelinaames 