1852
Thursday Aug 5th Have had a rainy day which was
very much needed. Was intending to go to
Boston with Oakes A in a carriage Am most
affraid to have him drive Caty as he has been
raising blood of late and has a hacking cough
Lavinia is at Edwins has had Julia
cut her a dress to day I went there and
carried my work awhile this afternoon
Put a new breadth into Susans Borage Delaine
where she tore it
Caty (or Katy), one of the Ames’s horses, was famous in Easton for her willful – and fast-paced – ways. Evelina has complained about her in previous diary entries. Today, however, Evelina had another reason entirely to be “most affraid” to let her son, Oakes Angier, drive the horse. Oakes Angier Ames was coughing up blood.
In an age when consumption, which we know as tuberculosis, was rampant and usually fatal, any person “raising” bloody sputum was immediately suspected of having the disease. TB wasn’t restricted to the lungs, actually; it could attack other parts of the body, such as the spine, but its most common manifestation was pulmonary. Blood coughed into a handkerchief was bad news.
How frightening this development must have been for Oakes Angier, and indeed for the entire Ames family. Oakes Angier was the eldest grandson, the heir, the star cousin and nephew in whom many expectations were placed. He was beloved, and suddenly he was evincing signs of a potentially fatal illness. Old Oliver makes no mention of this in his journal, however, and Evelina herself had taken a few days to record the news. She may not have wanted to see such words in writing. We may suspect that Oakes Ames knew about his son’s condition earlier, but we can’t know for certain, of course. We can only follow the family as it copes with this huge development.
On this day, Evelina seemed to cope as she always did, by sewing. She took her work across the way to visit Augusta Pool Gilmore, the young bride who was now in the family way. Dressmaker Julia Mahoney was there, as was Lavinia Gilmore, so the women were able to sit and sew and talk in their usual fashion. The touch of normalcy must have been somewhat soothing for Evelina.
evelinaames 
Am most interested to see how this illness onset of Oakes Angier plays out. At least I know he survived as he is my great grandfather and bore our grandfather, Winthrop. Sorry to see they had two sons who died in infancy.
Yes, we have the comfort of history to know that Oakes Angier will survive this. But he didn’t know, nor did his parents and family. We’ll get to see how they responded.