Tuesday Sept 14th Alson came this forenoon and carried
mother home I have ironed 13 fine shirts made
grape jelly and have been hard at work all
day Mr Torrey came and staid a long while
talking over the news of the neighborhood
Mrs Stevens & self called on Augustus & wife and
went over [to] Mr Carrs where they have commenced
mowing Mr Torrey & Abby were away, door fastened
New carriage & Buggy chaise came to night
Evelina didn’t stop moving today. She saw her mother depart for home, ironed a baker’s dozen of shirts, made grape jelly, did her usual picking up around the house, entertained guests, and paid a call on her nephew and others. It’s hard to imagine that her kitchen could accommodate the ironing of white shirts and the boiling of purple jelly at the same time, yet we read that this was so.
We readers should also note that for once, it’s Evelina, and not her father-in-law, who tells us that there is mowing going on in the neighborhood. The men were working quickly, one imagines, as “there was Some frost last night.”* Officially, it was still summer, but winter was on the far horizon, and preparations were underway.
And there was new equipage! A carriage and a buggy or chaise arrived. Who had just bought them? Old Oliver? Oakes or Oliver, Jr., or one of the sons, or all of the above? How, exactly, might the ownership of the vehicles have worked?
*Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection
evelinaames 