A Phaeton owned by a Boston family, ca. 1850
Sunday Sept 26th Stormy to day and only one carriage
has been to church I was not well and staid
at home Susan Went It has cleared off pleasant
Frank Susan & self have been to mothers and
called to see Miss Alger about giving lessons
Have written a letter this evening to
Mrs Mower Have not read at all to day
Old Oliver reported that “there was a little sprinklin[g] of rain to day.”* Evelina said it was “stormy.” The weather was in the eye of the beholder, it would appear. But Evelina wasn’t feeling well, so perhaps her condition affected her view out the window as she watched the lone carriage head south to the meeting house. She was feeling so poorly that she didn’t even read.
Both the weather and her spirits seemed to improve in the afternoon. With son Frank and daughter Susan, Evelina rode south to see her mother, Hannah Lothrop Gilmore, at the family farm. While in the vicinity, she “called to see Miss Alger about giving lessons.’ Piano lessons, she meant; Susie was going to play an instrument. The new piano had been bought primarily for Susan’s benefit, just as the one bought by Sarah Witherell – and Old Oliver, presumably – was primarily for the benefit of Emily Witherell. Under the paid guidance of Miss Alger (probably the M J Alger who had visited the house earlier in the month), the young cousins would learn to play.
Evelina and Sarah Witherell must have been delighted to see their daughters getting music lessons, something that neither of them had likely access to when they were growing up.
*Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection
evelinaames 