Frank Morton Ames | evelinaames

August 3, 1851

1851

Sunday Aug 3d Went to the consecration of the Catholic

Church dedicated to The virgin Mary. The bishop &

priest took a pail of water and a cedar twig and went

around the house and sprinkled the foundation with the

water and then the aisles & walls and some of the

congregation got a sprinkling. This afternoon went to

our own church. Frank carried Orinthia home

Oakes A carried Louisa Swan to the hall under our

church to a sing & carried S E Williams & L Kimball

home from it

By 1850, Easton’s Catholic population, which had been almost non-existent before about 1840, now numbered approximately 150, primarily due to the influx of Irish Catholic immigrants, many of whom went to work at the shovel factory. The Irish had no church of their own, and had been gathering for worship in a hall belonging to the Ames family on those Sundays when an itinerant priest came to town. The congregation had outgrown that facility, however, and needed their own house of worship.

The Ames family donated a plot of land on Pond Street to the Catholics so that they could build their own church. The stone plaque in the photograph above commemorates that first church, built in 1850 and consecrated on this very Sunday in 1851. Evelina and, presumably, other members of the Ames family attended the consecration, a ceremony to which Evelina paid close attention. They went back to their own Unitarian church in the afternoon.

* SITE OF THE

FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH

IN EASTON

ERECTED IN 1850

TO THE

GREATER GLORY OF GOD

AND DEDICATED IN HONOR OF THE

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

OF THE

BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

AUGUST 1976 [date of plaque]

August 2, 1851

/51

Saturday Aug 2d Mrs James Mitchell, Cousin & sister Harriett

Mitchell came to the other part of the house to day

Sister Harriet returned to E Bridgewater with them

Frank went to Boston to see a Dr about his

throat got him a white hat. We were all

invited into Mr Bucks to see Miss Lothrop from

Boston Orinthia & Helen went Mrs Witherell

& I called after tea the boys went in the evening

Evelina felt better. She was back in the social swing today, going out after tea with her sister-in-law Sarah Witherell to meet a Miss Lothrop. Earlier in the day, Sarah Witherell had entertained two or three women named Harriet in her parlor in “the other part of the house”: sister Harriett Ames Mitchell, friend Harriet Angier Mitchell (Mrs. James Mitchell) and, possibly, cousin Harriet Ames. It’s also possible that Evelina, in writing the word “cousin,” meant to identify Harriet Angier Mitchell as a cousin which, by a stretch of several “removeds,” she was. In the latter case, there was no cousin Harriet Ames present. Confusing to us, certainly, and, perhaps, confusing to them. Who was visiting in the parlor?

Old Oliver, meanwhile, was in the thick of haying season. He noted that “this was a fair good hay day wind south west and we got in all the hay we had out some of it had bin out over a week and all of it since last Monday –“

One young man who was neither outside with a pitchfork helping his grandfather nor inside the factory fashioning a shovel was almost-eighteen year old Frank Morton Ames. Frank had been suffering from a sore throat that he evidently couldn’t get the better of, so he took off to Boston to have it looked at. When he returned to Easton, he reported nothing alarming. Rather, he arrived with a startling new white hat, looking perhaps like one of the young men in the illustrated daguerrotype above. According to some sources, white beaver hats enjoyed a short vogue at this period. Frank must have stood out in the gathering at the Bucks’ house that evening.

* Image from Daguerreian Society, Mark Koenigsberg Collection

July 9, 1851

1851 July 9th Julia is here again to day and my dress

not finished yet it will take me two hours

or more to get it done I think it will suit

me pretty well when it is finished Mrs Horatio

Ames & Gustavus came to Father Ames this

afternoon Frank and Gustavus went to Mr Algers

to get some butter

William Leonard Ames, fifth child and youngest surviving son of Old Oliver and Susannah Angier Ames, was born on this day in 1812, less than a month after the United States declared war against Great Britain. He came along at an unsettled moment in Old Oliver’s life; the latter was attempting to establish a textile factory in Easton, an enterprise that would fail when “peace came along and spoilt the business.”*

William grew up having to compete with his older brothers, Oakes, Horatio and Oliver Jr. In 1851, he was still vying for his place in the sun, so far without much success. Several years earlier, William had undertaken the management of two separate iron furnace operations in New Jersey, both of which were underwritten by Ames money from Easton. He was not successful, and blamed his lack of success on his brother Oakes. William believed that Oakes, referred to by one historian as “the emperor of New Jersey operations,”** was selfishly working against him. “Oakes sole object […] is to make everything as unpleasant for me as it can be.”**

The enterprise may have been unlikely to succeed all along. William was focused quite specifically on operational issues while Oakes was looking at the profits to be made from various land deals on the properties in question. The two brothers had different goals.

William began to close down his affairs in the east and, with his young family, prepared to move west to Minnesota. There, in the St. Paul area, he found success in cattle ranching and lumber. Credited with introducing the first Shorthorn cattle into the territory, “[h]is large and successful farm […] was a practical advertisement for Minnesota as an agricultural region”*** Despite the distance between him and the family in Easton, William made periodic trips back east to see his father, bringing some of his children along. His only daughter, Amelia, eventually returned to the east to live.

Of all the offspring of Old Oliver and Susannah, William was the most married and had the most children. His wives, the first two of whom died before he did, were Emily Louise Brown, Amelia Hall, and Anna Pratt Hines. He and Amelia had six boys and one girl. He and Anna, too, had one son not long before William died, in 1873.

* Oliver Ames, journal

** Gregory J. Galer, Forging Ahead, Brown University

*** ames.spps.org

July 4, 1851

July 4th Have been transplanting some pinks &c to day We have had several heavy showers Oakes A & Frank rode to Dr Swans to make a call and carry his chaise home Oliver & wife Harriet & Helen went to Mr Lothrops this afternoon Mr Ames & self to mothers. Orinthia has gone to Cohasset with Mr Brett. Helen came home last night On the Fourth of July in 1851, the new 31-star flag was raised over America for the first time. It recognized the addition of California to the union. Previously known as the California Military District, and before that as the short-lived California Republic, the new state had been officially added back on September 9, 1850, less than three years after gold was discovered there. California’s statehood had been a political struggle in that age of slavery. Only after significant wrangling by Congress and Presidents Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore, did compromise legislation, spear-headed by Senator Henry Clay, finally carry the day. There was to be no slavery in California. The 31-star flag would remain the standard until 1858, when Minnesota joined the union. The nation’s 75th birthday was recognized in Washington, D.C. with a ceremony for the laying of a cornerstone of the new addition to the Capitol. Massachusetts’ own Daniel Webster gave a speech. A long speech it was, in the style of the day, in which, among other things, Webster exhorted his audience to acknowledge that the formation of the United States had wrought “astonishing changes […] in the condition and prospects of the American people” and to advise “ye men of the South” that the progress of the country was worth staying in the union for. Ten years before the Civil War, Webster opined that “the secession of Virginia, whether alone or in company, is the most improbable, the greatest of all improbabilities.” Webster didn’t live long enough to see how wrong he had been. Back in Easton, the shovel shop was closed. Many employees may have tried to picnic despite the rain. In the Ames family, most everyone had someplace to go. Evelina and Oakes rode to the Gilmore farm to visit Evelina’s mother. Oakes Angier and Frank Morton, no doubt tired from their long day yesterday, took the borrowed chaise back to Caleb Swan. Oliver Ames Jr., his wife Sarah and daughter Helen rode over to Sarah’s parents’s house, taking Harriett Ames Mitchell with them. Where was her husband, Asa? Where were her young children? With the Mitchell in-laws in Bridgewater, perhaps. Why weren’t they all together? Even Orinthia Foss was out and about, gone to Cohasset with a Mr. Brett. * If you want to see other designs for the 31-star flag, check out the Zaricor Flag collection at flagcollection.com

July 3, 1851

July 3d Thursday About 5 Oclock this morning Oakes A

& Frank started for their ride to Middleboro

& I fixed their boquets with Oilcloth & Ribbon

They might have had the politeness to give

their ladies some boquet holders.

I worked in the garden sometime this forenoon

my finger being to sore to work About four

went to carry Oliver to North B to take the

cars for Boston Mrs Peckham & Mrs Swain called.

As the crow flies, Middleboro, Massachusetts is about 14.5 miles from Easton. By the navigable roads that crossed the countryside, however, the traveling distance was actually about 18 miles, maybe more. Oakes Angier Ames and Frank Morton Ames borrowed a chaise to make the trip; how long might it have taken the boys to get where they were going? A horse at a walk goes about three to four miles per hour; the same horse at a trot can manage eight to ten; and a canter or gallop – unlikely in someone else’s chaise – can cover ten to seventeen miles per hour. We might imagine that a sensible trot was the gait they urged their horse to, but then, they were eager young men.

What was the occasion? Was it related to a Fourth of July celebration? Who were the “ladies” whose company promised such pleasure that the brothers were on the road at dawn? How did those bouquets hold up during the trip? No doubt the oilcloth and ribbon was carefully and skillfully applied to the flowers, but the lack of bouquet holders was, evidently, a serious faux pas. Evelina bemoaned her sons’ lapse of manners.

Evelina took a carriage ride of her own today, escorting Oliver (her other son, most likely, as opposed to her brother-in-law) to North Bridgewater to catch the train to Boston. Where was he going? Why wasn’t he traveling with Oakes Angier and Frank? For the three boys, the social scene was beginning to spread further afield than familiar old Easton.

July 2, 1851

Wednesday July 2d Have had quite a busy day. This forenoon

cut out three shirts for the sewing circle and worked

a long while in the garden transplanting

Oliver went to Bridgewater and carried Mrs Whitwell

Mrs Witherell and me to the sewing circle at Alsons.

After I got home went to work on boquets

for Oakes & Frank. Harriet assisted

Mrs S Ames went [to] Exeter this morning

Today is one of those instances when we can’t be certain which Oliver is being referred to. Did Evelina’s brother-in-law, Oliver Jr., or son, Oliver (3) carry Evelina, Sarah Witherell and Eliza Whitwell to the Sewing Circle at Henrietta Gilmore’s?

Besides attending the monthly gathering of the Unitarian women to sew, Evelina also spent time in her flower garden. She transplanted a number of flowers and picked several to fashion into two bouquets. Her sons, Oakes Angier Ames and Frank Morton Ames, planned to attend a party in Middleboro the next day and needed what we might call corsages to take to their dates (a modern word they wouldn’t have used.) She and her sister-in-law, Harriett, arranged the flowers appropriately.

Sarah Lothrop Ames had business of her own to attend to. She went up to Exeter, New Hampshire, where her son Fred Ames was in school. Was she picking him up to bring him home or just visiting?

May 30, 1851

Funeral

1851

May 30th Friday Have been sweeping & dusting the

chambers put things in order in the shed chamber

again. Jane has cleaned the boys chamber Frank left

their room last night. Have sewed a very little

Frances Linscott came to see Orinthia in the

stage to night and Frank went to Mr Howards

after her It was past nine when they got

here It is very cold for the season

Mrs Johnson buried to day in the new Cemetery

The first burial in the new cemetery in South Easton took place today. Catherine Lothrop Johnson, the wife of Thomas J. Johnson of Newtonville, and their infant son were buried there. Catherine was 35 years old. She would not have had a service in a church; rather, there would have been a gathering of friends and relatives at the Johnson home, after which some or all would have ridden or walked to the burial site for the committal ceremony. To bury a mother and her baby was a double sorrow, obviously, but not all that unusual in a period when childbirth carried such risk.

Orinthia, meanwhile, came back to the Ames’s for a visit, bringing along a friend from out of town, Miss Frances Linscott. The two young women arranged to stay at the Ames’s house. Certainly part of the reason for this was Orinthia’s fondness for the Ames family, especially Evelina. Is it possible, however, that the Ames sons were also an attraction?

The three Ames sons who had been sharing one bedroom returned to previous sleeping arrangements today. Oakes Angier and Oliver (3) stayed in the room they shared and Frank Morton Ames returned to his own smaller quarters. After tea, Frank took a carriage south to Elijah Howard’s home, where Orinthia had been staying, to carry her and her friend to North Easton.

May 3, 1851

May 3d Saturday Early Orinthia & I went to work on the flower

beds to lower them. We cut the center bed down

about three or four inches and have got some of

the others done I worked most all the forenoon

moving plants Have been to N Bridgewater this

afternoon with O A & Frank Have engaged

a new bedstead for my chamber and a small one

or a lounge in the dark bedroom

Although we don’t know how Evelina arranged the flowers in her garden, she gives us a clue today about the overall formation of her plantings. She and Orinthia Foss worked on a central bed with other beds placed around it. This kind of design was very common in the 18th century and into the 19th. It could well have been the pattern of a garden that Evelina’s mother-in-law, Susannah Angier Ames, might have started in the yard. Susannah had died five years earlier; Evelina could have inherited the design and was in the process of making it her own. Sarah Witherell, her sister-in-law who lived in “the other part of the house,” was apparently less interested in gardening than Evelina, so Evelina made most of the decisions about the flower beds on the property.

Any good gardener knows that personal flower gardens are as unique as snowflakes. No one is exactly alike. Even a repetitious scheme with a central bed surrounded by a formation of other beds will differ from gardener to gardener. Some central bed gardens have each bed replicate the plantings in the other beds, so that a particular pattern of flowers is repeated. Other central gardens, such as the John Jay garden in the illustration above, feature different groupings in each square.

How did Evelina approach her garden? We might guess that her taste was broad and reactive rather than predetermined. She planted a wide variety of flowers, so her garden undoubtedly featured a sampler of colors, shapes and textures. Certainly, her taste was less formal than her sister-in-law, Sarah Lothrop Ames. At their property next door, particularly after they built their new house in 1863, Oliver Jr and his wife hired a gardener and cultivated more modern Victorian plantings. Their gardens were probably less rambunctious than Evelina’s, featuring formal walkways, lengthy borders and other haute designs. Anyone who knows their house, Unity Close (which still stands today), will know that later generations of Ameses, under the guidance of landscape architect, Fletcher Steele, built upon that landscape.

On another front entirely, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a speech today in Concord on abolition. That speech is in the collection of the Concord Library, should anyone care to track it down.**

*18th-19th c. garden at John Jay Homestead Historic State Park, New York, from themarthablog.com

**concordlibrary.org/scollect.Emerson_Celebration/Em_Con_39.htm/

April 29, 1851

April 29 Tuesday Frank has finished the beds in the flower

garden and I have set out some plants that Henrietta

gave me and some that I bought of Edwin Manly paid

him one dollar Julia here finishing the dresses for

Susan & my blue Delaine dress. Mrs George Ames

& I went to Sharon and spent the afternoon

Had a pleasant ride with Dominic

Three spheres of activity informed Evelina’s day. First was gardening, made possible by Frank Morton Ames finally finishing tilling the soil in the flower beds. He and others had been loosening the soil off and on for several days, which raises the question of how many flower beds Evelina had, and how large they were, and where they were situated relative to the house. Evelina “set out” some plants that she got on Saturday. One group came from her sister-in-law, Henrietta Lincoln Gilmore, at the Gilmore farm; she probably got those for free. The other group from Edwin Manley, however, she had to pay one dollar for.

The second sphere of action was sewing, of course, which always seemed to be going on in center ring at the Ames house. Today Julia Mahoney, the dressmaker of choice, worked on a dress for Susan and a blue delaine, or light wool, dress for Evelina. The warm weather would soon arrive and the lighter dresses would be needed.

The last sphere was a nice change of pace – literally – for Evelina and her cousin-in-law, Almira Ames. With Dominic, a horse, pulling them along, the two women drove the carriage (or were driven) to nearby Sharon. Whom did they visit? Did they shop in the town? The ride was pleasant, whatever the errand.

April 28, 1851

1851

April 28th Monday Have had Mrs Connors here to help

about washing, Janes finger being sore She came

at half past 6 and left about half past two charged

42 cts. I helped about the washing Willard Randall

came this afternoon to work over the earth in the

flower garden. Frank came from the shop about

five and worked some on the beds. I have set out

some carraway roots that Alson gave me. Helen came

home with Cyrus

According to some calculations, the 42 cents that Mrs. Connors was paid to do the Ames’s laundry translates to a labor value of $13.20 today. Mrs. Connors was paid little better than a nickel an hour. Evelina worked on the washing today, too, much as she disliked it.

Once the laundry was set out to dry, Evelina got back to the garden. Her son Frank Morton helped her when he got home from work; he seemed to enjoy being in the garden as much as she did. That, or helping his mother till the soil was his assigned chore. Willard Randall, another shovel shop employee and member of the extensive Randall clan, came up again to continue working “over the earth.” Was Willard pleased to walk up to the Ames’s yard to turn over the soil in the boss’s wife’s flower garden? Did he have a garden of his own at home that needing tending?

The caraway roots that Evelina picked up on Saturday at the Gilmore farm went into the ground today, probably in an area close to the kitchen, a time-honored location for every housewife’s herb garden. The rhubarb and horseradish would go in there too.

Helen Angier Ames, the niece who lived next door, returned home today from boarding school in New Bedford. Her uncle, Cyrus Lothrop, “carried her” home, as the phrase went.

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