funeral

April 22, 1851

 

images

1851

Tuesday April 22d  This morning it is quite pleasant & I went

to the store & got the print for Susans dress

that I returned last week have made the 

skirt & cut the sleeves called into the other part

of the house awhile & have staid three or four

hours in Olivers, she is quite sick so that

she does not sit up at all.  Mary Middleton buried

in Canton 17 carriages went to the grave

A[u]gustus went to New York last night with Henry Gilmore

Evelina spent several hours today in the bed chamber of Sarah Lothrop Ames, who was so sick in bed that she did “not sit up at all.”  That kind of illness was worrisome, especially as Sarah had been sick for several days and wasn’t getting better.

Sewing wasn’t forgotten amid her concern for her sister-in-law.  Evelina picked out some printed cloth for a new dress for Susie, the same print or dress at the company store that she had rejected previously.  She began cutting and sewing and had the skirt finished and the sleeves underway while otherwise occupied with checking in on both sisters-in-law. She was speedy with the needle.

Meanwhile, a local woman named Mary Middleton was buried in Canton.  Evelina was quite impressed at the number of carriages that followed the casket to the cemetery.  Miss or Mrs. Middleton must have been a personage of some importance, or someone with countless relatives. Evelina could have no way of knowing that when her own husband Oakes would die in 1873, a crowd of 3,000 people would attend his funeral. How many carriages would he draw to his service?

 

February 9, 1851

Elizabeth Missing Sewell Gertrude 1866 ( American edition)

Elizabeth Missing Sewell
Gertrude
1866 ( American edition)

Feb 9th Sunday  I have such a cold today that I thought it best

not to go to church or to the funeral of Uncle Seth Hall.  who

died last Wednesday & is to be buried to day at 1 Oclock.

Commenced reading Gertrude by Rev W Sewell.  Edwin called

this Evening and staid an hour or more  Think it rather tiresome to read all day

although I like to do it, but seldom have the privilege.

Had Oysters to night for a rarity  Quite pleasant

Evelina described this day as pleasant, yet in his own journal Old Oliver mentioned “trees loaded with ice”.  Small wonder that Evelina opted to stay home from church to nurse a stubborn cold.  She used the quiet time to start a new novel, Gertrude, by Reverend William Sewell.

Gertrude was actually written by Rev. Sewell’s sister, Elizabeth Missing Sewell, an English author known as much for her religious tracts as for her fiction. She wrote it early in her career and, for publication purposes, gave credit for it to her Anglican brother. Neither she nor her brother were fans of Roman Catholicism, and her books usually featured the Church of England in some way. In this tale of a young woman named Gertrude Courtenay, Sewell examined a lively topic of the day: the claim of duty.  Was devotion to church more important than devotion to the home?  Spoiler alert: Sewell believed in both, but posited that duty begins at home.

The opening page of Gertrude featured a quote from Wordsworth’s poem, Excursion:

Turn to private life

and social neighborhood; look we to ourselves.

A light of duty shines on every day

For all.

This quote is an apt description of Evelina, for whom duty was an essential motivation in life.  She tried to do what was expected of her; she didn’t always succeed, but she did try. Even today, when she didn’t feel well, it must have been a struggle for her to miss both church and the funeral of a Gilmore cousin, to the point where the opportunity to indulge in reading all day eventually paled.  She needed the rest, though, and the oysters at tea in the evening were a treat, as was a visit from a nephew with whom she was particularly close: Edwin Williams Gilmore.

January 15, 1851

Corpse

1851

Jan 15 Wednesday  This morning after doing my usual

morning work went to Mr Carrs  to put the robe on the

corpse.  in the afternoon attended the funeral.  Mr

Whitwell spoke very well to the mourners & made a good

prayer  Mr Whitwell and Mr Reed were over to tea.  After

they went away I passed the evening at Olivers with Mr

& Mrs Peckham  Made a hair cloth cover for one of the

rocking chairs cushions and sewed in the evening on a

shirt

Today Evelina attended the first of several funerals she will go to over the course of her diary.  The death of young Lewis Carr won’t be the only case of consumption, either.  In this case, she helped the Carr family by sewing a robe for the body and dressing the corpse.  Death was familiar to women like Evelina; tending to its aftermath was one of their responsibilities.

And then life went on.  After the service, Evelina (with Jane McHanna’s help, certainly) served tea to Rev. Whitwell and Mr. Reed, another man from Easton.  There were several Reed families in town, so we can’t know for sure which Mr. Reed came to tea.  In her diary, Evelina mentions Daniel Reed most frequently.  Daniel was a carpenter, according to the census; today we might call him a builder.  In any case, he was well known to the Ameses.  His wife, Mary Reed, was a member of a sewing circle to which the Ames sisters-in-law belonged and the family attended the Unitarian church.

After dark, Evelina walked next door to Oliver Jr. and Sarah Lothrop Ames’s house to visit with Joseph and Susan Peckham.  She may have taken her work box with her to sew while they visited.  No doubt, they discussed the death of Lewis Carr.