Oakes Angier Ames | evelinaames

August 4, 1851

[No entry]

Evelina made no entry today in her diary, for reasons we’ll never know. Too hot? Too cross? Too busy? Too much laundry? We can only guess.

Instead of commentary, we’ve posted an image of the Ames family tree familiar to many Ames descendants, especially those who own copies of Winthrop Ames’s 1937 family history, The Ames Family of Easton, which includes a fold-out version of this illustration. The tree features the lineage of the two Ames brothers who stayed in North Easton: Oakes and Oliver Jr., but doesn’t include the other sons and daughters of Old Oliver and Susannah who also produced issue: Horatio, William Leonard, Sarah Witherell and Harriett Mitchell.

Some readers have asked for clarification on who was who within the family. What follows is a list of the children and grandchildren of Old Oliver and Susannah. More information about this group and their descendants can be found in a detailed family geneaology produced by William Motley Ames and Chilton Mosely Ames in the late 1980s.

Old Oliver and Susannah’s children and their children in birth order:

Oakes Ames and Evelina Gilmore Ames had five children:

Oakes Angier, Oliver (3), Frank Morton, Henry Gilmore (d. young) and Susan Eveline Ames

Horatio Ames and Sally Hewes Ames had three children:

Susan Angier, Horatio Jr., and Gustavus Ames

Oliver Jr. and Sarah Lothrop Ames had two children:

Frederick Lothrop and Helen Angier Ames

William Leonard Ames and Amelia Hall Ames had seven children:

William Leonard Jr., Angier, Oliver, John Hall, Amelia Hall, Fisher, and Herbert M. Ames

William Leonard Ames and Anna Pratt Hines had one child:

Oakes Keene Ames

Sarah Angier Ames and Nathaniel Witherell, Jr. had three children:

George Oliver, Sarah Emily, and Channing Witherell (d. young)

Harriett Ames and Asa Mitchell had three children:

Frank Ames, John Ames, and Anna Mitchell

Two other children of Old Oliver and Susannah, Angier Ames and John Ames, died without issue.

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]

July 28, 1851

Monday July 28th Was about house as usual this

morning and have been mending some and fixing

some of Susans clothes Oakes & Oliver (3) are

having a book case put up in their room by

Ira Ford They have almost got books enough to

fill it Julia is to work for Mrs Witherell

making her a purple morning dress

A young carpenter named Ira Ford built a bookcase at the Ames house today in the bedroom of Oakes Angier and Oliver (3). The boys had acquired schoolbooks and other “books enough” and needed a place to store them all.

Like their mother and unlike their father, the Ames sons like to read. The middle son, Oliver (3), in particular, cherished reading. According to an unnamed eulogist in a memorial volume published in 1895, Oliver (3) built up quite a collection of books in his lifetime: “In the company of books he found an absorbing pleasure, and to the library which he had begun to collect in his early age he made in later years large additions of rare and valuable volumes.”* After Oliver (3)’s demise, those books that weren’t kept by his family were auctioned off at Sotheby’s.

*Anonymous, Oliver Ames Memorial, ca. 1895, p. 38

July 20, 1851

1851

Sunday July 20th Have been to church all day Mr Whitwell

preached felt very sleepy and heard but a

little of the sermon After meeting went over

to the Methodist meetinghouse to a sing. There are

some fine singers there. Oakes A & Orinthia called

for Louisa Swan and brought her to the sing & Orinthia

went back to Mr. Howards

The Ames family was Unitarian. Three generations of them, from Old Oliver to little Susie, dutifully attended church almost every Sunday, just as Evelina did today. Their attachment to the Unitarian service, however, didn’t preclude tolerance of other Protestant congregations in town. The Ameses and others were generally friendly with the Methodists who, like the Unitarians, had broken with the “dark and hopeless Calvinism”* that once prevailed in the meeting houses of New England.

The Methodists had a long history in Easton, the first near-one-hundred years of which were recounted in chatty detail by Unitarian minister and town historian, William Chaffin, in his 1886 History of Easton.* As the Methodists, founded by Wesley brothers John and Charles, gained adherents in the late 18th and early 19th century, the sect took hold in Easton, too, shortly after the demise of the local Baptist Society. In addition to their welcoming services and missionary zeal, Methodists offered something special to congregations everywhere: Music.

The “sing” that Evelina went to today at the Methodist meeting house was a gathering to sing hymns, many of which were written by the Wesley brothers themselves. Also in attendance was at least one Ames son, and probably the other two as well. The boys enjoyed the sings, both for the music and for the chance to socialize with other young people. Oliver (3), who was very musical, was particularly fond of the gatherings.

* William Chaffin, History of Easton, 1886.

July 19, 1851

1851

July 19 Saturday To day I have been sitting with mother

sewing on muslin & cambric insertion mending &c

It has been very showery accompanied with heavy

thunder and very sharp lightning Oakes Angier

went to Mr Algers after some butter to night and

carried Mother home Orinthia is here to day

called this afternoon to see Abby Torrey

Yesterday’s hot, sticky weather gave way to thunderstorms today, with “very sharp lightning.”

Hannah Lothrop Gilmore returned to the family farm, driven there by her grandson Oakes Angier Ames. He went on to pick up some butter at the farm of Bernard and Vesta Alger, who lived not far from the Gilmores on the turnpike road. It’s curious that Evelina was buying butter this summer, because earlier in the year she had been selling it.

Orinthia Foss was back at the Ames’s for a visit, up from the home of Elijah and Nancy Howard where she was boarding. She went into the village to pay a call on Evelina’s niece, Abigail Williams Torrey. Evelina, meanwhile, spent her Saturday mending everyone’s clothes, and working on an “insertion” for one of her dresses.

July 13, 1851

July 13 Sunday We all went to church this forenoon

but my company did not wish to go this

afternoon and I staid with them

About 4 Oclock had a very heavy shower of

rain & hail which prevented us from going to Mr

Manlys garden as we intended. Oakes A carried

Orinthia home & stoped awhile at Dr Swans

Mrs S Ames & Mrs Mitchell & Witherell called

After noting yesterday’s accommodating weather, Old Oliver made a very different report today:

“it was fair to day but rather cool wind north west untill about 5, O,clock when there was a smart shower and a considerable quantity of hail but it was not large enough to do much damage. there was some thunder the hail cut the corn leves in strings – and at Daniel Wheatons and in Taunton it broke a good deal of glass”

Damage to the corn crop was no small matter, although Old Oliver seemed to make light of it.

Evelina, meanwhile, along with Oakes and their sons had to entertain the young houseguests, Melinda and Caleb Norris and Julianne and Benjamin Harris, once they all came home from church. The expedition to Edwin Manley’s garden, a regular and favorite destination for guests, was cancelled because of the bad weather. Instead, the company must have sat inside and listened to the pelting hail.

Eventually, the weather passed and some family members ventured forth. Oakes Angier carried Orinthia Foss back to the Elijah Howard house, where she was boarding, and stopped to visit Dr. Swan and his two daughters, presumably, on his way home. Evelina’s sisters-in-law came to call, and tea was likely served to a crowd.

July 12 1851

July 12 Saturday Have been very much engaged to day

in putting my house in order & have been to work

on the cushion to the lounge, and put the cover

on to the arm. called in Olivers awhile. Mrs

H Ames and Mrs Mitchell spent the day there

Mr Norris came in the stage to night & Mr & Mrs

Harris Mrs Norris from Bridgewater, Miss Foss

came with Oakes A who had been that way on an errand

Company! From Boston by way of Bridgewater came the Orr daughters and their husbands. Melinda Orr Norris with her husband Caleb, who had visited Easton just the other day, and Julianne Orr Harris and her husband, Benjamin Winslow Harris, arrived for an overnight stay with the Ameses. Evelina spent much of the day “very much engaged” in getting the house ready for the two young couples, although she did manage to slip next door to sit with her sisters-in-law. The whole Ames property was full to the rafters.

Everyone had tasks to do today, which wasn’t unusual in that hard-working family. Old Oliver and a crew were outdoors:

“it was cloudy half the fore noon but the afternoon was pritty fair wind north part of the time + south west a part we mowd the high land back of the Factory pond and that on this side of the old pair trees. to day” Was this mowing a forerunner of haying season?

* Pear tree

July 6, 1851

1851 July 6th Oakes A and Mr Norris went to East Bridgewater

this morning and returned this evening I went to

meeting this morning but had something of a head

ache and did not go but half a day. Mr Ames

rode with me to Mr Kinsleys Since meeting had a

very pleasant call Met a Mr & Miss Kinsley

there from Springfield

In his Fourth of July speech two days earlier at the laying of a new cornerstone for an addition at the Capitol building, Daniel Webster praised the church-going character of the American people:

“I think it is safe to say that a greater portion of the people of the United States attend public worship, decently clad, well behaved, and well seated, than of any other country of the civilized world.” He could have been describing Evelina as his ideal church goer. She was undoubtedly well-behaved, nicely dressed and, whatever it means, well-seated. On the other hand, her husband, Oakes Ames, who chose to wear shabby clothes and was known for falling asleep in church, was not the image of American godliness that Webster intended to praise.

Evelina did attend meeting today, but only stayed for the morning service. She had a headache, perhaps the result of hot weather or too much socializing and not enough gardening. She recovered enough to go to Canton later with Oakes to visit the Kinsley family, a “very pleasant call.”

* W. E. Tucker, The Church Porch, an illustration designed and engraved especially for Godey’s Ladys Books, July 1851

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.

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