Oakes Angier Ames

August 18, 1852

Trunk

Aug 18th Wednesday. This day has been a busy one

Have fired Susan off to stay at Alsons and

with Orinthia while I am gone. Mrs Stevens

has gone to Alsons just after they left Mr

Jones wife & daughter came in the midst 

of my packing and I had to leave all but

have got all ready this evening

The push was on to finish preparations for the trip Evelina, Oakes Angier and others would be taking the next day. Ten-year-old Susie Ames was “fired off” to stay first with her Uncle Alson Gilmore and later with her teacher, Orinthia Foss. What did she think of all this? Her older brothers, Oliver (3) and Frank Morton, got to stay at home with their father. She may have wondered why she didn’t get to stay home, or she may have been excited to spend a few nights away.

While she was packing her trunk, Evelina was interrupted by the Jones family, but after they left “got all ready this evening.” The Joneses were a family from Foxboro; their purpose in visiting was presumably social, but their timing was awkward. Evelina wasn’t prepared to spend her time with company; she just wanted to get ready for departure. We should remember that not only did she have to pack for herself, she had to get Oakes Angier’s clothes ready, too. A sliver of consolation in all this was that she would have a reason to wear her new traveling dress, the one she worked so hard on earlier in the summer.

August 17, 1852

Flatiron

Aug 17th Tuesday  Starched my clothes and about

eleven Oclock was setting the table to iron

when Mother & Alsons wife came and

I put them by.  Have ironed them this after

noon in the dining room with Mrs Stevens

Henrietta Augusta & Abby sitting around

Mrs Ames & Witherell called

The Ameses had made a decision to send Oakes Angier to Vermont for a rest, and Evelina was to accompany him on the trip. Also accompanying them would be Sarah Lothrop Ames and her two teenaged children, Fred and Helen, as well as the visiting Almira Ames.

Gathered around Evelina in the afternoon were many of her usual companions: her sister-in-law Henrietta Williams Gilmore, her nephew’s wife, Augusta Pool Gilmore, her niece Abigail Williams Torrey, her guest Mrs. Stevens, and her nearest sisters-in-law, Sarah Witherell and Sarah Ames. The looming expedition must have been the topic of conversation among the women as they sat and watched Evelina iron her clothes on the dining room table. (No ironing boards yet!) The conversation might have roamed from concern for Oakes Angier to curiosity about the travel arrangements.

That the travel ahead of Evelina was serious is indisputable; it involved the well-being of her eldest son. Yet there had to be an element of adventure in the plans.  They’d be traveling across Vermont, visiting places that Evelina may never have seen. They’d be seeing relatives and friends, too, which may be the element that enticed Sarah Lothrop Ames and her two children to join the expedition.

August 16, 1852

Washing

Aug 16th Monday  Mrs Stevens is making Oakes A

a vest  I have been puttering about the 

house part of the time and the rest fixing

my things to go to Burlington  Catharine

sews nicely and has been making shirts

&c &c  We have had a large washing to day

Catharine helped until after dinner

Oakes Angier Ames, seriously ill with bleeding at the lungs, was going to Burlington, Vermont, for a rest. His mother, Evelina, was going to accompany him to his destination.  On this start to the week, she was all about “fixing my things to go.”

Everyone seemed to be bustling about with purpose. Evelina had at least one servant, Catharine, who was helpful across the board with sewing, laundry and meal preparation. Too, her houseguest, Mrs. Stevens, was sewing a vest for Oakes Angier, perhaps with the idea of keeping his chest warm against any chill.  The weather, although “fair,” had turned “cool for the season.”* Northern Vermont was likely to be even cooler, and a vest would be good protection.

Busy, Evelina probably had little thought for anything beyond her own immediate purview, yet she did share the same weather and sky as a journalist not too many miles to her north.  On this same day, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal, “At sunset, the glow being confined to the north, it tinges the rails on the causeway lake-color, but behind they are a dead dark blue. I must look for the rudbeckia which Bradford says he found yesterday behind Joe Clark’s.”**

*Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection

** Henry David Thoreau, Journal

 

 

 

August 15, 1852

Bed

August 15th Sunday  Did not sleep much last night

My handbag with bonnet visite & c were missing

found them this morning at Olivers  Helen

carried them home.  Have been to meeting

came home at noon  Mrs Stevens Orinthia &

Lavinia with us.  Called to see Willie

Gilmore found him more comfortable

Evelina often felt poorly right after returning from her shopping forays into Boston; on this occasion, she was unable to sleep. Surely, the seriousness of her son’s pulmonary illness was the larger culprit in her wakefulness than the usual exhaustion from her trip to the city. She was still rattled in the morning, unable to find her handbag, bonnet and
visite which, it turned out, had been mistakenly taken next door by Helen Angier Ames. It would seem that all the women were a little rattled.

The men may have been rattled, too, by Oakes Angier’s illness, but Old Oliver, at least, wasn’t showing it. He kept up his usual weather-related journal entries. Accordingly, today “was a fair warm day with the exception of two slight showers, perhaps 1/8 of an inch in both of them.”*

Somewhere in the course of the day, perhaps after church, Evelina and her husband, Oakes, and Oakes Angier himself, in all likelihood, determined on a course of action for the latter. Oakes Angier would go off to rest in fresher air and, for the journey itself, be accompanied by various family members.  The decision must have offered relief and hope to all. Evelina got outside of her own head enough to call on her nephew, Alson Augustus Gilmore, whose infant son had been so sick with dysentery. Little Willie seemed better. While there, no doubt, Evelina shared the plans to send Oakes Angier away.

*Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection

 

August 14, 1852

440px-Henry_Jacob_Bigelow_c1854

 

Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow

(1818 – 1890)

Aug 14th

1852 Saturday  Oakes A went to see Dr Bigelow

He agrees with Dr Swan that the blood

comes from the lungs and that he must leave the

shop and be very quiet.  Returned from

Boston to night.  Mrs Stevens came here in

the Cars  Mrs Witherell A L Ames & Mrs

S Ames called

Oakes Angier saw a doctor in Boston today about his bad cough and bloody sputum.  He went to a Dr. Bigelow, who could have been either of two well-regarded medical men: Jacob Bigelow or his son, Henry Jacob Bigelow. The son, only a decade older than Oakes Angier himself, was a Harvard grad who was becoming famous for his role in introducing ether into the operating room. Without the modern diagnostic equipment to which we 21st century readers have become accustomed, Dr. Bigelow was nonetheless able to give an informed opinion about Oakes Angier’s pulmonary condition. If the doctor used the word “consumption,” Evelina didn’t write it down.

The illness was serious and Oakes Angier was ordered to ” leave the shop and be very quiet.” Rest and fresh air, in other words, were the treatment. If diagnostic ability was limited, treatments were even more so. Oakes Angier would have to go away and rest and hope for the best.

Back in Easton, the women of the family gathered in the sitting room or parlor to hear what the Boston physician had said, and perhaps to take a look at Evelina’s new bonnet. We can imagine that each member had a notion of what should happen next: where Oakes Angier should go, how he might travel, and what needed to be done to get him ready. In all likelihood, however, the decision on what to do would be decided by Oakes Angier’s father.

 

August 13, 1852

Chaise

Friday Aug 13th  Went to Boston with Oakes A and

Susan in Mr Whites Buggy chaise

Mrs S Ames went in the Cars. Met her at

12 Oclock at Mr Daniells  Ran around most

all day to get a bonnet  Mrs Norris went

with me in the afternoon and at last just

at night found one such as I wanted

 

Evelina had a bonnet to buy in Boston; Oakes Angier had a medical appointment to make. So, sitting snugly in a chaise borrowed from Col. Guilford White, Evelina, Oakes Angier, and little Susie Ames rode into Boston. Most likely, Oakes Angier drove while the females sat beside him and examined the passing countryside. This trip would have been a big adventure for Susie, who didn’t move beyond Easton very often.

Sarah Lothrop Ames, meanwhile, took the train into town. The two women met up at noon at a familiar haunt, Mr. Daniell’s Dry Goods store on Washington Street. From there they “ran around most all day,” Evelina looking everywhere for the right bonnet – at the right price, no doubt. She secured one at the end of the day and presumably went to the home of Robert and Melinda Orr to spend the night, probably with Susan. Whether Oakes Angier joined her there isn’t recorded.

The Ames family didn’t own a chaise, evidently, though such two-wheeled vehicles were quite common. One hears of chaises, known colloquially as shays, being the definitive carriage for rural doctors and country parsons – men who had to move around frequently to see their patients and parishioners, respectively. In 1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote a satirical poem about a well-built chaise entitled the “The Deacon’s Masterpiece or The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay” that was quite popular in its day.

 

 

 

August 12, 1852.

Sow Thursday Aug 12th  I have been very busy and have not

written in this book for a number of days and

have made a mistake  Yesterday it rained and

prevented our going to Boston and it was last

night that Oakes  A bled and prevented our

going to day  Mrs Dorr returned to Boston

this morning  I have been very busy fixing work

for Catharine

Evelina was rattled. She usually kept pretty good track of her days, but this week she was delinquent and confused. She jumbled her activities around. In all probability, she was upset about Oakes Angier’s illness. He had been coughing up blood for a couple of weeks, at least, and wasn’t getting any better. The worry and fatigue was getting to her.

Outside the sickroom, the day was pleasant. The wind was “southerly + pritty warm,” allowing Old Oliver’s crew of outdoor men to sow “grass seed + turnips on one half of the Peckham lott this day.”* Life of the farm and, presumably, at the factory were proceeding as normal. But it wouldn’t have felt normal to Evelina and others. Their lives were threatened by a sinister possibility.

Easton readers and local historians, where was the Peckham lot?

*Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection

August 11, 1852

Doctor

Aug 11 Wednesday  Was intending to go to Boston

with Oakes Angier to day but last night he had another

attack of bleeding  Dr Swan came and ordered

medicine every two hours  I waited upon him

and of course did not sleep much  He appeared

pretty well this morning and walked to the 

shop  Passed the afternoon with Mrs Dorr

and others at Father Ames

A scary night at the Ames home. Oakes Angier had “another attack of bleeding,” one that was bad enough to call out Dr. Swan. For several weeks now, the Ames’s eldest son had been hacking and periodically coughing up blood; in the night, he did it again. Yet by morning Oakes Angier had recovered enough to go to work, and his mother, Evelina, was obligated to move through her day on very little sleep. She spent most of the afternoon sitting down in the other part of the house.

Serious illness may attack one person, but it impacts everyone around that person. Oakes Angier, the eldest son, had a difficult physical challenge in front of him, but others, too, had to find an acceptable path through these dark nights and troubling possibilities. Evelina, the mother, certainly had a frightening prospect to deal with and, as primary care-giver, an exhausting role to play.

What might be the medicine that Dr. Swan ordered for Oakes Angier? Laudanum? Any thoughts, readers?

 

August 7, 1852

Wagon

Sat Aug 7th  Was sewing part of the forenoon made

some pies & cake  Went into Olivers about four,

Started to go to Augustus in a waggon and

got caught in a shower turned back at the

school house got completely wet  My sons & Mr Ames

were at tea at Olivers  Edwin & wife Lavinia & Abby

there Catharine & I have done some sewing this week

two nightgowns for self one for Susan & one cotton & 

moire skirt & c &c  Susans waists are finished

 

“[T]he 5, 6 + 7th were pritty warm day[s] + there was some rain,”* wrote Old Oliver in his journal. Evelina was out in that rain and “got completely wet.” Late afternoon showers are part and parcel of August weather in New England. The showers can come up quickly, too, so it’s small wonder that folks moving around the countryside in horse-drawn wagons could get caught in the rain.

While Evelina was getting soaked, her husband Oakes and sons Oakes Angier, Oliver (3) and Frank Morton Ames had tea next door with the Oliver Ames Jr family. How was Oakes Angier feeling, now that he was coughing so much? Perhaps he and his brothers got to hear their cousin Helen play piano again, or perhaps they just ate and conversed. Various Gilmore relatives, including Edwin and Augusta Gilmore, Lavinia Gilmore and Abby Torrey were there as well.  As previously noted, Lavinia and Helen were particularly friendly.

And speaking of friends, fans of Sherlock Holmes might enjoy knowing that August 7, 1852 is the purported birthdate of the fictional Holmes’ steady, tolerant and equally fictional sidekick, Dr. John Watson.

*Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection

 

August 5, 1852

Rein

1852

Thursday Aug 5th  Have had a rainy day which was

very much needed.  Was intending to go to

Boston with Oakes A in a carriage  Am most

affraid to have him drive Caty as he has been

raising blood of late and has a hacking cough

Lavinia is at Edwins has had Julia

cut her a dress to day  I went there and 

carried my work awhile this afternoon 

Put a new breadth into Susans Borage Delaine

where she tore it

Caty (or Katy), one of the Ames’s horses, was famous in Easton for her willful – and fast-paced – ways. Evelina has complained about her in previous diary entries. Today, however, Evelina had another reason entirely to be “most affraid” to let her son, Oakes Angier, drive the horse. Oakes Angier Ames was coughing up blood.

In an age when consumption, which we know as tuberculosis, was rampant and usually fatal, any person “raising” bloody sputum was immediately suspected of having the disease. TB wasn’t restricted to the lungs, actually; it could attack other parts of the body, such as the spine, but its most common manifestation was pulmonary. Blood coughed into a handkerchief was bad news.

How frightening this development must have been for Oakes Angier, and indeed for the entire Ames family.  Oakes Angier was the eldest grandson, the heir, the star cousin and nephew in whom many expectations were placed. He was beloved, and suddenly he was evincing signs of a potentially fatal illness. Old Oliver makes no mention of this in his journal, however, and Evelina herself had taken a few days to record the news. She may not have wanted to see such words in writing. We may suspect that Oakes Ames knew about his son’s condition earlier, but we can’t know for certain, of course. We can only follow the family as it copes with this huge development.

On this day, Evelina seemed to cope as she always did, by sewing. She took her work across the way to visit Augusta Pool Gilmore, the young bride who was now in the family way. Dressmaker Julia Mahoney was there, as was Lavinia Gilmore, so the women were able to sit and sew and talk in their usual fashion. The touch of normalcy must have been somewhat soothing for Evelina.