sewing | evelinaames

March 8, 1851

Grace Aguilar
(1816 – 1847)

/51

March 8th Sat. This has been a very stormy day, Windy & snowy.

Orinthia did not keep school and we have had

a nice quiet time. I have finished putting the

bosom & wristbands into Franks shirt and worked

some on a coarse shirt. Orinthia finished a

coarse shirt that she has been making & commenced

another for one of the boys. I have finished reading

Womans Friendship & like it pretty well.

Woman’s Friendship was a domestic novel by English author Grace Aguilar. In her short life, Aguilar wrote not only novels, but also poetry, histories, and religious treatises that explored her Jewish heritage. Among the latter, she translated “The Spirit of Judaism” from the French, and wrote her own extensive exploration of the scriptures, “The Jewish Faith: Its Spiritual Consolation, Moral Guidance and Immortal Hope.” She was prolific and extremely bright.

Her domestic novels – the kind of writing that Old Oliver called “love trash” – were her most successful publications. Such novels were a literary genre, not unlike today’s “chick lit,” that was written for, and often by, women. The novels usually had storylines that featured the travails of young heroines. Woman’s Friendship, published posthumously, was the tale of one such young woman who suffers many misfortunes and reversals but manages to save her family after her father’s early death and her brother’s losing fight with consumption, all the while retaining the lifelong friendship of a countess. Putting the improbabilities of its plot aside, Evelina liked it. As she sewed today with Orinthia Foss, Evelina may even have had the story from the book in her head. She certainly liked the book well enough to eventually commence another novel by Miss Aguilar.

It was Saturday, the day that Oakes Ames usually went into Boston. Did he go today, or did the weather make traveling too difficult? Were they all getting tired of winter?

March 7, 1851

1851

March 7th Have been giving my rooms a thorough sweeping

& dusting which took me all the forenoon

This afternoon worked on an old shirt of Franks

Am putting new wristbands & bosom into it.

This evening Oliver, Frank & Orinthia have gone to

Alsons to a party. Orinthia would not go to the dancing

school last night on account of something Frank said & had to be urged

to go to Alsons to night Augustus not here Pleasant

Some entertainment today for the young people: a party at Alson and Henrietta Gilmore’s house out in the country. What was the occasion? Was it a casual get-together, a spur-of-the-moment gathering, perhaps extending from the assembly of the night before? Had Lavinia Gilmore or her brother Francis asked for the party, or had it been planned by their parents? Were they hoping to promote their daughter’s eligibility for marriage? Was there method to the gathering, or was it just for fun?

Orinthia Foss, the young schoolteacher boarding with the Ameses, was included in the festivities, although she apparently went with some reluctance. It seems that Frank Morton Ames had teased her in some fashion, hurting her feelings or insulting her the day before. Frank could be a handful, according to William Chaffin, who wrote that Frank “needed more discipline than Oakes [Angier] or Oliver [3].” Frank was a seventeen year old youth, after all, with more energy than wisdom, probably competing with his older brothers for respect and attention, and letting his mouth do his thinking.

Another younger sibling came to North Easton today. William Leonard Ames, fourth son of Old Oliver, “came this morning from New Jersey,” according to Old Oliver’s daily record. In New Jersey, William Leonard ran an ironworks operation, a related family business that had recently failed. According to extensive research by industrial scholar Greg Galer, William Leonard and his eldest brother, Oakes Ames, were at odds over the handling of the demise of the business. Oakes had “engineered the bankruptcies of these operations for his financial gain,”* while William had barely managed to walk away. As a result, the two brothers were not on good terms. Evelina doesn’t mention William’s arrival. She sticks to her sewing, new wristbands for Frank.

* Greg Galer, Forging Ahead, p. 6.

March 6, 1851

March 6th Thursday. This morning Orinthia cleaned the sitting room

and I sat down to work quite Early on Mr Ames shirt

and finished it about ten Oclock I then went to

mending some old shirts & colars &c Sarah Witherell

brought me the fourth bosom that she has stiched for

me. Jane went to Mrs Willis to get her dress Miss Foss

and myself called to see Mr Guild about the school & on

Ellen Howard A[u]gustus here to dine Morning pleasant storm at night

More men’s shirts. If we’re getting tired of reading about them, imagine how tired Evelina must have been sewing them – and she had many more to go. She evidently had a method to her sewing, in that she worked on the same kind of clothing in succession until she had finished. She didn’t make just one shirt for her boys or husband, she made several in a row. She didn’t just make one apron for her daughter, she made three or four in a row. Perhaps the cutting of the fabric and the arrangement of the pattern components were made easier when addressed as multiples. The economy of cloth-cutting trumped the tedium of repetition.

Leaving the shirt bosoms and collars behind, Evelina went out with Orinthia Foss in the afternoon. They paid a call on a Mr. Guild on a school-related matter, showing that Evelina continued to be involved with some aspect of the private school. It was unusual for a married woman to be so active in this way.

Their second call was on Ellen Howard, daughter of Nancy (Johnson) Howard and Elijah Howard. Mr. Howard was a sometime business partner of the Ames men and a prominent citizen of Easton. Mrs. Howard was his third wife, he having buried his first two. He had twelve children, of whom seven were with Nancy; Ellen was in the latter group. In 1851, Ellen was seventeen, the same age as Frank Morton Ames, and she often socialized with the Ames sons. In introducing Orinthia to Ellen, Evelina was perhaps hoping the two young women might become friends. In the future, Orinthia would board with the Howards. In Ellen’s future, in 1860, she would marry George Withington, a young minister who came to town to replace the departed William Whitwell.

The fine weather that allowed Evelina and Orinthia to travel around town disappeared by evening and ushered in a storm. Such variability was to be expected this time of year. It was March, after all.

March 5, 1851

1851 March 5th Wednesday Early in the morning worked about

house. About nine Oclock called at Mr Holmes

to see Mrs Wright and to enquire for Miss Eaton

She is comfortable but failing Went into school

and staid until dinner time like the appearance

of the school very much & think Orinthia a good

teacher, calculated to gain the good will of the Scholars

This afternoon working on a shirt for Mr Ames. A[u]gustus here

Abby spent the evening here Very pleasant

A “very pleasant” day pulled Evelina out of doors this morning at a time when she ordinarily would be choring or sewing. Fresh air and sunshine were too welcome to resist. She walked the short distance to the village and called at the Holmes’s to ask after the two invalid women there, Mrs. Wright and Miss Eaton.

This is the last point in the diary when Mrs. Wright is mentioned, which begs the question of whether or not she survived her bout with pleurisy. Probably not, even though Evelina didn’t mention her demise or her funeral. Based on Evelina’s continued, if periodic, interaction with the Holmes household without ever again mentioning the presence of Mrs. Wright, it makes sense that the latter passed away about this time. Additionally, an 1855 census confirms her absence.

Interesting to note that Evelina wrote of calling at “Mr. Holmes”, even though she clearly went by to see the women of the house. The patriarchal culture – and laws – of the day saw men, and men alone, as heads of any household. A house belonged to a husband, not to a wife. Unless Mrs. Holmes were widowed, the proper reference to her abode would acknowledge her husband’s tenancy, not hers. This was a dictate that Evelina almost always practiced; even when she went next door to see her sister-in-law, Sarah Lothrop Ames, she wrote that she had gone to Oliver’s. It was his house, not Sarah’s.

The little schoolhouse where Orinthia Foss taught was also in the village, and it was here that Evelina spent the rest of the morning, watching the young teacher and approving of her way with the children. Meanwhile, back at the house, Jane McHanna was preparing the midday dinner, for which all family members returned at noon. Evelina stayed home after her morning out, and took up the inevitable sewing. Her niece Abby Torrey visited, and may have helped with some of the stitching.

March 3, 1851

Men’s Work Shirt, mid-19th c.

March 3rd Monday Have given the furnace up to Ann to take

care of, and feel thankful to get rid of it Orinthia

assisted me in doing the work this morning

Have been working on a shirt for Oakes Angier

Jane went out this afternoon to Mrs Willis to get

a dress cut Mrs Witherell & Mrs S Ames spent

the evening with us. A letter from Helen She

is contented at her school Cloudy & windy to night

Augustus not here

Evelina solved the problem of keeping the coal furnace going by delegating the task to Ann Orel, the 24-year old Irish servant who worked for Sarah Witherell in “the other part of the house.” It being Monday, and thus laundry day, Jane McHanna was occupied in the kitchen boiling water and washing and rinsing clothes. Today’s load couldn’t have been too heavy, however, or Jane wouldn’t have been able to leave the house in the afternoon to see about getting a new outfit made.

Jane’s preoccupations left the usual morning chores to Evelina, who got a little boost of help from Orinthia Foss, the boarder and schoolteacher. Orinthia presumably soon departed for the schoolhouse, however, and Evelina had to carry on alone.

She turned to sewing, naturally, as she did on most days. Interesting that so far this year, except for a bonnet, she hadn’t sewed on much of anything for herself. Most of the sewing had been shirts and mending for the men, and aprons and chemises for her daughter. Evelina sewed almost constantly, but her production capacity was limited. Even with occasional help from others, she didn’t produce a surfeit of any article of clothing. Historians of this period – Jane Nylander, in particular – have suggested that people had much less clothing then than we might imagine:

“[V]ery few people had large numbers of any kind of garment. Women seldom owned more than four or five gowns and petticoats at a time; men usually owned a few coats and pairs of breeches or pantaloons, a few vests, and perhaps as many as half a dozen shirts.. Both owned a few pairs of stockings […] one or two pairs of shoes and boots; and a hat or bonnet […] Nobody changed all of their clothes daily.”*

If the average grown male owned an average of six shirts, and there were four men under Evelina’s roof, she was responsible for producing and/or maintaining approximately twenty-four shirts at any given time. No wonder she often sought assistance from Sarah Witherell and others. No wonder she worked at keeping them mended. No wonder the laundry load was so big on Mondays.

One lovely note today: Sarah and Oliver Ames Jr heard from their daughter, Helen Angier Ames, who seemed to be settling into life at boarding school just fine. If she was content, then her relatives were, too.

*Jane Nylander, Our Own Snug Fireside, 1993, p. 156

February 28, 1851

Feb 28 Friday After doing my usual chores about house I

carried my work into the other part of the house

and staid until dinner time Worked on shirt

bosoms & carried two in for Mrs Witherell to stich

This afternoon wrote a long letter to Cousin

Harriet Ames which took me most of the

afternoon to write Orinthia & myself spent

the evening in the other part of the house Cloudy

Augustus not here

Cousin Harriet Ames was a spinster who lived in Burlington, Vermont with her widowed mother. She was the daughter of Old Oliver’s older brother, John Ames. Thus she was a niece of Old Oliver and first cousin to Oakes, Oliver Jr., Sarah Witherell and the rest of that generation of siblings. Moving down one more generation, she was a first cousin once-removed to Oakes Angier, Oliver (3), Frank Morton and Susan.

It’s likely that Evelina wasn’t the only Ames to correspond with Cousin Harriet; her sisters-in-law Sarah Ames and Sarah Witherell probably wrote and received letters from Burlington as well. All three ladies would have corresponded by mail with distant friends and relatives. It was the way. Writing letters was how people kept up with one another. There was no telephone, and there certainly was nothing that resembled today’s digital and instantaneous communication. Telegraphs were only just coming on the scene; telegraph offices and wires would soon dot the countryside and lead the way west. Big wooden poles would be dug into the ground by men wielding – what else – shovels. In a decade or so hence, Oakes and Oliver Jr. would maintain an active communication by telegraph once Oakes went to Congress and both men became involved with the building of the Union Pacific.

But they would all still write letters. Evelina wrote certain people regularly: Cousin Harriet in Vermont, Louisa Mower in Maine, and another friend named Pauline Dean. She must have been pleased when the mail coach came in, bringing letters to the little post office in North Easton, and taking them out to friends far away.

February 27, 1851

1851

Feb 27 Thursday Cannot say much for my work to day

Orinthia cleaned the sitting room for me while I

was making the fire in the furnace. had a good

deal of trouble with it Augustus made quite a

long call this morning talking over matters & things

Have finished putting in the bosom & wris[t]bands to

the old shirt that I commenced Tuesday & mended one

for Mr Ames

It sounds as if Evelina’s normal routine was challenged today. First, she had to struggle with the coal furnace, or stove, probably stoking it and trying to make it catch and hold. She was certainly familiar with “making” fires, but coal was not her strong suit. She had spent most of her life burning wood, and she didn’t manage the new furnace well.

Second, her nephew Augustus came to call in the morning at a time of day when she was likely to still be working about the house. He was full of conversation about “matters & things,” probably filling her in on his move to Easton, his decision to leave teaching, and his hopes for the new boot and shoe factory he was setting up in the Lothrop Building. Evelina, fond aunt that she was, was no doubt interested in what Augustus had to relate, but the housewife in her was perhaps worried about not getting through her choring or not finishing the last of the ironing or not getting to the necessary mending while Augustus made his long visit. Happily, Orinthia Foss was around to help with some of the basic sweeping and dusting.

In the afternoon, her housewifely pace seemed to settle down and she was able to pick up her sewing. She reworked an old shirt belonging to her husband, replacing the most worn areas with new pieces. A shirt that today we might throw out or put into the rag bag, she saved. No wonder Reverend Chaffin accused her of being “very economical.” She was, with no apologies. No apologies from her husband, either.

February 25, 1851

Helen Angier Ames

1851

Feb 25 Tuesday This morning Helen left home for school

at Dorchester. She felt so bad when she left

that I did not go in to see her. Her Father & Mother

went with her and returned to night, they went into

Boston and stoped an hour or two. Mr Jennings

& Crommet called this evening to see Orinthia

I have been to work on a bosom of shirt putting

a new one into an old shirt of Oakes Angiers. Very windy.

A[u]gustus here

Under some duress, the teenaged Helen Ames was taken to boarding school today, clearly not wishing to go. Her parents insisted and accompanied her to see her settled. Their stop in the city on the way home might have been a lift of spirits for a mother and father who had just driven away from a disconsolate child.

The children of both Oakes and Oliver Jr. each went away to school for a portion of their education. Oakes and Evelina’s boys had already gone and returned home; Susan still had her boarding school ahead of her. Oliver Jr. and Sarah’s two children, Fred and Helen, were at this stage both away at school. Oliver Jr. and Sarah were empty-nesters, to use a term they wouldn’t have recognized. They might have recognized the emotion, however. Strange to think of them in their separate house, just the two of them now, quiet, (although Sarah’s younger brother, Cyrus Lothrop, sometimes lived with them) while right next door in the old homestead lived a whole commotion of relatives.

Schooling seemed to be the theme of the day. A Mr. Jennings and a Mr. Crommet called to see Orinthia Foss, presumably on matters of her employment as a schoolteacher. Does any reader out there know either of these names?

His wife and son still living elsewhere – Bridgewater, perhaps – while he set up their rented lodgings in North Easton, Augustus Gilmore was staying temporarily with his aunt Evelina and her family. He would soon bring Hannah, who was expecting, and little Eddie to town.

February 24, 1851

Feb 24th Monday. This morning Orinthia commenced a

private school at the school house had twenty

scholars. Was choring about house all the forenoon

This afternoon made over a valance for

Franks bed and did some mending.

Martin Guild was burried at two Oclock. None

of us attended the funeral Helen & Sarah Ames

called a few moments this evening. Heavy rain.

Looks like little Susie was back in school today, this time under the tutelage of Orinthia Foss, the new teacher. Not only would Susie see Miss Foss in the school room every day, but also at home for breakfast, dinner, and tea. During her tenure in Easton, Orinthia would take turns boarding with different families in town beginning with the Oakes Ameses. The exact location of the schoolhouse where she taught is undetermined, but it may have been located right in the heart of the village, at the Rockery.*

As usual, Evelina spent this busy Monday doing housework, or “choring,” as she called it, in the morning, or “forenoon,” while Jane McHanna labored with the weekly washing. What do you suppose was served for midday dinner on Mondays, when the women of the house were preoccupied with everything except cooking? Perhaps the family ate one of those mincemeat pies that had been prepared days in advance and kept very cold somewhere. Yankee housewives were known to keep some baked goods frozen for months, either by placing them on shelves in an ice house, or simply by storing them in unheated spaces not far from the kitchen. A risky practice, one might think, especially with the varied temperatures and rainy weather that has characterized this particular February.

Also as usual, Evelina turned in the afternoon to her mending and sewing. She refurbished a valance for Frank Morton’s bed. Although his brothers Oakes Angier and Oliver (3) shared a bedroom, Frank had a space, if not a room, to himself. A valance was an essential component of his bedstead, naturally offering some warmth and privacy that might otherwise be lacking.

* Information from Frank Mennino, Curator of the Easton Historical Society. Thank you, Frank.

February 22, 1851

Feb 22nd Saturday This morning sat down to sewing

quite early to work on Susans apron. Mr Torrey called

to see about Augustus having his tenement. Augustus

has engaged Mr Wrightmans house for the present.

Lavinia & myself passed this afternoon at Mr Torreys.

Called at the store, met Mrs. Peckham & Miss

Georgianna Wheaton there Miss Foss came to night. Mr

Ames has been to Boston brought Susan Rubbers.

Cleared off pleasant to night

In his journal today, Old Oliver noted that “It’s pretty muddy now,” which explains why Oakes Ames returned from Boston with overshoes, known as rubbers, for his daughter. Probably everyone in the household donned rubbers during this late winter wetness.

Evelina negotiated the streets just fine, it seems, as she and her niece traveled the short distance to the center of town to call at the company store and at her brother-in-law’s house. Their mutual nephew, Augustus Gilmore, had decided not to rent from Col. Torrey and would be settling his family instead at a Mr. Wrightman’s house. And at the end of the day, a new person entered the domestic scene. Miss Orinthia Foss, the new schoolteacher, arrived from Maine.

February 22 is a date that people acknowledged in 1851 in a manner similar to the way people do in 2014, because it’s George Washington’s birthday. In this year of Evelina’s diary, President Washington had only been dead for a little over fifty years. People were alive who could still remember him; Old Oliver was one of them. Old Oliver was born in 1779, while the Revolutionary War was being fought. He was two years old when the British surrendered at Yorktown, and eight years old when representatives of the new states assembled in Philadelphia to write a constitution. George Washington was elected to head that convention and became the country’s first president in 1789, when Old Oliver turned ten. When Washington died in 1799, beloved and mourned, Old Oliver was a twenty-year old bachelor just making his way in the world. Much about that world would change over Old Oliver’s lifetime, but the reverence that citizens of the United States felt for their first leader would hold strong.

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