Elizabeth in her own words!

After thinking of Elizabeth Radford Evans as the silent correspondent who received the letters from her cousin Louise in upstate New York describing the life of an an 1840s woman and
of Elizabeth Radford Evans as an elderly woman, profiled for her memory of multiple presidential campaigns and up to date on current events; we have a few things written by Elizabeth herself which give us a hint as to who Elizabeth was.  She might be busy with the chores of a mother and farm wife, but her mind was working too!

ππππππ

At some point she was in a reading circle.   There is no year included in her minutes for the meeting but the minutes themselves give a hint.

     And it came to pass in
the 3d month on the 16th day thereof
that some members of the Reading
Circle met at the house of Gay 
whose surname is Buckingham.
     And the president said let
order prevail among you.
      And he further said as our
Scribe is not with us, choose
ye one who shall perform his
duties at this time, and the
mother of the absent scribe was
chosen and she read unto them
the report of the last meeting
and the members approved thereof.
     And the president read from 
the book wherin is written of
Mexico and its conquest by the
Spaniards.
     Then a recess was had, when

each held converse with his neigh
-bor, and stories were repreated
that the great temperance speak
er told the day before.
     After a time more was read
even about some distinguished
poets their manners and habits
and the scribe read of Miss
Flora McKlimsey who dwells in
the great city of Gotham and
though she owned 500 dresses still
had nothing to wear.
     And after that the president said we
will now adjourn till the 29th
day of this 3d month when we
will meet at the house of George
who dwelleth in the Straits and
they did so.
                    E. H. Evans
                           Scribe

I found a blog post about "the fictional 'Miss Flora McFlimsey of Madison Square' whose complaint was that she has 'nothing to wear.'"  She first appeared in Harper's Weekly in the 7 February 1857 issue.  The blog Secondat (Sunday 17 January 2010), includes the poem and magazine illustrations that date from 1857 to 1863 including Miss Flora McFlimsey.  That poem dates that Reading Circle meeting to that era, when Elizabeth was a mother and farm wife raising children in Sherman -- in 1857, she has two children 6 and 4; by 1863, three children 12, 10, and 4 and yet finds time to go to twice monthly meetings of the Reading Circle.

ππ

The family found poems she wrote and transcribed them to share among her descendants by typing them up using carbon paper.


             -: OUR WANTS
1 Man wants but little here below
     Nor want that little long
   Thus Goldsmith wrote long long ago
     But this is not my song

2  Our wants are many more than I
     In a short time can tell
   And if you should not hear them all
     It were perhaps as well.

3  A few of our most pressing wants
     To you I now will mention
   If for a little you will give
     To me a slight attention.

4  We want the house of worship here
     Where we have met tonight
   All covered o’er with coats of paint
     To make it nice and white.

5  And to the windows we want blinds
     Put up wihen this is done
   To help exclude the winters cold
     And heat of summer sun.

6 To pay for these we want the cash
     Greenbacks both new and old
    Stamps of Nationals will do
      And silver coin or gold.

7 Kind friends we want that you tonight
     Shall give at least a score
   Of dollars toward this last great want
     We’ll find no fault with more.

8 If with our exercises here
     You have been pleased then try
   To have the contribution now
     Your pleasure testify.

9 But, if your weary of it all
     And wished you’d staid away
   Call it a humbug if you like
     But don’t forget to pay.

Composed by Elizabeth Evans
    In year of 1862
Greenwood Lake, Orange Co. N.Y.

Not sure why she was fundraising for a church in New York state, possibly visiting or vacationing. Greenwood Lake is across the Connecticut border and south of Sherman, down on the NY/NJ border.

ππ

Poem Written by Grandmother Evans, found on the back of Y.M.C.A. Poster  (no date)

Wake up, turn over, yawn and sneeze 
The weathers changed -- my feet will freeze 
Oh dear, how thin the blankets are 
I wish I had another pair, 
But ere I could my wishes tell 
In Morpheus arms again I fell 
And neer before had such a train 
Of dreams passed through a troubled brain. 
I thought I wandered all alone 
Far northward in the Frigid zone 
The cold moon shone on all around 
And brightened up the snow-clad ground 
And still no sign of life was there 
And I was sinking in despair 
When my ear, distinctly fell 
The tinkling of a distant bell. 
and Lapplander with sledge and deer 
Upon that snow clad plane apprear 
But deaf is he to call and cry 
For alike the wind he passes by 
And I am left alone again.  

Whose turrets seem to touch the sky 
Rose to my view -- toward it I pressed 
Thinking her to find warmth and rest 
But turret high and heavy walls 
And spacious rooms and lengthly halls 
Were made of ice -- it might have been 
The plaything of the Russian Queen.  

No more a brilliant throng  
Of merry skaters sped along 
Now far apart -- now side by side they glide 
They move so swiftly and so light I think them spirits of the night I try to flee, 
theyre on my track 
They overtake and bring me back, 
Shivering I wake and leave the bed 
With chattering teeth and aching head, 
In haste I seek the warmth and light Made by the glowing anthracite.  

Waking up on a cold winter mooring and ending with seeking the warmth and light of burning anthracite coal.

ππ

Of course she wrote letters, but not many have survived, to my knowledge.

A letter written to Charles from his mother, no year given:

     Dec 1
My dear son
One would have thought if you was doing New Haven you would have visited the land of “Your ancestors”  They are in the crypt under the Center church.  Edward has been there--- Alling & his wife and son Fitch Alling-my grandmother was Hannah Alling- married to Timothy Higgins.  There daughter Harriet Higgins married Beers Radford, their daughter Elizabeth married Charles Evans so you see where you come in.
      I had written so much when I found my pen was dry so waited till Earl could fill it.  He did that for me though some one else would do it as well.  I dont remember the name of the first Alling neither did Edward so you will have to go to the Center church to find out.
[the rest of this letter is lost]

Here she is giving her son Charles H Evans the information on her ancestors who were settlers in New Haven, CT and where to find their tombs.  Too bad the rest of the letter didn't survive.

ππ

In a letter written to her 12-year-old granddaughter Alice Olmstead, she mentions her great granddaughter Marjorie Evans who was born 3 May 1913.  So this letter was written on 3 May 1914, a year and a half before she died:

      Sunday PM.
My dear Alice,
   It is so good that you can write letter when your mother is busy or has a headache or anything else to hinder her and I was pleased to hear from Newtown as I already am.   It is a lovely day.  I roded down to the street when Edward took your aunt Kathleen to church I don’t go to meeting as it not possible to hear much of the service it tires me to listen so intensely.  I presume E & L.W. & K and the baby have gone for a drive.  It will do Mrs Edward a deal of good.  She has been so confined and it has been such bad going the car has been out only a week but the ground is getting settled now.
While I think of it did your mother find my kid gloves and comb when she was cleaning house I thought they would come from somewhere sometime 
Have you sowed Sweet peas yet?  Edward has made no garden at all
Charlie sent me arbutus yesterday and it scents the room
Marjorie is one year old to.day.  I gave her a teaspoon, the boys a fork and her other grandmother a cup and grand mother Smith sent her a dollar.  She is very well but  has only three teeth.
I am glad to hear uncle Alan is away and better.   Of course he will be better if he gets away from old things and friends
something new to think about
Your mother says Wilbur isn’t well.  He ought to work out in school but hates to give it up now this last terms but there is nothing like working out of doors in this season.  So your father is a carpenter that is nice for him.  Your mother washes, irons, bakes and sews as usual making old clothes look like new and I hope her children appreciate all the work she does for them.
There is no news only Wooster has a car so K can go now.  She wanted him to get one two years ago so she could drive it but had their business then.
Love to all, 
from grandmother

This letter mentions various children and grandchildren.  Now, one of her children is doing well enough to own a car in 1914, which she mentions casually along with the day-to-day nitty gritty.  She does make a point of telling her granddaughter Alice to appreciate all her mother (Grace Evans Olmstead) does for her and her four siblings.  She is showing her age, 89: she finds the church services tiring and hard to hear, but otherwise, she clearly is still on top of things mentally.

All these writings by Elizabeth adds a bit of humanity.  She is not just the young woman school teacher receiving letters from cousin Louise, or the 88 year-old who has led a long life which she can tell fascinating stories about presidential campaigns (which only one was included in the paper).



Everything in this blog post was shared with me by my wonderful 2nd cousin once removed, Craig.   Thank you Craig!

©Erica Dakin Voolich, 2014
The link to this blog post is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2014/05/elizabeth-in-her-own-words.html

A News Clipping -- Surprise!

Charles and Elizabeth Radford Evans in front of the home that Charles' parents
built about 1801 in Sherman, Connecticut.  This picture was taken before they "retired" to
Great Barrington, Massachusetts to be closer to their two sons.

In the late 1890s, Elizabeth and  her husband Charles moved a few miles north to Great Barrington to be closer to their sons who had moved their Evans Bros. construction company north to become the Barrington Builders.

Elizabeth Radford Evans is the woman who was corresponding with her cousin Louise (in the 1840s) who wrote the two letters that I shared in blog posts: Dear Cousins Elizabeth and Augusta and Dear Cousin ... 2 1/2 years later.  If  you recall in the first letter, Louise was talking about her "light reading" of novels by Sir Walter Scott, that her cousin would probably be criticizing her for not reading and keeping up with more important things -- then later in the same letter, she was discussing the evils of slavery and declaring herself an abolitionist.  Louise was keeping up with the world far beyond Madison County New York in the mid-1840s.  Fast forward a few decades, now Elizabeth is an 88  year-old widow, living in Great Barrington, and the local paper interviews her.

“The Berkshire Courier, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Thursday 20 March 1913, volume
LXXIX, no. 12, pages 1, 8

“REMINISCENCES.
One of Great Barrington’ Old
Ladies and Some of the Things
She Has Witnessed During Her
Long Life. ---Memory Excellent and
and Interest  Keen for Current
Events.

     Mrs Evans, mother of E. B. Evans
 of the Barrington Building Co., is
one of those ladies of an old school type
that is fast passing away.  In her
88th year she retains her mental fac-
ulties to a remarkable degree, and
her stories of the days when the na-
tion was young are wonderfully in-
teresting.  She has lived under the
administration of 22 presidents of
the United States, and in the dawn
of the administration of the 23d 
president, Woodrow Wilson.  She
was a young girl during the adminis-
tration of John Quincy Adams, and
witnessed some of the exciting inci-
dents attending the canvass of An-
drew Jackson.  On incident she re-
lates was of an ardent admirer of
Jackson crowing over a group of the
adherents of Henry Clay.  He was
riding along in the stage coach when
they stopped near a group of men
digging in the ditch.
     “Hurray for Jackson!”  souted the
stalwart Jackson supporter.  Each 
man in the ditch grabbed up a hand-
ful of sticky clay and hurled it at the
Jacksonian and shouted in unison:
     “Hurray for Clay!”
     She has witnessed the campaigns
of Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison,
Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, PIerce,
Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant,
Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland,
Harrison, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft
and Wilson.
     Mrs. Evans graduated from Mt.
Holyoke college in the class of 1845,
and is one of the few members of 
that class alive today.  She entered
Mt. Holyoke eight years after its or-
ganization, and when the noted Mary
Lyon, was its president.

   She has seen 23 states admitted to
the union in the period of her long
and active life, namely:  Arkansas in
1836, Michigan, seven months later
in 1837, Florida in 1845, Iowa in 1846,
Wisconsin in 1847, California in 1850,
Minnesota in 1858, Oregon in 1859,
Kansas in 1861, West Virginia in 
1863, Nevada in 1864, Nebraska in 
1867, Colorado in 1876, North Dako-
ta in 1889, South Dakota has the same
year, Montana six days later of that
year, followed by Washington three
days after, Idaho in 1890, Wyoming
eight days later of the same year,
Utah in 1896, Oklahoma in 1907, and
more recently the territories of New
Mexico, organized in 1850 and Ari-
zona, organized in 1863, admitted fi-
nally into statehood, as well as the
organization of the district of Alas-
ka as a territory in 1868 and Hawaii
in 1900.  She has seen the acquisition
of the Phillippine Islands and of 
Porto Rico and the Isthmian Canal
zone pass into United States posses-
sions.
     Among the stories she tell was one
related to her by her mother, of an
oratoron the political platform who
made this prophecy:
     “We now have a confederation of
13 states, but, gentlemen there ex-
tends beyond us territory sufficient
for 13 additional states, even to the
far west, to the banks of the Missis-
sippi river.”
     Mrs. Evans has live the see that
oratorical prophecy, then so improb-
able, fully verified, and to see this
to the Pacific ocean, and extend its
power to the far islands of the sea.
She remembers well the early stage
coaches, which in their day were re-
garded as a wonderfully rapid means
of transportation.  She has seen
them superseded by the railway
trains and witnessed the advent of
the trolley cars, the aeroplane and 
wireless telegraphy, the telegraph
and telephone, and the era of talk-
in movie pictures.
     Through all these years time has
dealt leniently with her and her con-
versational powers are wonderfully
interesting, and her interest in cur-
rent event continues unabated.”

Clearly for decades, Elizabeth was not "just" a mother of four and a housewife busy with all her chores on a farm in rural Connecticut, she was continuing to keep up with current events as she had learned from her mother (Harriet Higgins Radford 1785-1846) who had also done that.

The big surprise, to me in the newspaper was
     Mrs. Evans graduated from Mt.
Holyoke college in the class of 1845,
and is one of the few members of 
that class alive today.  She entered
Mt. Holyoke eight years after its or-
ganization, and when the noted Mary
Lyon, was its president.

She attended college!!!  I never knew that anyone in my family had gone to Mt Holyoke Seminary, or that any woman in the family had been to college that early.  I contacted the school archives, and she never graduated, but she did attend college, 1844-1845.

Thanks to my 2nd cousin once removed who mailed me a copy of this newspaper and made this discovery and blog post possible.  Thanks Craig!

©Erica Dakin Voolich, 2014
The link to this blog post is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-news-clipping-surprise.html

Dear Cousin ... 2 1/2 Years Later

Recall Louise's first letter to her cousins, Elizabeth and Augusta Radford.  She was discussing novels, how schools were organized & teachers certified, and her views as an abolitionist.  She was doing household chores and sewing while her sister was working in a factory, and possibly her mother was recovering from something (alluded to, not said).  Now she is no longer talking theoretically about teaching but she has been teaching, since autumn and the school is closed, possibly for a winter break in Madison County, New York-- could be snowy there.  She has that feeling of exhaustion and relief that teachers have when they get to a break, can catch their breath and get revived to go back again to the intensity of the classroom demands.

Morrisville Jan.y. 30, 1849
Dear Coz.
Your letter of October was received and as I concluded
not to accept the invitation contained therein.  I have not 
been as prompt in reply as I should have been.
  My school is closed, is having been opened early
in autumn, and I am released; I always consider it
a release to be far away from a school house, and have
at this time a prospect of breathing the air of freedom for
some months to come, for I cannot teach more now.
Your communication was a very frank, cousinly,
and confidential document!  When one’s path is along
the “cool sequestence  vale of life,”  where little breaks the
monotony of a retired maiden’s existence, there is little
to confide, often little to communicate, so I complain
not of my correspondents if they do not make their letters
records of loves, marriages, deaths, and romantic adven-
tures.  If, however, such events should ruffle the surface of
their lives, it is a pleasure a right, to be acquainted with 
them, that interest, and sympathy may have a right direc-
tion even in absence.  It is fortunate for me that I have
an uncle near the Rocky Mountains, that I may be
able to address my cousins by their right names, a some
thing of some consequence, as they are my friends & correspondents

Louise depends upon her cousins and friends to write.  If you recall from her first letter, there is a loneliness out in rural up state New York.  Elizabeth has written and made an offer to her last October, possibly to visit based on the comments later in the letter.  She depends upon the news from her correspondents -- it doesn't have to be of love, marriages, romance, death, etc. -- she is still unmarried living at home, as is Elizabeth.  Louise won't marry for another two years, so she lives with her imaginary visits with cousins and friends from elsewhere.  Her younger sister Sarah is already married (1847), as is her older brother Raymond Perry (1848).  Elizabeth's sister Augusta is also married.  She has an aunt in the area, but they are talking of moving from Chautaugue to Pennsylvania-- but just like today, you can't afford to sell your property if it is at a loss!  Uncle Bennet and his family has already moved away, possibly he is the uncle in the Rockies.   She clearly misses time with the various family members including the children.

I am an old maid yet, and farther than ever from being
any thing else.  Do you not pity your unattractive cousin?
and yet she is perfectly contented, never more so.
A long letter from Uncle Bennet came to hand a day or 
two since.  It stated many things interesting to me.
The children both wrote, and I am almost homesick.
whenever I hear from them.  I enjoyed under this roof the
privileges of home and for do long a period that I cannot
bear frequent imaginary visits to the dear little band of which
I am now a dissevered link.  There are some young people
there who write to me, and enough that I am attached
to, to cause me much enjoyment in another visit.
I wish you could visit Chautaugue.  You would like
Aunt Sarah and Uncle.  The scenery too is delightful.
He e has his eye now toward Pennsylvania; since Sarah
made a visit to Pittsburgh.  I should not be surprise
if he should remove to some other spot, but he is not
very fond of changes, and Aunt makes few inconsiderate
movements.  They will not sell for less than the full value
of their farm and its location has some disadvantages.
Our family—- I can say little new of them.  Emory
is now home.  He is a green boy.  Nothing influenced him
but his own inclinations.  He will love me only on 
condition that I do not meddle nor advise!
I have been wavering between visiting you, attending
school, or doing something else next summer, but
rather than think I shall attend school.  I should like
above most things to visit you but cannot afford it.
Oh the miseries of a shallow purse!


I am not sure what a "green boy" is, but whatever it is, Emory doesn't like his older sister to meddle or advise him-- sounds like their political views might be different (recall, she is the abolitionist).  Definitely sounds like siblings who are a year apart in age.

She is thinking about going to school next summer.  She is asking the advice of her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth [much to my recent surprise] attended Mount Holyoke Seminary for the 1844-45 school year and was teaching when Louise wrote her first letter to her cousins!  Clearly she is the person to ask about going to school.  [I have not located where Elizabeth taught beyond Mt Holyoke's records that she taught from 1845-1850, when she married.]

She wishes to visit Elizabeth -- probably that was her offer referred to in the beginning of the letter.  But she can't afford it -- "the miseries of a shallow purse!"  and "I am obliged to limit my gratifications to my income, which is nothing when out of school"

If it were not too much to ask, I should be happy to be
informed of whatever may concern one so distant and dis-
connected as a cousin is.  You do not, nor cannot think
how much I prize the friendship and confidence of my
relatives, and tho’ I never intend to demand the respect
of anyone, yet until I am conceived  of meriting /distrust
I shall expect a continuance of regard.
I am spending the winter in something of a fool-
ish manner but nothing offers for my improvement, and
I am working, reading, and what not.  Enjoying myself
papably, not as well as I did last winter; but an-
ticipating, as I always am great things from the future.
If I could travel, that is all I would ask at present.
I have half a mind to take my destiny by storm. ——
I could do it!  (Ahem! Self Esteem!), but —- common sense
and uncommon laziness suggest other things and tell
me to make myself happy “in life’ more low, but happier
way.”  Lo I suppose I attend school next summer, and
teach next winter.  Hast my suggestions, Coz? —-
  Uncle has heard from Cousin Horace.  When I visit you
I shall make him a visitation.  But if I attend school
I shall never go out of the county, for I am obliged
to limit my gratifications to my income, which is noth
ing when out of school.  Give my love to Mrs. Augusta
and Juis whoever he may be as I am bound to return
the love of every one who presents such a gift, Hoping you
will write to me soon I am as ever
Affectionately Louise
P.S. I would write to A. but really — I do not know
her name and do not like dark proceedings.

Cousin Horace, is Elizabeth and Augusta's much older brother.
Augusta married Julius Bronson, who is a widower with a child.
This letter was written shortly after Augusta's wedding, they married 3 January and this is 30 January.
She needs Augusta's married name to be able to write to her.  I do not know what might be the "dark proceedings" maybe it is new husband who is 13 years older and a 13 year old daughter for Augusta.

Oh, how I wish I had the rest of the correspondence between these women!

©Erica Dakin Voolich, 2014
The link to this page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2014/05/dear-cousin-2-12-years-later.html

Dear Cousins Elizabeth and Augusta... A revealing letter from Louisa P Radford

In 1848, Elizabeth and Augusta Radford in Middlebury CT receive a letter from their cousin Louise Pauline Radford in Morrisville NY.  It was written on one large piece of paper, folded, addressed and mailed.  It contains wonderful clues of the life of a woman in the 1840s in rural USA.  She might be busy with housework, but her mind was very busy!

She starts with pleasantries, updates on the family, complaints about the loneliness with few neighbors, busyness of household chores and sewing, and coping with the solitude of life by reading novels.

Morrisville  May 31, /46
Dear Cousins Elisabeth and Augusta
I shall attempt no excuses
for not before acknowledging the receipt of your very
welcome letter, for I think it a silly thing to render
excuses for that which is inexcusable.
  It is now quite two months since you and Cousin
Augusta found  me, and with my usual ingratitude
I am delayed to render the simple recompense which
the Etiquitte of Epistolary Correspondence demands and
which dear Cousin Lizzie, I now put before you at the Eleventh
hours. ——-of our health (always the first consideration you know
I can render a favorable account.  Mother is much improved
Father comfortable.  Brother Emory came from the west last March
and is with us.  Sister Sarah works in the Factory near us
and your humble Lieut., installed housekeeper in Earnest.
—I am very lonely in this novel business.  We are not blest
with near neighbors and all with whom I once associated
are married or removed; but I have been so very busy lately
with my daily cares and sewing which I take in, that my
solitude is to me worse than solitary idleness.  So, to make
amends for not getting time for recreation during the day
I steal from Morpheus and have read the Waverly Novels
through in this stolen time, which business my anti-novel-
reading cousin will probably think is about right to be con-
nected with thieves etc Lest you may think me a reader of  Nomondes
I must say that I renounced them six years since (at which time
I had read all in the vicinity) but have taken them up occasionally
at least as often as P.P. R. James’ fell into my hands. and now for the


She apologies from wasting time on light reading that her cousin will criticize her for doing before going on to discussing local schools run by the county.  Parts of the description could easily have been written about schools 160 years later!  I found it interesting to read of the structure, county certification, teaching requirements and teacher preparation available then.

first time the Novels of Sir Walter Scott are in my hands, but
I read them after bed-time so they do not waste my time.
I have anticipations of receiving a lecture on Light Reading
from Cusin Lizzie!  What are the possibilities?  I shall shall answer it.
I have said so much of my self that I will now stop, it can
be of little moment the tho you what I am about . ———
—- Then are some things however which you may like to know
of our schools, our pastimes (political) and so on.  Of our schools
I can say, that the support they derive from the State is seldom
sufficient to defray al Expenses and in such case parents and
patrons are taxed.   Something is being done to support the schools
Entirely by the Public funds.  Our Supervision is some what different
from yours.  An officer called the Co. Superintendent is at the Source
of management in the County.  Each Town has a Superintendent and
each school Dist. thru Trustees  and Cl. Town Supt’s  give Certificates
of qualification as also does the Co. Supt. Any Teacher who is thought
fully competent to teach any Common School, receives sometimes
what is called a Co. Certificate which licenses this teacher to teach
any common school in the county without being again inspected
‘till the certificate is annulled according to Law, which happens only
in cases of misbehavior  or non-compentency.   Our State supports
our paper called Dist. School Journal and the Association of Teachers
supports another called The Teacher’s Advocate in Syracuse.  I will
send you one. —— I suppose we have some excellent schools. —
An institution termed the State Normal School is in Session
at Albany.  It is supported by the state partly and is devoted
to the Education of Teachers.  10 shillings a week to Ladies
and 8 to Gentlemen are allowed towards board and all
travelling expenses paid.  Then they go thru a course of Studies.
Dear Coz, how I have pestered you with details ——————-
  You have thrown down the Political gauntlet and I sup-
pose I must take it up or be called any thing but
coeur de lion.  Perhaps we ought for mere Patriotism’s sake to


For the rest of the letter, Louise then gets into the serious discussion of what every woman should be concerned about:  slavery!  She sees the political discussions of the day, such as free trade or tariff, insignificant to the real problem folks should be discussing and acting upon.

make war upon each other that the worlds may have this 
benefit of the sparks of light shrink off in the conflict.
Perhaps I can give a few reasons for being an abolitionist besides
the weighty - one that my father is.  I must first put the bridle 
on my pen that my prose do not degenerate to poetry
—The questions of National Policy so woven with what ought to
concern every woman, I profess to know little about.  But there 
is enough I cannot help knowing which throws all these “Party
Hobbies” into the shade.  Of Free Trade or a Tariff, a bank or Sub-Treasury
I know not the choice; but there is to me something in the
“institution” of Slavery that conquers my indifference to Politics
and makes me a certain Kind of Politician.  My views being general
are probably correct in the main, as nearly all acknowledge.  All
admit the inconsistency of a Free County’s cherishing Slavery.
I doubt not Cousin you will do so.  In the next place which
is the most important to us, as a nation, a sound heart and 
body free from disease with coarse of one, or a system abused
and disorganized, with perhaps a degree of soundness of brain
which only renders the realization of suffering more acute == I have
used myself to look upon Slavery with the almost abhorrence 
and to … you  how I would act would inform you how
I would have the Nation act.  I will as I best may, do all I can
to pull down this Institution of Crime and Abuse, and wen I favored
(I should not consider it a favor in any other case) with the right of
suffage I should consider myself trifling with a sacred trust if
I did not use it in behalf of the oppressed.  Some ask, “how are
you going to effect your object?”  I answer, not my standing idly by
and excusing myself.  We have all duties to do; Political duties as well
as social and religious ones.  …. ….      note is merely
the creature of his own will and consider himself absolved from all
responsibility in its use, but give him as more enlightenment under-
standing and quicken his sympathies and this folly ceases. ——-

She declares herself as an abolitionist.

I will not say more.  You may understand me to be thoroughly
antislavery and Pro- abolitionist.  I believe in action exertion for this
common weal of the people and the Slave.  As, my dear cousin
but look this horrid monster in the face for a moment.
What on the little questions of Terrifs and bank which can result
only in the gratification of a party feeling (in my eyes) compared
with that existing evil which is but this very Sum of villainy?
Which degraded our notion in the eyes of those very notorious 
in affect to despise and which rendered  our boasted Land
of The Free” also the prison of the slave.   I confess I can keep
no terms talking on this subject.  To rid our country of
the disgrace  and  sin of Slavery is a work which lies
before the people and it ought to be accomplished.  Then
when the sun shines on all God’s children in this land
as common recipients of his blessings, let the smaller Q’s
of national economy be arranged.  How absurd to devote
all the energies of the Physician to curing a scratch while
the diseased and dying body demand his restoring powers.


[addressed part of letter when folded]


Do forgive me for troubling you with so much nonsense badly
written.  Tis provoking when written well.  Answer me immedi-
atibly and I provide you you shall complain no more of my
negligence as a correspondent.  Yours affectionately  L.P. R.


Twenty-one year old Louisa/Louise Pauline Radford (1825-1894) wrote this letter to her cousins, sisters Harriet Augusta (1821-1897)) and Hannah Elizabeth Radford (1825-1915).  Her cousin, Elizabeth Radford, is my great great grandmother [Elizabeth Radford Evans].  I do not know about Elizabeth's paternal grandparents-- possibly, they are grandparents for Louise too.

Elizabeth's parents were Beers Radford (1784-1876) and Harriet Higgins (1785-1846) and a census and family tree search finds Louisa was the daughter of David Radford  (1790-1885) and Cornelia White (1792-1870).

There are online trees with descendants of David Radford, but no parents.  All of the census sources say that David Radford was born in Connecticut, as was Beers and his children.  David's children were born in Madison County NY

I have one more letter from Louisa that Elizabeth saved, that will be another blog post.

©Erica Dakin Voolich 2014
The link to this page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2014/04/dear-cousins-elizabeth-and-augusta.html

Ruth Kirby: Who are you? and A Big Opps!

For years I have been trying to figure out who was my GGG'grandmother, Ruth Kirby Evans.  According to church records, she died on 21 March 1844 in Sherman Connecticut at age 63.   My grandmother, Marion Evans Dakin's notes on her family tree says her great grandmother was Ruth Kirby, born either in "Dover, New York or Canada" and married Jonathan Evans.

According to the Beekman Patent book (vol. 1, page 817), Jonathan was the son of John Evans of Dover, Dutchess County, NY.  By 1800, Jonathan and Ruth are married (probably in Dover) and have a baby, Lydia.  Soon they move over the border to Sherman, Connecticut to a house they built on Evans Hill Rd, and lived in the rest of their lives [Sherman SENTINEL, 16 October 1868 story on the oldest houses in town], and raised their nine children. This old house, even after over 213 years, has been owned by only two families: first Evans and now Mosenthal.

The EVANS family house on Evans Hill Road in Sherman CT
with Charles Evans and Elizabeth Radford Evans
(son and and daughter-in-law of Jonathan Evans and Ruth Kirby Evans).

Born "in Canada" is a bit broad for searching.  So, for years,  I've been looking in the Dover NY neighborhood for a KIRBY family for my Ruth.  There were two KIRBY families in Pawling NY in the 1790 census, George and William.  She died in 1844 at age 63, so in 1790 she would have been about age 9.  Each had white females and so are possible families.  BUT, then I found the Beekman Patent Book (VII, 575-579) has no mention of any Kirby family with a daughter named Ruth born about 1781, including George's and William's families.  This doesn't seem too promising.

So I got to searching recently, wondered if maybe she had been born over the border in Connecticut.  I found a Mrs. Ruth Kirby who died in Litchfield CT, maybe that was my Ruth Kirby's mother and she was named for her mother?  Worth a look.  I was looking a bit closer on GenealogyBank -- a source of old newspapers.

I found widow Ruth Kirby, with neighbors concerned about her and holding a "woodspell" -- a term I had not heard before but clearly a "wood supply" help-your-neighbors-event:

Wednesday 23 January 1805, Republican Watch-Tower (NY, NY), vol 5, issue 333, page 4:

    “Faith, Hope and Charity -- the greatest

of these is charity.”

    Monday the 7th inst, was proposed as a day 

to have a woodspell for Mrs. Ruth Kirby,

widow of Col. Ephraim Kirby, late of Litch-

field, deceased.  On which day received, by way

of presents, upwards of one hundred loads of

wood, excellent both for quantity and qua-

lity.

    Such acts of benevolence, display an hono-

rable trait of goodness in human nature.--

They also demonstrate more than words can

do is what regard the character of Col. Kir-

by and his family are estimated in the town

of Litchfield, where their merits are best

known.

    The greatest order and even solemnity was

visible on the occasion.

Let gratitude in acts of goodness show

  Our love to God, in love to man below.

Be this our joy--to calm the troubl’d breast.

  Support the weak and succour the distress’d

Direct the wanderer, dry the widow’s tear,

  The orphan guard, the sinking spirits cheer.

Tho’ small our power to act, tho’ weak our

  skill,

God see the heart--He judges by the will. 

                      A. Mer.”

Sadly, I found the first death notice for Ruth Kirby, widow of Col. Ephraim Kirby just a month after her delivery of fuel for the winter:

Friday, 22 February 1805, Albany Register  (Albany, NY), vol. XVII, issue 1370, page 2:

“DIED,

At Litchfield, Conn. Mrs RUTH KIRBY, wid-

ow of the late Col. Ephraim Kirby, deceased.”

Followed over a month later by:

Friday, 29 March 1805, Albany Register (Albany NY), vol. XVII, issue 1380, page 2

    “In the account published in our paper sev-

eral weeks since, of the death of Mrs. RUTH

KIRBY, consort of the late EPHRAIM KIR-

BY, Esq. deceased, and which we copied

from the Pittsfield Sun, we are happy in

being able to inform our readers is amply 

contradicted.”

Opps!

I guess Ruth Kirby, upon reading the newspaper could sympathize with a future Mark Twain who sent an 1897 note to London reporter Frank Marshall White, "The report of my illness grew of his [cousin's] illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration." [en.wikiquote/wiki/Mark_Twain]

She did live another 12 years:

“Monday, 3 November 1817, Connecticut Mirror (Hartford CT), vol. IX, issue 19, page 2

“DIED...

--At Litchfield, on the 17th ult. 

Mrs Ruth Kirby, aged 64, relict of the late E. Kirby, Esq.”

The Ephraim Kirby family was in the 1800 census in Litchfield CT but Ephraim had died by the 1810 census.  Searching for any evidence of their children on Ancestry.com, I did find a few people who have put up trees for this KIRBY family, they have no daughter Ruth born any time near 1781.  More recently on Americanancestors.com, I did find the marriage of Ephraim Kirby and Ruth Marvin on 17 March 1784 in Litchfield, CT -- unfortunately that is 4 years after MY Ruth Kirby was supposedly born.

Anyone in Canada have a KIRBY family with a daughter named Ruth born about 1781?

EVANS/MOSENTHAL family house in September 2012
(various additions over the years)

The link to this post is: http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2014/03/ruth-kirby-who-are-you-and-big-opps.html

©2014 Erica Dakin Voolich

Mild-mannered Clerk or Secret Service Agent ... The Rest of the Story!

My mother had fond memories of playing with her grandparents who lived next door.  Her grandfather, Harry Bogart Richardson, told her and her sister stories of his working as a secret service agent in Denver trying to capture people who were shaving gold off of gold coins.  Her grandfather died when she was 15, so she had lots of years to hear those stories.

Was that creative story telling to amuse his granddaughters or was he really a secret service agent?

When he died in 1932 on a vacation visiting relatives in California, his death certificate says he was an insurance agent.  His obituary tells of his church membership and his founding membership (and first president) of the local tennis club.  His son's birth certificate (1890) lists his occupation as clerk.  In the US census for Oak Park IL he is listed as a grocery clerk (1880), dealer in stocks & bonds (1900), broker in a bank (1910), insurance broker (1920), insurance salesman (1930).  Sounds like a pretty ordinary daily life for a middle class family man.  No adventures tracking down crooks in Denver.

The one thing that didn't quite fit to the story of all those years in Oak Park ILLINOIS was that his son graduated from East High School in DENVER on 10 June 1909.  My mother said the family story was that her father was sent to school in Denver because they were afraid of TB and wanted a healthier climate for him.  The school has only Robert W enrolled (not his younger brother) and only one parent was listed as contact (his father).  Robert (Bobbie) enrolled in September 1907.

A few years ago I decided to search for any record of his serving in the Secret Service.  I had to file a Freedom of Information Act request with Homeland Security and send proof that he had died (couldn't send birth certificate since he was born in Canada before vital records).  The paperwork that came back told me that he WAS a Secret Service agent in Denver from 1907-1909, he worked for $4/day and then got a raise to $5/day.  There are probably records in NARA in Washington DC on the daily records for "Operative Richardson" but I have to go to DC to see them.

Yes he was an agent in Denver, BUT, was he capturing people debasing gold coins?

I recently discovered there were some revealing newspaper articles on GenealogyBank.com

Monday 3 February 1908, Denver Post (Denver CO), page 5

“RICHARDSON ASSISTANT

SECRET SERVICE AGENT”

  Harry B Richardson has been appoint-

ed assistant to Rowland K. Goddard,

government secret service agent in Den-

ver.  Mr. Richardson has been working

under L. C. Wheeler on land fraud in-

vestigations for some time, having been

temporarily transferred to the depart-

ment of justice for that purpose.”

So Harry was working in Denver and was moved to the Department of Justice (investigating counterfeiting might be part of the job).

Saturday 4 April 1908, Denver Post (Denver CO), page 4

“DENVER OFFICERS

MAKE GOOD CATCH

OF ‘COIN SWEATER’ 

   ---

Spied on Salt Lake Man’s Lab-

oratory and Saw Him at 

His Work.

   ---

A PROFITABLE CALLING

   ---

About $1 of Gold Taken Out

of Each Coin in Wholesale

Lots.

   ---

   Eben J. Gregory of Salt Lake City was

arrest last Tuesday at his home for

“sweating” gold coins after the officers

had watched his operations from the out-

side for some time and determined ex-

actly what he was doing.  Harry B.

Richardson and W. W. Fraser, govern-

ment secret service men from Denver,

succeeded in locating Gregory after the

$5 and $10 light coins had been de-

tected.

   Gregory has a wife and three children.

When he first went to Salt Lake City

he was a clerk for a mining company;

later he opened a cigar store.  Two years

ago he was forced  to close his store

because a saloon man leased the build-

ing.  When he had to vacate he hung up

placards which bore evidence of his in-

dignation, because he had to leave, one

of them reading, “Give an honest man a

chance to make an honest dollar.”

TURNS MINING MAN

   Then he began to call himself a mining

man.

   About five weeks ago it was found that

something was wrong with the gold coins

circulated about Salt Lake City.  The

chief of police notified the Denver branch

of the secret service department adn the

two men were sent out to find the guilty

person. Gregory had been pasing light

coins daily in big business houses of Salt

Lake City.

   The secret service men watched him

very closely and his methods were re-

vealed.  Nitriuc and muriatic acids were

used, and the face of the gold coin was

given an acid bath so that it looked as

if it had been badly worn.  The other

side was left in good condition.  When

passing the coins Gregory put the perfect

side of the coin up, and the side that

had been tampered with was not no-

ticed.

   The man bought postoffice orders in

his wife’s maiden name and cashed them

at the central office, demanding gold in

payment.  He secured $600 in gold from

the postoffice each month.  He sent to 

other cities for gold coins that had not

been tampered with, and when he secured

enough gold he would cast it in a bat

and send it to the Denver mint.  He was

paid $385.34 for the last shipment March

22.  The gold was so pure that it indi-

cated that it was coin gold and aroused 

suspicion.

COMPLETE LABORATORY.

   While Gregory was getting his shoes

shined the secret service men arrested

him after they had seen him pass three

of the coins. He was placed in jail, and

the men found upon visiting his home

that his laboratory was a most complete

one for his work, and chemists say

could have been used for no other pur-

pose than for the “sweating” of money.

   While studying Gregory’s methods the

officers learned that he seldom left his

house before noon.  He spent the entire

afternoon passing three or four of these

coins, and after dinner at night he would

go to this laboratory and the light would 

burn for an hour.  After working on the

coins Gregory would go downtown and

stay until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.

He was a “well-known many about town”

and liberal. Whenever he has been of 

late the officers were shadowing him.

   Gregory said he was a broker, but he

had no office and there was nothing to

show that he was engaged in any active

business,  Banks and other large business

houses usually careful about accepting

gold coins took his money without ques-

tion.”

Great details on what an agent does investigating and how the criminal worked -- even ideas for someone to follow if he wanted to go into the debasing coin business.  Here's the followup article:

Friday 10 April 1908, Denver Post (Denver CO), page 12

“SWEATER OF COIN

WAS TAKEN FOR

WEALTHY MINER 

   ---

Gregory Made is Money Easi-

ly Until Uncle Sam Locked 

Him Up.

   ---

   Eben J Gregory,  the Salt Lake coin

“sweater” who was doing a land office

business reducing the weight of gold

money and sending the surplus to the

Denver mint when captured by Secret

Service Officers Harry B. Richardson and

W. W. Fraser of Denver, after some

clever detective work, comes from a

famous old English family.  He left his 

native country at the instigation of the

Mormons and joined their colony at Salt

Lake about twelve years ago.

   Gregory is only 32 years of age, but

in two years became on of the most

expert “sweaters” of coin in the country.

He had large bank accounts in Salt Lake

City, was known everywhere as a pros-

perous “mining” promoter, although he

never dealt in mines, and his wife and

three children were highly esteemed.

   Gregory was satisfied with from $10 to 

$25 profit each day, and that was about

his average.  He usually bought a cigar

in the morning with his first $5 or $10

gold piece and received silver for the 

change for the reduced gold money he

had given to the dealer.

  After he secured three or four easy

marks he would take the silver to the

bank and have it exchanged for more

gold.  He had a regular daily routine

that varied but little.

   Gregory lived in a double house and

he had his money-reducing plant in the

attic.  The owner of the house lived on 

the other side, but she never dared go

into the attic for fear that she would

be overcome with the acid fumes. 

   Gregory had no accomplices, but it is

believed that his wife knew at all times

that he was conducting an illegal busi-

ness.  The arrest of Gregory put away

the last money swindlers who have

been exceedingly busy in the last few

months in what is known as the Denver

district.”

"Coin sweating" sounds like a profitable business.  Here's another crook, not caught:

Tuesday, 23 June 1908, Denver Rock Mountain News (Denver CO), page 7

accessed on GenealogyBank on 20 February 2014

“BOGUS MONEY PASSED

BY YOUNG MAN ANGERS

EASY VICTIMS AT GOLDEN

   [SPECIAL TO THE NEWS]

  GOLDEN, Colo.  June 22.--Several Gold-

en business men were well stocked up to-

day with counterfeit dollars, giving in ex-

change a small amount of merchandize

and real money.   A neatly attired strang-

er of gentlemanly bearing visited all the

cigar stores and thirst quenching par-

lors and paid for small purchases with

bright new dollars.  In this way he raked

in a pocket full  of small change in two

hours and boarded an electric car for

Denver about the time one of his victims

discovered the dollars were bogus.

   Sheriff Whipple telephone the descrip-

tion of the man to the Denver police but

it was later learned that he left the car

at Lakeside.  Secret Service Agent Harry

Richardson came up this evening to in-

vestigate and pronounced the counter-

feit coins the most perfect he had ever

seen.  It is believed that the man who 

worked Golden was one of the gang now

engaged in systematically flooding Colo-

rado with spurious money.”

Less help in the Denver office, more work for Harry and his partner:

Sunday 8 November 1908, Denver Post (Denver CO), page 22

“SECRET SERVICE AGENT

CALLAGHAN GOES EAST

   ---

  Thomas J. Callaghan, who has been

connected with the Denver district of the

government secret service for upwards

of a year, has received word that his re-

quest for a transfer to the New York

district has been granted, and he will

leave for his new field of work Dec. 1.

He was one of the secret service officers

who was down in the mine at Hesperus

when Joseph A. Walker was killed and

who had to be rescued by a rope after 

one of the party had scaled the walls

and reached the top.

  Callaghan is one of the youngest men

in the service and developed rapidly into 

one of the best as well.

   The change will greatly increase the

work of the two remaining secret service

agents, Rowland K. Goddard and Harry

Richardson, as Callaghan’s place will

not be filled, for a time at least.”

Another crook, this guy was minting his own coins:

Thursday 10 December 1908, Denver Rocky Mountain News (Denver CO), page 7

“SECRET SERVICE AGENTS

ARREST ANOTHER MAN AS

ALLEGED COUNTERFEITER

   ---

   Timothy Duffy of 3351 Kalmath street

was arrested yesterday by Secret Service

Agents Rowland K. Goddard and Harry

Richardson, on a charge of making and

passing counterfeit coins.  A number of

molds and counterfeit coins, said to be

the property of Duffy, were seized at the

same time.

   The prisoner declares that he was fur-

nished with the molds by other men in

Denver, and the secret service officials

are now looking for them. He will be

given a hearing before United States Com-

missioner Hinsdale this week, and if un-

able to give bond will be placed in jail to

await the action of the federal grand

jury.”

Counterfeiting sounds like a profitable second job even for the well-known in the community (as Gregory above)

Monday, 15 February 1909. Denver Post (Denver CO), page 2

“FRANCIS SEARWAY

HELD FOR PASSING

GOLD COUNTERFEIT

  ---

He Is Prominent in Railroad

Brotherhoods and a Glove

Manufacturer.

  ---

COIN FOUND BY CHANCE

  ---

Waiter Positively Identifies Him

As Man Who Passed

One.

  ---

   Frances E. Searway, 330 Nineteenth ave-

nue, glove manufacturer, prominent in the

Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, a lo-

cal Republican politician of note and a

member o a well known Denver family,

was arrested today by Government Secret

Service Agents Goddard and Richardson

on the charge of passing counterfeit ten

and twenty dollar gold coins.

  His arrest will create a sensation in

railroad circles, as he was one of the

best known railroad men in the state.

He is the legistlative representative of

lodge 446 of the trainmen.  An occupant of

the apartment house were Searway lives 

accidentally discovered a twenty-dollar

gold piece.  Investigating he found sev-

eral others.  Instead of keeping the money

he put it back and reported the matter

to Harry Richardson, the assistant chief

operative of the Denver district of the

secret service.

   The next night all of the money was

gone and suspicion fell on Searway.  Rich-

ardson followed up the clew and with

Operative Goddard secured what they be-

lieved was a complete identification and

evidence of passing on the part of Sear-

way.  The day after the coins were miss-

ing from their hiding place two of them

were passed in Denver.

  Charles Stringer, the night man at

Harry’s restaurant, 616 Seventeenth street,

took one of the coins, a $20 counterfeit

gold piece.  He says that Searway came

into his place at 9 o’clock at night, or-

dered a cup of coffee, sized up the crowd,

conclluded that it was too small and went 

away.

  Stringer says he came back at 11 o’clock

the same night, Feb. 6, when the place 

was crowded, ordered a 25 cent meal and

gave the counterfeit gold piece in pay-

ment, getting silver in change.   Stringer

says he is positive that Searway is the

guilty person, as he had seen him in the

place several times before that.

  The next day, it is alleged that Searway

went into the Grant grocer between the

hours of 6 and 8 o’clock, when the place 

was crowded, bought two dozen eggs and

passed a counterfeit $10 piece.  The clerk

who waited on the passer of the sparious

money also says he is positive that it was

Searway.

   The counterfeits are fairly good and are

made of antimony and tin or [?]

metal.  The twenties were dated [?] and 

the tens 1906.”

I guess those stories of adventures tracking down criminals out west were true.  The mild-mannered clerk took a couple years off and played Secret Service Agent while his son finished high school!  Who knew!  The census gave no clue about his other career.

The link to this post is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2014/02/mild-mannered-clerk-or-secret-service.html
©2014 Erica Dakin Voolich

LOSS or DeLOSS a Family Connection Lost... Can it be Found?

Almost two years ago I wrote a blog post about my GGG'grandmother, Esther DeLoss, from a family trying to be "Lost."  I didn't know anything about her family.  My tree was clipped at her side of that branch.

For years I had been looking for Esther DeLoss, when in reality I should have been looking for Elnora Esther Loss or DeLoss.  Her father Samuel changed his name back and forth between LOSS and DeLOSS.  Possibly when the bill collectors were at the door, Samuel would change his name and move to the next town around upstate New York in the early 1800s.  I wonder what Samuel's life was like when the passage quoted at his funeral was from Job!  His 2-sentence obituary in the Madison Observer in 1851 calls this passage "an appropriate discourse delivered by" the pastor.

When I was searching, I came across another LOSS family researcher, Mary Ann Loss, who had posted on Rootsweb about my LOSS family.  I was the first person to have contacted her in 12 years! 

Since then we have "combined forces."  She came to visit me and brought everything she knew about my LOSS family and her LOSS family. 

It turns out Mary Ann Loss had done extensive research on all the LOSS families in the US.  We have yet to find a connection between the two families in the paperwork.  She started doing DNA tests on her LOSS family members hoping to find another connection.  One day we were talking and she said, "I'm sure the two families are related, I just can't find the link.  You should do a DNA test and see if you match."  

This week my DNA results came in -- it included 50 pages of potential "matches" of varying degrees of closeness.  I was not familiar with the site and so I found a place to type in "Loss" and three names came up as being between 2nd and 4th cousins.  I sent her the link to the page and asked if these were any folks that she knew.  Well, I'm a 2nd to 4th cousin of her father, aunt and cousin!

So here is our problem.  HOW are the two family trees related?  We have not yet found the link with paperwork.

So I've made another blog post today with the two LOSS families, HELP WANTED!! Two LOSS families Looking for Others to Link Them.  Hopefully there is someone who is descended from either a LOSS or DeLOSS family who knows another family member that links these two together.

If you know, contact Mary Ann or myself.

The link to this page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2014/01/loss-or-deloss-family-connection-lost.html

©2014 Erica Dakin Voolich