Four generations of RICHARDSONs 1917

Four generations of RICHARDSONs 1917
William Richardson, Alice Josephine Richardson Dakin, Robert Worthington Richardson, Harry Bogart Richardson

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

The Gaylordsville Tanner and the the Uppsala Swimming Society

Last May I received an email:

Dear Erica-
I am working on a short history article about the Uppsala Swimming Society for an upcoming issue of SWIMMER magazine, the official publication of U.S. Masters Swimming. In researching the topic, I came across your book, A Ring and a Bundle of Letters. I was intrigued by a note on page 194 that indicated that Knut Hellsten wrote a history of the Uppsala Swimming Society and I wondered whether you had a copy of that document or could you point me to where I might be able to view this history? (I’m based in Waltham, MA if that helps!) 

Many thanks for any assistance you can provide!
Elaine

Well, of course there was a story and connection
and
surprise someone besides myself was interested.

Eric Helsten was born in Uppsala in 1822 and in Uppsala there was a swim society, Upsala Simaällskap, that was started in 1796 by the mathematician and astronomer, Jöns Svanberg. The goal was to teach swimming and water safety to the children in the local rivers until they built a swimming pool in 1841.  Eric grew up learning how to swim and 13-year-old Eric even won a wreath for his achievements in the annual competitions in 1835.

Eric must have been proud of this achievement, because when he came to the US in 1845, this laurel wreath traveled with him.  It was in his belongings after he died in 1903.  His granddaughter Marion Evans Dakin gave it to me years later, when I was on a swim team  throughout high school.

Eric was one of 13 children.  One of his younger brothers, Knut, was the "studious, intelligent" one of all the children.  Knut became a well-known and beloved educator in Uppsala.  Eric's father died leaving this large family for his wife to raise, the youngest was only a few months old when their father died.  So, it was a stretch for the family to keep sending Knut to school, and Eric was mailing money home from Gaylordsville, Connecticut to help the family in Uppsala.  Knut was the author of the history of the Uppsala Swimming Society for their 90th birthday celebration -- this booklet in Swedish is the information Elaine, my correspondent, hoped I had to share.

Elaine had a friend who read the booklet in Swedish and summarized it in English for her.
The Swedes weren't swimmers before seeing Russian prisoners who could swim, mostly "dog paddle."  The Swedish Swim society emphasized both front and back swimming, with and without clothes on, carrying someone, treading water, moving a stone under water, and more.  Much of this sounds like things I needed to learn for both my own safety in the water and maybe saving someone else-- however, I was only picking up something small on the pool bottom rather than moving a stone.

At the Society's 90th year celebration in 1886, there were honored guests, including Eric, who were given certificates.  Here is Eric's, but we have no evidence he actually made it to Uppsala for the celebration.





































Four years after learning to swim in 1835, there was the pressing need to help support his family--his father died in 1839 leaving 13 children, the youngest was 7 months old.  Each of the older children worked in different jobs.  Eric as the oldest boy was apprenticed to be a tanner, just as his father and grandfather before him.  By 1844, Eric was a Journeyman tanner, traveling around the country for a year looking for work.  Then in 1845, he immigrated to Havilland Hollow, New York and went to work as a tanner.  He saved his pennies, and in 1849 he married and then, in 1852 he and his wife Mary Hearty moved to Gaylordsville, Connecticut where he had his own tannery.

Eric's tannery was on the Wimisink Brook, very near the Housatonic River.
Working hard over the years to maintain his businesses, Eric didn't forget what he learned in Sweden.  Sixty years later, Eric saved a man from drowning on 22 September 1895 and then wrote a pamphlet about how to do it.
I have not found a copy of the pamphlet.  I do have the copyright




































and a letter about how to copyright and advertise and sell:





































He did follow  D W Beach's advice and even got letterhead made:












And this brings us back to the Uppsala Swim Society and Elaine K. Howley's article.  She took the time to research the society and her article is in the September/October issue of SWIMMER magazine.
















Right at the top of the article is Eric's ad that was run in newspapers across the country advertising the directions on how to save a man from drowning!

Isn't that part of what Eric learned in his swimming lessons back in 1835!


The link to this blog post is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-gaylordsville-tanner-and-the.html
©Erica Dakin Voolich, 2016.



Friday, August 12, 2016

60 Acres More or Less



Growing up, I remember my father telling the story of his Aunt Clarice buying land.  Clarice Theodora Evans (1884-1953) was a professional woman in the first half of the 1900s.  Clarice taught industrial arts when it was a new area of study in various schools around the US, advocated child-centered education, traveled to England to teach and to research for Darlington Hall, and spent her final years teaching at Jersey State Teachers College in New Jersey.


Clarice never married. Her sister Marion Evans Dakin was a widow who was raising a son, Ted.  Both were professional women, but neither woman had any extra funds -- they did not come from a wealthy family.  So purchasing land would be a luxury for Clarice.  Some land became available near the woods where their father had built a shack in Sherman, Connecticut.  Clarice wanted to purchase the land, but it was too expensive.  So, Clarice suggested to her friend Amy Herrick, that maybe they could buy the land together.  Amy had some money and she agreed. They would purchase the land together.

My father's story of the purchase:
The land was 60 acres and the farmer wanted three times what Clarice could afford. Clarice and Amy wanted the land surveyed before they bought it, but the farmer said, "It's 60 acres more or less, period."    The two women paid the going price per acre, Amy paying 2/3 and Clarice 1/3.  When they had the land surveyed to divide it afterwards, Clarice's share was 60 acres!

The story sounds a bit apocryphal, but I used to tell it in my middle school math class when we would study measurements --  an example of needing to have a sense of the size of measurements that you use each day.  In this case, the farmer would probably have some sense of what an acre actually was -- not what I would expect my students to know, but the farmer should.  Then we'd do an activity estimating the number of inches, centimeters, feet etc. something was before measuring. Then I'd end with "handy approximate" measures for the inch, and some estimating activities, for example.

Time to investigate the story:
1. Did Amy and Clarice purchase 60 acres of land in Sherman? 
2. Did they have it surveyed dividing it into 2/3 and 1/3?
3. Did Clarice end up with 60 acre of land as her 1/3?

This is a piece of a more complicated land record search in Sherman that I'm trying to sort out.
Here is the "truth" of the story about Clarice and Amy.

Amy and Clarice made two purchases of land in the northern portion  of Sherman, Connecticut on Ten Mile Hill on 13 December 1938, each with an undivided interest of 1/3 to Clarice and 2/3 to Amy.   One piece of property was for 10 acres, more or less, of woodland from Roland Mygatt [see Sherman Land Records, volume 16, pages 310-311].   The other piece was from Helen H Mygatt for 60 acres, more or less [see Sherman Land Records, volume 15, page 161].
Amy and Clarice purchased 10 + 60 acres on 13 December 1938.

1. Did Amy and Clarice purchase 60 acres of land in Sherman? 
Yes.

Amy and Clarice, paid to have the land surveyed and divided, 17 months later.
On 1 June 1940, they signed a portion of the land to Amy and a portion of the land to Clarice.

Clarice Evans Quit-Claimed three pieces of property to Amy Herrick, one was 5 1/2 acres, one was 10 and one was 10 acres, a total of 75 1/2 acres [see Sherman Land Records, volume 16, pages 340-341].

Also, on 1 June 1940, 1 Amy Herrick Quit-Claimed three pieces of property to Clarice Evans, total 55 acres [volume 16, pages 341-342].

Amy got 75 1/2 acres, Clarice got 55 acres.  This doesn't sound like 2/3 and 1/3.
They did own the property together as undivided 2/3 and 1/3 each.

Looking closely at the deeds on 1 June 1940.

The land had been surveyed and divided, giving Amy all of the 10 acre piece piece purchased from Roland Mygatt -- a totally separate piece of land sold, none of which went to Clarice.  Possibly this piece of land had a higher value.

The piece of land sold by Helen Mygatt, had been surveyed and divided into three pieces, one was a 6 acre plot which Amy got.

The rest of the "60 acres" purchased from Helen Mygatt, was divided into two convoluted pieces: a west portion (55 acres) and and an east portion (60 acres).

So the "60 acres, more or less" piece was actually 60 + 55 +10 acres when a survey was done.
Clarice received the west portion.

So, back to our questions....
2. Did they have it surveyed dividing it into 2/3 and 1/3?
Well, when they owned it together, it was as an "undivided" 2/3 and 1/3.  They had it surveyed.  They probably divided it into the real estate value of 2/3 and 1/3. Not explicitly stated, since no values were given in any of the original or later transactions].

3. Did Clarice end up with 60 acre of land as her 1/3?
Close to it!  She ended up with 55 acres of land bordering on the land her father bought and built a shack on in the 1920s.

I had always assumed from my father's telling of the story:
They bought "60 acres more or less, 2/3 to Amy and 1/3 to Clarice," with Clarice getting 60 acres  would have meant that Amy got 120 acres -- not exactly the the case, but not too far from the truth, I suspect if you look at land values.




So, did Clarice enjoy her new position of land owner?
Actually, Clarice was very generous.  Not long after her purchase, she filed two Quit-Claim Deeds -- giving her sister Marion Evans Dakin a 1/3 undivided interest and her nephew, Theodore Robert Dakin a 1/3 undivided interest.   [see Sherman Land Records, volume 17, pages 519-520.]

Where is the land located?
It is actually hard to find the exact location on Ten Mile Hill by the deed descriptions because names of adjacent land owners might have been long dead and the land is not a simple rectangular shape like suburban lots. ["BEGINNING at the stonewall fence intersection marking the Northeast corner of the six acres field which is bounded on .. thence Westerly along said Northerly boundary about 375 feet to land of Marion Evans Dakin; thence Northerly along land of said Dakin and land of Emery Thorp about 1520 feet to the Northeasterly corner of land of said Thorp; thence Westerly along land of said Thorp about 600 feet to the land of Robert Hungerford; thence Northerly along land of said Hungerford about 1220 feet to the Northeasterly corner thereof; then Westerly..."]

There was a statement in the deed giving Clarice her land that a photo [Fairchild Aerial Survey] was filed with the land outlined in red ink and filed with the land records.  Unfortunately, that photo doesn't exist there now.

The Town Clerk did find a map showing the land on a map for a nearby property -- Herman Mosenthal's land (actually the land originally owned by Jonathan and Ruth Evans when they first came to Sherman in 1801)


and here is a close up of the map:














Now, Clarice, Marion and Ted are land owners!


©2016, Erica Dakin Voolich
The link to this post is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2016/08/60-acres-more-or-less.html



Sunday, June 19, 2016

Honoring Some Fathers in the Family

In honor of father's day....

My father with his father:
Theodore Robert Dakin (Teddy) with Robert Edward Dakin (Rob)
[Ted: 11 November 1916, New Haven, CT - 20 November 1972, Berwyn, IL]
[Rob: 2 July 1888, Gaylordsville, CT - 15 December 1918, Danbury, CT]

















Rob at age 30 died in 1918, when Teddy was 2.
Rob died in the Flu Pandemic the same week as his infant son Edward Evans Dakin and his mother-in-law Caroline Matilda Holstein Evans (Carrie) also died.  Carrie's husband (Charles H Evans) moved in with Rob's wife, Marion Evans Dakin to act as "baby tender" when she went to school at the U of Chicago for a term to get more training leading to her becoming the first Extension Nutritionist for the State of Connecticut three years later.

Charles Harold Evans with Teddy in Chicago.
[Charles: 23 May 1853, Sherman, CT - 18 February 1928, Savannah, GA]


















Other fathers in the family:

Edward Dakin (Teddy's other Grandfather)
[3 October 1836, Hudson, NY - 6 July 1914, Gaylordsville, CT]







Charles Evans (Teddy's Great Grandfather)
[2 August 1820, Sherman, CT - 4 December 1903, Great Barrington, MA]







































Eric Helsten (Teddy's Great Grandfather)
[27 February 1822, Uppsala, Sweden - 4 January 1903, Gaylordsville, CT]


Beers Radford (Teddy's Great Great Grandfather)
[13 April 1784 Waterbury, CT - 15 February 1876 Middlebury, CT]























Ted had many other generations of fathers, but these are the only photographs that were left to me for our viewing pleasure!


Happy Fathers' Day, 2016!

The link to this page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2016/06/honoring-some-fathers-in-family.html
©2016, Erica Dakin Voolich


Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Creative Sandwich Suggestions During WW2 Rationing

Marion Evans Dakin was the first Extension Nutritionist for the State of Connecticut beginning in 1921.  Her job involved traveling around Connecticut giving presentations on food preparation and nutrition and also writing bulletins -- LOTS of bulletins!

Over the twenty-five years while she was teaching the new ideas in nutrition and food preparation to the families of Connecticut, the events of the world continued unabated.  The Great Depression (29 October 1929 - 1939), and then World War 2 (1 Sept 1939 - 1945), changed everyone's focus from just preparing good healthy meals for one's family, to also managing to feed a family economically, and then once the war began, working around rationed items.

Just imagine if there were shortages of these items in your life today:
Tires
Cars
Bicycles
Gasoline
Fuel Oil & Kerosene
Solid Fuels
Stoves
Rubber Footwear
Shoes
Sugar
Coffee
Processed Foods
Meats, canned fish
Cheese, canned milk, fats
Typewriters

The War brought employment, but unfortunately with the new employment came a lack of goods families would want to purchase after the decade of lean years.  The rationing began in January of 1942 with tires, followed by cars in February, typewriters in March, gas and sugar in May, bicycles in July, rubber footwear, fuel oil & kerosene in October, and coffee in November.  That was just 1942.  Then in 1943:  shoes in February, processed foods, meats, canned fish, cheese, canned milk and fats in March, and solid fuels in September.

Many of these are what we would now think of as life's necessities!  If you couldn't have a car, well, use a bike -- well, I guess no bike either!  My mother talked of using "Shank's Mare" (her feet to get around) and I'm sure that is how she got to work when pregnant with me during the war when they didn't own a car.   Oh, and what you consider basic foods to prepare a meal were severely limited.  You needed to be creative.

Marion's job involved finding ways to help people feed their families, and so there were numerous bulletins in addition to her talks which would take into account various shortages and alternatives while including foods from the "Basic 7" food groups.  Most bulletins would discuss an topic and include many recipes; or might encourage planting by season and how to use what was being harvested then and,of course, have recipes.  Some issues were devoted to individual minerals or vitamins.  This September 1944 issue was different in format -- it was written "outline-style" and included much more information and hinted at preparation rather than including the details.

The September 1944 bulletin was devoted to packing lunches -- these weren't lunches for children in school, these were for the workers working the various shifts.  She starts with listing the "Basic 7" and then talks about planning for what type of person needs the meal "very active" or "moderately active" or "not so active," listing how much of each food to pack for each person.


Next Marion listed the hours of the shifts:
6 a.m. - 2 p.m.: eat a good breakfast first or add extra sandwich for 8 or 9 a.m.
2 p.m. - 10 p.m.:  noon meal is the hearty family meal for this worker
10 p.m. - 6 a.m.: lunch at 2 a.m. should be substantial, nourishing and appetizing -- worker's living habits have been turned upside down.
She goes into details of goals for the meal (nourishing, good tasting, carries well, helps morale) and then how to prepare and pack before encouraging variety in lunches with suggestions.  Then Marion has a section on Food Shortages!
IV. FOOD SHORTAGES
     Meat - make wise use of points. Variety meats 
            high in food value.
     Cheese - use cottage and soft cheese.
     Butter - use fortified  margarine, extenders.
     Unrationed  hearty fillings - peanut butter, eggs,
           poultry.



















Marion includes the "Do's" and "Don'ts" from a Westinghouse survey of workers for packing lunches -- some would apply today.  That is followed by sandwich fillings.  Remember that sugar, cheese, meat and processed foods are all rationed, but peanut butter isn't.

Here are the peanut butter suggestions (something for you to try instead of PB&J):
*These fillings may be made ahead of time and kept in the 
refrigerator.
Peanut Butter
1. *Chili Sauce: 1 c. peanut butter, 1/3 c. chili sauce.
2. Bacon: 1/2 c. peanut butter, 4 strips cooked bacon,
     chopped, 2 tb. salad dressing.
3. Celery: 1/2c. peanut butter, 1/3c. celery diced,
     4 tb. salad dressing.
4. *Ham: 1/3 c. peanut butter, 1/2 c. ham paste.
5. *Honey yeast:  1/2 c. peanut butter, 1/4 c. honey,
     1 cake compressed yeast.
6. *Jelly: 1/3 c. peanut butter, 1/4 c. tart jelly. Mix.
7. Carrot: 1/2 c. peanut butter, 1/3 c. grated carrots,
     3 tbs. salad dressing.
8. Onion: 1 c. peanut butter, 1 small Spanish onion,
     1/2 c. mayonaise.



















Cheese was rationed, but it seems that cottage or cream cheese or American cheese wasn't, so Marion had suggestions there too.
Cottage or Cream Cheese
1. Bacon: 1 cream cheese, 1/4 c. diced cooked
     bacon, 1 tsp. pickle or sauce, 1 tb. milk
2. *Peanut: 1 c. cheese, 1 c. finely chopped
     peanuts, 1 tbs. salad dressing, 1/2 tsp.
     salt.
3. Combination: 1/2 c cheese, 1/2 c. raisins,
     1/2 c. grated raw carrots, 1 tb. salad
    dressing.
4.  *Chipped beef: 2/3 c. cheese, 1/3 c. ground
     chipped beef, salad dressing to moisten.
5. *Olive:  3/4 c. cheese, 3 tb. chopped stuffed 
     olives, 1/4 tsp. salt.
6. *Egg: 1/2 c. cheese, 2 hard cooked eggs chop-
     ped, 2 tb. chopped pickle, 2 tb. salad dressing.
7. Spicy: Cheese salted and mixed with any of the
     following: Chow chow, chili sauce, chopped
     dill pickle, green pepper, celery, onion, 
     parsley, carrots.
8. Onion: 1 c. cheese, 1/4 c. chopped Bermuda
     onion, 1/4 c. salad dressing.

American Cheese
1. *One-half lb. cheese, 1/2 c. canned tomato,
     1/4 c. butter or margarine, 1/4 lb. dried
     beef, flaked.  Melt cheese in double boiler,
     add tomato gradually, stir constantly.  Add
     other ingredients.  Blend well.
2. *One-half lb. cheese, 3 hard-cooked eggs,
     1 small onion, 1 pimiento, salt.  Put 
     through food chopper and then mix.  Add
     salad dressing to slightly moisten.

She then includes recipes for hard-cooked eggs, scrambled eggs and chicken which sound like something someone might suggest today.  There were two chicken recipes I might not have thought of for a sandwich filling:
2. *Peanut:  1 c. chicken, 1 c. peanuts chopped.
    Salad dressing to moisten.
3. *Giblets:   Giblets from 1 chicken (cooked and
    chopped), 1 hard cooked egg chopped, 1 tb.
    top milk, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. Works-
    tershire sauce, 1 tsp. catsup.

Apparently, variety meats were not rationed, so she included recipe suggestions here.  Remember Marion's earlier statement about food shortages:  Meat - make wise use of points. Variety meats high in food value.
Theses points are your rationing stamps that allow you to purchase different kinds of foods -- if they are available.

Variety Meats
1. Liver and bacon: 1/2 c. chopped cooked bacon,
     1/4 c. top milk, 1/2 c. cooked mashed 
     liver, salt and pepper.
2. *Liver: 2/3 lb. liver, cooked and chopped, 
     1 onion minced, 1 tb. fat, 2 hard cooked
     eggs, chopped, 1/3 c. top milk, salt.
     Brown onion lightly in butter.  Combine
     all ingredients and mix well.  Store in
     covered can in refrigerator.
3. *Liver Sausage:  Chop liverwurst and season
     with mustard.
4. Tongue:  Ground tongue and horseradish.
5. *Liver Sausage: 3/4 lb. sausage, 1/3 c.
     chopped sweet pickle, mayonnaise.



















Marion even suggests you can mash baked beans and add a variety of ingredients to them. Marion includes fish sandwich fillings and meat, but not the slices of various meats you might think of today -- no sliced roast beef or chicken or turkey sandwiches listed here.  If you have some meat, chop and mix with seasonings or make meat loaves [which actually extends the quantity of food].
Marion suggests including "meat" in the lunch, not just in a sandwich:  chicken drumstick, stuffed egg, pickled egg, piece of cheese, slice of meatloaf, meat turnover or meat stew in a thermos bottle.

All of the sandwiches on the preceding pages are what she would have called "substantial sandwich" on page 1, where she recommended the number of substantial sandwiches and succulent sandwiches based on the activity level of the worker.  For example a very active worker would need 2 or more substantial sandwiches and one succulent sandwich.

SUCCULENT SANDWICHES
Combination - moisten with salad dressing in most cases.
1. Chopped cabbage and shredded carrots.
2.        "           "          "  diced apples.
3.        "           "          "  chopped peanuts.
4.        "           "           " green pepper or pimiento.
5. Chopped celery and green pepper.
6.        "           "      "  diced tomato.
7. Sliced tomato and chopped egg.
8.        "          "     "   lettuce.
9.        "          "      "  cottage cheese.

SWEET SANDWICHES
1. Raisins with shredded carrot.
2. *Raisins and chopped nuts.
3. Slices of comb honey or a honey spread.
4. Jelly, jam or marmalade.
5. Grated carrot and honey.

Marion's suggestions of simple desserts sound like things that would be in today's lunch box: cookies, gingerbread, or tarts.  She also suggests various puddings, custards or gelatin -- except these aren't prepackaged, they are in those small jars (with tight fitting lids) she suggested saving back on page 3.



















She finishes with a list of menus using the sandwich fillings for sandwiches with whole wheat, rye or enriched bread.





















If you had to feed your family and the types of food which you were used to serving weren't available because first priority was the troops fighting WW2, you needed information and Google wasn't even imagined (nor were the founders even born), nor were personal computers thought about.  The State Extension Service provided a very needed role in both peacetime and war time.

All of these suggestions for Lunches were part of the regular Bulletins provided by the University of Connecticut Extension Service in Storrs, Connecticut.  In 1942, the State of Connecticut set up a State Nutrition Committee, with Marion E Dakin as the general chairman and ex-officio member of each of the promotional committees with local nutritionists taking a more active role.

This bulletin, PACKED LUNCH,  had a date of 9/18/44 at the end.  The bulletin HERBS FOR ACCENT AND FLAVOR was dated 9/13/44, just 5 days before.  Marion was a busy person, playing an important role for the families of Connecticut.

The bulletins I've found in her home after she died in 1974, might not be all that she wrote.


© Erica Dakin Voolich, 2016
The link to this post is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2016/05/creative-sandwich-suggestions-during.html