'Nuts Up in the Attic, Apples in the Cellar' – Sarah's Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was the favorite of all holidays in Sarah Eva Howe's family. She mentions Thanksgiving frequently in her scrapbooks. While I have not found photos or illustrations of Thanksgiving as it was in Sarah's childhood years (1880s - 1890s), I did find a later magazine clipping she saved. On the same page, she wrote these reflections:

"As afore-mentioned, meals were bountiful. We had a "hanging lamp" over our table and one (with prisms) in our parlor at the house next to the church. A characteristic touch of this picture is the Grandma. There was one in almost every home. It was expected and gave the home dignity. Or else there were one or more maiden aunts or dependent cousins. Very few men there were who did not generally very cheerfully and graciously assume the support of either mother or mother-in-law (after fifty) or a brother's orphan children or an unmarried sister, and these certainly paid their way, too, in work."

The image depicts a family in the 1930s or 1940s, but it must have reminded Sarah of the atmosphere in her childhood home and in the homes of friends and neighbors.

The real Thanksgiving-related treasure from her scrapbooks is this poem she wrote in 1895, when she was 12 years old. Images of the original writing, faded but still legible, follow the transcription.

Thanksgiving
Dedicated to my schoolmates of 1895-96

A turkey strutting in the yard,
Nuts up in the attic,
Apples in the cellar, too,
It makes me quite ecstatic!

Cranberries in market seen,
Pumpkins grown so big!
Chickens fattening in the coop,
In the sty, a pig.

These are real November days,
Wintry winds are blowing.
Skies are covered o’er with clouds,
Surely ’twill be snowing!

What do all the things so nice
And the skies of gray
Make us think of?
Do you know?
Why, Thanksgiving Day!

Oh the table! What a sight!
In the dainty dishes
Resting on the snowy cloth
Is what each one wishes.

On the platter nests the turkey,
Such a jolly fellow!
‘Mid pork and cheese and chicken fine,
And pies of golden yellow.

See! The snow is on the ground.
Fires are burning brightly,
And around the table fair
Hearts beat very lightly

Now in the parlor see us crowd,
Merry games a-playing,
Till we all are quite tired out,
Then there comes the sleighing!

Flying o’er the snowy ground
With all the sleigh bells ringing
While the air is blowing keen
And we all are singing.

Now, we, about the fire at night
Tell many a story gay,
Till – well, we just must say good-night,
Thus ends our happy day.

You all may talk of glad New Year,
Or any day a-living;
But of all the gladsome crowd
Give to me Thanksgiving!

On this Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful to you and others who read my blog and share your thoughts about Sarah Eva Howe's scrapbooks and the history they hold. I join Sarah in wishing you and yours a meaningful Thanksgiving Day.

The Son Who Moved Away: Beverly Winslow Howe

The post dated Oct. 23, 2016, introduced Sarah Eva Howe's uncle William F. Howe and his family – including Louisiana "Aunt Lou" Winslow Howe and six children, Sarah's first cousins. Today we get better acquainted with one of those cousins – the only one of the six to move more than 100 miles away from the Howe homes and businesses in Carrollton, Kentucky.

First, some background: The practice of law was a family tradition for the Howes and Winslows of Carrollton, Kentucky. While the first Howes arrived in that town in 1859 and became successful entrepreneurs in textiles, tailoring, retail, and banking, the Winslows – who had been there since 1800 – tended to gravitate to careers in the law. After Lou Winslow married William Ficklin Howe in 1873, the "merger" shows up in the career choices of their own children and the children of their siblings. Some Howes went into law; some Winslows became bankers or businessmen. As a consequence, the Winslow law firm became the firm of Winslow & Howe in the early 1900s.

Beverly Winslow Howe, circa 1906¹

One attorney who got his start at the family firm was Beverly Winslow Howe, grandson of the immigrant John Howe. His first and middle names are from his mother's side – his grandfather and an uncle, both named William Beverly Winslow.

(Beverly was a name for boys in the late 19th century and shifted to girls in 1904 after publication of a novel Beverly of Graustark, in which the title character was a woman. It's rare to find a man named Beverly today.)

Beverly Winslow Howe was born 18 November 1885 in Carrollton, Kentucky, the fifth child of William F. and Lou Winslow Howe. Sarah mentions him in the early scrapbooks, and his name is included in some of her newspaper clippings and school event programs. Because Sarah was not only a cousin but best friend to Beverly's sister Jenne, Sarah saw Beverly often. Still, I found little in the scrapbooks to fill in a life story for him. For that I turned to the Internet.

In Volume 22 of The Michigan Alumnus (accessed in Google Books) I learned that Beverly earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee in 1906 and lived in Nashville for a brief time to teach in a prep school for boys and work in the Vanderbilt University law school. Two years later he was admitted to the bar in Tennessee and in Kentucky and was practicing law with his uncle George B. Winslow and his brother John J. Howe in the firm of Winslow & Howe in Carrollton. In 1910 he moved to Chicago to work as a law clerk for Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad Company and the Belt Railway Company. He is listed in the Class of 1910 in the University of Michigan's law school.  

Carroll County, a book by Phyllis Codling McLaughlin, refers on Page 56 to Beverly's service in World War I. According to Volume 47 of The Michigan Alumnus, Page 58, Beverly did "secret service work," but I don't know if that refers to his work during his military service.

Beverly married Ruth Joyce Goessele of Chicago in 1916. They had two daughters: Louise Winslow Howe (1919-1988) and Isabelle Hall Howe  (c1918-?). I'm intrigued by the bride's surname. Beverly's uncle Joseph Brown Howe married Sallie Goslee in 1889 in Carrollton. Based on frequent mentions in Sarah's scrapbooks, I think the Howe and Goslee families were close friends. Could the surname Goslee be an Americanization or variant spelling of the surname Goessele?

Brochure promoting speaker Beverly W. Howe ⁴

Beverly W. Howe was a prominent corporate and trial attorney in Chicago. When he filled out his WWI draft registration card in 1917, he listed his employer as the Miller & Howe law firm. He was also an expert on Abraham Lincoln and was known throughout the midwest for his writings and speeches about the 16th president. A promotional brochure refers to him as a "Distinguished Chicago Attorney, Humorist, A Bearer of Good Cheer."  Some of his most in-demand speeches are published and available online or in libraries:

• "Two Hours and Two Minutes – or Lincoln and Everett at Gettysburg" (1937) – available for download at https://archive.org/details/twohourstwominut00howe
• "Lincoln – Our Magnanimous Fellowman" (1934) – Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana²
• "Abraham Lincoln in Great Britain" (1936) – Shelby County (Kentucky) Public Library and others listed on WorldCat.org.³

Beverly may have traveled to England to do research for that Great Britain speech. He took his wife and daughters to England later. A passenger list shows they boarded the Queen Mary in Southampton on Aug. 30, 1939, and arrived in New York on Sept. 4 of that year.

A portion of a page from the database New York, New York Passengers and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957; Vol. 13759-13761, Sep 4, 1939; accessed on FamilySearch.com 14 Nov 2016

Unfortunately, Beverly died just two years later at 55 years of age. From his obituary, published in the Chicago Daily Tribune on May 2, 1941, we know that he continued the Howe family traditions of membership in a Methodist church and leadership roles in fraternal, professional, and civic organizations.

Services for Beverly W. Howe, Chicago attorney for 30 years and author of several books on the life of Lincoln, will be held at 2:30 p.m. today in the Epworth Methodist church, 5253 Kenmore avenue. Mr. Howe died Wednesday in his home at 5953 Kenmore avenue. He was 55 years old. He was a past president of the Executives' club and of Kappa Sigma, national collegiate fraternity. Mr. Howe was a member of the Chicago, Illinois and American Bar associations and the University club and was trustee of Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tenn. He leaves his widow, Ruth, and two daughters, Isabelle, and Mrs. Lloyd Norton Cutler.

Mrs. Cutler was Beverly's daughter Louise Winslow Howe. His daughter Isabelle Hall Howe married John Lawrence Cummings just a few months after her father died.

Ruth Joyce Goessele Howe lived 38 years after the death of her husband. The Chicago Tribune printed her obituary on January 19, 1979:

Services for Mrs. Ruth G. Howe, 86, of 1620 (1820?) Grove St., Evanston, will be at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the chapel at 1567 Maple Av., Evanston. Mrs. Howe, widow of Beverly W. Howe, a Chicago attorney, died Wednesday in Evanston Hospital. She was a past national officer of Kappa Delta sorority. Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Isabelle H Cummings and Mrs. Louise W. Cutler; a brother; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

ENDNOTES
¹Photo from the Ben Collett collection; published here with permission of Phyllis Codling McLaughlin, author of Images of America: Carroll County, published 2012 by Arcadia Publishing 
² Papers M-3573 and M-3574, Box 26, James Wills Bollinger Papers, Special Collections Department, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa
³ Lincoln in Great Britain is included in Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series 1940-1943, Part 1, Page 358 (accessed on Google Books)
⁴ Image  and quote courtesy Redpath Chautauqua Collection, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa; http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/ref/collection/tc/id/43115 

The Lost Is Found! The Story of Carrollton Schools Continues

On October 27, 2016, I posted a newspaper article about the history of Carrollton (Kentucky) High School. Later, on a loose page from Sarah's scrapbooks, I found this continuation of that article.

While the first part of the newspaper article is mainly about the 1880s and '90s (which is when our scrapbooker Sarah Eva Howe attended school in Carrollton), this part moves into the early 1900s. Included are the names of teachers and administrators at all grade levels in the schools. 

I've transcribed the names for the sake of those doing online searches for their ancestors.


1911-1912

• G. H. Wells, superintendent

• C. F. Dunn, principal

• Mae C. Wetherill, instructor

• Carrie B. Moreland, 8th grade

• Cora M. Banta, 7th grade

• Mrs. E. J. Seppenfield, 6th grade

• Josephine Larafelet (?), 4th grade

• Ruth Salyers, 3rd grade

• Charlotte Roberts, 2nd grade

• Ethel M. Mellican, 1st grade

1913-1914

• W. F. O'Donnell, superintendent

• J. H. Way, principal

• Mae C. Wetherill, instructor

• Emma Julia Kipping, 8th grade

• Nannie Lavelle, 7th grade

• Mrs. E. J. Seppenfield, 6th grade

• Anna Shepherd, 5th grade

• Ruth Salyers, 4th grade

• Cora M. Banta, 3rd grade

• Dorothy Adkinson, 2nd grade

• Clara Logeman, 1st grade

• Maude Johnson, 1st grade

 
1915-1916
W. F. O'Donnel, superintendent
J. H. Way, principal
Mae C. Wetherill, English and History

Teachers listed were the same as in 1913-1914 except Mariam Tompkins replaced Emma Julia Kipping. 

1917-1918 
Marion C. Beecher and Lillie Mae Powers are added to the list, and  Mae C. Wetherill, Emma Julia Kipping, and Dorothy Adkinson are not included.

If you want to know more about Carrollton, Kentucky, schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these blog posts may be of interest:
Schoolhouse Revolution of 1896-1896
Carrollton Seminary Roster, 1896
Sarah's Bovine Encounter

Bits & Pieces: Who Are These People? A Few Mystery Photos from Sarah's Scrapbooks

Our scrapbooker Sarah Eva Howe saved many photos in her scrapbooks. Unfortunately, she didn't label all of them.

Because of their placement in one of the earliest scrapbooks, I think these people are either members or friends of Sarah's Cost ancestors, who lived in Cincinnati. I can't know for sure, but maybe someone out there can identify them.

"Tallie Ebbie"

 

Jones? Or Ames? He may or may not be a Methodist minister.

A Sweet Little Girl

 Mystery Woman #1

Mystery Woman #2

 
Two men posing in the same style as Sarah's father, Robert James Howe. The post dated August 11, 2016, speculates on the location and situation.


 

 Four young women, all dressed in white. Debutantes ready for their cotillion? Sisters? Cousins?

Last but not least, another image of women. This time we have names. Isabel Somerset is on the left. Frances E. Willard is on the right. Both were strong national leaders in the temperance movement during the 1880s and '90s. The Howes were strong leaders of the movement at the local and state levels and attended conventions supporting the movement. They may have met these women there, or maybe the photo was distributed or purchased at a convention.

The name of the woman in the center is not so easy to decipher. Martha Bensley Bruere was a temperance leader, but I can't match that last name with the handwriting.

Thoughts?

Wonderful Old Pictures from The Salyers Side

Photos from old family albums can be gold. Here's a prime example from Sarah Eva Howe's scrapbooks. Thanks to someone who long ago wrote

names at the bottom of this charming image, we know the boy on the left is Bob Salyers (1880-1897). On the right is Bob's big brother Will Salyers (1878-1944), who would grow up to be Sarah's husband. Both were sons of Charles David Salyers and Katherine King Salyers of Carrollton, Carroll County, Kentucky. Other family photos confirm this.

I believe the little girl is Ida Ruth Salyers, a first cousin to the boys, daughter of their uncle William Levi Salyers (1860-1922) and Susie Giltner Salyers. 

The next image came to me from Bill Davis of Carrollton. He reports that his brother lives in this house on Highland Avenue, next to the funeral home. The house was once home to  Charles D. Salyers. What a treat to have this image.

When Church and Family History Collide – Part 2

Readers of the Carrollton Democrat back in late 1920s were so taken with Lou Winslow Howe's article about the history of Carrollton (Kentucky) Methodist Church that they prevailed on her to write another. This second article, recalling the living arrangements of the church's pastors, was even longer than the first!

Here is my transcription of the clipping Sarah Eva Howe pasted into a scrapbook. Again we see many Carrollton names and details about their homes and affiliations.

Like so many other clippings in the scrapbooks, this one was not dated. Lou Winslow Howe's reference to G.D. Prentiss as the current pastor puts the date of the article circa 1926.


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CARROLLTON METHODIST CHURCH
BY L.W. (MRS. W.F.) HOWE

The former article, which was published in a recent issue, under the above caption, has elicited from friendly critics so many expressions of appreciation and commendation that I have been persuaded to cull from memory’s storehouse some well-authenticated facts in regard to the dwelling places of the preachers who, in early times, were dependent on the hospitality of those of the membership who chose to invite them into their homes.

In this they complied with the Scriptural injunction which Christ urged on His disciples: “into whatsoever house ye enter ... remain eating and drinking such things as they give; for the laborer is worthy of his hire.”

Such were the conditions in our Carrollton church for many years, until in 1850, the second year of the pastorate of Rev. John B. Ewan, the contract was let to James F. Wyatt, a skilled carpenter, who belonged to one of the pioneer families of Methodism, to build a frame parsonage, facing east, on Seventh street, a short distance north of Seminary.

This building, with some modifications, is now the comfortable home of the Kirby family. When first erected, this residence consisted of a front entrance hall, five rooms, and a long back porch on the west side. At the south end of it was a good-sized kitchen and a pantry adjoining. A coal house and wood shed were added and a small chicken coop, to whose contents the farming members were encouraged to contribute. In the rear was a fertile garden spot from which Brother Ewan supplied his family with almost everything they needed to eat. He was delighted with his surroundings and with great gratification the following September relinquished the parsonage, feeling that he was passing on a great favor to his successor, Rev. James Lawrence.

This brother had come from the interior of the state and had cherished bright anticipations of living near the confluence of the rivers, where, in addition to hearing the boats whistle at night, he could have the pleasure of seeing them pass in the day time, so he left the parsonage vacant in the hands of the trustees and rented for his own use a house which stood down near the point, on the east side of First street, overlooking the wharf.

During the delightful autumn weather he luxuriated in the glorious scenery and the invigorating atmosphere, but when the snows had fallen in December and the Frost King in January had congealed the waters into cakes of floating ice, and later the March winds began to howl, followed by the drenching rains of the Spring equinox, which filled both rivers to overflowing, he found his chosen place of abode, on a high mound, entirely surrounded by water, and realized that he had more than he had bargained for. He then decided that it would have been better if he had satisfied himself with the home that had been provided for him.

The next pastor, Reverend Samuel Adams, and twenty-one of his successors were grateful to shelter their families under its protecting roof, though it frequently needed and received repairs, and quite a number hinted that it was a long distance from the church.

In September 1892, the appointee of the Conference was Dr. Robert Hiner. (Some will be interested to recall that it was his privilege in the following December to dedicate the church at Prestonville, which for the accommodation of about twenty-five of our members, during the summer of that year, under the supervision of Rev. C.J. Nugent, had been erected on a lot donated by Mr. E.H. Smith. For that church and the congregation which worships there we continue to cherish a most neighborly regard and loving interest.)

Shortly after the arrival of Dr. Hiner’s family some of the good sisters of the church who were at the parsonage to assist them in “getting fixed up” discovered that his wife was not feeling well, and insisted on calling in medical attention. According to the diagnosis of the physician, Dr. L.E. Goslee, incipient typhoid fever had been sapping her vitality for at least ten days. In less than a month her spirit was called “up higher” and her mortal remains were interred in the church yard.

Dr. Hiner was then nearing the completion of his threescore and ten. He was not vigorous as in former years, and he became impressed with a decided preference to live nearer the church, so the official board gratified him by renting out the parsonage, and securing for his accommodation, from the heirs of the late Rev. Wm. McD. Abbett, the house in which he had spent his last days and from which his freed spirit had taken its departure. This house, a two-story brick on High street, between Fourth and Fifth, is now owned by Mr. Geo. S. Lee and occupied by himself and family.

Dr. Hiner, whose sermons were uniformly logical, forceful and eloquent, entered upon the fourth year of his pastorate with enthusiasm of spirit but with waning physical vitality, and in March 1896, he suffered an attack of paralysis from which he never fully recovered, although at the Conference in September of that year the Bishop appointed him to serve the Warsaw circuit, which was the last place he attempted to fill.

After that he spent several months in Warsaw with his daughter and grandsons; later he went to Central Kentucky, where he had many friends, but his feebleness became more and more pronounced until, in the spring of 1903, he got aboard a train with a ticket for Carrollton, and arriving here on the formerly well known “Grobmyer bus,” when the driver said “Dr. Hiner, where do you go?” he replied, “Take me just beyond the Methodist church and put me out at Brother Joe Howe’s.” When that gentleman’s wife greeted him at their front door, he said, “Sallie, I’ve come to stay.”

. . . As the summer passed he hoped to recruit sufficiently to attend the Annual Conference, but a kind Heavenly Father decreed otherwise, and just at sun-rise one morning near the middle of September his spirit took its flight to the abode of the blessed, and his body was placed by the side of his wife, in the church yard, which resting place eleven years before had been chosen by himself.

Dr. Hiner’s successor in Carrollton was Rev. Wm. Shoesmith, who moved into the Seventh street parsonage October 1, 1896. Having an agricultural taste and two boys in their teens, he encouraged himself in an eager desire for more land to cultivate, so early in the following spring on his own initiative he vacated the parsonage and rented the farm just beyond the city limits, afterwards purchased and now occupied by Mr. J.W. Harrison.

During Brother Shoesmith’s pastorate a fund was started of individual subscriptions to supplement a donation (for a new parsonage) of $1,000, which had been bequeathed by Sister Mary E. Conn, whose oldest daughter was the wife of Rev. W.T. Rowland. Before the expiration of his term of service Brother Shoesmith accepted a position as traveling agent for the Kentucky Children’s Home Society, and Rev. H.G. Turner was appointed to fill out that year and also to serve the following year. He and his young wife preferred to board, but the parsonage fund was increased from time to time and in 1899 the brick parsonage

Image courtesy nkyviews.com

at 219 Fifth street was completed, and Rev. J.D. Redd was the first preacher to occupy it. The same has been a much appreciated home for our pastors during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

The present occupant, Rev. G.D. Prentiss and wife, keep it in excellent condition and spare no pains to beautify the premises with shrubs and flowers.

Rev. W.T. Rowland, our highly esteemed “pastor emeritus” (local superannuate), for the past thirty years has resided in the Conn homestead, from which, in 1875, he claimed as his bride Miss Mary Ethylene Conn, to assist him in his work as pastor at Danville, Ky.

Other brides who have gone from our midst to itinerate as helpmates to pastors of the Kentucky Conference were Miss Margaret S. Winslow, who was united in marriage with Rev. William McD. Abbett in 1826; Miss Sallie Turpin, who married Rev. E.L. Southgate in 1867; Miss Anna Browinski, who married Rev. J.E. Wright in 1889, and Miss Mary E. Coliver, who married Rev. George Froh in the old church June 27, 1870. The two last named, now on the retired list, are still living together in their own home in Lagrange, and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary six years ago. Though physically frail, they are spiritually alert, relying on the promise of God . . .

. . .  Some time ago it became quite manifest that our auditorium needed to be re-decorated; we also became aware of the fact that our present organist, Mrs. R.M. Barker, an accomplished musician, could learn to handle, with pleasure and satisfaction to herself and the entire congregation, a much larger instrument than the small pipe organ to which we had been listening for the past forty years.

Also we needed more rooms, more conveniently arranged for our now well-graded Sunday school.

Our small hot air furnaces, which sometimes failed to furnish adequate heat, were also worn out.

After several preliminary meetings during the spring months, our pastor, Rev. G.D. Prentiss, who is now serving the fourth year of his quadrennium, called a special session of the church conference and appointed committees to decide what improvements were practicable and how the funds should be raised to defray the inevitable expenses.

*****************************************************************************************************************

Example of windows installed in 1892

Lou Howe then generalizes about the church hiring an architect; remodeling the church; adding several rooms; and installing a new organ, three pianos, a Raymond Vapor Heating System, Battleship Linoleum in the halls and stairways, and a Wilton velvet carpet in “the hallowed places.” She identified as project leaders George B. Winslow and his brother William Beverly Winslow, an attorney living in New York, who in 1892 had managed the replacement of clear glass with stained-glass windows.