Influenza Comes to America and Finds Sarah Eva Howe, 1892

A year wasted. That's how Sarah Eva Howe recalled 1892. In that year, multiple illnesses struck, one after the other, keeping her in bed or inside for months, sometimes with her eyes bandaged shut. We can only imagine the challenge of keeping that gregarious, inquisitive 8-year-old girl quiet long enough to heal.

Sarah wrote the following memoir in the 1940s, remembering that trying time and attributing some of the ailments of her adult years to that barrage of illnesses that plagued her some 50 years before.

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The winter after Christmas [of 1891] was one long series of mishaps, physically. A brand new disease was sweeping the country (new in name if not in action). La Grippe [an old word for influenza] was its French cognomen, and this was its first introduction to America. (“The la grippe,” as many called it.) Mama¹ had a very bad attack of it, and I took it before she recovered and was put in bed with her. Dr. Goslee was run to death, poor man, and a young doctor about 28 named Dr. Holmes, a tall, silent, rather grim, dark young fellow said to be quite a brilliant student and practitioner, had to be his assistant and took over our cases. I think this was in January, and we were in bed at least two or three weeks. 

Illustration by Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944)

With my case, erysipelas set up, my cheek was puffed up in a blister, I was painted with brown ointment (probably fish scale preparation, for it smelled terrible!) and with the grease used around my neck, my hair on end and all, I remember looking in the hand glass and deciding I looked exactly like an Indian. That kept me from school about a month. When I went back about the first of March, I had a queer accident. The family had a dining at Grandma Howe’s² house, down on Main, and I was allowed to come home to eat with them, but (as I had missed so many days) was to my sorrow not allowed to stay from afternoon school. As I hurried out to go, I fell, the day being misty on the damp concrete pavement, and I made a brush burn — with no one knows what germs burned in — on the left side of my face. I went on to school after washing up, and by night it felt like it was afire. 

All might have gone very well, tho, if almost immediately, while my face was still sore, around late March ... I came down with a particularly bad case of the measles! (Very hard cases, that year.) Weakened by first the grippe, and erysipelas, then the infection in my cheek, which was so slow healing, then the measles, something had to give way, so my eyes did. How long I was in the dark room or, if I went out, had a bandage over my eyes, I don’t know — most of April and part of May, I suppose. I remember Jenne³ and the other children bringing me violets and plum blossoms, and smelling them. 

Finally it was decided to take me to Cincinnati to see an eye specialist, Dr. MacDermott. I don’t know how we picked on him, but he was good — and well I can remember getting on

Example of steamboats used for river travel in the 1890s

the boat with my eyes bandaged — I could see just a gleam of the boat lights on the grass at my feet — and being taken away for a stay at Grandma Cost’s⁴ and daily trips to the doctor. It seems there were already two ulcers on the left eye, which when healed left scars that always made me see a little less well with that eye; when many years later I had an ulcer on the right eye, I believe it was because so much work had been put throughout the years on that which I considered my good eye, but which, alas, is now pretty well played out from hard labor while the lame left is the main eye “left” me to see with!

Anyway, there were two scars left on the eyeball at that time. I have told this in more detail than it needed, perhaps, because of the eye trouble I have now, for which this is perhaps the explanation — certainly the start of it. But the loving, constant care given me by Mama, who gave up everything to read to me by the crack of light at one window of my room (we didn’t have "masks" [eyemasks] then!) brought me through, and by summer I could play outdoors again, but wearing, during June, dark glasses, and later pale blue ones. I was allowed, I think, to go back for the last day of school, tho I don’t remember it, and may have been at Cincinnati at the time, as it was about the middle of May.

At the time my eyes were being treated and we spent so much time in Cincinnati again, still a place of joy to me, Aunt Lee,⁵ who was then in high school and studying Mythology (also reading in literature the Tanglewood Tales and Wonder Book ...)⁶ opened the great 

Cover page of first edition (1853)

vista of Greek and Roman Tales to my astonished and enraptured vision. ...  My favorite was Perseus and the Gorgon’s Head. Mama had studied Mythology at school too but had not read the Hawthorne fuller version, so she was interested in the stories I could tell her that Aunt Lee had just recounted to me. She was giving me a bath as I glowingly told her about Perseus and his disappearance from view: "for Mama, he had on the Helmet of Invisibility.” She was so astonished at the fluent use of this new big word she remembers the time vividly. I do wish we had the “old readers — probably priceless early McGuffey’s Mama used to read to me from — given her by the aunts and uncles from early school days. “Meddlesome Matty” was in them — also “Everything in its Right Place," not the Hans Anderson story but the story about the little girl who never put anything away, and the angry fairy who commanded that each part of her should go to the portion of her attire [that was] in the wrong place in the room! So her head went under her plumed hat on the water pitcher, her foot into a shoe under the bed, another into one under a chair; her hands into gloves thrown far and wide . . . her dress being backbreakingly across the foot of the bed, etc. Horrific pictures accompanied this supposed-to-be-lively farce for little minds of 8 year olds.

Much better was the story of "Frisk," the dear little dog whom Harry his master had teased and tormented till his mother made him spend the afternoon in bed, while all the other children were having fun gathering pears. As he lay there, he heard pat, pat coming up the stairs, and there came Frisk, carrying a pear by the stem and leaves! Harry cried and petted him and of course vowed never to worry him again.

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¹ Alice Ada Cost Howe (1859-1939)
² Jane Hopkins Howe, second wife of Sarah's paternal grandfather John Howe (1823-1890)
³ Jenn Winslow Howe (1883-1957), Sarah's first cousin
⁴ Sara Evaline Arnet Cost (1836-1917)
⁵ Ida Lenora Cost (abt 1874-1921); sister of Sarah's mother
⁶ Books for children by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Tanglewood Tales – Another Wonder Book is a sequel to Wonder Book.

Christmas Cards to the Howe Family, circa 1900 - 1935 (Part 3)

Finally! Christmas is almost here. It's a perfect time to look through the last batch of holiday cards received by the Howe-Salyers family of Carrollton, Kentucky, mostly in the 1920s and '30s. At the end of the post are "happy New Year" cards that may be the most charming in the entire collection.

History abounds in these cards and seals. These early Christmas Seals from 1933 remind us that even at Christmas, people were fearful of one disease over all others: tuberculosis. In 1904, the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (now the American Lung Association) began a unified, nationwide fight against the disease. Three years later, in what is thought to be the first direct-mail fundraiser in the U.S., a volunteer named Emily Bissell designed and sold the first Christmas Seals. The successful program continues to this day, 110 years later.

Another reminder of health issues of the day is this image (right), a cartoon of a little girl dressed as a nurse. My research of the image didn't turn up specific information, but I found enough info to develop a theory:
I believe the illustration is by Grace G. Drayton, creator of The Campbell Soup Company's iconic "Campbell Kids" and "Dolly Dingle," who gained popularity in storybooks and as paper dolls, figurines, and toys. The style of the cap seems consistent with caps worn by nurses around the time of World War 1. Then there's the flaming plum pudding, a.k.a. Christmas pudding. Such a British tradition! Could this be a nod to the alliance between the U.S. and England during the war? These are just my musings. Do you have ideas about the image?


Below are some traditional cards that I think date to the 1930s.

(The writing says "For Will and the boys, meaning William Levi Salyers and his sons Bob, Jim, and David.)

The initials at the top right stand for William Levi Salyers and his wife Sarah Howe Salyers. I'm unsure about the reference to "your Scotch cousin – Ruth R." I'll be researching that soon.

Last but not least, a few cards specific to New Year greetings. These were in the same scrapbook with the cards from the 1930s, but (with the one exception dated 1912) I have no information on when they were printed or received. The art on these cards makes me think they date to pre-1920.

So concludes the holiday card posts for this season. To see cards Sarah Eva Howe and her parents received in the 1890s and early 1900s, please view the post dated December 18, 2016.

Best wishes to all for a happy holiday season. May 2018 bring you only good surprises!

Mam-maw and Aunt No-No Write Home from the Sanitorium

In January 1912, our scrapbooker Sarah Eva Howe Salyers was a busy woman. She was caring for her family of five (including husband William Levi "Will" Salyers, 5-year-old Robert King Salyers, and twins James Richard and Mary Alice, who were a few months shy of 2 years old). Apparently, Sarah also was caring for two ailing relatives: her mother Alice Ada Cost Howe and 15-year-old sister Leonora Alice Howe. In the scrapbooks are references to Alice and Leonora having rooms upstairs at the Salyers house. At first I thought they were staying there because they were ill and needed Sarah's care, but various notes in the scrapbooks make me think they lived there with Sarah and her family.

(from left) Mary Alice, Bob, and Jim Salyers, 1911-1912

The children were sad when Daddy and big brother Bob took Alice (called both "Mam-maw" and "Grandma") and Leonora ("Aunt No-No") to the Carrollton depot to board a train bound for Louisville. From letters Sarah pasted or transcribed into her scrapbooks, we learn that the two women went to a sanitorium. References to "Dr. Pope" suggest that they checked in at the Pope Sanitorium, established in 1890 by Dr. Curran Pope on Chestnut Street in downtown Louisville. According to Louisville Encyclopedia by John E. Kleber (University Press of Kentucky, 2001), Page 785, "sanitoriums were popular in those days for treatment of chronic diseases and disorders such as tuberculosis and nervous/mental disorders." I have not yet discovered the ailment that sent them there.

Letters from Alice and Leonora to Sarah in Carrollton, and letters Sarah sent to them in response, offer insights into social customs, medical care, and transportation trials and tribulations of that time. There's also an amusing story or two.

 February 1 (Letter from Leonora to Sarah)
Dear Sister,
It is snowing "like pitchforks" here.  . . . We received your letter just a few minutes ago and were certainly glad to hear from you. I got the letter down at the office in the back of the building. Mr. Thruston Pope is just as fat as ever. [This statement makes me think that the Pope family had Carrollton ties and that the Howe and Salyers families were acquainted with them.] I had a pleasant time on the train coming up except that the train was too warm and I got the headache. When we got here, it still ached so I lay down and slept about two hours. About that time Dr. Pope sent for me. He looks about the same but his hair is a little grayer. Dr. Pope did not keep us so very long. I do not know anything about how long I shall have to stay.

February 1 (Letter from Alice to her daughter Sarah)
"We are rapidly getting acquainted and find the crowed very friendly and agreeable. One lady, Miss Tillie Baer of Owensboro, is one of the lively ones. She knew "Harry" McGinnis and knew "Artee" Griffith . . .  Haven't drunk cocoa but have had milk every meal. Doctor questioned us both closely yesterday, and I took the "mestatic" yesterday but Leonora's headache was so bad, she did not. . . . [I have searched for the term "mestatic" but have not found a meaning or explanation.]

February 2 (Letter from Alice to her daughter Sarah)
Dr. Pope says for us to take a morning walk for 20 minutes before our treatments, so we have just come in from our "braces" which felt very "tonic" as it was colder than I thought. Please send me 1 black silk waist [which I think is a blouse or under-blouse], 1 pr gray kid gloves no. 6, one gingham apron.

February 28 [Letter from Sarah to her sister Leonora]
. . . As for Madge [the Salyers family horse], we can't drive her yet on account of the terrible roads _ the hundreds – I was about to say thousands – of tobacco wagons that are constantly criss-crossing the streets into a hollow checkerboard of mud (if you can take in such a figure). The last time I had her out it was almost impossible for her to drag the

Sarah's transcription of her letter to Leonora. The scrapbooks contain some actual letters but many transcriptions of letters, possibly so the originals could be returned to the people who received them.

surrey through the streets, light as her load was (your humble servant was the sole passenger).  . . . Will said he had a fine time on his visit to you and a mighty good dinner at Doctor Pope's and could see a lot of improvement in "our" two patients. I must tell you the joke –– Bob wanted to go down with his daddy, and I suggested that maybe he could go and stay with you all while Will attended to business, as you did have two beds, and he could sleep with Grandma. Will said, "I wonder if I could stay one night at the Sanatorium, too," and Bob said readily, "Why yes, Daddy, you could sleep with Aunt No-No while I sleep with Grandma!" But his daddy blushed and said he was "afraid Aunt No-no would object!"

Several observations about this excerpt:

• The Salyers family of Carrollton was still using a horse and buggy for transportation in 1912. A previous post reports that only five automobiles were registered in Carrollton in 1910-1911.  
• Sarah's reference to dinner at Dr. Pope's reinforces my thinking that the Salyers family was connected at least socially with that family. 
• Little Bob's innocent suggestion that his daddy sleep with his mother's sister made his daddy blush, which I find endearing. Other scrapbook passages mention that Will stayed at the Seelbach hotel when he traveled to Louisville on business or to visit his mother-in-law and sister-in law. The hotel would have been within a few blocks of the sanitorium at 115 W. Chestnut Street.

March 25 [Letter from Leonora to Sarah]

Leonora Alice Howe without her glasses, circa 1918

By March 25, it appears, Leonora's health has improved. In a letter to Sarah, she speaks of going to
places beyond the sanitorium grounds:
I am going to see Girl of My Dreams [a play] Saturday with Miss June Walker at Macauley's. This morning we went downtown. We went to the New York Store and then to Dr. Ledeman's. . . . I just wanted to see if my glasses were all right. I wish you could see the doctor. He is attractive. He has a keen sense of humor and is fascinating because he is so funny. He is a man of almost thirty years, I suppose. Now you will think I am talking a great deal about him, but I assure you he is perfectly harmless and besides he is Hebrew and is married "already yet."

How typical of a 15-year-old girl to write home about her social engagements and the handsome doctor. Less typical, perhaps, is her frequent request that Sarah send butter:
Do tell me if you find any fresh butter, for you know my weakness for that article. Dr. Pope has good butter, but it is not quite so fresh as I like. I like the fresh country butter.

Sarah's letters from Carrollton reply that she was unable to get fresh butter at an affordable price. Research on why that was so will have to wait for another day.

The pages and papers in this scrapbook are loose and not in consecutive order. A look through the whole book failed to turn up evidence of how long Sarah's mother and sister stayed at Pope Sanitorium. We know they recovered from their ailments, because both lived decades beyond 1912.

Death Casts a Shadow on Sarah's Joy

We pick up the story of Sarah Eva Howe Salyers where we left off, with the birth of her twins Jim and Mary Alice. Sarah and her husband William L. Salyers now had two sons and a daughter in their happy Carrollton, Kentucky home.

It was a joyous time for Sarah, but she had one nagging worry. In the weeks before the twins arrived, her father, Robert James Howe, was not well. He was complaining about stomach upsets and fatigue. As many people did in those days, he had traveled by train to the world-class spas in French Lick, Indiana, hoping that the area's sulfur-spring "miracle waters" would bring relief.

Image from a post card sent home to Carrollton by Robert J. Howe in March 1910.

On April 8, two days before the birth of Sarah's twins, Robert wrote to his wife Alice Ada Cost Howe:

Dear Allie,
Today I have been recovering from the disorder of Friday.  Have been drinking waters hot and cold, walking, chatting, making acquaintances, etc. Visited West Baden again this morning and tried the waters from two of their springs. Mr. John Herrod[?] and Mrs.[?] James Todd of Owenton arrived last night. Took a bath hot sulphur salt glow rub etc. this afternoon. Letter from Bro Will [Rob's brother William F. Howe] rec'd this A.M. I wish you all good health. My love to you. Tell Leonora [Sarah's sister Leonora Alice Howe] to write.
Affectionately, Rob.

In other letters, Rob mentioned headaches, skipping dinner, and drinking "five or six glasses of hot mineral water, which has since been effective . . . " He wrote letters to Alice from French Lick as late as April 12, when he mentioned that he was "nervous" and would share details when he saw her. (I interpret the letter to mean that he was nervous about his health.) He probably left for home soon after that to meet his new grandchildren.

Less than three weeks later, on April 29, 1910, he was dead.

Although Rob was a prominent citizen and businessman of Carrollton and known throughout the region, I have not found his obituary online. It may have been front-page news in the Carrollton Democrat, as was the news of his brother Joseph B. Howe's death 19 years later. I'll be visiting Carrollton to dig in the archives and will update this post when I find an obituary.

Condolence Letters

Sarah's scrapbooks include many condolence letters sent to her and to her mother. Even though Rob had been feeling below par for a while, the letters indicate that his death was unexpected.

I am struck by the outpouring of sadness in these letters – and the eloquence of the writing. Most of the letters sent by relatives and close friends included comments about Rob's deep Christian beliefs, and most expressed concern for Alice and her daughters Sarah and Leonora. Some were especially concerned about Sarah, who was "just over her confinement" after giving birth to twins.

Page 1, Letter from "Aunt Katie"

To Alice From "Aunt Katie" of New Mexico:
"It is not that I think I can say something to lessen your grief that I write, but because I want you to know we feel for you and sympathize with you in your bereavement. ... But what a good thing he got home. And that Sallie was over her confinement. . . . The memory of him is so pleasant as he was so kind and good – and what comfort that is to us  . . ."

To Alice from Margaret Bond of New Orleans:
"I wish I was able to say something to help the heartaches, but words fail me so. With the deepest sympathy and may the Lord help you each one in this dark hour."

To Alice from Mariam Coltrane of Concord, North Carolina):
"God's ways are mysterious, and we have only to accept them knowing that it is a 'loving Father.' In this case we know that he was ready always for the summons and to me the quick call is so much more desirable than a long, lingering illness. ... I hope that Sarah was sufficiently recuperated not to have any real harm to her health from the shock."

To Alice from Mattie A. Carrington of Louisville:
 "I was so shocked and grieved to know of your great sorrow, and I want to offer you my love and deep sympathy."

To Alice from Mrs. W.C. Darling of Grand Rapids, Michigan:
"The very sad news has reached me of Mr. Howe's sudden death. How Mr. Howe will be missed. The vacant chair in the home, the empty pew in the church . . . "

To Alice from Sallie W. Wells of Charleston, South Carolina:
"I cannot yet realize it is true . . . I feel I have sustained a personal loss, for he was always a true friend, and they are passing away so rapidly. ... Not only will he be missed at home but wherever he is known."

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What a fitting post for Father's Day 2017. Sarah loved her father and was, as mentioned in the post dated Aug. 11, 2016, a bit of a "daddy's girl." Today's reflections on her father might remind us of our own. Happy Father's Day to all dads and dad-like mentors out there.

Death Comes Far Too Soon – Robert King Salyers, 1880-1897

Sarah Eva Howe's scrapbooks are brimming with stories about her teen years, which for the most part seemed carefree and full of fun. The mood took a dramatic change when she wrote about August 1897. On the 28th day of that month, about two weeks after Sarah celebrated her 14th birthday, she and the entire community of Carrollton, Kentucky, were shocked at the death of a vibrant and popular 16-year-old. His name was Robert King Salyers.

Unidentified picture thought to be of Robert King Salyers

Sarah remarks in her writing that while she didn't know "Bob" well, she was deeply affected by the death of someone so close to her age. She was better acquainted with Bob's father, Charles David Salyers, because she was often sent to his tin and stove shop on errands for her family. She also knew Bob's older brother William Levi "Will" Salyers and his stepmother Flora Geier Salyers.

Sometime after 1915, Sarah wrote the following journal entry in a scrapbook, telling her four children about their late Uncle Bob and the impact of Bob's death on their father, Bob's brother Will.

Will Salyers, your dad, began going frequently to Madison this year ('98) – having just about parted from his flame of the year before (as well as with Nell Hafford, Ella Hampton, both former flames). Soon he and Neal Deucese, who became a bosom friend, were spending so much time in Madison, it was a wonder he ever attended to his father's business (as indeed he often didn't).

Bob, too, had several dear girl friends, especially Migie, Effie, and Grace, all neighbors. . . . but he also had a "sweetheart" Millie Chambers, in Warsaw, that he used to go to see. He was a wonderful boy, and wonderful looking, weighed 180 that summer, and was about six feet tall. Everybody loved him, boys as well as girls, but no one more than his brother Will, just two years older. 

During the spring, during a meeting at the Christian church, Bob joined the church and was baptized, but Will didn't want to go in with him, as he [Bob] wished. (I suppose Will thought it might curtail some of those Madison trips.) Bob had several attacks of what was called "indigestion" or "stomach ache." John Claborne said afterwards he had seen Bob bend double with pain at times but go right on.

In early August the real attack of appendicitis, an almost unknown disease in Carrollton at the time, came suddenly. Will was out of town – I never had the straight of it, but I believe his father got after him for staying all night (with Neal, I suppose) in Madison after a dance, and not showing up until late the next day. Will was so hurt he went down to his Uncle Will Salyers in Middlesboro without telling his father, but wrote back to him he had decided to stay down there and work for his Uncle Will awhile. Of course it caused family commotion, but Bob upheld Will and packed a trunk of his clothes to send Will. It was ready to send when the attack came. Dr. Frank came from Louisville and operated right at the house, on the kitchen table, but they had waited too long to call him, so there was no chance for him at all to recover. They sent for Will, and he came right away. Bob had kept calling for him in his delirium, but Will never knew whether he recognized him or not – he got there just before he died. It was a terrible blow to Mr. Salyers and to Will – one from which they never really recovered.

Will Salyers is on the right. His brother Bob is on the left. The other man is not identified.


(Below) The obituary published in the Carrollton Democrat confirms the popularity 
of 16-year old Robert King Salyers

 Sarah's commentary continued:

We went to the funeral – everybody went. It was held at the home; the house next door had not been built then, and the great crowd of boy and girl friends sat out in the beautiful spacious yard.

People said it would "sober Will down," but it had the opposite effect. He hid his bitter grief down in his heart and was gayer than ever, going to parties again as fall came on – but not so much to Madison; he began going with Stella Stucy, at Ghent, and he stayed with his father faithfully at the store and really began to be interested in the business. Bob had been learning to service the bicycles that everyone was buying and riding; so Will took up that task as his own, and that, my children, marked the second link in the chain that began to faintly be shaped between us.

The first link in that chain was forged when Will treated Sarah to a soda. Coming soon: How Sarah's bicycle became a catalyst to romance.

Bits & Pieces: Uncle Harry, Life-threatening Illnesses, Carrollton Social Notes, The Town's First Electric Streetlights

Bits & Pieces is a continuing series of posts containing scrapbook snippets that have great info but are too short for stand-alone posts. Some of these small items are too good to leave behind!

1. Sarah's Uncle Harry

Richard Henry Cost, Jr., a.k.a. Harry, must have been quite a character. Sarah estimated the photo's date as 1899 and wrote this caption: "Harry Cost acting as Hebrew vendor at his office."

That leaves us wondering: Why was Harry acting as a Hebrew vendor? Was he in a play? Was he just being goofy? How frustrating that we'll never know!

I'm not having much luck finding information about Harry, but I'll keep on digging.

As you may have seen in a previous post, Harry was Sarah's uncle (her mother's brother), but he was just seven years older than Sarah. Her references to him are rarely preceded by "Uncle," and I think they were probably more like cousins than uncle and niece.

2. Family Battles with Bronchitis, Pneumonia, and Typhoid Fever.

Writing in later years, Sarah recalled her family's battles with life-threatening illnesses. Her baby brother Chandler was just 19 months old when he died of pneumonia on November 10, 1889. No wonder Sarah understood her mother's tears when baby sister Leonora was so ill in January 1898. A transcription follows the image of Sarah's handwriting.

Christmas, 1897, and Leonora’s first birthday came – a rather quiet Christmas, and soon after New Year’s that brought in the momentous year of 1898 (to the U.S. as well as to us), Leonora was very sick, with bronchitis. I remember seeing Mama stitching cotton batting into a little shirt, to keep her warm in her cradle, and the tears dripping as she did, for she remembered Chandler’s sickness and death at almost that age, with pneumonia. Mama was almost 37 when Leonora was born, and 38, of course, Christmas of ’97 (she was born Dec. 24, 1859) – and Papa had his 43rd birthday Jan. 18 of ’98. His hair was already completely gray, indeed I can’t remember him (and I do remember him from the time he was 31 and I was 3) with his hair anything but gray! Perhaps the very terrible spell of typhoid fever he had the year I first remember him left it that way. Typhoid was something in those days – Papa in bed 13 weeks and in 1890 Harry was in bed with it for four or five months.

3. An 'A' Grade on the Subject of Books

On April 2, 1897, Sarah Eva Howe did a school assignment, writing a response to the question "What Are Books Good For?" As usual, she got the top grade, an A. Here are excerpts from that theme, which was written on stationery of Carrollton Woolen Mills, a Howe family business.

If anyone had propounded that question to me, casually, I should have answered promptly: "To read," as that is the use to which I generally put them, but in an essay one should be more lengthy. Books are the heritage of all nations. It seems wonderful that a man can write down his very thoughts, and hundreds of years afterward, have them read by multitudes of people; but such is the case. ... Books of Theology, chief of which is the Bible, the Book of all Books, which combines poetry, story, history, prophesy, letters, proverbs, songs, facts, trite sayings, and which gives the oldest accounts of any book. ... Books of fiction serve to entertain, amuse and often instruct us, while many such books have a pure moral tone. Such books, if not misused, are very interesting and healthful and helpful to all; but the so-called French novels do very little or no good to either our minds or bodies.

4. Carrollton Social Notes 1895, 1896, 1897

A clipping from the Carrollton Democrat newspaper (publication date unknown) revisits what was happening in 1895.

• W.T. Mosgrove sworn in as deputy sheriff. 
• Matt Bridges admitted to Carroll county bar. 
• Water works contract for Carrollton let for $19,755.64.
• T.R. Bridges sailed for Europe
• June 18, first issue of Carrollton Commercial, Republican. (Ceased publication October 8.)
• July 28 – Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Leachman, 83 and 82 respectively, celebrated 60th marriage anniversary.
• September 6, fire destroyed five buildings for Mrs. Gertrude Smith, C.D. Salyers' tin store, Browinski & Son's drug store, Kuhlman's shoe store and Dinkelspiel's stores; loss $60,000. (See the post dated September 15.)
• Oct. 31, earthquake at 5:12 a.m.
• Marriages: On January 9, 1895 G.W. Wells and Miss Cora Thompson at Worthville. June 11, Dr. B.L. Holmes and Miss Elizabeth Sanders. William Hill and Miss Dollie Latty. November 13, Barney Jeter and Miss Emma Sims. December 17, A. L. [or D?] Metcalfe and Miss Melissa Brindley. On December 26, 1895, John R. Davis and Miss Margie Cruse were married, Rev. Robert Hiner, D.D., performing the ceremony at the Southworth House in Carrollton. On the same day Dr. Hiner performed the marriage ceremony for Curtis Jackson and Miss Emma Dawson of Worthville community, a wedding trip to Glencoe following.
• Michael Gill, 54, member of the fourth Kentucky Cavalry, C.S.A., died at Carson. His wife and several children, among them Miss Katie Gill, milliner here, surviving.

Published in the newspaper on January 1, 1896:

• W.R. Fisher sold two cottages on High street to E.C. Smith for $1,000 cash.
• Miss Sue Callendar, of this city, was married to Brent C. Wells, of Louisville.
• Mrs. Harrison Corn, who has been ill, suffered a relapse last week, but is now somewhat improved.

Published in the newspaper on January 2, 1897:

• Jett Bros. opened their new opera house, the Richland, with about 600 people present to see the historical drama, "The Man in the Iron Mask," Tuesday, December 29, 1896.
• The new K. of P. hall was dedicated at Ghent December 30, 1896. [K. of P. stands for Knights of Pythias, an international fraternal and benevolent organization.]
• February 2, 1896 – Elder G.M. Anderson called to Christian church. 
• February 27, Rev. O.M. Huey called to Baptist church. 
• April 2, Mrs. Mary Conway's 98th birthday. 
• September 21, Rev. Wm. Shoesmith sent to M.E. church. 

 

 5. Street Lights in Carrollton

From an undated clipping from the Carrollton Democrat, this remembrance of Carrollton in 1898:

On Saturday night, April 16, the touch of a small lever sent a 220-volt current through 16 miles of wire in the city of Carrollton. Twenty-six arc lights, of 2,000-candle power each, on alternate street corners, illuminated the streets. The new electric light plant was said to be the best and most complete of its size to be found anywhere. The Carrollton Democrat issued four extra pages in celebration of the event.

Sarah and Jenn Travel to Lakeland, 1898

I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, in the 1940s and 1950s. On days when my two younger sisters and I wore our mother's patience thin, she would throw up her hands and proclaim, "I might as well check in at Lakeland." We were too young to know what Lakeland was, but Mama's tone of voice told us it must be a place for people who had just about reached their breaking point.

Decades later, I figured out that Mama was referring to Lakeland Asylum for the Insane (as it was once known), a mental health facility in Anchorage, just east of Louisville. Other names for the facility were Central Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, Lakeland Hospital, and Central Kentucky Asylum for the Insane. You may know it by its present name, Central State Hospital.

In 1898, Sarah Eva Howe and her cousin Jenne, both about 15 years of age, traveled from Carrollton, Kentucky, to Anchorage to visit Mildred Goslee, whose father was the Lakeland superintendent. Sarah's comments give us a peek at some of the social customs of the day and include references to some of the charity and mission projects that involved her mother, cousins, aunts, and friends in Carrollton, Kentucky.

Lakeland Administration Building, built c1872 ²

As soon as school closed, Jenne and I began to get ready for our big trip, which was to be a visit to Mildred Goslee at Anchorage, or rather Lakeland, for tho she went to school at Bellewood¹and we were to attend her closing exercises, she lived with her family in the Superintendents home at the Asylum. We ate at their table, with the other doctors and their wives, and the food was really delicious; we went all over the buildings “on tours,” especially into the kitchens, where I saw more beans being prepared to cook than ever in my life so far. On Saturday night we looked on at the dance given every week for the patients and attendants. We attended class night, when Mildred sang and several girls contested for a prize in “elocution.” The girl who won had a long recitation about a gypsy, which ended “like Wild Zaratella, whose lover is dead.” Sunday we attended church at the present Anchorage Presbyterian Church. At the close of the service Mildred introduced us to several of her friends; one well dressed lady rushed up to us and said “Have you ever heard of Ramabai?” We were dazed, we never had, and didn’t know whether it was a medicine or a new kind of flower or food.

Mildred arranged that we should go to her home next day to hear about “her” (as we found out later Ramabai was). We still didn’t understand very well when she told us about the Zenana work in India which was Pandita Ramabai's great contribution to progress – it was one of her special charities, this lady, and she was quite wealthy, living in a lovely home. She was so enthusiastic about it that she talked about it to everyone. Since then I have found out what a really marvelous person Ramabai was, but I didn’t understand it then. We had our Missionary Society, the Willing Workers (changed in 1893, I believe, to Carrollton Truehearts for Mrs. S.C. Trueheart) and of course there were the adult

The Willing Workers Missionary Society of Carrollton (Kentucky) Methodist Episcopal Church received this certificate circa 1886 recognizing a $10 donation to a project in China. Sarah's mother Alice Ada Cost Howe was a member of that society, and Sarah later joined.

societies, the Foreign Mission and “home mission” or “Parsonage” societies – but we had no missionaries in India in the southern Methodist church so knew nothing of the work done there.

The graduation exercises were held, I believe, Tuesday morning – this was the week of June 9, for on that day we went to the exercises at "Rest Cottage" named for the Frances E. Willard one in Chicago where poor working girls could go for a week of free vacation in the summer and have instruction and entertainment as well as food and lodging. Jennie Casseday was really the originator of the idea, and every WCTU³ had (and has yet) a department in her honor called The Flower Mission in which special attention is given to sending, as she did (and she was for so many years acclaimed), little bunches of flowers to the sick at hospitals with verses of cheer and comfort attached. Her birthday, June 9th is always especially celebrated by a particular act of mercy – in Carrollton we took a treat and held a service on that day at the Poor Farm.

So, as I say, in 1898 on that day we went to exercises at Rest Cottage. On Tuesday there was the Bellewood Graduation. I don’t remember much about it, except that there was an Anne Finzer who graduated (of the Nicholas Finzer Company, tobacco people). She had the most exquisite white dress of lace and sheer “voile” and carried a sheaf of lilies (and this was why I particularly remembered her) in her withered left arm pressed against her body; she probably had had infantile paralysis⁴, tho we knew nothing of it then – even her wealth had not been able to help that poor little arm.

On another page in the same scrapbook, Sarah provides a bit more history of Bellewood Seminary. The excerpt refers again to Mildred Goslee.

Transcription: [Mildred Goslee was] now living at Lakeland Hospital, where her father was superintendent (appointed by Governor Bradley) and was for the second year attending Bellewood Seminary, a famous local Presbyterian School (its buildings now are incorporated in the Orphanage at Anchorage and the chapel is the Anchorage Pres. Church. This is the school mentioned in The Little Colonel at Boarding School written sometime later.


ENDNOTES
¹ Bellewood Female Seminary, established in 1860 by William Wallace Hill. The school was associated with the Anchorage Presbyterian Church until the school closed in 1916. Source: The Encyclopedia of Louisville by John E. Kieber, page 33, via Google Books.
² Image ULPA 1994.18.0716, Herald Post Collection, 1994.18, Photographic Archives, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Used here with permission.
³ Women's Christian Temperance Union. Sarah's mother, and later Sarah, were members.
⁴ An old term for polio, an infectious disease (now all but eradicated in the U.S.) that can cause paralysis, difficulty breathing, and sometimes death. Source: www.mayoclinic.org.

War Ends, Romances Blossom, Hearts Break – Autumn 1899

In Carrollton, Kentucky, at the close of the Spanish-American War, Sarah Eva Howe and her relatives and friends were busier than ever with school, work, and other elements of everyday life. Sarah's stories of 1899 start to include a new element: romance. Sarah was 16. No surprise, then, that she and her cousins and schoolmates were talking about the local boys.

Today's excerpts mention some of the budding and wished-for romances. Apparently, Sarah once had a crush on a young man named Will Rowland. Her friend and "shirttail cousin" Mildred Goslee also was smitten with Will. Both girls were disappointed when Will proposed to a young woman who lived "in the East."

Sarah points out that Will Salyers had "transferred his affections" from one girl in favor of dating others. Will, you may remember from earlier posts, would become Sarah's husband six years later.

Endnotes after the transcription may help you sort out some of the Howe relatives mentioned in Sarah's thoughts. Long passages full of names can be tedious to read, but I dare not leave anyone out. If I delete even one, I may be hiding "genealogy gold" from someone searching for that very name!

1899 found us, as a nation, over the Spanish War, but still fighting with Aguinaldo in the Philippines. It found Jenne¹ and myself trying to make up the time lost until some other school could be found for us² by reading all we could lay our hands on. John³ was in this second year at Wesleyan⁴, Lille⁵ was still working as cashier at the store, and Beverly⁶ started in as “apprentice boy” til he too could be put in school. There were rumors that the regular High School was to be started again in the fall, at Carrollton High School.

Grandma Cost⁷ and her family were living in the big house on Ellison Ave [in Cincinnati]. Mr. Salyers⁸ had begun building a new house in a lot taken from the old one and was selling the other house to the Blackwell family (Mrs. B. was Edna Corbin). Will⁹ had transferred his affections from Stella Stucey (tho they almost decided to marry at one time) to various pretty girls, none very serious, especially visitors; he still made some trips to Madison again and hired many “rigs” to take them riding from Grobmeyer Bros. Harry and Harold Grobmeyer had been sent to a Catholic seminary at Jasper, Indiana, where they later graduated. 

At the church Brother Rowland had been made our pastor, to our great satisfaction because we were so fond of the family, tho many of the members did not enjoy his preaching. He was a very quiet, stern-appearing man, tho kind and fun-loving at home, and Mrs. Rowland was the loveliest person imaginable. They had a most wonderful home life, especially making a great deal of Christmas, with a “breakfast” at 9:30 that made the day the most memorable in the year, all the relatives and close friends were invited (in the family connection). In that day Mildred Goslee (after they came back to live in Carrollton when Dr. Goslee died, which was either in 1899 or 1900) was invited with Effie Browinski, whose mother was a sister of Mrs. Rowland; so she gradually became an extremely good friend of Will Rowland (and thus took what I never really had!). I think she was very fond indeed of him – and he of her. ...  I remember being at a party with her the day his marriage was announced in the East and by her really forced gaiety, one could see she was thinking of their past association.

In the fall of ’99 the two Rowland boys went to Kentucky Wesleyan. (Luther went to Vanderbilt and played football there, but came home about that time; I don’t believe he graduated.) As for the Howe family, we had varied turns of fortune. George, Uncle Joe’s & Aunt Sallie’s baby,¹⁰ was born in November – James1¹¹ was six the same December, and Leonora¹²2 three, exactly between the boys. John¹³3 went on at Kentucky Wesleyan, with fine success,

Literary society meeting program at Kentucky Wesleyan

especially in oratory, English, and languages. At one time he boarded with the Batsons (I afterwards knew Mrs. Batson at Lexington), and I was endlessly diverted with the stories Jenne could relate to me of his college experiences, the songs he learned, the boys he met, his choice between the two rival literary societies (there were no fraternities there), finally becoming a “Philomathean” (the other was the Eucleian).

Lille was still at the store as “cashier,” Jenne & Beverly started back at CHS when the High School was re-opened in the fall of ’99, with Professor B.F. Gabby as principal. Jenne went into the Junior Class, Bev the Sophomore, and our friend from Sanders, Nina Deatherage, who boarded with her aunt Mrs. Bruce, was in the same class. I didn’t go back with them – sometimes I’ve been sorry that I didn’t. But one very potent factor was the deciding one in any case. In  the spring of ’99, Mama, who had during the year before grown so very plump, weighing 150 pounds at one time – began to suffer a terrible form of indigestion, and not only lost all that false weight but her normal weight as well, and indeed went to almost 100 pounds by summer. I remember she said she told Brother Rowland she had fallen off 40 or 50 pounds in five months, and he said “If I lost that much, I’d be no bigger than a cake of soap after a hard day’s washing!” (He was very tall and “spare.”) So by July Papa decided to take her to Battle Creek, Michigan, to the famed Kellogg Sanatorium. (Mrs. Henry Winslow had been there more than once for treatment and advised it for Mama.) I was to take care of Leonora at Grandma Costs’ home on Ellison Avenue, Price Hill [Cincinnati]. All went well for a few days, till Leonora became sick with “summer complaint” – either from the change of water, or milk, or too much “grownup” food. (We ate well but simply at home.)

Sarah's mother's illness sounds both serious and mysterious! I have found nothing yet in the scrapbooks about a diagnosis or other details, but fear not. Sarah's mother Alice Ada Cost Howe lived for 30 years after this illness.

At the start of the final paragraph, we learn that Sarah did not return to high school when the high school grades were re-established at the Carrollton public school. Even so, she was a life-long learner, voracious reader, and one of the most educated people around.


ENDNOTES
¹ Jenne Howe, Sarah's first cousin; daughter of her father's brother William Ficklin Howe.
² Apparently, the local private academy had closed, leaving several families to find another school for their children. (See the "Schoolhouse Revolution" post.)
³ John J. Howe, Sarah's first cousin; brother to Jenne.
⁴ Lille M. Howe, Sarah's first cousin; sister to Jenne and John.
⁵. Kentucky Wesleyan College, a Methodist-supported institution that at that time was in Winchester, Kentucky.
⁶ Beverly Winslow Howe, Sarah's first cousin; brother to Jenne, John, and Lille. (Beverly was a popular name for males in the 1890s.)
⁷ Sarah Evaline Arnet Cost, Sarah's maternal grandmother; resident of Price Hill in Cincinnati.
⁸ Charles D. Salyers, Sarah's future father-in-law.
⁹ William Levi Salyers, son of Charles D. Salyers; Sarah's future husband.
¹⁰ Joseph Brown Howe, his wife Sallie Goslee Howe, and son George Howe.
¹¹ James Howe, son of James Brown Howe and Sallie Goslee Howe; brother of George Howe.
¹² Leonora Alice Howe, Sarah's sister.
¹³ See Endnote 3.