1890-1893: Sarah's First Years at School Prove to be No Match for Her Precocious, Inquisitive Nature

Perfect timing! In the jumble of loose pages I'm transcribing, I've come across Sarah Eva Howe's story of her first days at Carrollton School in 1890, plus a few episodes from Grades 2 and 3 as well.

Names are in bold to help family historians find them. As always, ellipses indicate missing or omitted words, and brackets enclose my own comments or clarifications.

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School Year 1890-91 — Memories of Carrollton Classmates
I started to school in September of 1890, in Miss Sue Foster’s room. She had two grades,

Sarah before starting school, age 5

the “card class,” beginners who learned a word at a time from cards held up before them, and the First Reader, into which I was put. So I suppose I could read some and spell and “figger” tho it is hazy in my mind, for Mama read aloud so much to me I can’t remember just when I “flowered into reading” for myself. But I do know that she was already reading fairly advanced children’s books to me and that Mother Goose was so far behind that it seemed a memory.

Jenne Howe¹ was in my grade, and Mildred Goslee, with whom I had already become acquainted. I believe Jenne had started after Christmas [1889?] when she became seven, but a spell of illness either of herself or in the family prevented her from going full time, so she began again with me. The same was true of Mildred, who was a full year older than I (except for ten months). It wasn’t long before we three started walking to and from school most of the time together, and thus began our long friendship, into which Lida Hafford, whose sister married Jenne’s Uncle George² about that time, came a year or so later, tho she was at least two years ahead of us in school. 

Mildred was “kin” too, of course, being Aunt Sallie Goslee Howe’s³ half sister, and around there most of the time; we lived with Uncle Joe⁴ and Aunt Sallie for the first year and a half of our stay in Carrollton. I used to go around to Mildred’s to play, of course; I remember staying to supper one night, when they had a Polish dish pirogues — I suppose you would spell it, tho we called it Pi-rog-ees. Since then I have learned that a pirogue is a boat, and as these were baked meat dumplings I suppose the submersible idea was there, but I didn’t know for sure. Anyway, they were delicious and probably indigestible, highly so, but I ate two or three of them, being away from the watchful parental eyes that even counted hot biscuits on me, and I don’t remember any ill effects. 

I also remember playing church upstairs in Mildred’s room; we refrained from actually playing “communion,” as we felt that wouldn’t be right; but we did play “love feast” and passed bread and water. Mildred was never a great hand to play dolls, her mother having had a succession of live babies, all of whom died young, for her to play with. Mildred still talked about Hugh, her brother who had died at about the same time and same age as Chandler — the twin boys she could remember, too, dying when they were a year old and she was about three or four. Roman Alexander Goslee, her older brother, lived there and went to school (he was in a much older grade than we, as he was about five or six years older and was in W. L.’s⁵ grade) and Levi Goslee (who was still a small child, about a year old when his father Dr. Goslee married Miss Mary Browinski a year from the death of Aunt Sallie’s and Levi’s mother) lived there too; also Mr. Charlie and Mr. Jim and “Sis Nan,” Aunt Sallie’s younger sister about twenty five or -six when I used to go there in 1890. Mr. Jim married Mamie Lindsay, of Ghent, “Aunt Puss” Gaines’s niece, that winter; she only lived a year. Charlie was much younger, he and Levi (he was the youngest) were about 15 and 18 when I first knew them, and Roman 13. Charlie Kipping⁶, tho I didn’t remember him till later, was in the grade with Roman and Levi (who had failed to pass a couple of times because of inattention to study) and 12-year-old Will Salyers5, who was really a year ahead of the other boys because his Aunt Ruth⁷ had taught him to read at home before starting to school. At this time they were probably in the 7th grade, as he graduated 5 years later in 1894, and there were only three years of high school — tho the 8th grade was really a high school year, as they began Latin and Algebra in it. It was taught by Miss Moreland and was a “humdinger.” Levi never went any further than this grade. Roman and Will went on and graduated together, and Charlie K., who took an extra year, graduated with John Howe⁸, who in ’90-’91 was in the 6th grade. I’m not sure which year Lille⁹ went to Science Hill, but she graduated in 1896, so I imagine she was still going to Carrollton Pubic School (then in the “New Building” out on 6th St., now torn down). 

I don’t remember that first year so very well, except that going was very irksome to me. I so much preferred the “literary pursuits” and conversation of home, the pleasant sunny room and hall of Grandfather’s house, and the lovely yard where that fall I found the grave of Aunt Sallie Froman’s¹⁰ little dog Trip and began decorating it with little pieces of marble picked up behind the tombstone cutters in the alley. I think it was that fall, too, that Aunt Sallie gave us the squirrel, which used to run about the room a good deal and up onto Papa’s shoulder. He got to be a good deal of trouble, tho, so I think we finally gave him back. I still wanted what I couldn’t have, a dog. Cats were out of the question except a staid old Tom who lived around the cellar and stable, a black-with-white-feet cat who was certainly no good as a pet. Aunt Sallie only tolerated him because he kept down the mouse population; all her family disliked cats — in the case of Mr. Jim, Roman and Mildred, it was really “Cat-Fear.” They turned pale and sick and had to leave the room when a cat came in.

School Year 1891-92 — McGuffey's Reader and Ray's Arithmetic
There was a school entertainment that winter of ’91-’92. I keep trying to remember things from it; Marie Butler sang again “The Loveliest Doll in the World.” I remember the tune well; and a boy and girl sang “The Little Green Peach” — “hard trials for them, too, Johnny Jones and his sister Sue and the peach of emerald hue, boo hoo, boo hoo!”  One of the hits was the “Ten Little Sunflowers” song. The children had caps of leaves around their faces, and as each one disappeared like the ten little Indians, the others carried on till only one was left. A little boy in my grade named Walter Meeks, such a cute, pesky little boy, and he brought down the house when he piped up in a treble that carried to the last rows, “One little sunflower blooming all alone. It had to go to bed, and then there was none!" Perhaps later more things may swim up from the “lost seas” about this show, which was given by the whole school, tho I don’t remember many high school students in it.

Carrollton School circa 1890. Sarah marked with an X the door used by students in the upper grades.

It is strange that I don’t remember more about my second year of school. Miss Ella Giltner¹¹ was my teacher, both in the 2nd and 3rd grades, but it doesn’t seem that anything special comes up out of that nine months, except it seems there were several spelling matches, my first experience with the “gentle artifices.” 

I remember feeling superior to strange little girls who were only starting; one child, Carrie Garriott, whose people had just moved to town from the country, was so agonizingly shy, was afraid to ask anything, even where the outdoor toilet was! She wore such big heavy shoes, and some of the little girls were laughing at her, tho her father owned a big farm and had just bought a big house. I wish I could say that I rushed up to her and befriended her against the world, but I’m afraid I did nothing of the sort, but I did feel sorry for her and I think spoke to her as soon as anyone did. I met her the next Sunday at Sunday school, as they were devoted Methodists, and she was soon one of us, tho as long as I knew her she never quite knew how to dress, as to style or color. She is quite well to do now, lives in Princeton, Ky., and her son attended the University of Kentucky, tho I never knew which boy he was. 

Stella Carrico (Paul’s aunt, I feel sure) came to school that year, and a pale slim shy little girl with a long plait named Pearl Delane. Jim Webster was in my grade and used to come by and walk to school (and sometimes from school) with me. He was a slim pale person too, very studious, in fact perfection in his studies, tho he had adenoids and couldn’t read aloud as I could (that was my strong point, with spelling). 

Hugh Caldwell, brother of Henry but without his charm or red hair, was in the class, Jenne and Mildred (Lida, about two years older, was already in the fifth grade), Albert Whitehead, and, I think, John Dufour from Prestonsville. . . . Oh yes, I believe Henry “my turn”Darling  was there and probably Carroll Gullion, for they were with me later, I know. One little girl from Locust, I believe, when asked her name, piped up “Dinky O’Banion.” I’ve never forgotten that; and I also remember a softened little girl named

Maud LeClere who was probably kin to Cousin Ruth Salyers’ grandmother of that name in Vevay. We used McGuffey’s Reader (and I wish I had it now!) and speller, and Ray's Arithmetic book one (all of them of detested memory). 

Miss Ella had two grades. She had too many children, it was hard to control them, and this year was not very interesting — no drawing, no handwork[?] games, no stories as the children have them now. We sang some songs, mostly patriotic ones, and learned one or two portions of Scripture to recite in unison. 

Truth compels me to admit, I stayed home on every pretext — bad weather, a slight cold, etc. — where the warmth and light and Mama’s devoted companionship, as well as the current cat (we always had one), plenty to eat, and books to look at, handle and read, were always on tap. Also let truth compel me to add that I led my class, nevertheless, in the report cards, only Jim Webster rivaling mine, with all his studious and faithful ways. What a pity, it seems now, not to have spared me that year, for I could easily have taken the third grade work. It might have changed my life, for I’d have been in the class with Effie, Velma, and Will Rowland, and at Mr. English’s for two years instead of one in High School, but then I would have missed the wonderful year with Lille Howe⁹, which really did a lot for me.


School Year 1892-93 —  Art and Poetry Get Sarah in Trouble!
About this time I had whooping cough, but it was a light case and I was able to make a good start in the 3rd grade with the same teacher, Miss Ella Giltner, who as I said had both grades in the same room. 

Now began the study of geography, much less interesting than is now given to small learners. But it was something I could “get my teeth in.” Also by this time I had flowered into reading. I was beginning to draw, too, and tho after the first poem about the “Two Little Mice” I didn’t attempt further effusions for a time, the germ was still there. 

I got into trouble, too, drawing in school. I made two cartoons (not knowing them by that name) which I considered quite brilliant, playing on the names of Jenne and Mildred; a little red goose, with a girl’s head, labeled “Mildred Red Goose” and a blue bovine, with a girl’s head also, labeled Jenn Cow — no offense was intended, just a pun on their names, for Papa and Mama often made quite a game of puns on all sorts of names, both of people and household objects. Mildred, having a fine sense of humor, giggled and enjoyed it, but Jenne saw no joke in it and got mad. She took the pictures to Miss Ella (also very deficient in humor) who chose to consider them defamatory and reprimanded me — yet, not so much for maligning my subjects as for drawing pictures in school hours instead of studying (and I was making straight A’s!). 

In all my attendance at school, I was never tardy, yet on a few occasions I did hear the second bell at 20 minutes after eight, but I was in my seat when the tardy bell sounded (imagine the rushing that entailed on small fat legs). ...

Books! They were the joy of my secret life, away from school (which I only tolerated), happily curled up in the hammock in summer, which they gave me for my ninth birthday, or before the fire in the winter. Mrs. Harry Winslow had a fine literary taste and bought all the fine children’s books, and was generous in lending them to me. I was nervous that year tho, probably from trying to gorge down too many ideas, and some stories would make me stay awake at night. Strangely enough, one of these was Alice in Wonderland, that classic, with its Blue Caterpillar, Lizard, Frog footman, cross duchesses, and queens, frightened instead of amusing me (the myths of the gorgon and other creatures never did — I wonder why?), and one night when I woke up and almost saw the baby turning into a pig I had such a spell that Mama said indignantly I had no business reading such a book! But I persevered, until the fright passed away, and the charm stole in and has remained ever after.

A great help in this was that on Christmas one of the books Grandma Cost sent me was

John Tenniel [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Nursery Alice (with a foreward, which Grandma didn’t read, saying it was for tots from nought to five, in words of one syllable! This to me, who knew all about “the helmet of invisibility”!). What Grandma had bought it for was the large colored pictures, and indeed they were wonderful, authentic “Tenniels” in color, just like the little black and white ones in the real book. After looking at them and hearing me explain in a vastly superior manner the real scenes so coyly dehydrated to one syllable for “0 to 5,” Mama actually began to enjoy the Mad Tea Party, the croquet match, the Eat Me & Drink Me sequences, and became quite a convert to Alice herself. Mama loved to read aloud (never got over it!) and together we enjoyed the Alcott books about this time, the more advanced ones, tho I never got over loving the “Under the Lilacs,” but now we read Little Women and Little Men, Jo’s Boys, Rose in Bloom, and Eight Cousins — then oh joy! Mrs. Winslow lent me Jack and Jill, which should really have come along about Under the Lilacs, but I loved it just the same.

So the last day of school came, and with it another damper to my artistic zeal — or poetic, rather. It was a perfect morning, so sunny, so full of promise that I was filled with “the spirit” in all directions. I got to school early and had brought some roses and other flowers, so arranged them on Miss Ella’s desk. (I even felt a surge of affection for her, tho I never liked her at all till years after, when I found she was a shy, fine person, really) (she is Lyter Donaldson’s cousin, you know, and Giltner Salyers’ own aunt). I made what I considered a really tricky arrangement, a bunch at each corner and roses carelessly scattered between as if just dropped there. And then I felt a poem coming on and wrote on the board:
“The sun is shining brightly
And sweetly sings the bird
To make the sweetest music
That ever we have heard
And merrily are leaping
The fishes in the pool
All things are trying their best to make
A happy day of school.”

(Not a masterpiece, but not bad either for a child of nine in the 3rd grade, on the spur of the moment.)

I imagined Miss Ella coming in and saying “Why, who has done all this?” But no, with her usual nervous intensity she immediately swept the flowers from the desk into the wastebasket, and taking an eraser, cleaned the board — she never even saw the poem! But the desk and board were now neat for the rest of the day. Then I realized the truth (dimly) that between the neat and the artistic temperaments there was “a great gulf fixed.”
 

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Interested in reading more about Carrollton, Kentucky school days in the 1890s? Take a look at these posts:

Schoolhouse Revolution of 1896-1897 

Sarah's Bovine Encounter

War Ends, Romances Blossom, Hearts Break – Autumn 1899

Carrollton Seminary Roster, 1896 – Names, Names, Names!

The Evolution of Carrollton High School, 1880s-1890s (segment 3 in a general post)

The Lost Is Found! The Story of Carrollton School Continues

ENDNOTES
¹ Sarah's first cousin, daughter of her father's brother William Ficklin Howe (1846-1916) and Louisiana Winslow Howe (1852-1944)
² George B. Winslow, brother of Jenn's father William F. Howe; grandson of William Beverly Winslow (1814-1883) and Martha Jane Woolfork (1826-1905)
³ Sallie Goslee (1858-1934), likely a daughter of Levin E. Goslee and Elizabeth Welles
⁴ Sarah's paternal uncle Joseph Brown Howe (1857-1929); husband of Sallie Goslee
⁵ William Levi Salyers (1878-1944), who became Sarah's husband in 1905
⁶ Charles Kipping would later marry Sarah's sister, Leonora Alice Howe (1896-1967)
⁷ Ruth Salyers, older sister of Sarah's paternal grandfather Charles David Salyers (abt 1812-1874)
⁸ Sarah's first cousin John Junior Howe (1879-1939), son of William Ficklin Howe and Louisiana Winslow Howe
⁹ Lille M. Howe, daughter of William Ficklin Howe and Louisiana Winslow Howe
¹⁰ Sarah Varena "Sallie" Howe Froman (1862-1950), sister of Sarah's father Robert James Howe (1855-1910); wife of Carrollton businessman Herman M. "Mack" Froman (dates unknown)
¹¹ Likely a relative of Susie Giltner, who in 1886 in Carrollton married the first William Levi Salyers, son of Charles D. Salyers and paternal uncle of Sarah's husband of the same name

Part 2: Sarah's House-to-House Stroll Almost Makes Up for the Missing 1890 U.S. Census

In the second segment of Sarah Eva Howe's "Book of Recollections," we join Sarah at 5th and Seminary as she continues to take us from house to house, family to family, remembering Carrollton, Kentucky, circa 1890. This may be as close to a replacement as we're likely to find for the missing 1890 census of the town.

As I transcribe this journal written by Sarah in 1943, I want to stay faithful to her writing – even her long, convoluted sentences full of parenthetical phrases. However, because Sarah was writing to her own grown-and-married daughter, she felt free to "tell it like it is" – or was –  according to her own memory. A few stories about her neighbors are unflattering. While I have the right to publish info and images from Sarah's scrapbooks and journals, I don't have the right – or desire – to publish anything that could cause hurt or shame among living descendants. After all, without proof, these stories are merely gossip.

Throughout this series of posts, I will indicate omissions with an ellipsis, a series of periods. If you read something about your own ancestor and want the omitted information, please email me so we can discuss it. My email address is under the "About" tab.

And now, on with Sarah's virtual stroll through Carrollton. As always, my own comments are in brackets. All parentheses are Sarah's own.

From 5th Street on, there were no houses on Seminary that I know of until almost 1894 or 5, when the little brick on the corner was built, probably for Pearce Winslow and Maynie (Bond), his wife, for they were living there when Pearce ... left her. Just in passing, isn’t it sad and strange that of the three most prominent families then in the Methodist Church, not a great-grandson of the names survives. Mr. Will Winslow’s son died, so did the child¹ Maynie bore Pearce after he left her; Mr. Henry Winslow left a son, Cooper, who never married. Mr. George [and] Mr. Jim left no children — the girls of course, as Aunt Lou, had sons of different family names. 

Of the Howes, you know of course, Papa’s son² died, Uncle Joe’s boys³ had no children, Aunt Sallie’s son⁴ is a Froman, my children are Salyers⁵; Uncle John’s baby died, Aunt Lou’s and Uncle Will’s boys⁶ had no sons. Of the Conns, the daughters had sons of different names, of course, and even in the Rowland family, with three sons, there was not a son born to any – only to one girl in the family, Louise, who married Harry Stringfellow. Looking around at all the multitude of babies I see, I think it isn’t fair somehow that there is not a Howe, a Conn, or a Winslow left of the old families by name among the youngest generation.

One house built on 5th Street was the Methodist Church parsonage. It was completed in 1899 
at 219 5th St. The first resident was the Reverend J.D. Redd.

But to go back to geography? topography? — I am going to skip down 4th Street, on which no one lived that I remember except the Thoma family — he was the harness maker, and his wife was so pretty. They had three boys and a girl. I’m not sure they were living in the house they now occupy (Mrs. Thoma). In fact I believe they bought it later, but they lived there in 1903, I know, or about the time Mabel graduated and married Charlie Griffith.
 
The Schuermans had moved to Carrollton about 1884, almost the time Mama came to live at Grandma Howe’s⁷ home for a year, when I was little, for Aunt Sallie Howe, as well as several other girls, had quite fallen for Henry, who had a certain rough masculine charm, though a German ruthlessness with his employees (however, he was an impulsive, kindly fellow at heart, good to his family and the best of the three boys). About the time we came to Carrollton, he had won the heart of Ruth Winslow, tho the great opposition of her mother, who however afterwards was devoted to him. Will Schuerman had married Julia Berg, and their first child⁸ was born late in 1890, I think. Julia had a brother, Bob Berg, but he never made much history except as a hard drinker, like Jim Winslow who was, however, of a far superior intellect and amiability. I suppose the Schuermans lived where Miss Hattie did, but they rebuilt the house several times or fixed it over.

Oh, I forgot! In the brick house where cousin Ruth and Henry [Schuerman] lived afterwards, Mr. James Lowe was living when we went there; he was an Englishman or Canadian, I forget which, but I remember him, a quiet, small, oldish man. His much younger half-sister⁹ lived down near Grandpa Howe, and I played with the two boys Jim and Charlie, when I was living at Uncle Joe’s.

Now, coming from Seminary to Sycamore on Fourth St., across from the Schuerman house lived the Blessings, a remarkable German family of the most creditable kind (alas, almost extinct, it seems). The Schuermans were German but more well to do and not of a deeply religious or kindly nature like the Blessings, nor as eager for education. The house of this big family was on the same corner of 4th & Sycamore as our house (afterwards) was on 4th & High St. There was Mr. Blessing, who was a butcher and not highly educated himself, and Mrs., who was everything you ever read about a homely, hard working, ambitious-for-her-children immigrant mother. But I imagine she had a background, and certainly she had the drive. Mary (you remember her as Mrs. Told) was one of the first graduates of Carrollton High School –- she and Lena Smith and Lucy Wafford graduated together in exercises held at the 6th St. Schoolhouse in 1890, I believe, or thereabouts; Mr. Weaver was the principal, tho he left and Mr. Melcher came in the year I started to school (the fall of 1890; I may be a trifle off in these dates, but I can verify them later. The three graduation addresses were Mary’s in German, Lena’s in Latin, and Lucy’s in English.

A portion of Sarah's writing about the Blessing family, who lived at 4th & Sycamore in the 1890s.

The oldest Blessing son went on to college, was a Kappa Sig and I believe a Ph.D.; he was a very outstanding boy — went to Swarthmore, I think. George, his name was. Mary married Mr. Told of Vevay; he came from a pretty good family — his brother’s daughter, Mabel Told, used to visit them and she was a very attractive and [a] child who could both recite and sing — one of those “infant prodigies” of the 90s. (Sallie Howe [the writer herself] was rather considered on the verge of one but I am thankful to say lacked some of the characteristics). . . . [The information is ambiguous here; apparently, Mr. Told left the family after three children were born.] Mary raised them (very creditably for the material at hand) and worked for years at Howe’s Store¹⁰ to support them.

The second son graduated with John Howe¹¹ and went to “State College”¹² with Lewis Darling. I imagine he, too, was a Kappa Sig, for Lewis was. His name was Charlie Blessing; he was one of the “Dirty Dozen” with your Uncle Bob Salyers¹³, cousin John Howe¹¹, Charlie and Oscar Kipping, and Allen Gullion and Frank Grace. Then it seemed the rest were not so outstanding — there were two deaf & dumb children, Lily and Violet (you remember Lilly; she was very smart, worked for years at the store). Both attended the Deaf Mute Institute, and Violet married another boy who went to school there. Clarence and Rose were around my age (Rose a little older), and Clarence was not as smart as the other boys. Rose was bright, but not like Mary. She married a Craft and taught school for years at Hindman. The youngest boy was called Bolivar Buckner [Blessing], or "BBB" by most of the children, and there was another boy, Paul, a little older, rather effeminate, who was quite talented in music (but not a genius) and also, strangely enough, a fine mathematician, quite a wizard at it. He taught it afterwards at school somewhere. But the truth was that after the first four or five children came, they shouldn’t have had the others, for they had neither the health themselves or money for the education of the last ones. Buckner just ran wild, tho I believe he afterwards did very well when his brother George took him after the death of his parents.

Right across the street from the Blessings lived the Linnishes. He had only one leg, had lost his other I think in one of the wars in Germany. His daughter Lizzie (who married Clem Roche — they pronounced it Rick!). Come to think of it, they were probably Irish, tho her mother was German, I’m sure. All of them were Catholic, but the Blessings were Lutherans, I imagine. Anyway, with the Stamlers and other non-Catholic Germans they formed the backbone of the Presbyterian Church there at Carrollton. Lizzie was a very pretty girl, we could see them across from our house, as our hill-gardens touched at the bottom. Across from them on the fourth corner of 4th & Sycamore lived the Kreutzers. Mr. K was a protestant, I think, his wife was Catholic and raised the girls that way. One of his daughters married Bud Horan’s uncle, Jim, the handsomest Irishman who was ever 

seen on the streets of our fair city, it was said. (She was good-looking, too, and Elinor, their daughter, was a real beauty; she was Leonora’s age.) The other, Annie, married a brother of Laurence Grobmeier¹⁴ of the family of which I told you earlier. (You remember their children Osmond[?] and Florian Grobmyer, I’m sure.) Annie was one of those flamboyant dressers, wore big hats turned up on the side, and was suspected of using a little rouge.

A queer combination made up the people who lived on the left on Sycamore (as you went down 4th to High). In a tiny frame cottage lived old Mrs. Rhodenbach, an aunt, I believe, of Mrs. Glauber, Bertha’s mother (those early Catholic families are hard to untangle as to relationship). She had a daughter who married an Irishman named Donnelly and had the boy I mentioned, Eddie, and two daughters, Maggie, who lived with us when Leonora was born (Mrs. Weismiller next to Miss Rose’s, you remember) and Katie, who married Ernest Lawrence. 

Next to her lived Ben Myers, who was a bricklayer, and his wife and a pretty niece, Grace Covington. I’m trying to think whom she married. Next lived the Schonlows.¹⁵  ... 

Next to the Schonlows (a step down an alley, but almost on the same street) lived the Washingtons, of color, with a whole family of children. These two houses were back of the church. On summer evenings we could sit in our back yard (at 4th & High) and see the Washingtons disporting themselves in their back yard, with enough distance to make it a lovely picture of the old south and Stephen Foster.¹⁶ The littlest girl, Mesie, was a perfect little “topsy.” The old grandmother, a good old woman, who lived with them, fell down the steep back steps and broke her neck, but we weren’t looking over at the time. Alec was the name of the father. I’m hazy about the other side of the street of that square.

Of course, no one lived on 4th St. between Sycamore and High St. because those wonderful gardens stretched down from the houses on each street corner to a little stream which ran through a kind of culvert at the very depth of the little valley where the line fence ran. (When the “backwaters” came up, this filled out into a sizable stream.) And by the way, before leaving this part of town I find I didn’t mention the youngest Schonlow girl, Elizabeth, who married Ed Hill, the dairyman, and died with her second child, I believe. She was a very nice girl, too. His first wife was Laura Glauber, and of her family I will tell when we get to upper Sixth St. beyond Seminary, and there we might as well go after slipping out Fifth Street from High, first (and now we are getting down into where I lived). 

Leaving the Winslow and Donaldson homes to be described with High Street, Aunt Lou and Uncle Will6 lived at the same house then that Aunt Lou has lived in all her married life, but of course the place where the parsonage and the Robertson house and the one next to it are now was just their side yard and pasture, where we played many a happy hour. I don’t know who lived in the gray brick across the street, but the Goslees moved in there about 1891 (but when I first went to Mildred’s house, they were living on Main Street).

************** To Be Continued **************

 Endnotes:
¹The first child, as far as I know, was unnamed and died shortly after birth. The second child, William Beverly Winslow, died in 1907 at age 6. Several Winslow families gave their children the name William Beverly, honoring the ancestor of that name who lived in Carrollton from 1814 to 1883. The mention of "Aunt Lou" refers to daughter Louisiana Winslow (1852-1944),who married Sarah's uncle William Ficklin Howe (1846-1916).  
²Chandler Howe, Sarah's brother, who died 10 Nov 1889 at age 19 months.
³James Goslee Howe and George Thompson Howe, sons of Joseph B. and Sallie Goslee Howe
⁴Robert Hiram Froman, b. about 1885 to Sarah Varena Howe and Hiram M. Froman  
⁵Sarah married William Levi Salyers on 14 Dec 1905  
⁶Sarah's paternal uncle William Ficklin Howe and wife Louisiana "Lou" Winslow Howe had two sons, Winslow B. Howe and John Junior Howe.
⁷Reference to Alice Ada Cost Howe, who was Sarah's mother and her children's grandmother.
⁸Henry Burg Schuerman, born 17 Feb 1889  
⁹Sarah later corrects this relationship to step-daughter.
¹⁰Howe’s Department Store was owned and operated by Sarah’s grandfather, father, and uncles.   ¹¹John Junior Howe (1879-1939), son of Sarah's uncle William Ficklin Howe  
¹²University of Kentucky, Lexington
¹³Robert King Salyers, Sarah's father's brother, who died while in his teens
¹⁴Possibly Grobmeyer; Sarah wrote one, then wrote the other over it.
¹⁵Sarah wrote that this family had several sons and three daughters, but she named only Rudy, Annie, Mamie [or Marnie?], and Elizabeth.
¹⁶This paragraph reveals attitudes of that time period. We can't change history. 

A Handwritten Howe-Salyers Family Chronology, Part Two: 1883 to 1920s & '30s, With One Jump to 1944

In Part 2 of Sarah Eva Howe's handwritten chronology of events in her Howe family and her husband's Salyers family, we revisit 1883, also the birth year of Sarah's beloved cousin Jenne, and continue to the 1930s. During that time, Sarah gave birth to five children, including two sets of twins. There is one entry for 1944, the death of Sarah's husband, William Levi Salyers.

Sarah apparently wrote dates and events as they came to mind. Notice her two references to "going back." Parentheses are original to the handwritten chronology. Brackets enclose my own clarifications, identifications, and comments.

[Chronology of Our Family, Part Two]

1883    Jenne Winslow Howe born to Wm and Lou Howe

1883    April, Katharine King Salyers [mother of William Levi, Sarah's future husband]  dies, in Carrollton

1880    [zero written over a 2] Ruth Salyers Jr. [?] born to T[homas] D. Salyers and wife [Thomas was an uncle to Sarah's future husband]

1883    October, Josie King and Will Fisher married [Relatives on Sarah's husband's line]

1884    Sarah Howe [Sarah's aunt] married to Hiram McMakin Froman [Note: I have also seen references to this man as Herman M. "Mack" Froman.]

1885    Robert Hiram Froman born to above [Note added 8 Nov 2018: Another researcher believes the middle name could have been Howe. Hiram is what was written in the chronology by his relatives, and Hiram is the name on the grave marker at Ghent Masonic Cemetery in Carroll County, Kentucky.]

(Going Back a Little)
1874     Lee, or Lenora, [Sarah's "Aunt Lee"] born to Richard and Sarah Evelyn Cost           
1877    (Sept.) Richard Henry Jr. [born to Richard and Sarah Evelyn Cost]
 
1880     (Jan.) Morris Elliott Cost [born to Richard and Sarah Evelyn Cost]   

1882      Wife of T.D. Salyers dies

1883      Little Katharine born to C[harles] D & Kate Salyers, lived 1 month

1884     T.D. Salyers married Miss Hanks

1887     Charles D. Salyers married Flora Geier

1885     Beverly Winslow Howe born to Wm & Lou W. Howe

1888    April - Chandler Harper Howe (only son) born to R[obert] J. and Alice Howe in Cincinnati 

1889    Nov.  C[handler] H[arper] H[owe] died, at 19 months, [ditto mark = Cincinnati]

going back
1877   Charles Theodore Kipping born to Fred and Julia Kipping (cousins of Flora Geier)      in Carrollton (afterwards husband of Leonora Howe)

1888    Amelia [Haskell] Salyers dies [grandmother of Sarah's future husband]

1889    Katharine born to William and Josie Fisher

1889    Ida Ruth born to Wm Levi [uncle to Sarah's future husband of the same name] and Sue Giltner Salyers (married 1886?)

1889    Katharine (Katie) Bell marries John Morgan Smith, June

1889    Sarah Goslee married Joseph B. Howe [also see his extensive obituary]

1890    (Jan.) John Howe [the Irish immigrant; Sarah's paternal grandfather] dies

1890    March, R[obert] J. Howe and family move to Carrollton – Howe Bros. formed with R[obert] J. & J[oseph] B. Howe, W[illiam] F. Howe in charge of mills

1890    Ruth Louise born to W.F. & Lou W. Howe, July. 1915- married Henry Schuerman Jr.  [Ruth and Henry's] Daughter Wilhehmina born 1916.

1891    John Irvine Howe died.

1891    Caby Varena born to Wm. and Sarah V [Howe] Froman

1889 or 1890    Mary Arison Cost [Sarah Eva Howe's paternal great-grandmother] dies, Cincinnati

1890    Elizabeth Voris Arnet [Sarah Eva Howe's maternal great-grandmother] dies

1892    David Arnet [Sarah Eva Howe's maternal great-grandfather] dies

1893     Elizabeth Howe Froman born to H[iram] M[cMakin] and Sarah Howe Froman.

1892    James Goslee born to Jos. B. and "Sallie" Howe (one son born previously died at birth)

1896    Dec., Leonora Alice [Sarah Eva Howe's sister] born to Robert J. and Alice Howe

1898    Robert King Salyers [brother of Sarah's future husband] died

1899    George Thompson Howe born to Jos[eph] & Sallie [Goslee] Howe

1900    Mrs. Jane Bell Howe dies

1921    Flora [Geier] Salyers [died]

1910     R[ichard] H[enry] Cost [Sarah's maternal grandfather] died

1917    S[arah] E[valine] Arnet Cost [Sarah's maternal grandmother] [ditto marks under died]
 
1910    Robert [James] Howe [Sarah's father] dies

1926    Charles D. Salyers [Sarah's father-in-law] dies
 
1939     Alice Howe [Sarah's mother] [dies]

1944     W[illiam] L[evi] Salyers [Sarah's husband] dies
 
1905    William Salyers and Sarah Howe married

1907    Robert King Salyers [Sarah's first-born child] born to above

1910    James Richard & Mary Alice [Sarah's twins] born to above

1915    David Hillis Salyers Jr. (and brother) born. [Sarah's second set of twins. The twin brother, named John, was stillborn. “Jr.” was actually “II.” David was named for his great-grandfather.]

The Front-Page Obituary of Joseph Brown Howe

Today's post comes not from one of Sarah Eva Howe's 72 scrapbooks but from The Carrollton Democrat, which at that time was published on the Saturday of each week. In the issue dated Dec. 14, 1929, more than half of the front page is about the sudden and unexpected death of Sarah's paternal uncle, Joseph Brown Howe. Thanks to Carolyn Williams of Carrollton, I have that entire section of the paper.

Joseph B. Howe died on Saturday, Dec. 7, 1929, one week before the Democrat announced his passing. No doubt most of the people of Carrollton, Kentucky, already knew about the death. Still, the editor considered the week-old news important enough to document it on Page 1. The photo and the story/obituary cover three of the page's six columns, and a personal tribute by Russel O. Dufour takes part of a fourth column.

The Carrollton Democrat, Carrollton, Ky., Dec. 14, 1929

The articles total almost 2,000 words. Here are some excerpts:

SUMMONS COMES SUDDENLY TO JOSEPH B. HOWE

The Democrat has never been called upon to chronicle a sadder or more lamentable death than that of Joseph B. Howe, prominent church and business man, who was summoned suddenly at his home in this city at 11 o’clock Saturday night. He had been at the store of Howe Brothers all day, very busy because of the approaching holiday season and in fine spirits throughout the day and evening, so when the news was heard early Sunday morning of his death it was almost beyond belief.

Mr. Howe had left the store shortly before 11 o’clock in company with his nephew, John J. Howe, the latter leaving him at the Highland avenue entrance to the Howe home. On entering the house Mr. Howe spoke of feeling slightly indisposed, but went into the yard, as was his wont, to get a pitcher of water from the cistern. When he did not return Mrs. Howe went to the door and was horrified to see him prostrate on the ground. ... She summoned the family physician, Dr. Holmes, but life had probably fled before Mr. Howe touched the ground in his fall.

In the death of Mr. Howe Carroll county loses a pillar in the business structure of the community. The Howe store had been established in 1859 by John Howe, father of the deceased, who had located in Carrollton in that year. ...

 [Here we skip the article's details about Irish immigrant John Howe. That information is available in three posts in this blog: "The Immigrant Ancestors: John and Sarah Brown Howe,"  "Howe's Business," and "Howe Brothers, Inc."]

Mr. Joseph B. Howe, the last surviving member of the original firm of John Howe & Sons, had seen the business grow from modest beginning to one of the largest and most complete department stores of its kind in northern Kentucky. Associated with the firm from boyhood, he had for many years been president and general manager of the incorporated company, and in great measure the success that has attended the enterprise has been due to his sound judgment, his splendid executive ability and his sagacious foresight.

For a man of his years, Mr. Howe carried his age lightly and made frequent trips to the leading markets of the East and Middle West. He was especially well known on the New York market. For a number of years he had been a director of the National Dry Goods Association.

As a citizen Mr. Howe was an outstanding man. No resident of the city in any walk of life had the interests of the community more at heart. It was his great desire to see Carrollton become one of the leading trade centers of the Commonwealth, and to that end he bent every effort, using every possible method to attract attention to the city, both through channels of business and by personal endeavor.

Carrollton will miss him — the city is not so rich in men of his high class that his death will not cause a wide gap; but he leaves an example that will stand as a mark to be attained by the ambitious youth of the community.

At the age of 14 years Mr. Howe became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his everyday life reflected the teachings of the Master. ... He was generous to a marked degree with his church — in fact, with all churches regardless of denominational lines. And not only was he liberal with his means but gave of his time without stint to church affairs. ...  

Mr. Howe was a man of charitable impulses. In him the poor and needy found a friend — it is likely that his own family knew not the extent of his benefactions.

Close-up of Newspaper Photo

He was a deep student of the Bible, a wide reader of the best literature and well informed on current events. His flowers were one of his hobbies, and they grew in beauty and profusion because he loved them.

His home was one of choice hospitality. There the ministers of his church found a hearty welcome, and there friends and relatives delighted to be guests.

. . .  Joseph Brown Howe was born March 7, 1857, in Champaign County Ill., one of the eight children of John and Sarah Brown Howe, and came to this city at the age of two years. One of [his] brothers died in infancy; one sister, Miss Lizzie Howe, a lovely girl, passed away at the age of twenty years; three brothers who were members of the firm during their life-time — William F., Robert J. and John I. Howe — have one by one answered the summon, while another brother, George T., died in young manhood. One sister — the youngest member of the family — Mrs. Sarah Howe Froman, wife of Hon. H.M. Froman, of Ghent and Lexington, alone survives.

On November 6, 1889, Mr. Howe was happily married to Miss Sallie Goslee, one of Carrollton’s noblest women, who has been in the truest sense a helpmeet to him. She is left to mourn, with their two sons, James G. and George T. Howe, the loss of a devoted husband and a fond father.

... There also survive Mr. Howe several nieces and nephews, one of the latter, John J. Howe, of Carrollton and Covington, being secretary of the firm.

At two o-clock Tuesday afternoon [Dec. 10, 1929] the last rites were held at the Methodist church.  ... The body was carried from [the Howe home] just across the street to the church, followed by the family and by the employees of the firm, who attended in a body.

The capacious auditorium would scarcely seat the family and those bound to them by close ties of relationship and business. In the hallways and in the class rooms on the first floor were many friends who could not be seated in the auditorium.

The service was conducted by the resident pastor, Dr. G.W. Banks, assisted by Rev. N.T. Chandler, of Newport, and Rev. T.W. Watts, of New Castle. ... The music consisted of soothing strains of old hymns rendered by the organist, Mrs. R.M. Barker.

Out of respect to Mr. Howe, who was dean of Carrollton merchants, the banks and business houses of the city were closed during the hours of the funeral, the business men acting as honorary and active pall bearers. ...

Relatives and friends from a distance called here for the funeral were:
Mrs. Jas. G. Scott, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Becker, Mr. and Mrs. Warren Green, Miss Jennie Shaw, Miss Margaret Shaw, Mrs. Harold Mitchell, Mr. I.G. Jasper, Mrs. Katie Smith, Mr. B.M. Harwood, all of Louisville, Ky.; Mrs. Annie Grimstead, New York; Miss Lillie Howe, Oxford, O.; Mr. and Mrs. Lem Gooding, Lexington; Mrs. W. L. Salyers, Lexington; Miss Lenora Howe, Lexington; Mr. and Mrs. Irvine Scott, Sparta, Ky.; Mrs. Ed. Bickers, Sparta, Ky.; Mrs. Joseph Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. Owen Scott, Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, Miss Lizzie Scott, Miss Mary Scott, of Campbellsburg, Ky.; Mr. and Mrs. C.F. Goslee, Roanoke, Va.; Rev. M.T. Chandler, Newport, Ky.; Rev. T.W. Watts, New Castle, Ky.; Rev. L.C. DeArmond, Ghent, Ky.; Rev. I.H. Driskell, Locust, Ky.; Rev. D.L. Rothweiler, Worthville, Ky.; Rev. S.L. Moore, Milton, Ky.; Mr. Oscar Levine, of Levine Bros., Cincinnati; Mr. Robt. Krake, of Levine Bros., Cincinnati; Mr. Robt Getty, of Alms & Doepke Co., Cincinnati; Mr. C.F. Irons, of Cincinnati Dry Goods Co., Cincinnati; Mr. Leirup, of Louis Levine & Sons, Cincinnati; Mr. William Sherman, of Sherman & Sons, Louisville; and Mr. Frank Mayer, of Sherman & Sons, Louisville.

A Tribute by Russel O. DuFour
To the left of the front-page article about the death of Joseph B. Howe is this personal note written by one of Mr. Howe's many friends:

Mr. Joe Howe

The shifting sands of life! The shifting sands — I like the phrase. It seems so apt to any one who has watched the tide come in; with all its mighty force and vigor, then slowly recede; shifting the sands on the shore; changing them; lifting a bit of driftwood, or perhaps a broken flower that some one has cast away, and carrying it back into the mighty maw of the ocean. So are we, the human sands; the human driftwood; the human flower, lifted by the receding tides of life, sooner or later, and carried out into the fathomless ocean of eternity.

It was my privilege and happiness to be a guest in the beautiful country home, which is now one of the show places of Carroll county, of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Howe Froman, with Mr. Joe Howe, on last Thanksgiving day, and other members of the Howe family; and on that day, only a short time ago, he seemed so alive and so interested in everything pertaining to life, that I can’t believe that he has followed the outgoing tide.

I remember how, on that day, when I first entered the room, his sister, Mrs. H.M. Froman [Sarah Varena Howe Froman, Joseph's only surviving sibling], had put her arm around him and said: “Russel, this is the only brother I have left!” How often the little things of life come back to us later with special significance. I wonder if some unseen influence did not prompt her to be just a little bit more tended at that moment, knowing of the separation soon to come.

For many years, the name of Howe has been synonymous with the name of Carrollton. It has always stood for everything that is uplifting and cultural in that city.

Mr. Joe Howe was a gentleman of the old school, a fine, upstanding man, and his passing means a great loss to the community.

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

Christmas Cards to the Howe Family of Carrollton, Kentucky – 1882 to 1920.

Merry Christmas! After a rash of technical difficulties followed by seasonal busy-ness, I'm back into the 72 scrapbooks of Sarah Eva Howe. Today we look at a few of the Christmas cards Sarah pasted into her earliest scrapbooks.

1. Possibly the earliest Christmas card in the collection – and the most unusual – is this one from the Cadet Engineers of the U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1882. The holiday greeting doubled as an invitation to a ball and several "hops" scheduled throughout 1882, so this card likely was mailed in time for Christmas 1881. I wish I knew who sent it and which Howe family member received it. Sarah wasn't yet born, so it could have been addressed to someone in her parents' generation. 

2. The verse on this card takes a whimsical approach:

3. The front of this card presents a drawing of an impressive home, with RosLea (the name of the estate?) written in one corner of the image.

Inside the card is a greeting and the name of the sender, Mrs. Thomas W. Graydon.  A physician named Thomas W. Graydon (1850-1900) lived in Cincinnati with his wife and nine children. Because the Howes of Carrollton, Kentucky, had family and business connections in Cincinnati, and because the doctor, like the Howes, had roots in Ireland, it's not a huge stretch to think this card is from the doctor's widow. (By the way, I think Sarah cut her parents' names from the envelope and pasted it on the card.)

 

 4. Grace L. Perry sent the Howes a Santa-themed card.

5. This card arrived at the Howe house from Mrs. Frank P. Giltner, who was indirectly related to the man who later became Sarah's husband.

6. Margaret Goslee was probably related to Sallie Goslee, who married Sarah's uncle Joseph Brown Howe in Carrollton in 1889.

7. Based on the "hope you are well" phrase they wrote on their card, I assume that Mr. and Mrs. P. J. Clark lived someplace other than Carrollton and did not see the Howes often.

8 & 9. A few cards, like these two with Santas, were geared to children. The first is from Emma Masterson. The second, after some cutting and assembly, becomes a toy.

10. Last but not least is this charmer, which I found in a scrapbook compiled by grown-up Sarah Eva Howe Salyers for the youngest of her four children. That child, David Hillis Salyers II, probably received this card circa 1918, when he was about 3 years old.

I enjoyed gathering these holiday images and getting a sense of Christmas customs during Sarah's youth and young-adulthood. I hope they brought you some holiday cheer, too.

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.