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

Bits & Pieces: Mystery Women; the Carrollton High School Class of 1923; Social Notes from the Carrollton Democrat; and More

Now and then, a "Bits & Pieces" post shares scrapbook items that don't fit neatly within posts about the Howe-Salyers family. Still, the random photos, cards, and clippings must have been important to the family. They may still be important to readers who had ancestors in Carrollton, Kentucky and nearby communities. This post includes a lot of names and faces.

1. Can You Identify The Women? The Buildings?

This image, cut into sections, features 27 women who appear to be in their teens or early 20s. A high school class? A social organization? A group of office workers?

The image offers a few clues about time and place:

1. Written on the bottom section: "Photo by Otto White, North Vernon, Ind." North Vernon is less than 50 miles from Carrollton, and Otto White was a prominent professional photographer in the area from the mid-1890s until at least 1934. [Source: Lieber's Photo News, May 1934, p. 9; cited in an online post about early North Vernon photographers]
2. Written on the top section: A date: "Oct - 24 - 1923"
3. A sign on a building in the background: "J.P. Taylor Co." A web page of the Library of Virginia reveals that the company was connected with Universal Tobacco Company, a major player in the tobacco industry during most of the 20th century. The company was based in Richmond, Virginia, with offices in other places, including Carrollton, then a major tobacco market. There is no mention of a company location in Indiana.

Based on these factors and the hometown of our scrapbooker Sarah Eva Howe Salyers, I think chances are good this image was taken in Carrollton.

Can you provide the names of anyone in the photo or identify the location?
UPDATE: A Facebook viewer, Carolyn Williams, identified the building as the original Carrollton High School on Seminary Street, where the middle school is now. Thank you, Carolyn.
Notice below that the list of 1923 Carrollton High graduates includes 11 girls. Could they be in this photo, along with other girls at the school?

2. Graduation Day 1923, Carrollton High School

Commencement Program Participants:
Rev. B. Lehr, Miss Coghill, Miss Schirmer,
Miss Greenwood, Professor J. T. C. Noe,
Mr. O'Donnell, Rev. Robert B. Smith

Senior Class (a few related to Sarah) 
Anna Voigt Becker
Mary Nell Coghill
Julia Aileen Davis
Lenora Greenwood
Effie Harsin
Helen Elizabeth Jett
Anna Belle Lindsay
Ruth Howe Lindsay
Martha Janetta Nicklin
Anna Katherine Raney
Opal Maurine Schirmer
Roman Alexander Browinski
Richard Joseph Framme
Charles William McManis
David G. Pryor
Howard C. Robertson
Ralph Newton Taylor

3. The Good Ol' Days at the Pharmacy

Imagine paying $2 for four prescriptions! Sarah Eva Howe Salyers did just that in January 1923. She also bought an atomizer for 85 cents plus four rolls of shelf paper and four rolls of crepe paper – at 10 cents a roll – for the Carrollton School PTA. This bill from Ford-Driskell Drug Company, "The Home of Pure Drugs," tells the tale.

Maybe some of you with Carrollton ties can make out the name written under the printed word "Salesman." Bill Kendall, maybe?

4. Names in the News

Here is a summary of social notes from newspaper clippings (likely from the Carrollton Democrat) pasted into the same scrapbook. While the clippings are undated, they come from pages containing items from the early 1920s. Below the summaries are images of the first three articles.

1. Johnson-Luhn Wedding – Lillian Florence Johnson became the wife of Henry G. Luhn, Jr. in a ceremony at St. John's church at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26. [Oct. 26 was on a Wednesday in 1921, so that could be the year.] Officiating: Rev. B. Lehr. Attendants: Hilda Luhn and Frank Luhn, sister and brother of the groom. Parents of the groom: Mr. and Mrs. H. G. Luhn.
2. Death of Mrs. Charles Brown – Alma M. Welch Brown, wife of Charles R. Brown, mother
   of infant Charles Robert Brown. Based on date references in the obituary and a posting on Findagrave.com,  I estimate that she was born in 1906 and died in the early autumn of 1925.
3.  Milton Woman Bitten by Snake Large as Man's Wrist – (reprinted from Madison Courier) – August 20 – Mrs. Allen E. Smith, wife of the pastor of Milton Methodist Church, was bitten three times close to the ankle by a copperhead snake while in her garden. She sought help from a neighbor, Mrs. Harry Voiers
4. News from Ghent: • Mrs. Oliver Tyson died at the home of her son in Madison on Friday, August 17. [Aug. 17 occurred on a Friday in 1923.]  • Miss Carolyn Platz entertained Wednesday evening for her guest, Miss Rogers, of Covington, with a delightful garden party.  • Mrs. F.B. McDonald, Misses Linnie and Callie McDonald, J. M. Bond and John L. McDonald motored through central Kentucky this week.  • John Tandy is enjoying a two weeks' vacation from the bank.  • Mrs. R. O. Dufour and children, after a month's visit with relatives in Geoegia, returned home Saturday afternoon.   • Miss Margaret Scott entertained with a picnic supper in honor of her visitor, Miss Elizabeth Toby, of Harrodsburg. The following guests were present: Miss Wilson, from West Virginia; Miss Caroline Platz and her guest, Miss Daisy Orr, of Covington; Miss Margaret Ford, of Georgetown; Misses Martha Scott, Mariam Gex, Anna Katherine O'Neal, Mary Long and Ruth Ellis; Messrs. John Long, Will Ed and Gex Diuguid, Will Parker, John L. McDonald, J. M. Bond, Emmett Montgomery, Leslie Terry, John Heady and Victor Ellis.

 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Sometimes these incidental little newspaper bits can help genealogists make family connections. I hope you found some familiar names here.

FIRE! FIRE! Carrollton Business District Burns – Again, 1895

In Ashes Are Some of Carrollton's Finest Houses

Special dispatch to the Enquirer
Carrollton, Ky., September 5. – Fire broke out in this city to-day at 12:30 o'clock, and as a result the following buildings, with their contents, are in ashes: Mrs. Gertrude Smith, three business houses, occupied by M. & M. Denkelspiel, general merchants; Browinski & Son, druggists; and H.J. Kuhlman, shoe merchant; C.D. Salyers, stove store and stock. The loss on this property is fully $65,000. All of the parties have reasonable insurance, except Mr. Kuhlman, who has none. Fifteen other persons and firms were damaged more or less by the fire and intense heat, bringing the total loss to nearly $75,000. The post-office and Jett's large whiskey house were saved only by the most heroic fight, but the post office was greatly damaged.

Cincinnati Enquirer, September 6, 1895

That article and an undated, unattributed article that may or may not refer to the same fire, were not in Sarah Eva Howe's scrapbooks, but I found them online, thanks to the folks who manage and contribute to Northern Kentucky Views.

Sarah's scrapbooks inform us about the impact of the fire on the Howe family. She identified the date of this photo as "after the fire," 1895.

 Family letters tell the tale. This card is to John J. Howe from his sister Lille. (Both were Sarah's first cousins, children of her father's brother William F. Howe.)

Dear John – Fire broke out yesterday morning in the rear of Browinski Adcock's store – soon checked however – more damage from smoke and water than from fire. The store was full of smoke when Papa went in yesterday, but hope we can get allowance from insurance to cover damage. Salyers also got full benefit of smoke.
Hastily, Lille
Monday Morning

Apparently, Lille's card didn't reach John as soon as his family expected. This letter is from his mother,  Louisiana "Lou" Winslow Howe.

Dear John – We received your letter to Papa and were surprised that you had not heard of the fire at the time of its writing. There was no essential damage to the goods in Howe Brothers, but the injury to their reputation induced the insurance adjuster to allow them damages. They do not consider it wise to be advertising just how much they got but part of it was paid yesterday and that enables them to offer their stock at reduced rates. They had a fine trade yesterday. Called on Jen to act as cashier and their deposit at 4 o'clock in the afternoon was considerably over 200 dollars. We expect you home next Thursday. I send you a copy of the Directory which if you are not ashamed of you may leave with cousin Bessie for her mother.
Yours lovingly,
Mamma

 In later scrapbook pages, Sarah wrote a comment about the ability of the City of Carrollton to combat fires.

When the “fathers” started to put in the Carrollton “water works” in 1895, they dug the reservoir up on the side of the highest hill outside town. The pipes were all laid & the reservoir ready in the fall of 1895 when the terrible Main St. fire broke out when Mr. Salyers’ last big store was burned — but there was no water yet. . . . There was some water in the reservoir but not very much – muddy and dark looking.

The Howe family had experienced a business fire before. Their Carrollton Woolen Mill, the first of the family businesses, caught fire in 1878.

“A part of the woolen factory owned by John Howe & Sons was destroyed by fire to-day at one o'clock, while the hands were at dinner and the watchman left in charge.  the picker-house, about ten feet apart from the main factory, took fire and was entirely consumed,  Loss about $4,000, and insured for $2,700.”   

Cincinnati Enquirer, November 23, 1878

According to another newspaper article, undated, one block in the Carrollton business district was destroyed or severely damaged by fire four times in 20 years. Some merchants lost their businesses multiple times. The article mentions several of the same businesses affected by the fire of 1895, but I can't be certain that it refers to the same fire. The website, Northern Kentucky Views, includes these excerpts and links to news about those fires:

“A destructive fire occurred at Carrollton, Ky., Sunday. One-half of the most valuable block of buildings in the center of town was destroyed. The principal sufferers are Messrs. Thurman, Martin, Booker, and Hamilton & Smith. The amount of losses is not stated.”

New York Times, September 22, 1874

A fire that started in the grocery and hardware store of D.O. Wilkins on Main Street destroyed a row of eight businesses and damaged several others. An article about the fire, with a list of businesses ruined, appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, October 16, 1884

 Other major fires not in the business district:

“The distilleries of Messrs. Root & Co., and Mr. Snyders, at Carrollton, were  destroyed by fire last night, together with all the contents and a large number of hogs. The loss is estimated at $100,000.”

 NY Times, July 8, 1854

“J. B. Rollin's ice plant was destroyed by fire early today.  the loss is estimated at $8,000. The fire was supposed to have been of incendiary origin.” 

Cincinnati Enquirer, April 7, 1915

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

In 1895-96 or so, when the Carrollton, Kentucky, school board voted to do away with the high school grades, a number of dissatisfied families removed their children from the public school in favor of a Carrollton Seminary, also known as "Mr. English's school." The Howe family and a number of related families – plus several that would become related to them through later marriages – were strong supporters of the private school, and Sarah wrote in the scrapbooks about the education she received there.

In one of the scrapbooks is this faded photo, marked as taken in the fall of 1896.

Writing much later, possibly 1925-1935, Sarah named as many of the students as she could recall.

I posted a transcription of this list in an earlier post, but I had not found the photo then. Here's the list again. In transcribing it, I've offered alternatives or question marks when the writing isn't clear. I welcome corrections.

6th Grade: Beverly Howe, Cooper Winslow

8th Grade: Jenne Howe, Mamie Merrill, Sallie Howe (our Sarah, third girl from the right on the front row), Florian Browinski, Dick Stanton, Vachel Rowland

Freshmen: Will Rowland, Giltner Donaldson, Thelma/Velma Donaldson, Effie Browinski, Howie/Norie(?) Foulk, Anderson (Daisy) Adcock, Harry Grobmyer, Harold Grobmyer, Will Shoesmith

Sophomores: Chowning Shepherd, Will Garriott/Garnott, Anna Butts, Grace Snelgrove, Bob Salyers, Virgie Giltner, Oscar Kipping, Will Barrett, Jim Chowning, Barrett Cox

Juniors-Seniors: Lewis Darling, John Howe, John Adcock, Allen Gullion, F.B. Forbes, Kirby Cox, Will Arnold, Evertson Ashby, Charlie Kipping, Ralph McCracken, David Jett, Charlie Blessing

Sarah's Notes: I think Minnie and Bessie Shoesmith went for awhile, too. Kenny (Henry?) Darling came in our Freshman year, also Carroll Gullion.

Sarah lists 39 names, and I see 37 faces. I'm assuming the bearded man in the front is none other than John T. English, the head of the school, and maybe there is another teacher or two in the group. One is likely to be Sarah's cousin Lille Howe, who was recruited to teach there when she was 19.

If only Sarah had said which face went with each name. There's a lesson for all of us: With group photos, name each person by the position in which he/she appears in the image -- but, of course, do not write on the original photo! Make a photocopy of the photo, write the names on the copy, and attach the copy to the back of the photo using archival tape or adhesive. Another approach: Attach the original photo with archival tape or adhesive to a larger sheet of acid-free paper and use acid-free ink to write identifications (or attach the marked-up photocopy) below the image.

Sarah's scrapbooks are teaching me a lot about how to preserve photos, clippings, and letters for future generations to discover.

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.

Some Things Never Change – The Presidential Election of 1896

Though Sara Eva Howe was only 13 years old in 1896, she was tuned in to politics. Today, as we reflect on the contentious presidential primary and general elections of the past few years, we can appreciate Sarah's memories of the equally contentions campaigns of Democrat William Jennings Bryan and Republican William McKinley. To this day, historians call that year's presidential election one of the most dramatic and complex in American history. No wonder Sarah had such vivid recall as she wrote about it some 15 to 20 years later.

I'm no political historian, so I poked around on the internet to learn about the presidential election of 1896. If I understand correctly, Republican William McKinley drew most of his support from businessmen, bankers, professionals, skilled workers, and prosperous farmers, all of whom stood for gold as the U.S.A's currency standard. Democrat William Jennings Bryan was supported by his own party plus the Populist Party and the "Silver Republicans." His campaign blamed the wealthy for impoverishing America by limiting the money supply, basing it solely on gold. He supported coining more-abundant silver to restore prosperity.

I've added my own comments in brackets within the following transcription of Sarah's writing.

The fall of 1896 found us politically minded indeed, for it was the great gold standard, silver standard campaign, and William Jennings Bryan was running for President for the first time on a platform of “Free and Unlimited Coinage of Silver,” which many thought meant lots of silver money for everyone! Just as the cry of McKinley and Protection, or The Full Dinner Pail or even The Gold Standard prejudiced many, including my young and impressionable self, in its favor.

Papa, being a Prohibitionist, was of course not directly concerned, but Uncle Joe [Joseph B. Howe] swerved from his former support of the Prohibition ticket (he voted for it before Papa did) to vote out and out Republican – so did Mr. George Winslow (also a former Prohibitionist). We privately thought their intensely Republican spouses brought this about.

Uncle Will [William Ficklin Howe] supported the Gold Democrats, who had on a ticket Palmer and Buckner. Uncle John Smith never would tell how he voted, which was an admission of something or other. Feelings ran higher than at any election, I believe, since the Civil War, and think of what the fuss was all about – Money!

Of course, the Salyers folks [who became Sarah's in-laws in 1905] were all Republicans – and Mrs. King [probably Mary Catherine Mayfield King, the grandmother of Sarah's husband] herself was for “gold” and had many arguments with Uncle Alec Trout who was for Bryan. (Uncle Bill Fisher too was Republican.) We all wore campaign buttons, and many were the arguments in our class of six at school.

Note on the election business
In our class there were two silver Democrats Vachel and Dick Stanton
2 gold Democrats Florian [Browinski] and Jenne [Howe]
one Republican Mamie Merrill
and one Prohibitionist (goldily inclined) - myself.

To pursue the election excitement a little further, we were wildly excited for the returns. Papa kept coming in and telling us how it was going as he spent most of his time at the Court House and nobbing with the Republicans (as he said); they were getting their returns by wire there.

Democratic Campaign Poster, 1896 --
By Amos Currier [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Republican Campaign Poster, 1896 --
by Gillespie, Metzgar & Kelley [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

On election day Nov. 3, 1896, the national voter turnout of 79.3 percent, and some places reported a turnout exceeding 90 percent. (Compare that with the substantially lower turnouts over the past few national elections!) McKinley, who had a campaign budget of $3.5 million (equivalent to $3 billion today!), outspent Bryan 5 to 1 during the campaign and won the election with 51.03 percent of the vote.

If this post stirs your interest in the election of 1896, please search the internet for articles about them. A general search finds a half-million or more sites about this topic.