Texting has not the same flair… Wednesday, Oct 2 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events acairfearann 22:16

I haven’t done a letter excerpt from Julie and Morris in months, so here is a particularly fine passage from Julie, April 26, 1857:

“Now Dearest if you reach home once more in safety, as God grant you may, I will try if I can to make you happier than I have ever done. My boy, I hope the romance of your first love has not quiet died out. If so I must be in fault, for it ought to live always. I love you with the same kind of passionate fondness as I did at first. I feel the same wild thrill of pleasure when your image rises before me and I sit musing. Your voice has still the magic spell that held me and led me long ago almost against my better judgement to stay near you and listen to your words. I sit now as then, and ponder your dear ways….*….You inspired the first poetry of love I ever wrote and that bright star is still the brightest, and the dearest that shines in my Heavens.”

*It is a private love letter, nothing explicit but private indeed, and your editor is feeling old fashioned!

 

Botanical Art Thursday, Sep 12 2013 

Esperanza and gardening and Genealogy and Historical Events , , acairfearann 14:42

Again from the guestbook, this time by a cousin.  I use the term loosely, I have yet to understand how all the Smiths relate to the Palmers relate to the Websters relate to the Ellsworths relate to the…  Is Julia a closer cousin to Morris Smith than to William Webster Ellsworth? Possibly, possibly not.  In any event the genealogy is not my forte; I do know that there were any number of cousins living in NYC.  It is somewhat interesting to note; until recent times* Esperanza has been solidly Hartford/NYC/Hudson River/Adirondacks in orientation.  The 1870’s-1930’s group has not the slightest interest in points further south on the coast nor on points further north.  They are quite happy to jump to New Orleans, California, Europe, North Africa….but Boston and Washington D.C.? Different planets.

Anyway, botanical art:

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*recent = last three generations.

 

Bush Bluff Lightship Monday, Sep 9 2013 

Historic Photos and Historical Events , acairfearann 13:23

Your random photo of the day.  The Bush Bluff Lightship in the summer of 1909.  Anchored at the Elizabeth River in the Chesapeake Bay. http://cheslights.org/bush-bluff-lightship-2/  Taken on a trip south by the yacht Mavourneen

Bush Bluff lightship

 

From the Guestbook Saturday, Aug 24 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events , , acairfearann 08:42

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“This diagram is intended to convey a faint idea of the manner in which Mr. Carleton’s bedroom door was barricaded on the morning of July 31. The Besieging parties being Miss Nellie Rounce and her fellow conspirator Miss Nellie Yale.” July 1876

We don’t do that to our guests these days!  Mr. Carleton was Julie’s publisher and frequent summer guest.  I suspect that the ‘Miss Nellie Yale’ is Helen Yale Smith, not her namesake Helen Yale.  The latter was a close friend, but was not referred to as ‘Nellie’.  So, two teenage girls cheerfully making Mr. Carleton welcome!  It is the plethora of bottles that I find most interesting in that sketch…

Note that the door trim matches the Little Parlor, nice confirmation that the trim on that room was not modified when the fireplace was redone at the turn of the century.  The trim also suggests that Carleton probably had the long vanished bedroom where the main hall now is (as the only other possible bedrooms upstairs have plainer trim).  The main hall and the north end would not be built for another 17 years.

Note too our mysterious bird signature once again.

 

Architecture that didn’t Friday, Jul 26 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events acairfearann 12:52

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“Our artist, on hot, hotter, hottest afternoon in July, after a mild claret punch under the trees, dreams that a Swiss chalet sort of roof like the above would look rather nobby on the little Bow Window to the library”

From the 1879 guestbook. The bay window and the library (it would cease to be the library in 1893, when the present library was added) are on the second floor at the south end. The bay window is a simple one, in keeping with the classical lines of the rest of the house.  It looks exactly like the window in the sketch, minus the Swiss chalet top which was Not added!  The question is, ‘nobby’ is that a good or bad adjective?

 

Esperanza on July 4th, 1913 Thursday, Jul 4 2013 

Historic Photos and Historical Events , , acairfearann 09:10

1913001027

A parade by the various children visiting the house at the time. This was followed by a reading of the Declaration of Independence, and a short bit on it and the Constitution’s importance by William Webster Ellsworth.
I could probably, by process of elimination, figure out most of those children, but if any of the Amistad group reads this…I’d love a hand, since it is possible that they were here that summer?

Nothing like that here today. But still, give those documents a read if you have a chance.

 

On Spinning Wheels Thursday, Jun 27 2013 

Genealogy and Historical Events , acairfearann 09:57

A delightful excerpt from some recollections by Fanny (Frances) Smith, one of Julie Smith’s daughters, written around 1900-1910. Here she is talking about her paternal grandmother (mother of Morris Smith), Lucy Morris in the mid 1800’s, Hartford.

“I remember her very well, after dinner she used to come out of her bedroom in her grey silk dress and lace cap with purple ribbons, and bring out the dainty knitting she loved. There is a chair with a red knitted seat in the Esperanza keeping room I saw her work on. When she died there were linen sheets among her things which she had spun and woven. She said her mother was never satisfied unless there were three spinning wheels going in the house at once.”

I can’t think of what chair that might have been, unfortunately. And I don’t think the spinning wheel has any direct connection. Still a lovely picture.

 

Untold Stories Tuesday, Jun 25 2013 

Historic Photos and Historical Events , , acairfearann 11:54

Sometimes one hits a set of photographs and would dearly like to know more, such is the case with these two from summer 1909.

Image one: a group of children who appear to be determined to sink a canoe. The children are mostly unidentified, the location is somewhere in Long Island Sound. I think that one of the women in white is Lucy Morris Creevey.

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Image two: a rowboat has appeared, manned by George Creevey (complete with ever present pipe and tie), the man in the water is probably Perry, all-round deckhand on the Mavourneen. The children appear to be being scolded, the canoe is nowhere in sight. However, it is clear the photo is taken only shortly after the other one, judging by the positions of the people on the diving platform (complete with slide, can you imagine the splinters!?)

1909004004

And then what? And what is Perry standing on???

 

From the Guestbook: 1878 Tuesday, Jun 18 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events acairfearann 13:22

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I am not sure exactly who ‘Zenobia’ and ‘La Belle Peppermint’ are, but I do know that the latter was derived from a summer dress, striped red and white, at least judging by another cartoon of ‘La Belle’ showing a tall, slender woman dressed in a most remarkable dress of big diagonal stripes. Our clothes are very boring these days!

 

Summer Activities Tuesday, May 21 2013 

Genealogy and Historical Events , acairfearann 10:12

An excerpt from the very beginning of the yacht Mavourneen’s log by Lucy Morris Creevey, daughter of Helen Yale Ellsworth and William Webster Ellsworth. Lucy was married to George Creevey. Helen and WWE, like Julie and Morris, had known New York City well, but weren’t really ‘New York’ people (if that makes sense). George, however, was a New Yorker, despite his life-long love of the Adirondacks and camping. He worked in New York as a doctor, first as a surgeon and then in anesthesiology; his brothers, William and John, were also New Yorkers, involved in law and politics.
So it isn’t surprising that that most New York of activities interested him. Yachts. The Mavourneen was a motor yacht built in 1907, the family had it only till the outbreak of World War I when it has handed over to the coastal defense effort.
Lucy kept a detailed account of several of the trips they took along the east coast waterways and the St Lawrence/Champlain canal systems. George took excellent photographs as well.
“Thursday, Aug. 8 (1907)
Entire morning spent in puttering, until twelve o’clock, then Captain G. raised his flags and the M. was in commission! We had luncheon, said goodbye to all the Cramptons, and at eight minutes of three we broke out the anchor and off we went. The little Cramptons set off giant fire crackers and everybody waved and we were very happy at starting. She moved deliciously thro the water, the day was fine, and it seemed too good to be true that we were actually moving away from Morris Cove. Note: Do Not try to buy anything in the line of provisions at Cousin Eli’s grocery store, he hasn’t anything one wants and what one buys is sour.
We pulled in behind Duck Island Breakwater to lie there for the night. It was so warm that we thought we would get in for a swim. I came up in ballet costume to find the temperature lower by about forty degrees, a squall blowing and Captain G. busy finding another anchorage not quite so near the stern of a great black schooner that seemed to be dragging back upon us. We did get in a chiefly refreshing swim, then a sunset and dinner, soon to bed, and our first day was too joyous!
Saw porpoises. L.M.C.”

*the Cramptons were the family who built the boat down at Morris Cove, Ct.

 

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