The Mystery of the Missing Bonnet

Jan 12^th: Sunday 12^th

This day arrived in all its glory but as I looked at the persons going to church I felt sad to think that I had to remain at home. I had no bonnet and therefore was not able to go out. Mary Masson came down to see me in the morning and staid until almost dinner time. How different did I feel to what I did in Piqua. If I live to see my 30. 40. or 50^th year I can then look to the Sabbath I spent in Piqua with much pleasure. Then I can speak of the sermons I heard there with delight. This day passed pleasantly for that dear one spent the day staid to tea and left an early hour for home.

She had no bonnet? What can she mean? She had gone to church three times the previous Sunday. Did she leave her bonnet in Piqua? Is it “I had no bonnet” as in “I didn’t have a thing to wear”? Is a bonnet required now that she is eighteen years old, but not before, when she was seventeen? It is probably the latter. In the 1850s, bonnets are “the only proper headgear for ladies, at least in town” (Severa 102). Lucy Ware Webb described bonnet styles to her uncle, John C. Cook, in a letter in 1848. “I will [now] tell [you] the fashions. The bonnets are trimmed with strips of velvet over all the bonnet, or with deep blue ribbon, and pink or cherry bows in sides” (Marchman 48).

The 1850 U.S. census shows Mary E. Masson, age sixteen, born in Ohio, as part of the Mansfield Masson household in the 11^th Ward. Mansfield Masson is a carpenter, aged forty-three, born in Pennsylvania, with real estate valued at $3000 ($78,000 in 2010 dollars). Mary Masson, age forty, born in

England

, is probably his wife. Children, ranging in age from twenty-two to two, are: William, Catherine, Mansfield, Mary E., Ann E., James, Francis, and Clara. M. B. Masson, a builder, has his offices on the west side of Culvert, between Sixth and Seventh. His home was on the corner of Liberty and Wilson (1850-51 Williams' Cincinnati Directory).

Mary is one of Serena’s friends from Wesleyan Female College. Her name appears in the 1848-49 and 1850-51 Catalogues, but she is not listed in the 1852-53 Catalogue. Her sister, Ann E. Masson, is in the 1850-51 and 1851-52 Catalogues (Wesleyan Female College). Mary Masson is not listed in the programs for commencement exercises for the years 1845 through 1859. Anna M. Masson will graduate on Thursday evening, June 30, 1853, at Wesley Chapel. Her composition will be “The Fields are white for the Harvest, where are the Laborers?” (The Alumna 1859:60).