Saturday 8th (March)
Father started for Piqua, this morning, but certainly thought something dreadful was going to happen because we were all so cheerful. In the evening Mssrs Bigger, Hunt, and Printiss came in also Cousin Thomas Spooner and Kate Spooner. We had a nice oyster supper and spent a very pleasant time. Cousin Elizabeth and Mr Bigger took the front parlour, Libby and Mr Hunt the sitting room, Mr. Printiss and I the dining room, Caroline went to bed and Cousin Thomas and Kate went home. Mr Printiss tormented me nearly to death and I was heartily glad when he went to bed. This day is ended.
No doubt they were “all so cheerful”, making plans for an un-chaperoned party. Just imagine the fireworks if Father had asked Uncle Samuel to drop in to make sure the girls were all right! Albert Lewis may have assumed that Caroline, a twenty-three-year-old married woman, would chaperone his daughters. But Caroline was grieving. Her husband, Joseph Wilson, had left many months ago to follow the gold rush to California (1850 Federal Census). Both her young children are dead, both before reaching the age of two. Little Emma died in March, 1849, shortly before the birth of Joseph William. He died January 19, 1851, less than two months before this party (Spooner 175). So Caroline went to bed.
Serena gives us a few hints about her home. There is a front parlor, the formal room for entertaining guests. Since she calls it the front parlor, there may also be a second rear parlor. The sitting room is a more informal “living room” for the family.
Cousin Thomas Spooner lives on the south side of Longworth, between Elm and Plum (1850-51 Williams' Cincinnati Directory). The 1850 U. S. census shows him as a thirty-three-year-old merchant, but there is no Kate or similar name in his family group. In 1850, Thomas, his wife Sarah, and children Henry, Sarah, and William, lived in Ward 2 of Cincinnati, in the home of Laura Haviland and an eighteen-year-old Anna Haviland. No relationship has been established with the Havilands. According to the Spooner Memorial, Thomas is the son of Reed Spooner and Serena’s aunt, Abigail Lewis. The wife and oldest child of Thomas Spooner died in 1850, after the Census was taken. Two children, Sarah Abigail Spooner (aged four) and William Reed Spooner (aged two), survive in 1851. Cousin Thomas will marry Frances Maria Leonard, the sister of his first wife, October 9, 1851 (Spooner 146). The only Catherine or Kate Spooner to be identified at this time is Catherine Smith Spooner, the wife of Thomas Spooner’s brother William (Spooner 152).
Cousin Elizabeth should be easy to identify. The 1850 U. S. Census lists an Elizabeth Lewis, age twenty-five, in the household. A thorough search of the Lewis family yields no daughter by that name, born about 1825, and still living in 1851. Perhaps she is a widow, Elizabeth Somebody, married to a deceased Lewis cousin. No likely suspects are found. Census data are only as good as the information that the census taker gets and records. The person who provided the information for Serena’s family did not know the last name of the servant James. Perhaps the maid gave this information. Perhaps Cousin Elizabeth was so much a part of the family that the maid assumed her last name was Lewis. She and Mr. Bigger seem to be an item. James Bigger will marry Elizabeth Spooner in June of 1851. Who is Elizabeth Spooner? She is the daughter of Reed Spooner and Abigail Lewis, the sister of Albert Lewis. She is Serena’s cousin! She was born in November, 1824. Her mother died in 1830 and her father died in 1835, so she may have been raised in the Lewis household. Cousins Thomas and William Spooner are Elizabeth’s brothers.
No comments:
Post a Comment