This story was written by my mother, Judith Anson Robinson, as a tribute to her grandmother, Edith Hall Stone. Rather than retype it, I've taken photos of the typed article.
Article by Judith Anson Robinson, written 1974, copyright 2021.
People mentioned in this article, l to r. Helen Stone Prebil, Mabel Rowley Hall Lattimer, Edith Hall Stone, Ruth Stone, Lois Stone Anson. Children: Raymond Prebil, Judith Anson, Sharron Peterson. Four generations
The beloved satin quilt given to my great-grandmother Edith at Christmas 1945. My mother treasured it all her life, and I've had it since my mom passed. I store it folded, behind glass, to keep it safe from my cats' claws. Considering the life of poverty my ancestor experienced most of her life, this satin quilt must have been a great luxury.
Leonard Robinson and Opal Carter were married on June 30, 1921. They were married for 54 years, until Leonard passed away in 1975.
Leonard held several jobs before he married, including as an Iowa coal miner, and a carpenter (builder) in the US Expeditionary Force based in France during World War I. Opal was a school teacher in Iowa during the nineteen-teens. She had a high school education, but probably had to pass a teaching exam to earn a certificate. Opal lived at home with her parents in Albia, Iowa, while teaching, but she and her colleagues would have had to follow regulations in this "Rules for Teachers" list.
1915 Rules for Teachers
1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.
2. You are not to keep company with men.
3. You must be home between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless attending a school function.
4. You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores.
5. You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you have the permission of the chairman of the board.
6. You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother.
7. You may not smoke cigarettes.
8. You may not dress in bright colors.
9. You may under no circumstances dye your hair.
10. You must wear at least two petticoats.
11. Your dresses must not be any shorter than 2 inches above the ankle.
12. To keep the school room neat and clean, you must sweep the floor at least once daily, scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water, clean the blackboards at least once a day and start the fire at 7 a.m. so the room will be warm by 8 a.m.
This certificate of marriage was recorded in Albia, Iowa, in 1921.
After Leonard and Opal married, they moved from Iowa to northern Minnesota, where they bought a two-story log house with unfinished cellar, a small barn, and a well with a hand pump. Though the house had electricity, it didn't have plumbing, so the upstairs bedroom, divided by hanging sheets, had chamber pots that had to be emptied in the outdoor privy. Baths were taken in a relatively small galvanized tub with water carried in and warmed on the wood stove in the kitchen. I remember these features from the family reunions held on the farm in the 1960s, when I was a little girl.
My mother, Judith Anson Robinson, painted this Robinson log house in 1956 when she was 19.
When my grandparents, um, "bought the farm" in 1921, the house was already there, probably from about 1900. My dad and his older siblings were born in this house. Because it was vacant, being used and abused by deer hunters, etc., it was decided to torch it rather than suffer the potential liability. I think that was in the 1990s. As the house burned, it fell into the root cellar my grandmother used as a larder for 50 years.
Leonard and Opal had five children: Dale, who died in infancy; and four who lived long lives and had numerous children: Donald, Audrey, Carolyn, and Kenneth.
After my father passed away in 2012, and his (second) wife three years later, the executor for his wife's estate sent me some of the heirlooms my dad had kept over the years. I assume that Dad gave a number of the things on my list to antique or thrift shops, or gave them away to his wife's family and friends, because sadly, the wooden coffee mill and crank butter churn I wanted were not among their possessions. They had two telephones: one from the home across the road from my grandparents' farm, which we had in our house from the 1960s on; and the other one, pictured here, from my grandparents' log house. This one has a heavy battery inside, whereas the smaller, darker-finished one was empty, and therefore light enough to mount on drywall. I don't know what happened to the smaller phone.
This crank phone may have been manufactured between 1880 and 1900. I don't know if it came with the house or if my grandparents purchased it used. When my dad was growing up, the phone was on a party line and anyone could know your private business!
Of my grandma's two daughters, four granddaughters, and many great-granddaughters, I'm the unmarried one. She left me her wedding ring. And I wear this lovely, smooth gold ring every day.
Along with two hand-stitched quilts, I inherited my paternal grandmother's 100-year-old wedding ring.
Center in photo: Opal and Leonard Robinson with his parents in about 1921-1922. Leonard's parents were Lyman "Wesley" Robinson and Mary Isabella "Belle" Hamner, the two people on far left and far right.
This is a hand-quilted bow-tie design. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a girl was expected to make quilts and keep them in a "hope chest" for her future household. There's a good chance that Opal's mother, Nancy Evaline Swinney, also worked on these quilts.
This quilt is done in lavender postage-stamp quilt blocks. I keep the 100+ year-old quilts in plastic blanket bags now, to save them from dust and pet hair. I have pets that enjoy tearing through the house occasionally, coming to a screeching halt on the bed, so I can't use the quilts as they were intended.
In 1971, Leonard and Opal celebrated 50 years of marriage.
In 1991, Leonard's and Opal's four children and many grandchildren held a reunion in Wisconsin. Opal is sitting in the lawn chair at the lower left.
My cousins received several cherished mementos from Grandma Opal, including quilts, embroidery, a few porcelain dishes, and other domestic items from a long life. My brother inherited Grandpa Leonard's WWI Army uniform.
I was working with some of my family history records and found this little book that was given by my great-great grandmother to my grandmother when she was a baby. Then when I was a baby, my grandmother gave it to me.
The original giver was Maria Elizabeth Harper Stone, 1850-1929.
She sent the little book to her granddaughter, Lois Elizabeth Stone, 1913-1997. The photo is of Maria's daughter-in-law, Edith Hall Stone, with her firstborn, Lois, in 1913.
Lois, who was my grandmother, sent it to me when I was a baby in 1960. This was the photo taken within hours of my birth.
I don't have children, so I'll leave it to my niece Rachel for her descendants.
I've photographed the book from cover to cover, including the inscriptions. Enjoy!
The inscription is from my grandmother Lois to my mother, Judith.
Though I've had a copy on Kindle for a year or so, I ordered a hard copy of Vol 1 of an 1851 book called The Works of John Robinson, Pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers, an anthology of his books, tracts, correspondence, and a memoir collected by Robbert Ashton. I've written several times in my history blogs that Rev. John Robinson was my 9th great-grandfather (12 generations). He lived from 1675 to 1625, passing after a short respiratory infection at age 49.
One of the chapters in Vol. 1 is "The Descendants of the Rev. John Robinson," traced by Rev. William Allen, D.D., 1784-1868, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and member of the American Antiquarian Society, and of the Historical Society of Maine, New Hampshire, and New York; and formerly Congregational minister, Pittsfield; regent of Harvard University; and president of Dartmouth University and Bowdoin College, Maine.
Since the book and chapter are well out of copyright, I will reproduce parts of it here.
*********
"Many a man," says Milton, "lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life."
As Mr. Robinson did not live a burden to the earth, but a benefactor of the world; so it is a great satisfaction to witness now a reviviscence of his valuable but long forgotten writings, and to perceive, that they are to be accessible to a great multitude of his Puritan followers.
It is but the truth to say, that many tens of thousands of Christian men hold his name in honourable remembrance. He yet lives by his example, and by the influence of his sacrifices and toils; and in the third century [1851] after his death, he enjoys the singular distinction of being equally honored in the east and west, -- in two countries separated by a mighty ocean.
Doubtless the natural inquiry will now spring up in many minds--Has Robinson "a life beyond life" in a different sense from being the author of "a good book?" Does his "life-blood" still flow in the veins of descendants who are the imitators of his virtues?
In answer to such inquiries I am happy to be able to say, that I have recently conversed with several of his descendants, who bear his name, ministers of the gospel, who receive and love the same truths which commended themselves to his intellect and heart, and who, by reason of their descent from him, feel an incitement to preach faithfully the same pure, uncorrupted gospel of salvation, which he announced to his fellow-men, and in the maintenance of which he was constrained to flee from his beloved native land, finding, as an exile, his grave among strangers. Useful and distinguished men, now deceased, have been also among his descendants, of whom the following is a brief account.
... ... [The author gives pages of descendants of Rev. John Robinson's son John and daughter Faith, focusing particularly on the ministers who were descendants, but no mention of Isaac's descendants. Isaac is my ancestor.]
From this very imperfect and incomplete account of the descendants of Robinson, it will be concluded that they are very numerous, scattered over New England and other States of the Union: it will be seen that they are in various respectable and useful stations in life.
The pride of ancestry is not a very commendable emotion; but the consciousness of being descended from the excellent of the earth--the servants and friends of God--whose example lives in faithful history, and the benefit of whose prayers, long since uttered, may descend even to us, should be an incitement to the imitation of their virtues, and to strenuous efforts in the cause to which they were devoted.
After surveying the life of the illustrious Robinson, in respect to whom we are assured, that he has passed away from the toils of the earth to the paradise of God, how can the words of the great Head of the Church fail to come with new force upon our heart--"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life!"
My third-great-aunt, Louisa Salyers, married at age 12.75 in 1847, had a baby son at age 14.5, and died at age 14.75. Her husband was only 19 when they married, so at least he wasn't an old lecher, but obviously, such an early marriage and childbirth didn't go well for the girl. The husband remarried, had more children, and died at age 50. The baby lived to 76 years old.
Woman holding dead baby, 1850s. Photo: Evergreen College
I have no idea why Louisa Salyers married so very early. You can't tell by census records because they listed the male head of household by name, and then females or males of certain age ranges, but not by name. This was Ripley County, Indiana, and they were very poor farmers. From records I found, Louisa married on 4 July 1847, had her baby 6 April 1849, and died four months later. Is it possible that she was pregnant when she married, lost that pregnancy, then became pregnant with her son James? We may never know.
Negative implications surrounding teen pregnancies are a relatively new concept. Women in the 1800s were expected to marry early in life with many being married before the age of 20. Early marriage was not only expected, but necessary. Life spans were significantly smaller in the 1800s and the sole reason for women was to procreate and support the men in their lives. In 1800 the average household consisted of seven children. https://www.babymed.com/blogs/summer-banks/has-teen-pregnancy-always-been-taboo
Louisa's older sister, Leticia Salyers, got married at 16 and had her first child at 19. She gave birth 15 times.
Leticia Salyers Edens was the sister of my ancestor.
Louisa's and Leticia's younger sister, my great-great-grandmotherHarriet Salyers Swinney (grandmother of Opal Carter Robinson),got married at 22 and had her first child at 23, who was my great-grandmother.
The Salyers sisters were part of a family of thirteen siblings. In the 19th century they had so many children that they only had a few years of formal education, and the audit of their goods when they died showed not enough plates or chairs as they had mouths to feed.
Harriet Salyers, my great-great-grandmother, was lucky to marry into a slightly more prosperous Seventh-day Baptist family. Her husband was Daniel Webster Swinney and they had five children.
Harriet Olive Salyers Swinney was my direct ancestor.
Recently, on one of my genealogy/DNA sites, I connected with a descendant of Louisa Salyers McIntire. The site estimates us as third cousins, perhaps because we have more than one ancestor in common, but the way I figure it through the Salyers sisters, we're fourth cousins twice removed.
This screenshot is set to my ancestor Harriet, but the ancestors for the Salyers sisters would be the same, of course.
*****
Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click a highlighted title):
On 16 September 1620, the ship Mayflower
departed Plymouth, England for the New World, carrying 102 passengers.
Two months earlier, the Speedwell had left Leiden, where the English separatists had lived for more than 10 years. The Speedwell took on water and had to be taken out of service, so its passengers and cargo were transferred to the Mayflower.
The Mayflower Compact, signed on 11 November 1620 by the Pilgrims at Cape Cod, set up their new colony as a "civil body politic," that is, not a theocratic or religious government. It's true that only a few years later, they were undertaking punitive measures for what they considered ungodly behavior, from chopping down a Maypole in 1627 to beating and imprisoning Quakersin the 1650s, but it appears that their original intent was to form a secular government for both the Saints and the Strangers, the commercial investors on their expedition. They had already endured government oppression and prison terms for their religious practices and desired peace and security.
“A ship comes into the harbor. Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are;
and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation.”
-- Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford,
in his book, "History of Plymouth Plantation."
I had several ancestors who risked their lives on the Mayflower, some of whom died in the first winter of scurvy or other nutrition-related pestilence while others survived and raised families in Plymouth, Sandwich, and Barnstable. Early in 1631, after a perilous winter passage on the Atlantic, John Robinson's youngest son Isaac arrived in Boston on a desperately needed food-relief ship (with lemons to cure Boston's scurvy) and settled in Plymouth Colony. He had numerous children, who also had large families, and nearly 400 years later, here I am with the Robinson surname, both common--and special because of the legacy of principled compassion of Rev. John Robinson.
*****
Christy K Robinson, 12 generations removed from Rev. John Robinson,is the author of five-star nonfiction and fiction historical books, (click the colored title):
I
direct the early music group Passamezzo [www.passamezzo.co.uk],
an established ensemble known for their ability to bring historical events to
life through their engaging performances and programming. We specialize in
English Elizabethan and Jacobean repertoire.
2020
marks the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower from the Netherlands and England to Plymouth Colony, and so it seems appropriate
to record a CD of music to celebrate this event. Our programme aims to recreate
the world of those on board ship: the Saints (the Pilgrims), the Strangers, and the sailors.
In
Autumn 1620, the Mayflower left
England. In addition to the ship’s crew, there were 102 passengers: religious separatists,
merchants, their families and apprentices, all seeking a fresh start in the New
World.
This
much is well known. What is perhaps less widely known is that Elder William
Brewster (one of the passengers) had three books of music with him.
The
first of these was Henry Ainsworth’s translation of the psalms, with simple
melodies. We have taken the title of our programme They that in Ships
unto the Sea down go from Ainsworth’s translation of psalm 107.
The
second book was another psalter: Richard Allison’s Psalmes of David in
Meter. This is a beautiful collection of music in “table-book” format,
so that the musicians and singers could sit around the book and sing or play
from different ends. These are quite elaborate, with 4 voices, and lute and cittern
tablature.
This
ties in with John Taylor’s statement in his Threefold Discourse
(1642) that the founder of the Separatists “was a singular good Lutenist, and
he made his Son Timothy usually on Sundays bring his Viol to
Church and play the Base to the Psalmes that were sung, so far was he...from
being an enemy to Church Musicke.”
The
final music book was Richard Johnson’s Golden Garland of Princely
Pleasures and Delicate Delights, a collection of popular songs. There
is great variety in this, from ballads telling of the purported grisly deeds of
Richard III, or the death of Lady Jane Grey, to moral songs, and the exquisite
lutesongs of John Dowland and Thomas Ford. For the others on board, there are sailors’ songs, and rounds, and other
music for mariners.
And
for the merchants, songs and dances to tell of some of the wonders that they
hoped to find in the New World, and, of course, tobacco: we have a song about Kawasha,
the god of tobacco, from a masque of 1614 where he “had on his head a Night-cap
of red cloth of gold, close to his skull, tied vnder his chin, two holes cut in
the toppe, out of which his eares appeared, hung with two great Pendants, on
the crowne of his Cappe a Chimney, a glasse chaine about his necke, his body
and legges of Oliue-colour stuffe, made close like the skinne, bases of
Tobacco-colour stuffe cut like Tobacco leaues, sprinkled with orcedure, in his
hand an Indian Bow and Arrowes....The Sergeant of Kawasha carried on his
shoulder a great Tobacco Pipe, as bigge as a Caliuer.” The health giving
properties of tobacco are also enumerated in other songs…
Kawasha, the god of tobacco
The
programme includes music by: Richard Allison, Louis Bourgeois, Thomas Campion,
John Dowland, Thomas Ford and Tobias Hume.
It
will be a rich and varied programme, and one that is exciting for us, as we
believe that much of the material in William Brewster's music books has not
been transcribed or performed since the 17th century. We hope that this
recording will bring a new insight into the musical soundscape of the Mayflower.
Although
we have received grants to cover much of our costs, we still need to raise more
money to make this project a reality. We would be very grateful for any help
that you can give us!
Tamsin Lewisstudied violin at the Florence Conservatoire before
reading Classics and Italian at Oxford. She has written, arranged,
directed and played music for
many theatre productions and is a member of the Lions part theatre
company. She performs frequently on violin, viols, lute and harp and
directs the Early Music consort, Passamezzo.
Tamsin is also a freelance consultant on historical music, costume
and dance and has published a number of books for Rondo Music
Publishing.
Particular areas of expertise are popular music and song, broadside
ballads, Elizabethan and Jacobean masques, iconography and theatre music
in early modern England.
****************
Note from Christy K Robinson, blog owner:
Many thousands of Americans can claim ancestors who were passengers on the Mayflower, or who emigrated to Plymouth Colony shortly after its founding. Knowing something about the lives, tastes, occupations, and associations of our ancestors is more interesting than simply connecting to a name and birth and death dates. Decades of research have led to writing numerous books, magazine articles, and hundreds of blog posts, as well as speaking about Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer at historical events and in a television documentary.
I've also been a professional church musician from the age of 10, with an interest in religious music from medieval literature to contemporary styles, so making the acquaintance of Tamsin Lewis and her research and expertise is a pleasure. I hope you'll support the funding of Passamezzo's recording project with your pounds, dollars, or euros.
