Category Archives: Women of Norwich

Benny 1857

“Twas the Night before Christmas” is a poem recited often before Christmas, but perhaps we can begin a movement to recite this poem Titled “Benny” Author Unknown from the Norwich Evening Courier of January 31, 1857.

I had told him Christmas morning,
As he sat upon my knee
Holding fast his little stockings,
Stuffed as full as full could be,
And attentive listening to me,
With a face demure and mild,
That old Santa Claus, who filled them,
Did not love a naughty child.

“But we’ll be good, won’t we moder?”
And from off my lap he slid,
Digging deep among the goodies
In his crimson stockings hid;
While I turned me to my table,
Where a tempting goblet stood,
Brimming high with dainty egg-nog,
Sent me by a neighbor good.

But the kitten, there before me,
With his white paw, nothing loth,
Sat, by way of entertainment,
Slapping off the shining froth;
And in not the gentlest humor
At the loss of such a treat,
I confess, I rather rudely
Thrust him out into the street.

Then, how Benny’s blue eyes kindled!
Gathering up the precious store
He had busily been pouring
In his tiny pinafore.
With a generous look that shamed me,
Sprang he from the carpet bright,
Showing, by his mien indignant
All a baby’s sense of right.

“Come back, Harney!” called he, loudly,
As he held his apron white –
“You shall have my candy wabbit!”
But the door was fastened tight;
So he stood, abashed and silent,
In the center of the floor,
With defeated look alternate
Bent on me and on the door.

Then, as by some sudden impulse,
Quickly ran he to the fire,
And while eagerly his bright eyes
Watched the flames go high and higher,
In a bright clear key he shouted,
Like some lordly little elf,
“Sant Kaus, come down the chimney,
Make my moder have herself!”

“I’ll be a good girl, Benny,”
Said I, feeling the reproof;
And straight away called poor Harney,
Mewing on the gallery roof.
Soon the anger was forgotten,
Laughter chased away the frown,
And they gamboled ‘neath the live oaks
Till the dusty night came down.

In my dim, fire-lighted chamber,
Harney purred beneath my chair,
And my play worn boy beside me,
Knelt to say his evening prayer:
“God bless Fader – God bless Moder,
God bless Sister – then a pause,
And the sweet young lips devoutly
Murmured, “God bless Santa Kaus!”

He is sleeping – brown and silken
Lie the lashes, long and meek,
Like caressing, clinging shadows
On his plump and peachy cheek;
And I bend above him, weeping
Thankful tears – Oh, undefiled
For a woman’s crown of glory,
For the blessing of a child.

Blessings of the holidays to all!

Thank you for reading and sharing my history and Norwich Community blog freely with your family or friends or anyone you think might be interested or in a position to take on some of the suggested projects. Don’t hesitate to contact me for further information. I am happy to pass along anything I can. Together we can make a difference. Email me at berylfishbone@yahoo.com View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs

Blood Partnership

The American Red Cross has been hounding me lately for a blood donation but I have been dealing with seasonal allergies and sinus drip so they’ll just have to wait until later in the season when I am feeling better. In the mean time . . . I thought of something else that could be done that might benefit two or more organizations.

In the archive vault of the Leffingwell House Museum in the Almy collection is a personal letter from Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross thanking Mrs. Almy for her recent assistance.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the American Red Cross Blood Drive Trailer was brought to the museum parking lot for a blood drive while the letter was on display to the public? Blood donors having the opportunity to see the letter for free all others pay admission. Just a thought to encourage bringing some of the lesser known treasures of the Society of the Founders of Norwich, CT forward to the public eye.

I also had another fundraising thought for the museum knowing how much some of the members enjoy costume play. With a little research the character of Mrs. Leffingwell, a well-known Norwich area nurse could be developed and perhaps some of the tales of her patients and their care could be told. Medical care played an important part in the development of Norwich, CT with many clinics, practices, hospitals and surgeries opening and closing as they were needed. The stories are plentiful and expose a seldom heard part of Norwich history.

Thank you for reading and sharing my history and Norwich Community blog freely with your family or friends or anyone you think might be interested or in a position to take on some of the suggested projects. Don’t hesitate to contact me for further information. I am happy to pass along anything I can. Together we can make a difference. Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs

Women Voters of Norwich

Women’s suffrage is the right of women to vote and stand for elected office. I like to put this blog forward every fall around election time to remind everyone how important it is to exercise the privilege of voting. I hope I will be seeing you there.

In 1756 Lydia Taft voted in Uxbridge in the British colony of Massachusetts. In 1869 women in the Wyoming territory voted. In 1902 21 women are listed as eligible voters of the City of Norwich Connecticut.

The voting districts were different back then. Jennie Swan of 71 Maple Street and Grace Willey of 52 Asylum Street were from the 2^nd district. Both women were married Jennie to Amos an electrician with Eaton, Chase & Co and Grace to Herbert a cigar manufacturer.

The other 19 women were from the 6^th district. Eliza Avery, 8 Hamilton Ave; Jennie Briggs, 15 Penobscot; Addie Billings, 1 Hamilton Ave; Mary Billings, 1 Hamilton Ave; Rachel Buell, Mulberry; Nettie Bushnell, 64 Main; Minnie Campbell, 5 Elm; Jennie Davis, Corning Road; Mary Green, 21 Penobscot; Elfie Harris, Mulberry; Harriet Harris, Mulberry; Ida Mathieu, 68 Main; Nellie Rathbun, 18 Williams Ave; Nellie Service, 9 Hamilton Ave; Sarah Spaulding, 20 Main; Annie Storms, Palmer; Amelia Vetter, 1 Hamilton Ave; Ellen Williamson, 62 Main; and Elizabeth Young, Palmer

What were the issues that brought them to the polls? Were they registered despite their husbands or fathers or with their encouragement and support? On a shelf, in a trunk or a box or a chest in the attic or cellar is there a diary, a book or a record that can give us some insight into the lives and reasons that they registered and voted? What were their emotions? How did it feel to cast those ballots? If you are a relation of any of these women were you ever told a story about how they became a voter? A family tale or legend? Now would be a good time to share those tales with us.

Norwich Embroidery

I was reading a Norwich Bulletin article by Elmer F. Farnham from May 1959. His well-researched article relates information about a seat cushion cover that was presented to the City of Norwich, CT in 1907 from the Norwich Cathedral in Norwich, England.

It appears a complete set was originally given to the Norwich Cathedral for use in the corporation seats by Mayor Thomas Baret in 1651 and If Frances Caulkins is correct and it was his cousin Christopher Baret who was the Mayor in 1634 and 1648 and also a cousin of Margaret Baret Huntington, wife of Simon Huntington, and the mother of Christopher and Simon Huntington founders of Norwich, CT.

C.E.C. Tattersall, once of the Textile Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London wrote in a book titled History of British Carpets where he described the design as , “A large shield with the arms of the city of Norwich in the middle, the rest of the field being filled up with detached floral devices and birds. The border has a wavy stem, quite oriental in character.”

Embroidery of 18^th and 19^th Century Norwich, CT has the unique characteristic of a completely filled in background allowing for none of the cloth background to show through. I wonder if this was a way to show off the wealth of a community rich in sheep, fertile land and water leading to a wide variety of dyes in large supply for the home spinners and mills of flax, and wool?

J. Dorcas Fellows

Modern Norwich, CT residents insist upon doing and following along on what has been done in the past; yet the successes of its residents all lie upon their leaving Norwich to break the rules and succeed somewhere else.

Take for example Jennie Dorcas Fellows. She was born in Norwich, CT April 4, 1873. Then I found precious little except she was a library assistant at the Norwich Peck Library from September 1892 – 1895; an assistant at the New York State Library in February 1899 and she earned her diploma in Library Sciences in 1905. She also is credited with working in a number of large and mostly political private libraries until she became an instructor in elementary cataloging, accession and shelf work at the New York State Library. In 1911 she was elected to faculty membership.

In 1914 Fellows book, Cataloging Rules, was first published as Bulletin 36 of the New York Library School. From 1921 to 1937 Fellows edited the 11th edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification after the death of May Seymour. But, it was the well received 25% larger, 12th edition she was fully responsible for. It was this edition that “has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.” The 13th edition was one-third larger than the 12th edition growing the tome to 1,647 pages.

By all reports, Fellows became the successor of Melvil Dewey (the father of modern librarianship and spelling reform), even changed the spelling of her name from Dorcas to Dorkas, and published the classification using the reformed spelling standard.

Today, we recognize the spelling reform, in text messaging. A common example is this from a letter sent between Fellows and Dewey, “d n order paper. I l get tt I tym. Give whn redi t order final decision o syz & weit.” Could you read the phonetic spelling?

In 1927, Fellows moved the DDC editorial offices from the Lake Placid Club to an office in the Library of Congress. Shortly afterward, Decimal Classification numbers began appearing on the Library of Congress cataloging cards sold to thousands of libraries.

Fellows died in 1938 while working on the 14th edition of the classification.

Thanks to M. Whitney of the NY State Library and the Hathitrust Digital Library.

Dr. Julia H. Gulliver

Norwich, CT has been the birthplace of numerous exceptional women. Women, that quite frankly, most of us have never heard about, such as Julia Henrietta Gulliver.

Born July 30, 1856 to Reverend John Putnam Gulliver and Frances Woodbury Curtis in Norwich, Ct. Julia and her siblings of a sister, two brothers and two who did not survive early childhood moved around the country regularly during her early years. She and her family left Norwich in 1865 for a pastorate in Chicago. In 1868 the family moved to Galesburg, IL where her father served as a President of Knox College for four years before leaving for another Presbyterian pastorate in Binghamton, NY where Julia graduated high school before becoming a member of the first class of the newly established Smith College in 1875.

Julia’s senior thesis in 1879 on dreams was published in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy in April 1880. She continued her education in philosophy with her father who by 1878 had joined the faculty of the Andover Theological Seminary and in 1888 earned her doctorate in philosophy from Smith College. Before 1900, fewer than 200 women had ever earned Ph.D’s.

Two years later she was appointed head of the Department of Philosophy and Biblical Literature at Rockford Female Seminary (Renamed Rockford College in 1892) in Rockford, Illinois. During 1892 and 1893 she was the only female in a class of two hundred men at the University of Leipzig studying under European psychologist, Wilhelm Wundt.

In 1902 Dr. Gulliver accepted the role of President of Rockford College adding programs of home economics, pedagogy, library science, and secretarial studies, banned sororities, doubled the endowment, and earned national accreditation before retiring in 1919 and moving to Eustis, Florida to live with her sister until her death July 25, 1940 at age 94.

Her book Studies in Democracy was published in 1917 and supports the theory that increased participation by women in politics would increase peace and unity in society rather than discord and strife due to their nature as natural conservators and nurturers.

Carrie Nation Visit

Norwich, CT has had some amazing visitors in the past. Individuals such as Carrie Nation who was a leading radical member of the temperance movement. She opposed alcohol before Prohibition and is famously known for attacking alcohol-serving establishments with a hatchet.

Her visit to Norwich was reported in the Norwich Bulletin of September 13, 1905. Mrs. Nation spent three days traveling to Norwich from Ohio and included only Danielson and Berlin in her Connecticut tour.

Mrs. Nation expressed great pleasure at being able to give her opinions to the people of Norwich and hoped to speak to a great number of them about the evils of the drink habit and especially of the harm done by the cigarette habit to the youth of America.

In response to a question regarding her future conduct concerning the stamping out of the liquor trade in the United States she stated that she had given up the work of closing out the saloons with the aid of a hatchet and had come to the conclusion that the redemption of the country was not in the hand of one person, but could only be accomplished with the aid of the ballot. It was stated that by the time of her visit to Norwich she had been in jail for her work twenty-five times, which did not include the number of times that she had been arrested and allowed her liberty on bail or in default of complaint.

According to the Bulletin article when Nation started for Norwich she sent the following telegram to the directors of the fair association: “ Get me a room at a hotel with no bar,” but as Norwich did not have such a place she had to be accommodated in a private family. She was of the opinion that a person could run a hotel, cater to his guests and serve them in proper shape without drugging them.

Mrs. Maria D. Gorton

On October 13, 1890 a very important notice appeared in the Norwich Bulletin regarding the death of Mrs. Gorton of Norwich, CT.

Mrs. Gorton was another female leader of Norwich who is mostly forgotten and certainly overlooked in the history of Norwich. She began a tradition of kindness and cheer that is still seen in 2017 whenever you stop by to visit family or friend at the Eliza Huntington Memorial Home on Washington Street. Wouldn’t it be nice if her tale was added to the stories told on the Washington Street walks of Norwich?

Death of Mrs. Gorton

Mrs. Maria D. Gorton, the matron of the Eliza Huntington Memorial Home for Old Ladies on Washington Street, died Saturday morning after an illness of nearly two years, at the age of 82. Mrs. Gorton took the home when it was opened in October, 1872, under the provision of the will of the late Jedediah Huntington, and managed the affairs of this beneficient institution with conscientious fidelity until the feebleness of old age required her retirement, when her daughter, Miss Adelaide M. Gorton, who has been an efficient assistant, assumed the responsibilities of the institution, and has since conducted its affairs with the same kindness, prudence and faithfulness that marked Mrs. Gorton’s management, and made the home a model institution and a real home to its inmates. Some of the best years of her life Mrs. Gorton devoted to cheering and making more comfortable the declining years of her own sex, and although aging herself, she mainatined an even disposition and an impartial regard for those in her keeping and care which few can command in youth and visor of life. Miss Gorton will prove a worthy successor to the matronship, and with the training she has had will keep the institution a model home. The funeral will take place Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock.

Jennie I. Ojedor

Is a photograph worth more than a thousand words? Maybe. Sometimes. But then there are times that the written word gives a fuller picture of the matters heart.

For example on April 18th, 1906 there was a terrible earthquake in San Francisco, California. There are photographs, actual movie footage, articles, books and a few movies made of the historic event; but I introduce to you a letter published in the July 5, 1906 Norwich Bulletin. Kings Daughters Boxes Bring More Thanks – ‘Frisco Refugees Very Grateful for Norwich Favors.

“Another interesting letter has been received from ‘Frisco by Mrs. H. H. Gallup in reply to the boxes of goods sent by the King’s Daughters of this city, and, like the others, shows the gratitude of those assisted. The letter follows:
Jefferson Square,
San Francisco, June 24, 1906

Mrs. Irena Gallup, 127 Washington Street, Norwich, Conn.:

Dear Madam: – Permit me the favor of addressing a few lines to you in order to thank you for the benefits which I have received from you through the kindness of Mrs. Matilda brown of Oakland. I had not seen that good lady for a long time and it seemed the the good God directed me to her home at the time your box reached there. It was lucky for me, as I received from her kind hands some beautiful new underwear, shoes and other articles of clothing that I was very much in need of. And, O, the bag, I must not forget that, as it is such a complete little treasure in itself. Every time I open it I pray for the kind hearted ones from whom I received it. Dear Mrs. Brown also gave me a complete outfit for a little refugee whose mother had not the first thing ready, and O I wish that you could only have seen how happy she was when she received it. So right here I will take occasion to thank you for her also. No one can realize what we poor refugees have suffered since that ill fated day of April 18th. Thrown out of bed, and every second while the house kept rocking I expected to see the walls fall in and crush me to death. When that shock was over I looked out and saw all the houses that had fallen and the people trying to extricate the dead. O, it was so sad, so awful, but that was not all. When I looked out a few minutes later I saw the houses on fire all around me. My son came rushing in and said: Mamma, dress as quick as possible; our house is doomed. We must get out at once. And in ten minutes I walked out of where I had lived for twenty-two years with nothing but what I had on my back, my scotch collie and my dear little parrot. My son took his grip, a pair of blankets and a rug. We crossed the street and while my son went to find a room for me I stood and saw all the beautiful things that I had treasured up from different parts of the world for forty years, many with sacred associations that can never be replaced, go up in flames, and not one dollar in insurance. My son found a room several blocks away and in going there my collie became frightened and ran away. So my son went in search of him, and before he returned the house I was in was condemned and I had to take my poor little parrot and go out in the street again, all alone. Then I started for the home of a friend ten blocks from there, but while resting on the way a lady who was standing at her door told me that she would care for my bird until I could come for it. I was gone two and one-half hours, and when returning met the lady, who informed me that she had been ordered out by the military and had left my pet on the sidewalk. Someone carried it away. Meantime my son returned to where he had left me, but found the whole block in the charge of the military. Then he was almost frantic looking for me, and I the same about him. I stayed that night at my friends house and at 7:30 a.m. The soldiers gave us the three minute limit to get out. So we started for the parks and squares and in less than ten minutes after we had reached Van Ness avenue we were all lost to each other, and when my friends husband found her five days later she was hopelessly insane and is now in the Napa insane asylum. O, how many have gone her way! I drifted out to where I am now, but did not find my son for seven days later. But my case was not the worst, as there are many who have not found their dear ones yet, and, what is worse, never will.

Now, my dear madam, pardon me if I have wearied you, as I could not help thanking you for your great good heartedness; also that you may know that what you have sent came into the hands of really needy refugees and not to those who are making a fortune out of our misfortune.

Hoping that God will remember you as kindly as you have us, I am always,
Yours gratefully,
Jennie I. Ojedor

This letter tells me more than a photograph. How about you?

A Persistant Woman

I love re-discovering bits of forgotten Norwich history. I take pride in once more giving a name to the people of action who grasped responsibility and took the actions necessary to get things done. In Norwich it was usually a struggle and against the odds and the advice of others. As people travel past the fountain on Washington Street I hope someone will remember to tell this little tale. Bravo Mrs. Hubbell! May your fighting spirit continue to live on in the residents of Norwich, CT.

From the August 25, 1906 Norwich Bulletin, The Fountain and Birds and Beasts. – What a persistant little woman did for God’s creatures.

It “is always a pleasing sight to passengers waiting on the Trolley cars in Franklin Square to note the enjoyment obtained by the birds and the cats and the dogs of the little low-down troughs in the Franklin Square fountain and the large dogs ‘ bathtub on the back of that quencher of thirst for human beings and horses; but few people remember how that fountain came to be such a perfect boon for man and bird and beast.

In the days when that fountain was designed Mrs. Lucretia Bradley Hubbell was a more active woman for years than any other woman in Norwich and, like her friend, Dr. Walker, she was doing things for others whenever she could find an opportunity. When she first broached the subject of making those little animal troughs her views were simply laughed at, but by her persistent effort that fountain was made a perfect servant for all God’s creatures.

When the birds are drinking and bathing there on hot summer days and the setter dogs are bathing in the rear trough and the pet pugs and smaller dogs are rolling in the little pools of water beside the fountain, those familiar with its history witness the fruits of one persistent woman’s sympathy and love for dumb creatures. The wisdom of her work is shown by the creatures she spoke for in these close and sultry days.”

The fountain has moved but God’s creatures are still enjoying the troughs now filled with flowers. Thank you once more Mrs. Lucretia Bradley Hubbell for your caring, persistance, and foresight.

Norwich Nuggets

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