Awhile back my husband and I found a small box that my father had sent to me in the year before he died. It had been overlooked because it was dwarfed by the larger items he had sent, which included a large oak bookcase for my daughter when she eventually has room to put it. We moved stuff around in storage and, lo and behold, there was this box.
In the box was this gorgeous photo in a frame. At first, I had no idea who it was, but then my husband, said, “What are you talking about? She looks like you and your family.” So I looked again and realized it had to be my great-grandmother Clara. To be sure, I compared it with a photo of Clara and her husband Charles when they were young, perhaps their wedding portrait, and it was the same woman.
Then I found something to go with the apparent graduation portrait of Clara. A book given to her by a classmate, Alice J. Wilson. Alice might have been the daughter of Manuel Wilson and Helen Freeman of Caledonia, Kent County, Michigan. I am guessing the girls went to high school together.
The book in question is this:
This book of essays with poetry was published before the girls were born, in the 1850s (they were born in 1884), and was extremely popular when it came out. The author was the father of the Oliver Wendell Holmes who became a Supreme Court Justice. The father was a doctor, a poet, and a writer.
The book was popular probably because it used humor and variety. Still, it seems heavy reading for young people by today’s standards.
The Family Kalamazoo 