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1903-06-28: ​tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Canton Ohio, June 28, 1903

Dear Alma:-

Probably you think I have been doing nothing since Commencement but I have written ten letters so it is no wonder I have not written to you.  And besides I had to make eight calls.

You see I received so many presents that it kept me busy thanking my friends.

I think you will be very much surprised when you see all the pretty things that were given to me.

I will name them all for you so as to make my letter long.

Aunt Euphemia sent me two books, Sesame and Lilies and Timon of Athens.  They are small books with beautiful flexible leather bindings.  Ada Simeral [???, Julia and Mrs. Bidwell each gave me a Jar [what???].  But when Mrs. Bidwell found that I had two others she exchanged hers.

Grace Hanlin sent me a Steubenville souvenir spoon.  It has a silver handle and a gold bowl with the Steubenville court house on it.  And she had ECS engraved on it.  It is a beauty.

I got three other spoons.  Florence gave me one and Aunt Lida [???] Uncle Frank and Mabel gave me one.  They both have such nice heavy handles.  Papa gave me a Canton High School souvenir spoon.  It is very pretty too.

I received six lovely handkerchiefs.  One from Aunt Christine, one from Dora, one from Mary McGregor, one from Aunt Lydia, one from Grace Keller, and one from Miss Rose and Mary Sell.  Dora made the one she gave me.  There is a good deal of drawn work in it and it has lace around the edge.  I carried it to commencement and also to Mrs. Smith’s recital.

Miss Hetty Shryiock [???] sent me a beautiful silver belt [illegible word ???].

Mrs. Braden sent a blouse set and Rena Crawford a lace turnover.

Helen Kirk gave me a very pretty china plate so now I have fourteen.

I have hatpins galore now so I am prepared to lend if you want to borrow.  Bessie Boring [???] gave me a golf [???] set.  On one she had Eva engraved and on the other June 17, 1903.  They are very pretty and Maude Weidner [???] gave me a hatpin also.

One of the prettiest things I got was a picture of six of the old masters of music.  It is stained walnut and the pictures are raised from the wood.  Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Shubert are in the front row and above them are Mozart and Shumann and Wagner is at the top.  It is not very large but I was very much pleased with it.  I hung it right above the piano.  Grace Clark gave it to me.

Steenie sent me a stick pin.  It is a piece of pearl with a gold serpent twined around it.  It is very odd I never saw anything like it.

Aunt Mary gave me a dollar and I put a little more to it and bought me a sash.

Nellie Jones sent me a fancy bow.  It has a French name but I can’t remember it.

Miss Shryock gave me a dollar, Fred a dollar and Uncle John gave me three dollars.  I haven’t spent any of that money yet.

Laura gave me that Cupid so now I have the satisfaction of wearing my own jewelery.

Now don’t you think I got a lot of nice things?  I am very proud of them.

Commencement was very nice this year for it was not tedious as it usually is.  Dr. King just talked forty-five minutes and Mr. Baird fifteen.

I had lots of compliments on my singing.  Even people that were not there told me that they heard I had sung well.

I hope you will think my dress is simple enough for it was the plainest one there.

Mama does not remember whether or not she told you that Mrs. Smith’s pupils were to give a concert.  Well anyway they gave a recital Thursday night.

I won’t send you a program because I only have two and I am going to send one to Will.

Miss Pfendler, Rackle, Lehman, and I all sang a double number.  And Romona Smith the daughter of the Lutheran minister sang a solo and then was encored.  Mrs. Smith and Mr. Krause sang a duet.  Then there was a ladies quartet composed of Mrs. Smith,  Miss. Pfender, Miss Rackle, and Miss Lehman.  They sang a double number and then a number with Mr. Krause.  And Mrs. Smith and I sang a duet.  I sang Nita Gilana and Poppies both by DeKoven.  And Mrs. Smith and I sang Sing, Smile, Slumber by Gounod.  It is a beautiful thing.  I also got a good many compliments up there.

Everything was very pretty and after the program Mrs. Smith served ice cream and cake.  She had her house decorated with weeds and everybody would admire the bouquet when they came it and then when they found out what they were they just laughed.  Mrs. Smith gave me a new song at my last lesson.  It is “My Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair” by Haydn.  It is a German song and sounds very old fashioned.

Mrs. Smith gave it to me because she said everybody that pretends to sing should have it.

A postal card yesterday for you from Maude Porter.  It is a private mailing card from Hanover, Germany.  It has a beautiful scene on it and she said she expects to land in New York on the 10th of August.

The factory closed yesterday for a weeks vacation.  Fred and Arthur Clarke are going up to Turkey Foot Lake.

Miss Shryock is going to take me to the Massillon Asylum some day this week.  Aunt Mary thinks she will go too.

Yesterday our class (at school) had a picnic at Congress Lake.  We all went as the guests of Miss Poyser because she belongs to the club.  The class paid for the dinner at the hotel.  There were 28 that went so the dinner cost the class $14.  We each paid our own fare which was fifty cents.  Then we each took something for supper.  We had the use of the boats all day, the bowling alley, and the tennis court for nothing so of course we made good use of the opportunity.  I was on the water most of the day.  I never had such a nice time at a picnic.

Our basketball girls have $15 to spend so I am going to propose that they take Helen Poyser and go to Congress Lake again.

Miss Shryock was here when I was writing the beginning of this letter.  And when she left Aunt Mary came so if you find many superfluous words in you may know it is some of their conversation.

Mama just took Aunt Mary home and I better get ready for bed.  Now don’t put off coming home until next week because we have waited long enough for you.

With love,

​Eva
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1903-06-28​: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
Aunt Euphemia sent me two books, Sesame and Lilies and Timon of Athens.
About Aunt Euphemia: I looked quickly through Barb’s printout and didn’t find her.  She is probably a real aunt, since our Aunt Laura (Eva’s older sister) was Laura Euphemia Stokey.

Goodreads says: “John Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, first published in 1865, stands as a classic nineteenth-century statement on the natures and duties of men and women.”

Kathleen Farmer Stokey gave her school friend Margaret Jackson a copy of Sesame and Lilies.  Margaret mentioned it in a 4/16/1910 letter that I haven't uploaded yet.

2.
Grace Hanlin sent me a Steubenville souvenir spoon.
​and
Papa gave me a Canton High School souvenir spoon.
Because of the present from Papa Charles, this letter is included in:​...as an indication of Papa Charles's relationship to his children.

I now have the spoon that Papa Charles gave Eva, and also the Steubenville spoon from Grace Hanlin.  Grace Hanlin was a Gracey cousin.  Here's a picture of them, though alas I am no photographer.  The upper spoon is the Steubenville Court House, and the lower spoon is Canton High School.  Incidentally, the spoons look gold in the picture.  When I look at them in real life, they are silver.  I do not understand this.
​3.
I got three other spoons.  Florence gave me one
Florence is Florence Bidwell, mentioned in Eva's 6/5/1898 letter: ​She's in the Non-family Ohio folks page.

4.
I received six lovely handkerchiefs.  One from Aunt Christine, one from Dora, one from Mary McGregor, one from Aunt Lydia, one from Grace Keller, and one from Miss Rose and Mary Sell.
I need to check on Aunt Christine.  Eva's middle name was Christine.  Will mentions Aunt Lydia in a letter from the Philippines around 1905, and Grace Keller is a Provines/Gracey cousin.

5.
Mrs. Braden sent a blouse set and Rena Crawford a lace turnover.
Mrs. Braden was a next door neighbor to the Stokeys in Canton.  I'm not sure she still was at this point.  There's a non-family page on this website for the Bradens.

6.
Steenie sent me a stick pin.  It is a piece of pearl with a gold serpent twined around it.  It is very odd I never saw anything like it.
Steenie is Abastenia St. Leger Eberle.  I've got her in the Non-Family page for Mabel, Lil, Steenie, and Orestes.  Steenie became a sculptor and has a Wikipedia page, so it's not surprising that her present was out of the ordinary

7.
Aunt Mary gave me a dollar and I put a little more to it and bought me a sash.
Aunt Mary was Mama Margaret's older sister Mary Provines Hicks.

8.
Mama does not remember whether or not she told you that Mrs. Smith’s pupils were to give a concert.  Well anyway they gave a recital Thursday night.
Mrs. Smith was clearly Eva's singing teacher, paid rather irregularly, perhaps - seeThank you very much for the money Mama and I were both glad to get it.  I gave five dollars to Mrs. Smith

9.
I sang Nita Gilana and Poppies both by DeKoven.
Wikipedia says: 
Henry Louis Reginald De Koven (April 3, 1859 – January 16, 1920) was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas.
He composed “Oh Promise Me,” the well-known wedding song.

10.
The factory closed yesterday for a weeks vacation.  Fred and Arthur Clarke are going up to Turkey Foot Lake.
The factory was the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company - see:
Turkeyfoot Lake is one of the Portage Lakes.  Wikipedia says:
The Portage Lakes are a group of glacial kettle lakes and reservoirs in Northeast Ohio.
I asked AG about Arthur Clarke, and she didn’t remember the name.  AG does have some camping pictures from back then, and either AG or her son Pete remembered a camping story from Uncle Fred about a wet shoe being put on a stick over the fire to dry, and of course it fell in.

11.
Yesterday our class (at school) had a picnic at Congress Lake.
Congress Lake is not one of the Portage Lakes.  The Congress Lake club’s history pages says: “Originally founded as the Canton Outing Club in 1880, The Congress Lake Club Company was incorporated in 1896. The new club’s founders included Governor (and soon to be President) William McKinley.”

12.
Miss Shryock is going to take me to the Massillon Asylum some day this week.  Aunt Mary thinks she will go too.
Why did they go to the Massillon Asylum?  It was apparently an insane asylum.  Who was there?  Or was it a charitable thing?

13.
On Alma’s address: Google Maps gives me Walnut Drive and Walnut Boulevard in Ashtabula, but no Walnut Street.
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