Between the Lines: Family History and Quirky Stories From Our Forgotten Past

  There were three Taylor sisters who settled in Fort Wayne. The oldest, Laura, became known as the “Mother of Fort Wayne.” The second, Eliza, married the man who came to be called the city’s true founder, the wealthiest, most influential man in town, Samuel Hanna. She eventually lived in a grand mansion known as the Hanna Homestead. The third sister, Elvira, was forgotten. This is the story of Elvira and her immediate descendants.       It is almost impossible to tell most ordinary women’s stories from the 1800s. Their role was to be hidden behind men, retiring and focused on the home. Elvira’s story, then, is necessarily told largely through the dealings of her husband. She was born in the village of Detroit in 1811, the daughter of Israel Taylor and Mary Blair Taylor. They were New Englanders restlessly moving west, from Massachusetts to New York to Detroit to Ohio to Fort Wayne to South Bend, Indiana.       Elvira had ...

  A Gold Rush Family Compilation A crude beachfront gold miners' "kitchen" - "Flapjacks, beans and bacon." Sketch appeared in the 1892 San Francisco Examiner .     When I was a little girl and learned about the gold rush, I thought it was fascinating. But I thought, “Not my family.” In most families – at least judging by shows like “Finding Your Roots,” and conversations with friends, family stories are forgotten in a generation or two. Most people do not know the names of their great-grandparents by heart – or at all.       So it was in my family. Five of my eight great-grandparents were immigrants. So I assumed my family as a whole had not been in America for long. Reading about the Puritans and the pioneers moving west, or events like the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Indian wars, I always thought, “Not us. Not my people.”       I was completely wrong. Of Dad’s four grandparents, his grandfather ...

  A 1914 advertisement from the Belvidere, Illinois newspaper for a boy's first long pants. There is a rite of passage that has disappeared in just the last few generations. For a boy, getting his first long pants meant he had entered puberty, that he was joining the world of men. It was a time to be celebrated, a time for a little teasing, perhaps some hazing from peers. But it was looked forward to, and later remembered fondly. Mack and Jack Patchett, two of my grandmother's cousins, in about 1907. Note the bows on Jack's shoes and his "Little Lord Fauntleroy" curls. Mack is just a few years away from his first long pants. Baby Clothing It’s a fairly recent trend to have gendered baby clothing, and a very recent trend in which babies and small children are dressed the same as adults. Look at photos prior to the 1920s and you’ll see boys and girls up to age three or four dressed in, well, dresses. Both were typically wearing long white gowns similar...