Memoir, page 2: Rock Spring, Uncle Theodore's house, Becky and the goat, Aunt Rosa's wedding
Book 2, Page 2 ·1880–1950
Transcription
river — and had no high lands. Uncle Theodore bought a piece of land — on the main land — from Mr. [Grimball] — and built a one story frame house there for Dad.
I have memories of Rock Spring — but nothing very connected. I know there was a goat there. Becky wore black straw hats — shaped like a cooter’s back — and held on by black ribbons that tied under her chin. One picture that I have is of Becky — rushing down steps — a baby carriage at the bottom of the steps — & a goat chewing on Becky’s hat that had been left there.
Then there was the morning Beck up set a lamp & set the house on fire.
Aunt Rosa was married at Rock Spring. Dad and I were the only attendants — I had a white silk dress — short waisted — with a long skirt — puff sleeves and a large sash of same material as dress. I owned a ring that I adored — but couldn’t wear because it was too large — But I wore it to the wedding — tied on with thread. It was a gold ring with three enameled forget-me-nots on top.
It was while we lived at Rock Spring that Brownies first came into the family. Just before you came to the Rock Spring gate
AI Notes
Continuation of the handwritten memoir on lined paper, in blue ink. Tells how Uncle Theodore Barker bought a piece of land on the mainland from Mr. Grimball (or Grinhall — uncertain rendering) and built a one-story frame house at Rock Spring for Dad. Amy’s earliest Rock Spring memories: a goat that charged at Becky’s straw hat which she had set down at the foot of the steps next to a baby carriage; the morning Beck upset a lamp and set the house on fire; Aunt Rosa’s wedding at Rock Spring at which Amy (in white silk, puff sleeves, with a gold forget-me-not ring tied on with thread because too large) and Dad were the only attendants; and the introduction of ‘Brownies’ into the family. Becky’s hats were the round Lowcountry-shaped straw hats tied under the chin (‘shaped like a cooter’s back’). The dress is described with a large sash of the same material. ‘Brownies’ (plural) links to the folkloric Brownies of p003. The surname rendered as ‘Greenwall’ is more probably Grimball (a documented Charleston-area family) or possibly ‘Grinhall’ as written — uncertain. Aunt Rosa is Amy’s maternal aunt Rosa Aldrich Perry, m. Andrew Sav[age] Crawford.
The “Brownies” — household sprites of Scots-English folklore — were a Victorian childhood obsession revived in the 1880s–90s by Canadian-American illustrator Palmer Cox, whose Brownies books and St. Nicholas Magazine serials made the little brown men ubiquitous in upper-class American nurseries of Amy’s generation.