Autobiographical memoir of childhood at Rock Spring and Mount Hope plantations
Book 2, Page 39 ·1888–1905
Transcription
A full page of close cursive in the compiler’s hand. Several readings are uncertain; abbreviations and place-names are preserved as written.
I was the first grandchild on my Father’s side of the family. Genie and Perry Coffin — Aunt Lil’s children were older than I was so I was Grandma Perry’s 3rd grandchild. My mother used to tell me that she wanted her baby to be a girl, and to be as beautiful as Snow White. When she saw me — she wept.
I lived at Rock Spring plantation until I was five. We were there in the winters & the summers were mostly spent either in Charleston or in Western N.C. I have some dim memories of being in Saluda with my grandmother Perry — and later on being with her in Waynesville.
In 1893 Dad and Uncle Kit bought Mt. Hope, Adelhurst and Gibbes plantations. We moved from Rock Spring to Mount Hope at Willtown — since my day it has become known as Wiltown Bluff plantation.
I began school at the Misses Sass private school for girls. School started in Oct. and I would go until we moved back to the plantation in Nov. We had a governess there who would keep us up in our class work — Bub and my self — so that when we went back to C. the 1st of May we could go on with our class there. Bub went to Miss Jervey’s school for boys. Later on he went to the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. — Then a term at Lehigh and then the College of Charleston.
I went to St. Mary’s in Raleigh for 2 years. I entered Sr. Prep. & left after my Sophomore year —
AI Notes
A full page of close handwriting in the compiler’s hand (Amy Perry FitzSimons, later Mrs. James Pickens Walker), unsigned and undated, recounting her early childhood as the first grandchild on her father’s side. The narrative moves from Rock Spring plantation through winter visits to Charleston and Western North Carolina, the family’s purchase of Mount Hope plantation, her schooling at the Misses Sass private school in Charleston and her brother Bub’s later education at the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, Lehigh University, and the College of Charleston. The page ends mid-narrative with her own enrollment at St. Mary’s School, Raleigh, and her departure ‘after my Sophomore year’. ‘Aunt Lil’ is likely Elizabeth Howell Perry Coffin, the mother of Genie and Perry Coffin. ‘Uncle Kit’ (no surname written) is almost certainly her uncle Christopher FitzSimons Jr., ‘Kit’. ‘Miss Jervey’ refers to the Misses Jervey, who kept a well-known boys’ school in Charleston. The brother referenced is ‘Bub’ (Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons Jr.).
the narrative breaks off mid-page and continues onto the next page. ‘Aunt Lil’ is a new person, plausibly Elizabeth Howell Perry (m. William Bee Coffin), the mother of Genie and Perry/Dunkin Coffin per the p628 Perry pedigree. ‘Misses Sass’ and ‘Miss Jervey’ refer to two well-documented Charleston schools — the Misses Sass kept a girls’ school and the Misses Jervey a boys’ school, both prominent in late 19th-century Charleston education.