The Homestead & Clara's Wedding Dress
Erin Daniels
“Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.”
Sisters, Martha “Annie” and Mary Elizabeth, at the Stewart Homestead. Glasgow, DE.
“Clara is married she was married in an old rose color cashmere dress hat to match and a beautiful ecru cloth cape trimmed with satin ribbon. Ella made them for her.”
An excerpt from a letter between sisters, Annie and Mary Elizabeth Stewart, describing the wedding attire of their niece, Clara.
Annie Stewart Willis was my great, great grandmother and a small collection of letters written to her from her sister, Mary Elizabeth, were amongst her meager but treasured possessions. Annie and Mary Elizabeth grew up on the Stewart family homestead in Glasgow, DE. They were a farming family, descended from an early Irish settler of the “Pencader Hundred” (a portion of of William Penn’s Welsh Tract) and lived, until the late 1800’s, on the family homestead. The home (seen above), where the girls grew up with their Father, was at some point extended from the original log cabin (smaller section on left) to create a comfortable family home. The sudden death of their Father, the subsequent marriage of Annie, and the necessary sale of the family homestead separated the sisters for the first time in their lives.
As the “keeper of family history” their letters, brittle with age but full of lively stories, were entrusted to me. The joys, sorrows, and tales of 2 sisters, suddenly separated by marriage and distance, expressed in these letters have brought to life my ancestors who died over half a century before I was born. And while my genealogical research is full of facts and dates that allow me to create a “timeline”, the trunk and branches of my family tree, the “lives” of these people, the leaves of the tree, are created from the invaluable colorful personal details contained in letters like these. So thank you, Mary Elizabeth, for your lovely description of Clara’s “old rose color cashmere dress” and for reaching down through the ages to bring my history to life.
The next time you’re ready to dash off an email or a text to a loved one, take a moment, pick up a pen and write a handwritten note instead. You never know what kind of impact a simple handwritten note can make, either now or to a future genealogist in your family! 💌
Detail of a letter written to my gg grandmother, Annie Stewart Willis.