Week 8: Prosperity
So, prosperity has always seemed to elude my ancestors, with a couple of exceptions. This is a family story, not something I've found much documentation for, except for one very solid object and a few quilt tops.
As told to me, my grandmother's aunt, Lillian (McDuff) Lillard was a professional tailor. Census data show that her sister Minnie also was listed as a professional "tailoress" so this is plausible. Lillian supposedly owned land in downtown Olympia, Washington but I don't see anything about that in the history of the packet which later became the site of a canning factory and then a sort of department store. Had she held on to the land, it would have left us all a bit more materially wealthy but really, it all worked out.
The family story about Lillian's husband, David Lillard, was that he lost his leg in a railroad accident. I haven't found direct evidence of the injury but in the 1900 census he was 46 years old (the census taker wrote down 56 but his birth year was listed as 1854 so maybe math was not his strong point?), listed his occupation as Ry conductor, and spent 12 months unemployed. He was in a household with his mother-in-law, wife, and assorted brothers and sisters-in-law. My great-grandfather was not among them, having married and formed his own household a number of years before (my grandmother was born in 1895).
I always had the impression that Lillian made a good job of the tailoring after her husband's injury. My grandmother sewed, my mother sewed, and I sew too but none of us quite reached the heights that Lillian did. I have a pair or buttonhole scissors that belonged to Lillian: they are still very sharp and can be used to open up buttonholes if I can only bring myself to make a few...
ETA: My cousin has contacted me with a bit more information about Lillian and her n'er-do-well husband, Uncle Dave. Apparently, family consensus is that Dave was a leech, and that his four children from a previous marriage were cut of the same cloth. Lillian however is remembered as having been successful both socially and as a businesswoman. Molly says Lillian entertained the Schmidts (Olympia Beer) and the Talcotts (local high-end jewelry store) on a monthly basis. The brewery and the store are both gone but they are both remembered in Olympia.
As told to me, my grandmother's aunt, Lillian (McDuff) Lillard was a professional tailor. Census data show that her sister Minnie also was listed as a professional "tailoress" so this is plausible. Lillian supposedly owned land in downtown Olympia, Washington but I don't see anything about that in the history of the packet which later became the site of a canning factory and then a sort of department store. Had she held on to the land, it would have left us all a bit more materially wealthy but really, it all worked out.
The family story about Lillian's husband, David Lillard, was that he lost his leg in a railroad accident. I haven't found direct evidence of the injury but in the 1900 census he was 46 years old (the census taker wrote down 56 but his birth year was listed as 1854 so maybe math was not his strong point?), listed his occupation as Ry conductor, and spent 12 months unemployed. He was in a household with his mother-in-law, wife, and assorted brothers and sisters-in-law. My great-grandfather was not among them, having married and formed his own household a number of years before (my grandmother was born in 1895).
I always had the impression that Lillian made a good job of the tailoring after her husband's injury. My grandmother sewed, my mother sewed, and I sew too but none of us quite reached the heights that Lillian did. I have a pair or buttonhole scissors that belonged to Lillian: they are still very sharp and can be used to open up buttonholes if I can only bring myself to make a few...
ETA: My cousin has contacted me with a bit more information about Lillian and her n'er-do-well husband, Uncle Dave. Apparently, family consensus is that Dave was a leech, and that his four children from a previous marriage were cut of the same cloth. Lillian however is remembered as having been successful both socially and as a businesswoman. Molly says Lillian entertained the Schmidts (Olympia Beer) and the Talcotts (local high-end jewelry store) on a monthly basis. The brewery and the store are both gone but they are both remembered in Olympia.
These are about five inches long. You can just about see the screw on the left side of the handle: when you want to open up a button hole, you open the blades to the right length, then tighten the screw so that when you stab the buttonhole with those sharp points, that is the accurate measurement for the buttonhole. The scissors can be closed from there, opening up the buttonhole. One of the blades has been welded back together.
Great blog...I love to sew...My mother taught me...she did not love it like I do but she had six kids and four were girls ...so if she could sew she had clothes for us...better yet...Dad encourage us all to learn from her...and we all did...which meant that Dad had to acquire more sewing machines so we would quit fighting over sewing machine time..
ReplyDeleteJanet, my mother also taught me how to sew--I only have one sister who was not interested at all so I got the full impact! Mom made a lot of my clothes until I got good enough and interested enough to make my own. We shared her 1965 Singer Golden Touch and Sew (which I have and which still works) and now I own a few machines of my own ….
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