Monday, May 7, 2012

Wednesday, May 7, 1862

Clara had school only half a day.  Kate, Clara, Mr. Walton and I went by invitation to dine with Mrs. Bacon, who gave us an excellent dinner and seemed to enjoy our visit as much as we did ourselves.  She says the Hon. Nathan Cutler of Farmington, Maine, is her great Uncle and that Mr. Bacon's mother was a Dorchester Cutler, her father's name being Calvin Cutler.  So she feels quite like a relative.  She evidently likes us very much as we do her.
As Mrs. Sibley had invited us to attend the sewing circle we by Clara's advice concluded to do so.  When we arrived we found two rooms filled with ladies listening to Mrs. Sibley read the conclusion of the "Pearl of Orr's Island" in the Independent.  We found ourselves seated in a room where nearly all the ladies were strangers.  After the reading was finished we were introduced to several ladies and among them was a Mrs. Bragg whose husband claims some relationship with the rebel general Bragg, and a Mrs. Bullens, a merchant's wife.  She says she is connected with Scott Harrison.  These ladies are what little Eddie Walton calls "Secesh".  We also met Mrs. Slack who had just got back from Missouri with a sick soldier son whom she has been nursing through typhoid fever.  Her account of the state of things in Missouri was very graphic.  She thought that those who were in the Free States had no conception of the trials and sufferings of Union people in the Slave States.  They had a chapter read and Clara who is president made a prayer.  Refreshments were handed around and we got home at dusk.  Mrs. Pearce, a near neighbor, who has been absent since we came called and spent the evening.


Peggy's Comments:
The "Pearl of Orr's Island" was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and is a novel based in Maine.

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