A to Z Challenge -- Whatever!: F is for Folderol

 Folderol is an old word which means "baloney," "malarkey," or in other phrasing, nonsense.  

Today in this A to Z Challenge post, I'll be talking about the old-fashioned words I used to hear from my grandma, Mary LeSourd Reed (1889-1978).  And I promise, no folderol. 

Counterpane -- Fancy word for a bedspread, which is another word for coverlet, which is another word for a thin fabric of particular dimensions, either single-bed size or double-bed size, used to cover your bed, over your top sheet. 

Davenport -- Yeah, it's a town in Iowa, but it's also an old word for a large, upholstered sofa which can convert into a bed.  Generally, the way my grandma used the word, it was any sofa.  Grandma had one, in her living room, that was upholstered, with removable cushions, that pulled out to a bed.  When my mother brought me and my brother and sister back to Florida from California after my father died in 1954, we stayed with my grandma and aunt, and the three of us kids slept on that davenport.  It lasted many years, passing through my mother's house and then ours, until it finally gave out in the 1990s.  That couch was nearly seventy years old when it finally gave up the ghost.

Highboy -- No, not a male teenager using marijuana.  What we might call today a dresser or a chest of drawers, it was a bit more specific than that in its archaic usage.  (And we who do genealogy are fortunate in that we can have archaic and eat it, too.)  It was a very tall -- sometimes over 7 feet tall -- chest usually consisting of two parts.  So it was basically two chests, and quite possibly designed for a usage similar to old Spanish chests that came in two parts.  The top part had handles, so that it could be quickly removed and carted off in an emergency such as fire or enemy attack, a feature quite popular in Spain's New World colonies.

 Consumption -- Not what consumers do, often conspicuously.  In olden days, it was a medical term referring to the disease now properly known as tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease of the lungs.  Before a skin test to detect its presence in the human body became available, tuberculosis, or TB, was responsible for a lot of suffering and death, killing 1 out of 7 people in the U.S. in the last quarter of the 19th century, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  In my generation (born after World War II and before 1970), we all had to have the skin test before we could start school.  Into the 1960s, patients might be separated from their families and sent to TB sanitoriums, large hospitals for the treatment of the disease with fresh air, healthy food, and at times, lung surgery.

 Salt Cellar -- Not a basement full of sodium chloride.  A salt cellar was a small container, often with a lid and a tiny spoon, for dispensing salt at the dinner table.  My grandma had one that was milk glass, in the form of a chicken.  It did have the little spoon.

Milk Glass -- Milk glass was a white glass formed into shapes,usually for dinner accessories like the salt cellar my grandma had, in the entry above this one.  It could be other colors, but usually was white.

Coin silver -- an alloy of silver (90%) and copper (10%).  It was frequently used in earlier centuries to make flatware (knives, forks, and spoons).  I have a few surviving pieces of coin silver that had belonged to my great-great grandmother Emily (Hoyt) Packard (1823-1904).

Those are just a few of the old words I heard in my childhood and youth from older relatives, mostly my grandma. 

 

A to Z blogging challenge.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 20: Taking Care of Business

This week's title phrase can mean a variety of things.  It can literally mean taking care of one's means of supporting self and family.  Here on this blog, I've discussed businessmen and businesswomen in the family:  Emily [Hoyt] Packard, who was a milliner; Nelson Reed McKee, a jeweler and watchmaker; Frank A. Packard, Bloomington, Illinois, merchant; Perry Wilmer Reed, head of the Pensacola, Florida, Chamber of Commerce; my father, Arden Packard, and his brother Jack, advertising agency owners; Oscar Merry Packard, builder and developer; Walter Hetherington Packard, builder and developer, and stockbroker.

The phrase can also mean buckling down and taking care of the serious stuff in life.  Samuel Packard's religious convictions caused him to take his wife and their firstborn, a daughter, on a risky and most probably quite uncomfortable sea voyage in 1638, from their home in Suffolk, England to a hardscrabble new settlement in a wild land called Massachusetts.  There was Richards Packard, who did his part in taking care of a certain dispute with England at the end of the 1700s.  After that was settled, Richards began a northward migration that left him disappointed in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, on up into Canada, which was practically giving land away and not being terribly picky about who they were giving it to, even to those who had previously taken up arms against His Majesty, George III.  The succeeding three generations of my line were born in Canada.  Mathew Hale Packard, a member of that third generation, took a chance on what I call "retro-migration," going from Canada back to the U.S.  He took care of other grim business from 1860 to 1865, serving in two regiments of New York cavalry.  Farther west, at the same time, Charles Reed did the same in a regiment of Indiana infantry.  My father took care of the business of serving in the U.S. Navy, from his education at the Naval Academy to World War II service.

They all, with their brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts and all else, took care of the business of living, as best they could.

A to Z Challenge 2024 - Professionally Speaking - C is for Crafts

 At least three of my ancestors were craftspersons who made their living with their crafts.  My mom and dad were hobbyists at particular crafts.

My paternal great-great grandfather Mathew Hale Packard (1822-1881) was a carpenter in New York and in Illinois.  His occupation as a craftsman was interrupted by the Civil War, in which he served in two different regiments of cavalry from New York.  After the war, he moved the family to Bloomington, Illinois, and returned to his craft.

While Mathew was being a carpenter or a soldier, his wife, Emily A. Hoyt (1823-1904) was a milliner.  I have not been able to find any more information about how she practiced her profession: whether she worked from home or had a shop, or whether she designed for women only, men only, or for both.  I'm thinking local newspapers might have advertisements she may have bought.

My maternal great-great grandfather, Nelson Reed McKee (1838-1908), was a jeweler and watchmaker.  He had a shop in Monticello, White County, Indiana.  In 1879, he disappeared, sparking a search of the town and its surroundings.  Later, he turned up in Wisconsin, where he married again . . . without the benefit of a divorce from his first wife, my great-great grandmother Sarah Ann Sunderland (1848-1922).  Sarah eventually married again, taking pains to obtain an uncontested divorce from Nelson first.  Finally settling in Beloit, Wisconsin, Nelson again practiced his craft as a jeweler and watchmaker.

My mother, Martha Shideler Reed (1916-1980) was a craftsperson.  Her crafting activity was confined to home and family, rather than in any commercial venture.  She could knit like a pro, and knitted socks, hats, sweaters and other garments for us.  She was working on a pair of socks for my father when he died in 1954.  She never took up her knitting needles again after that.  She was also good at sewing -- a pursuit at which I am totally incompetent.  She made dresses for my sister and me and shirts for my brother out of flour sacks when we were very young.

My father, Arden Packard (1911-1954) also had a craft, as a hobby.  He did leatherwork.  One of my last memories of him was sitting at the dining room table working on a belt.  He also made wallets.  He also was a great storyteller, which is a craft as well.

A to Z Challenge On the Move: C is for Canada and California

The origin of my Packard line in the United States is Massachusetts, the Plymouth Colony, the town of Hingham.  Samuel Packard brought his wife Elizabeth and their infant daughter Mary there in 1638.  Not long after, they went to Weymouth, and even later to Bridgewater.

The next subsequent two generations pretty well stayed put.  Eleazer, Samuel's great-grandson, went west.  Though Richards Packard, Eleazer's son, grew up there in western Massachusetts, he was born in Bridgewater.  

The American Revolution turned things upside down.  Richards, at 17, enlisted in a Massachusetts regiment and ended up serving two enlistments in two different regiments.  After the Revolution, he began a fairly long migration north.  He settled first in Winchester, New Hampshire, where he met and married Sarah "Sally" Coates.  I do not have much information on her as yet.  In Winchester, Richards worked in a foundry.

His feet feeling the need to wander once again, he and Sally took up their anchor and headed north.  They ended up in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where their son John Allen Packard, my 3x-great grandfather, was born.  It wasn't long after when Richards and Sally sold their farm in Vermont and headed north again, this time ending up in Canada.  They settled in Stanstead, in Quebec, in an area known as the English Townships.  This was their final migration.

This was also where John Allen Packard grew up, and married.  He married Miriam Bullock, and together they had a pack of children.  John Allen was a Methodist preacher.  One of their children, Mathew Hale Packard, also grew up in the English Townships, and married Emily Hoyt.

Mathew Hale and about half of his siblings ended up going back into the United States around 1850.  Mathew and his wife, and their son Oscar Merry, born probably in Hamilton, Ontario in 1848, ended up in Chautauqua County, New York, across Lake Erie where they were enumerated in the 1855 New York State Census in Harmony Township.  They also had a daughter, Augusta, born in New York, probably in Harmony Township, Chautauqua County.  Members of Emily Hoyt's family had settled there, and the Packards had followed.

It was from here the Mathew enlisted in a New York regiment of cavalry for the Civil War.  He served in two different regiments.  As with most who fought on either side in that war, Mathew suffered more from ailments than from war wounds.

After the war, Mathew and his family migrated to Bloomington, Illinois, where a number of his siblings had settled.  This is where Mathew, by occupation a carpenter, and Emily, a milliner, lived the rest of their lives.

Their son, Oscar Merry, became a real estate agent.  He married Augusta Hetherington, born in Chicago in 1851.  They had four children:  Herbert Roy Packard, Ruby Packard, Walter Hetherington Packard, and Hale Boring Packard.  Once he became established in real estate, Oscar packed up his family and migrated to the best place for real estate agents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- California.

It was in California that Walter Hetherington Packard grew up, and where he met and married Elizabeth Jane "Bessie" (later "Betty") Reynolds, who was born in Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa.  They, like Walter's parents, had four children:  Walter Reynolds ("Ren"), John Creighton ("Jack"), Arden (no middle name), and Sarah Virginia ("Sally").  

This long enough tale ends here, for the story of Arden and his migrations can be found in my blog entry On the Move: A is for Arden.

A to Z Challenge On the Move: B is for Bicoastal

My father's family line in America began with Samuel Packard, born around 1610 in Stonham Asphal, Suffolk, England.  He became a separatist and left England for the Plymouth Colony in 1638.  With him were his wife Elizabeth and their infant daughter Mary.  Elizabeth's maiden surname has never been discovered.

Samuel and his family settled first in Hingham, Massachusetts, then removed to Weymouth and finally ended up in Bridgewater.  As towns were organized in those colonial days, it all revolved around the church.  There was a squabble in Samuel's church, and one part of the congregation broke away and renamed their part of the town North Bridgewater, which today is known as Brockton.  Samuel was a farmer, and he also kept a tavern, known as an ordinary, in his home.  This was a common colonial practice, and not just in the English colonies, but also in the Spanish colonies in Florida, as my studies of one of those colonies, St. Augustine, Florida, have revealed.

Samuel was also at one time or another the Keeper of Minister's Rates (tax collector) and Surveyor of Highways.  He was obviously literate and worked well with numbers.

Descendants of Samuel, through several generations, scattered to the four winds.  My fourth great-grandfather, Samuel's great-grandson Richards, served in the American Revolution and afterwards, went north in search of land.  He went up into New Hampshire, where he met and married Sarah ("Sally") Coates.  They continued their migration up into Vermont, where my third great-grandfather, John Allen Packard, was born.  And apparently Richards was not satisfied with the land he tried to farm in Vermont, and he heard that the Canadians were giving away land and were not being particular about who they were giving it to.  He eventually settled near Georgeville, Quebec, in an area known as the English Townships, because so many Anglophones settled there.  My great-great grandfather Mathew Hale Packard was born there.*

Mathew Hale Packard married Emily Hoyt in Canada.  Their son Oscar Merry Packard, my great-grandfather, was most likely, by everthing I have found so far, born in Hamilton, Ontario.  His happy-sounding middle name came from the Merry family, close friends of the Packards in Georgeville.  Mathew and Emily also later had a daughter, Sarah Augusta.  This family migrated from Canada to Chautauqua County, New York, after the Civil War, in which Mathew served from two different regiments of New York cavalry.

Another migration was in store for this family, as they ended up in Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, with a few of Mathew's brothers and sisters, and their families.  It was in Bloomington that Mathew Hale Packard died.

His son, Oscar Merry, continued the peripatetic Packard tradition, and after becoming a real estate agent, took that career to the perfect place for it at the perfect time -- southern California in the early 20th century.  Before leaving Illinois, however, he married Agusta Hetherington.  They had several children, among them my grandfather Walter Hetherington Packard.

It was in California that my grandfather met and married my grandmother, Elizabeth Jane Reynolds.  Their children were Walter Reynolds Packard, Arden Packard, Sarah Packard, and John Creighton Packard.

In my previous post, A is for Arden, the story is told of my father's migrations, which went from California to Maryland to Virginia to Florida, and back to California.  We have been a very bicoastal family.


*Be it noted that, yes, my fourth great-grandfather's name was Richards, with the s.  His mother's maiden name was Mercy Richards, and that is probably where his name came from.  And my great-great grandfather Mathew Hale Packard had only one t in his first name.