While my mother, Wilma, was still dating Gold Sonneborn, he got her the solid cedar chest shown below. At that time, cedar chests were called 'hope chests,' and were a storage place for items a young woman might be collecting for her future home, such as bed linens, towels, and any other thing that could be kept for keeping a house. I first saw this chest in the basement of our house. My father had used it for sawing, and had left several indentations in its top where his saw cut beyond the board he was sawing. There were also some cigarette burns in its top from him laying his cigarette down while he sawed. (Our house had a lot of cigarette burns in less-than-desirable places, especially with all four of my sisters smoking in their youth, as well as my father). The finish on the chest had darkened to nearly black as it sat in our damp basements, and it needed some repair of the feet. I stripped the finish off, and David repaired the feet, and then I put on several coats of tung oil, to make it turn out the way it looks in the photo (I know now that we probably ruined the antique value of the chest by doing the refinishing, but it is just so much prettier now!) I think the chest just was used to store woolens that weren't needed upstairs, and I think my father's baptism cape, hat and one baby shoe were also stored in it (I still have those items, and will try to remember to photograph them so I can post the photo on this blog at a later date...they are quite delicate, remembering that my father was born in 1896, and babies were usually baptized within a few months of their birth.)
The 'hope chest'
This was 'graduation greetings' from 'Aunt Jo & Uncle Dick (Lake)' ~ my grandmother's sister and brother-in-law who lived at that time in Clinton, Iowa. I will retype it below, since it is continued on the back and inside of this stationary. (The envelope below was from a previous letter written on Jan 22, 1915, not from this letter below...)
Clinton, Ia. June 4, 1917
Miss Wilma Barrett,
Sac City, Iowa
Dear Wilma,
Please excuse Aunt Jo for being so dilatory. But I'm not a bit well and just when I think I'm ready to go out and do things, I collapse and am no good at all. I don't know what is the matter with me ~ I went to Maquoketa for Decoration but I was sick before I went and if it had not been that it was for Decoration, I certainly would not have gone. Then when I got there it rained and rained and I did not get down town until Thursday and I sent the wire just to let you know I had not forgotten you and thought as long as it was to late to get anything else to you in time, I would wait until I got home again. Then, Saturday I got up sick, oh so sick. I didn't dare to let them know how sick I was or they wouldn't have let me come ~ I was afraid I was in for a spell and I wanted to get home. 'Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.' After all, even if it is so empty and lonely.
I haven't been out since I got home but am going to this a.m. I have thought of several things that I think you might like, but have not fully decided yet. But, hope whatever it happens to be, it will please. But without any girl myself, I hardly know what to get for a girl. "I guess I'm a back number Honey." I do hope I can get straight physically soon for I want to go to Des Moines to visit Claude's family as soon as I can and it's very unsatisfactory to try to visit when ill.
How are all the Barretts, Neals and Wells? I think that is Bertha's name, isn't it? How's Mother Maggie? It is a shame I don't write oftener but that is a thing one can so easily neglect ~ Please remember us to all of the families and tell them we still live at the south place and will be glad to see any of them at any time.
I suppose Helen is a big, big girl and is beginning to think of her own graduation.
Well, good luck to her and to you, also, dearie. I suppose this is your 'jumping off place." What is it to be? Outside work or still remain in the home nest until Mr. Right comes along, or has he already arrived? However, here is wishing you the best of luck which ever way life leads you. Life is a problem we all have to solve and it takes from the cradle to the grave to solve it. Some goes up and some goes down. May you ever go up, and realize your Best and Highest Ambitions is the loving wishes of Aunt Jo & Uncle Dick.
...And, now, to continue my mother's biography, as she wrote it...
"Some months later, Mother had sold the first house she owned to the school board because an addition was to be built to the grade school. So, I think we rented a house across the street next to the home of Dr. Molsberry and his wife Pearl and two daughters, Floris and Rachel Ann. Pearl's brother Walter Cooper, his wife Ada, daughter Rachel and son Wayne moved from North Dakota to Sac City where Walter was to manage the Farmers' Elevator. The family was staying with the Molsberrys until they found a place to live. Their older daughter Marion had married and stayed in North Dakota for awhile.
"Pearl brought Wayne over to my house and introduced him to me and to my friend Lela Martin, who was at my house that Sunday afternoon. Sometime later Wayne began taking out both my friend and me, and we chummed around together awhile but eventually Wayne picked me to take out alone, and Lela found another friend (male).
"We became close friends with Lloyd and Lora Hughes. He was postmaster in Sac City. We went places and had great times with them. "
Clinton, Ia. June 4, 1917
Miss Wilma Barrett,
Sac City, Iowa
Dear Wilma,
Please excuse Aunt Jo for being so dilatory. But I'm not a bit well and just when I think I'm ready to go out and do things, I collapse and am no good at all. I don't know what is the matter with me ~ I went to Maquoketa for Decoration but I was sick before I went and if it had not been that it was for Decoration, I certainly would not have gone. Then when I got there it rained and rained and I did not get down town until Thursday and I sent the wire just to let you know I had not forgotten you and thought as long as it was to late to get anything else to you in time, I would wait until I got home again. Then, Saturday I got up sick, oh so sick. I didn't dare to let them know how sick I was or they wouldn't have let me come ~ I was afraid I was in for a spell and I wanted to get home. 'Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.' After all, even if it is so empty and lonely.
I haven't been out since I got home but am going to this a.m. I have thought of several things that I think you might like, but have not fully decided yet. But, hope whatever it happens to be, it will please. But without any girl myself, I hardly know what to get for a girl. "I guess I'm a back number Honey." I do hope I can get straight physically soon for I want to go to Des Moines to visit Claude's family as soon as I can and it's very unsatisfactory to try to visit when ill.
How are all the Barretts, Neals and Wells? I think that is Bertha's name, isn't it? How's Mother Maggie? It is a shame I don't write oftener but that is a thing one can so easily neglect ~ Please remember us to all of the families and tell them we still live at the south place and will be glad to see any of them at any time.
I suppose Helen is a big, big girl and is beginning to think of her own graduation.
Well, good luck to her and to you, also, dearie. I suppose this is your 'jumping off place." What is it to be? Outside work or still remain in the home nest until Mr. Right comes along, or has he already arrived? However, here is wishing you the best of luck which ever way life leads you. Life is a problem we all have to solve and it takes from the cradle to the grave to solve it. Some goes up and some goes down. May you ever go up, and realize your Best and Highest Ambitions is the loving wishes of Aunt Jo & Uncle Dick.
...And, now, to continue my mother's biography, as she wrote it...
"Some months later, Mother had sold the first house she owned to the school board because an addition was to be built to the grade school. So, I think we rented a house across the street next to the home of Dr. Molsberry and his wife Pearl and two daughters, Floris and Rachel Ann. Pearl's brother Walter Cooper, his wife Ada, daughter Rachel and son Wayne moved from North Dakota to Sac City where Walter was to manage the Farmers' Elevator. The family was staying with the Molsberrys until they found a place to live. Their older daughter Marion had married and stayed in North Dakota for awhile.
"Pearl brought Wayne over to my house and introduced him to me and to my friend Lela Martin, who was at my house that Sunday afternoon. Sometime later Wayne began taking out both my friend and me, and we chummed around together awhile but eventually Wayne picked me to take out alone, and Lela found another friend (male).
"We became close friends with Lloyd and Lora Hughes. He was postmaster in Sac City. We went places and had great times with them. "
I think the above performance may have been something Wilma and some of her nursing friends may have attended in Chicago. The date on the flyer says May 13, 1918, and that would have been about the time that she was in Chicago for nurses' training. The Majestic Theatre was in Chicago.
At this point, I will pause, and will enter more of her biography in my next post.
Be sure to keep reading!
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