Happy Birthday, Evelyn Taylor!

Evelyn Taylor

From Pat Kinsella Herdeg, Blog Editor:

Readers of this cousins blog know Evelyn well. She has written many of our family history stories throughout the decade we have been writing about ‘a-cousining’ and family history and what we all are up to.

I am so grateful to have Evelyn as my partner in crime as I continue to come with ideas for this blog. Her ideas (Favorite Cars, Favorite Pets, and Favorite Places to Visit) have led to some of our most interactive stories.

Thank you, Evelyn, and Happy Birthday!

Lance, son of Evelyn writes:

Best Mom! Best Friend Ever !!!

Pam, daughter of Evelyn writes:

What I love about Mom is:

• ·        She is independent.

• ·        She is willing to try / explore new things even at 95 years of age. Recently I asked her to celebrate the full moon with me. We went outdoors at 7 that night and drummed to the full moon --- connecting with people around the world.

• ·        Patriotic - flies her flag and insists it not be tattered

• ·        Traditions, especially Christmas ones, are important to her

• ·        Mom sets a beautiful table (Editor Pat can attest to this; loved the lunch she and my Mom CB Taylor Kinsella and I all shared)

• ·        A fun travel companion

• ·        People are important to her - family, friends, those in need

• ·        Keeps up with technology - Kindle, smartphone, email, facebook, Internet searching

• ·        She has a fantastic memory - keeps up with her kids’ doctor appointments to remembering stories from her childhood to our last travel experience

• ·        Nobody can beat her cooking and baking (apple pie, sour cream cookies, pecan rolls, angel food cake); although if she gives you a recipe - watch out. Mom has been known to leave out key ingredients!

• ·        Loves to entertain - parties, ladies teas, quiet gatherings

• ·        Loves to read

• ·        Loves her family

• ·        Loves to dance - with my dad, Bryant

·        And lastly, tries to understand me - often shakes her head - but, always loves me.

Shiloh, granddaughter of Evelyn writes:

Shiloh and Evelyn

Dear Nanny,

Wow! 96 years of having fabulous you in our lives. Living in New Zealand until recently, most of my memories of you involve phone calls, taped messages that we would eagerly listen to on the cassette tape recorder (vintage !!!!) and fantastically written "memories" stories sent over email, however I do remember that trip you and Grandpa took to visit us. Among many other things, you let hyperactive, cold-feeted grandchildren jump into bed with you bright and early in the mornings. 

Since moving to Toronto I have been lucky to spend more time with you. I always enjoy watching your favourite movies with you (Splendour in the Grass!) and eagerly gobbling up those cinnamon rolls that I used to request each time I visited....until the time we made them together and I realized just how much work they were!!!!!

Happy birthday Nanny! Sending you lots of love on your special day.

Shiloh xx

Lance, Evelyn, Pam, Mitch and Bryant

Lucille (CB) Taylor, first cousin to Bryant writes:

Evelyn is such an amazing and creative person. One of my first memories of her is going over to Bryant and her home. In their bathroom, three of the walls were white and one was black. Evelyn had put out a white marking pencil, and everyone who wanted to added thoughts or sayings to the wall. I had never seen anything like that—so fun!

Eve also is a wondrous seamstress, making Pam’s wedding dress, which was so lovely.

I really got to know Eve (pronounced like ‘Evie’) during Bryant’s last illness. Lance, their oldest son, interrupted his life to return home and help with his father’s hospice care. I would drive down from Rochester and take Eve out to lunch to give her a change of scenery. During those many luncheon talks, we became very close.

Over the years, Eve and I have continued to hang together, through thick and thin, using emails and now phone calls. She is an only child. When my three sisters were gone, I missed our sisters’ back and forth. So, Eve graciously became my adopted sister, and I know she feels the same. 

Happy Birthday, Sis!

I’ll Be Home for Christmas By Pat Kinsella Herdeg

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

Collecting songs for our historical group to sing at a Holiday Open House, I printed out lyrics to ‘Deck the Halls’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ and Frosty the Snowman’. I added in the song ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’. 

I love this song—slow and meaningful in so many ways (and Rascal Flatts does a great rendition of this song!). But, I was vetoed by the others on our small group--‘too sad to sing’ they said.

So, why do I think they are wrong? Sad? Yes, but this song is so much more than that to me.

When I hear this song:

I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
If only in my dreams

I know it was written in 1943 with World War Two soldiers in mind. The end of the song makes clear that the soldier will not be home for this particular Christmas, if ever. And that is the sad part of the song.

But, in my mind, this song has always been about so much more. The older I get, people I love are no longer with me on Christmas. I can no longer race down the stairs to the living room filled with gifts, tell jokes, enjoy their breakfast casseroles, open their presents, or just close my eyes and listen to the Christmas chaos happening around me. Perhaps it is the Irish in me, but to me, that does not mean that they are not WITH me now.

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
If only in my dreams

‘If Only In My Dreams’…. Every time I hear this song, I feel surrounded by those I am missing, who are no longer here in life, but ARE here with me. I feel all those I love and miss, and those I was too young to know, but who love me because they are my great grandparents, or beyond. A clan of loving family watching over me.

Tinged with sadness? Yes, many of them I never got to know. But, I feel them with me every time I need them, and even when I don’t think I do. A cloak of invisibility if you will, protecting me as I move through life and its many choices, difficulties and tragedies.

I depend on them. So, thank you to all the unnamed ghosts who live in my spirit world. I will see you next Christmas.

I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me.

The Taylor Brothers go to College By Tim Kinsella

On Nov. 13, 2017 I went to Syracuse University’s Bird Library and looked through multiple records from Genesee Wesleyan Seminary.  Mom (Lucille “CB” Taylor) had asked me to look for evidence that her Grandfather, Bryant Waller Taylor (“BW”) and any of his brothers or sister had gone to Genesee Wesleyan.  SU had many of the Seminary “yearbooks” from about 1830 on so those were my source of information.  These yearbooks listed trustees, faculty, students, and courses of study, along with other information on the institution. 

Bryant Waller Taylor, Taken about 1885
 

I did find evidence that Bryant Waller and his 2 brothers, Carlton Walbridge and Orrin Morehouse, all went to Genesee Wesleyan.  I could only find evidence that they attended the school year 1881 – 1882 however.  The 1880 – 1881 yearbook was missing and they were not listed in the 1882 – 1883 yearbook so perhaps they only went to college for one year.  There was no evidence of their sister, Clara Rockwell Taylor, having attended, but I did find other Taylors who attended and who might have been related.  I have pictures of some of the ‘81 – ’82 yearbook pages if anyone is interested.  

Picture of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in the 1880s. – 18 miles south of Rochester 

As you might imagine college was very different back in the 1880s.  At Genesee Wesleyan Seminary there were 6 courses of study during this timeframe:

1.    Grammar School Course

2.    Preparatory College Course

3.    Graduating Course in Literature and Science

4.    Musical Course

5.    Course in drawings and painting

6.    Commercial Course

  

1881 – 1882 Listing of Students showing the 3 Taylor Brothers from Oakfield    

It is not clear from the yearbook which courses of study the Taylor brothers were taking.  Some yearbooks listed students by course but in ’81 – ’82 all students were listed together and were not broken down by course.  My guess is that the brothers were in either the Grammar School or Preparatory College course.

Mom says she thinks BW (and his brothers) did not finish school because the family ran out of money. 

The first two courses seem like they are equivalent to what High School is now.  The contents of these courses could be adjusted based on the needs of the students (as determined by faculty) and normally lasted no more than 2 years.

 If the student was making sufficient progress they could start in parallel one of the other 4 courses of study.  At the end of these courses of study they got a college diploma. 

The Grammar school covered subjects such as arithmetic, geography, spelling, composition, and grammar.  All students sat in a large lecture hall that could accommodate up to 100 students.  Given the flexibility of this course of study it seems like perhaps much of the time it may have been self-directed study.  Students “graduated” from this course of study when they successfully passed a Regent’s exam. 

The Preparatory College Course was very heavy in Latin and Greek along with courses in History, Geography, and Algebra.  It was 2 years in length and then students moved onto the Graduating Course in Literature and Science.  This 3-year course continued its heavy concentration in Latin and Greek (reading, writing, study of Greek classics, etc.) and then focused on writing and composition along with a final year in German or French. 

Orrin Taylor

The music school focused either on instrumental or voice while the Drawing and Painting school focused on still life nature, human, or landscape scenes.  Both schools had a 3-year program.

The Business School offered the Commercial Course.  This was a very interesting course of study.  Students could enter whenever they wanted as each student received individual instruction.  The course was divided into theory and practice and the length of study varied by student, typically from 3 – 6 months.  The focus was on accounting, “office work”, and real estate but also included 3 different courses in Penmanship that you could take. 

Tuition for the Seminary was confusing but it appears that for the Grammar, Preparatory College, and Commercial Course tuition was free!  You had to live on campus however for all courses and that cost $3.00 per week.  Ladies had to pay an extra 50 cents per week as their rooms get steam heat. Men could purchase wood or coal to heat their rooms.  Throw in incidentals, washing, and other fees and you might be expected to pay $55 per semester.  If you wanted to take Chemistry or Philosophy you had to pay an extra $1 per week and the music, painting, and Commercial courses required additional supplies that could set you back $25 - $50 per semester.  Prizes of $20 - $50 were awarded to top students in different areas such as oration, literature, recitations, and general scholarship.

Carlton Taylor

Other funny points that were made:

• ·         The introduction to the Commercial Course says: “Having no faith in the superficial methods, or sympathy for the “learning made easy” style of treating a science so eminently worthy of best mental efforts, and earnestly desiring to meet the wants of a large class of students, who are willing to undergo the ordeal of hard study in order to become competent accountants or teachers, the course has been made thoroughly practical, progressive, and complete”. 

•   “Penmanship – The Spencerian System is used, one too widely known and appreciated, to need words of commendation.  Movements and miscellaneous exercises are given as helps to gaining freedom of hand”. 

• ·         “The apparatus for illustration in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy is valued at $3500.  These abundant cabinets and apparatus afford facilities for instruction in the Natural Sciences, unequalled it is believed, by any other seminary in the state”. 

• ·          “To guard against overwork and injury to health, all students are required to retire at 10 o’clock”. 

• ·         “Attendance at church on the Sabbath is required, morning and evening”. 

• ·         “Students should enter at the beginning of the term.  Those coming in a few days late are much embarrassed”.