Category: Early 1900’s

These two months of Jessie’s life were filled with her usual activities — school, basketball, music, her clubs, church, and her friends. In February Jessie read  her new book, Little Women, and continued with the seemingly endless (!)  Little Colonel  series. She read The Little Colonel’s Hero, and in March she read The Little Colonel’s Knight Comes Riding. February 5th she joined the Junior Beethovens at a box party to see the Russian pianist, Josef Lhévinne. Jessie, a pianist herself, was quite impressed with his playing. On February 12th Jessie saw the play Dorothy Vernon of Hadden Hall. It was based on the novel of the same name about a girl’s life and romances in Elizabethan England. According to Amazon and the New York Times, Dorothy Vernon of Hadden Hall by Charles Major was the third most successful novel of 1902. Jessie attended parties on Valentine’s Day and on George Washington’s Birthday (where the party goers powdered their hair!). On March 5th Jessie saw the comic farce Charley’s Aunt, and according to her, “it was the funniest thing I ever saw. I laughed till my sides ached.” Charley’s Aunt, written by Brandon Thomas, was hugely successful from it’s first performances in England in 1892, and on Broadway where it opened in 1893 for an extended run. On March 19th Jessie saw the pianist “Sherwood” and the singer Marie Stapleton (the actress Jean Stapleton’s mother) perform at the Women’s Building. On Easter (March 27, 1910) Jessie mentions that she got some eggs and other Easter things, as well as some Christy pictures. Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952) was a very popular illustrator of the time.

 

 

Today is Jessie Latham Perkin’s 120th birthday. Happy birthday, Grandmama! We miss you! There are SO many things I wish I could ask you now!

Jessie had a long life with good health. She died in 1991 at the age of 96. To her grandchildren she was a happy, playful, loving and positive spirit, just as she is in her diaries as a young woman.

 

December 18, 1909 was Jessie’s 15th birthday. She celebrated by having 7 girls over for dinner, and got lots of nice presents which she lists in the back of her diary:

What I got on my 15th birthday 1909

Silver toilet set (comb, brush, mirror) – Papa;  two pair of silk hose, dress, and party – Mamma;  book “Little Women” – Granny;  box of paper – Swayne;  turquoise ring – Ethel;  cake – Aunt Lady;  silver file – Othella;  bottle of perfume – Sallie;  hat pin holder – Mildred H.;  pretty handkerchiefs – Emma, Sara, & Donna.

Jessie was still in school through December 23rd, although she took half a day off because her brother, Bud, came home from college. On Christmas Eve, as was the tradition, Jessie and her family decorated the Christmas tree, and Jessie hung a stocking for herself and one for her big doll too. Christmas trees were still commonly lit with candles. Electric lights on a string (called a ‘festoon’) had been introduced by General Electric in 1903, but were far too expensive for average people to use. Interestingly, in 1908 insurance companies in the USA tried to have candles on Christmas trees banned because of the many fires they caused.

A phrase that Jessie uses several times on Christmas Day is “have a Christmas tree,” as in “Went to Aunt Sallie’s for dinner and a Xmas tree,” and “Had everybody here at night for a Xmas tree.” Typically in the early 1900s, presents might not be wrapped, and sometimes they were hung on the Christmas tree. I’m guessing that when they had friends or relatives over “for a Xmas tree,”  that was an occasion to light the candles on the tree and exchange presents.

On December 29th, 1909, Jessie and two of her best friends (and fellow Merry Maids), Donna and Emma, went downtown and had their picture taken.

Jessie is almost too old to play with toys, so she doesn’t mention many, but on a cold day when all the children were playing inside, she writes that Swayne fixed the Humpty Dumpty Circus. It could have been very similar to this Humpty Dumpty Circus from 1905.

Every once and a while Jessie mentions that her mother has washed her hair. Shampoos were only just becoming  available in stores, and liquid shampoo was not invented until 1927. In any case, women might only wash their hair every 3 or 4 weeks. Eggs or egg whites were thought to be excellent cleaning agents for hair, and there were various other potions or tinctures that one could mix up and use for oily or dry hair. In between washes women used a dry shampoo of cornstarch to soak up excess oil, which they brushed out thoroughly with a long soft-bristled brush. Margaret Mixter wrote the book Health and Beauty Hints (1910)

in which she describes ways a woman can enhance and prolong her ‘beauty.’ One tip:  “By the time a woman is twenty-five years old she should devote at least ten minutes, night and morning, to massaging her throat under the chin. She may see no reason at that period for massage, but should she take the trouble, by the time she is forty she will not have the hanging “dewlap,” which, more than anything else, proclaims her no longer young.” Hmm… perhaps I should have been massaging!

In the cold weather Jessie and her friends loved to roast marshmallows in the fireplace. When I looked to see when marshmallows were invented, I was surprised to find that the marshmallow candy actually originated in ancient Egypt and was made from a mallow plant which grew in the marshes. Drawing the sap from the roots of the marsh mallow plant, which acted as a thickener and binder, the Egyptians mixed it with eggs or egg whites, honey and nuts to make a medicinal sweet treat that soothed sore throats and mouth ulcers. In the mid-nineteenth century marshmallows were so popular that a quicker way of producing them became necessary. Gelatin replaced the mallow plant sap in the new production method, so all medicinal value of the sweet was lost.

Several of Jessie’s friends were sick in the latter part of November, but Jessie managed to remain healthy.  Since a deadly yellow fever epidemic killed around 5,000 people in 1878, Memphis had been gradually undertaking many health reforms.  This was still ongoing in 1909 with new city departments created to help improve sanitation and fight infectious disease. Check out the Tennessee4me website for  a more in-depth look at the history of Memphis’ work to combat infectious disease.

On November 16th Jessie writes that “granny came home.” Granny’s name was Mary Katherine Porter Swayne and she was Jessie’s maternal grandmother.  The house in which Jessie and her family lived was the house Granny had inherited from her father, Col. E.H. Porter. Col. Porter (Jessie’s great-grandfather) had a town house at 3rd and Exchange, but he also had a big house and farm on what was then the outskirts of Memphis. This house and what was left of the farm is where Jessie was born and her family lived. (On the other side of the locket holding the picture of Mary Swayne is a picture of her husband and Jessie’s maternal grandfather, J.T. Swayne.)

Jessie read another Little Colonel book — The Little Colonel’s Holidays. School, music lessons, concerts, and basketball practice took up most of her time. Thanksgiving was especially busy. Although Jessie does not mention a big meal in her diary, she writes that she went to church in the morning, then to a football game between Memphis High School and M.N.S.(?), and finally to the Rhoda Royal Circus at the Auditorium.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*M.H.S. 1908 football team photo credit to the George Whitworth Collection, historic-memphis.com.

On November 1st, Jessie and her mother went to the Bijou to see singer, David Bispham. Mr. Bispham was the first American-born baritone to make an international name for himself. He must have sung at this concert, though Jessie didn’t mention it. But she did remark upon his recitation of Poe’s The Raven, which she thought was “fine.”

Early in November Jessie read The Little Colonel’s House Party (1900) by Annie Fellows Johnston, another offering in The Little Colonel series for children. Jessie and her mother went to the Goodwyn Institute to see the the play Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo. Mayo was an actress, a playwright, and later a screenwriter. Polly of the Circus became a silent film in 1917 and was made again in 1932 with Marion Davies and Clark Gable.

Several times in her diaries Jessie mentions that she has gone ‘nutting’ out in the country. Imagine — autumn, the leaves have turned beautiful colors, the sun is warm, and the youngsters are gathering nuts in the the woods — what a lovely scene that must have been!