Kathryn “Kate” Dooley, or Katie Doodle Bug as her Father used to call her, was young when she moved from Ballina, Ireland to Pennsylvania with her family. Ballina was first recorded a settlement around 1375 when a monastery was founded. Kate’s parents grew up there and saw many changes over the years.

Kate’s parents wanted a new life for their family so when they had the chance to sell what little land and possessions they had, they did. The promise of the United States of America called them in 1858 and so, with a small trunk for each family member and a large one for family heirlooms Kate made the journey with her parents and three sisters.

Kate was 6 when the family immigrated to America so she doesn’t remember much, but she did remember the ship they came over on and how all of them slept in one small room.  She remembers the small apartment they spent a good amount of her childhood in, as it was where birth of the 3 siblings; a boy and 2 more girls, took place. Katie Doodle Bug fell right in the middle of the large family and the nickname was at first thought to be because she was the youngest, but her father kept it up to make her feel special because she was in the middle.

They were a hard working family and saved enough to buy a small home. Her father worked for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad as a track laborer – back-breaking work he would have you know – while he saved for their new home. As soon as she and each of her sisters were old enough, at the ripe old age of 12, they worked in a Wilkes-Barre silk mill. Their mother did laundry for people for coins and that money feed the family for years.

Kate married James Brennan, a textile salesman she met at a local dance in her twenties. Before then her parents thought she would never get married, so they were quite pleased when James asked for her hand in marriage. They were even willing to put aside their disappointment at her marrying someone who wasn’t Irish because as far as they were concerned she could find someone in their small community of Irish-American people. But Kate and James were in love so her parents said, “At least there is that.”

Kate and James did not live far from her parents and most of her family. It was extremely helpful to have her parents near when raising her three children. Lawrence, Francis and Julia. Lawrence and Frances came to the family in the traditional way but Julia arrived unconventionally.

Kate and James had befriended Julia, a young woman who had fallen pregnant and was blissfully happy in her marriage. The young mother died after child birth from what was likely an infection and the father, grief stricken and unable to function and raise a baby on his own, asked Kate and James to raise her. He’d wanted Baby Julia to know her first mother and father through personal stories that Kate and James could tell. Kate and her family welcomed Baby Julia in their family as the unexpected surprise she was; and they cherished her. Years later Julia’s first father would come to meet her and find a healthy, vibrant, young woman who knew all about him and his beloved. Her namesake, his wife.

Just as the light moved through the window and hit Kate’s face a photographer took this picture. Julia had paid for the photographer to come to the house on Kate’s 80th birthday. Julia treasured this photo and it was passed to her eldest daughter. She told the story of how Nana became her mother. She smiled when she told about how she watched Kate embrace her first father on the very day this photo was taken. He, who’d been welcomed to the celebration of Kate’s well-loved life, and how she saw her mother crying and overheard her tell him “Thank you for letting us raise your daughter.”

Inspired by Charlie O’Hay, who provided “facts” about our Katie Doodle Bug, except for that nickname. Charlie blogs here.

Proud Wesleyan Female College women alumni Esther and Molly.

Sisters in life and in college, Esther and Molly were always close. Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia Class of 1898 they were quite the renegade pair. They were afforded the luxury of coming from a family of wealth and they’d made there way to college from rural Georgia to the then, “Big City” of Macon, Georgia.

They both had proper manners and thick southern accents. They were both women with a keen sense of humor and soon after arrival at Wesleyan, chemistry and astronomy took hold of their imaginations and they studied hard. At the top of their class for their chosen fields they were popular throughout the college and leaders with the incoming classes mentoring other young women scholars.

Esther was science smart and had been since she was young. Always showing an interest in all thing science, her father especially pushed her to follow the path of education. Molly showed an interest in the universe beyond. Her parents thought she was a foolish dreamer but they’d allowed it at the urging of Esther. Their parents were unusual that they wanted their daughters to follow the education route to their happiness instead of the expected marriage and family. If marriage and children came, they said, so be it.

Incidentally Molly did end up having a family but not before she opened up her own small planetarium in the really Big City. Here parents had financed the operation. They’d considered it a whim of hers never realizing that it would teach children around the really Big City about the universe beyond. Molly had become a teacher to many and her parents couldn’t be more surprised that their little investment had paid off and had become the region’s pride, interesting college universities and primary schools for it’s teachings.

Esther became a chemist, working in pharmacology research and development. She was at the top of her field for years, developing drugs to help children and adults live better lives. In some cases, when she was really lucky, she was involved in developing drugs that saved lives. She loved her job and her life and she was a woman to be reckoned with in the corporate arena of big pharma. She was responsible for creating a friendly workplace for women; demanding the same “luxuries” afforded men like equal pay and a non-hostile workplace. She could not and would not be ignored by the higher ups and she made life for the women behind her easier.

When Esther and Molly met up on the day this picture was taken at an alumni visit and college celebration they didn’t attend so they could see each other – they played bridge weekly and had coffee numerous times a month over pastries at a local sweet shop now that they were retired. They thought it would be fun to see their old college and the young women of this day.

To look at them with their roller-styled hair and their sensible shoes and their best hats you would never know that they helped pave the way for young career women in the 1900s throughout the southeast. Esther and Molly had visited Wesleyan College without knowing they were being honored for the perseverance for the rights of all women.

Esther and Molly left the ceremony that day and reminisced about their days at Wesleyan. They laughed. Then they drank a lot of coffee and played a quick game a bridge.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

Meet Cora, the matriarch of a farming family in the late 1800s. Husband-less, due to her husband’s unfortunate choice to drink liquor and hunt – at the same time – Cora became the rock of her family. Left to care for three children, one of whom had a child and her sister-in-law, Louisa. Louisa, also husband-less, proper and intelligent, was a local teacher for kids age 5 through age 13.

Seeing as how Louisa wasn’t married, she was the responsibility of her brother, a poor shot when he drank, so the responsibility fell to Cora. Cora didn’t mind having Louisa around as she was helpful, taught the children how to read and write and that was more than she knew how to do to any great degree. Cora could barely read and write at a 3rd grade level, but she was a smart woman who navigated farming just fine when her husband, a poor shot when he drank, went dying on her.

Cora’s children, a daughter, Mabel, with a daughter, Alma and Cora’s two sons, Hubert and Willard all at some point in their lives or all their lives worked on the family farm. Small in comparison to the farms around their land, they only had 5 acres but the land was profitable enough to support the family with a modest income.

Mabel, whose husband was in the Army, had been sent to fight a “little Spanish war” and she’d been left to raise Alma on her own. Mabel and Alma lived in a small shack on the land and they spent much of their time at Cora’s house.

Hubert and Willard were done with school thank goodness and could help plant and harvest so Cora wasn’t forced to hire wanderers off the train that ran right through their property. Hubert, “the slow one,” as people used to say, was a happy and willing fellow. Willard, the middle of the three, was a hard worker but easily distracted.

When Willard wasn’t helping on the farm, which was all or part of 7 days a week, he could be found calling on a local girl he was sweet on named Miriam. Miriam was also sweet on Willard but they would wait years before they held hands or kissed, married and went on to have a house full of children.

Mabel’s husband returned from the war after two years and he and Mabel had fallen ill with yellow fever. Both died when Alma was just six. Cora raised Alma with the help of  Louisa. During Alma’s 16th year when she was independent Louisa would move a day’s trip away to teach at a school. Cora missed Louisa’s presence more than she cared to admit as Louisa had become a confidant and friend.

Hubert never married but his niece Alma, having seen the example of how Cora cared for family members, would carry on the tradition. She would keep Uncle Hubert in her home, giving him a blessed quality life for over 40 years; a place to belong.

Over the years in the family home Alma raised 6 children. Four born out of her body but all she called her own. Three of her brood spent their lives on the farm raising babies and taking care of Alma. Alma had appropriately passed the torch of matriarch to another willing and able woman in the long line of generationally strong women.

Since Cora’s husband, a poor shot when he drank, had died, the women in the family took charge and would be in charge for generations to come.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

Dear Mother and Father,

I hope this letter finds you well. Please write and tell me Aunt Gracie is feeling better. I am delighted you were able to travel to be with her while she was ill. Won’t you tell her hello for me when you go again for a visit?

I apologize for the delay in writing and mailing this letter as I have been very busy making arrangements for housing. I was able to find a roommate. She is another secretary at the college and so we are together quite a lot actually. Our hours are the same and she works near my department. Her name is Clara.

I started work last week for Professor Kaplan and I am pleased. The work is interesting and easy. The work doesn’t keep me too busy and I am able to have a social life through the church where Clara and I attend at every chance.

I am genuinely surprised at the number of young women attending college here and I might check into taking classes in the future myself, so when you have a moment will you send me my high school records?

I am going to a church social after church with Clara so I must leave now but please know that I love you and miss you,

With loving affection always,

Your Violet

——————————-

Lillian,

I cannot wait to tell you about what is happening since I moved, dear sister! I have been enjoying myself and am so happy to have moved.

My job is enjoyable and it is a dream to be around all of the young people. It makes me want to be a part of  academia. There are women here studying. Many women in fact and I want to be a part of it. I was thinking I could become a teacher or a nurse.

I have been going to clubs with my roommate Clara and we are dancing until all hours each Friday and Saturday evening. I have learned the Charleston and Shag. I am not very good but I am trying. We have met a few gentlemen and I’ve been kissed a few times! It is truly scandalous! Do not tell Mother and Father but it is quite a lot of fun to be social with men my age. There are so many more options than back home. I do have a bit of a crush on the Professor I work for but he is uninterested and sadly he is married. He is very nice to me and respectful and dare I say that is boring.

I have also been visiting a little book store that has poetry readings and there is alcohol and smoking and laughing! Clara writes some poetry and so she read one of her poems last week and it was well received.

When you can you visit? It would make my heart happy to have you here as my guest and I know you and Clara would get along splendidly. You would love to go dancing with us working girls to meet some fellows! You never know, there might be some kissing!

Loving you always sis,

Violet

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

Emily and Victoria were the only girls in their family of 5 children. They are standing in front of the house their maternal Granddaddy, Floyd,  built with his hands and the hands of  his brothers and their sons. Floyd chose the wood himself, oversaw each and every building detail, and had an entire hand on every plank of wood.

The girls loved the house and everything around the house. The way the brick walkway was like a maze that lead to the back and the long winding road that welcomed visitors. They liked to play under the house in the back where they could fit when they were little. They loved to pull each other in a wagon Granddaddy made for them on the porch. They loved the sounds the floors made when people walked.

The girls spent hours running in and out of the two front doors. The door to the left entered into the parlor. The entrance to the parlor was built specifically so men, who used the parlor frequently, could sneak in and out to smoke cigars on the porch. The door facing the steps was the official front door and there were exactly 64 steps between the official front door and the back door, unless it was 43. It all depended on if the girls were running, skipping or walking little quiet baby steps so they could sneak up on their Mama.

The house had a 2nd story and the steps started to the right as you entered the official front door. The girls used to count the steps; the wide, loud steps. Trying to match the rhyme they counted the steps. There were 2 sets of 20 with a landing. The landing always served as a resting stop while the girls caught their breath through their giggles, then they would go again..

One, two,

Buckle my shoe;

Three, four,

Knock at the door;

Five, six,

Pick up sticks;

Seven, eight,

Lay them straight:

Nine, ten,

A big fat hen;

Eleven, twelve,

Dig and delve;

Thirteen, fourteen,

Maids a-courting;

Fifteen, sixteen,

Maids in the kitchen;

Seventeen, eighteen,

Maids a-waiting

Nineteen, twenty,

My plate’s empty.

They would always add their own little rhyme like Granddaddy taught them when they hit the landing or the top…

Twenty-one, twenty-two,

I love you!

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

“Irish Twins” (but not from Ireland) Nora and Opal, born to immigrant parents 10 months apart in the same year in 1901. Nora, with striking dark eyes that could pierce through the toughest of rules her father set for her, she was the free spirit. Her sister, as equally exotic-looking was more withdrawn, was into a world of caring for two younger brothers.

Their mother had been ill during most of their adolescent life, bedridden with exhaustion. She’d taken ill before they reached their teen years and died when they were 20 and 21 respectively.

Their mother, though, was a fine and capable woman who learned English so quickly that other family members joked that she learned it on the way over on the boat. Immigrating to the United States, well before the girls were born, had taken a toll on many people who were starting over and the girl’s parents were no exception. They started with very few personal belongings and a distant relative willing to help them upon their arrival. Nora and Opal (American names chosen carefully) were hardworking girls who learned about work ethic from their parents.

Nora worked sewing clothes in a factory not suited for people. Humans shouldn’t work in a factory like this but the inbred work ethic and the desire to help provide for the family kept her focused. Never one to complain, while she worked she would dream about a different life. A life of travel and education. New adventures.

Opal cared for her mother with the same desire to help the family but with less dreams for herself for the future. She lived in the present. She didn’t spend hours thinking about faraway places like Nora. She used to think “as far away as the next day” Nora would tease her.

Nora and Opal were as close as sisters could be and spent their lives as best friends. Nora was happy to follow her husband out west and Opal’s life near her father and brothers meant family members were always in and out of the home she built with her husband.

Half a country apart meant they didn’t see each other regularly and they required long and frequent letters to stay in touch, with the letters taking so long to get to each other sometimes it felt as a season has passed while they each waited for a reply. Each letter from both sisters began with My Dearest Sister and Friend and ended with Loving you as only a sister can and will.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

I am nine years old, and summer is my favorite time of year.  We stay at our lake house in the mountains, me, my mother and father, and my older sister.  Our house is pretty big, so my aunts usually come and stay with us for part of that time.  There is a picture of my mother and her sisters that was taken around the last time they were together.  My mother is in the middle, and she is the middle sister, too.  My aunt Bonnie is the oldest and she is on the left, and on my mother’s right is the youngest sister, Vivian.  My Aunt Vivi was the most fun of the three, though my mother would sometimes play cards or jacks with me.  Usually mother and Aunt Bonnie were together, talking, smoking, and drinking coffee, and acting pretty serious.  I always thought my Aunt Bonnie was sad, but I didn’t know why, and it seemed as though my mother was always trying to cheer her up.  There was no room for other people in their little heads-together world.  My Aunt Vivian liked to go for long walks around the lake, or row out to the island to lie in the sun and cool off in the lake.  Best of all, she invited me to go with her, and I was always happy to, because my sister spent most of her time with the twins from across the lake.  When Aunt Vivi wasn’t there, I had to make my own fun, because my sister was a lofty teenager with no time for a kid.  The twins were exactly alike, with red hair and freckles and bikinis.  I’m pretty sure my sister smoked cigarettes when she was with them, and once I saw some boys bring my sister in a canoe to the shore by our house.  I was up in a tree and she didn’t know I saw her, and I never told anyone.  The best things she did for me during summer vacation were to French-braid my hair and let me look at her Seventeen magazines.   My aunts, Bonnie and Vivian, lived together and neither one ever married.  This was no surprise where Bonnie was concerned, but Vivian was fun and pretty, and you would wonder why she didn’t have a husband.  Bonnie was moody, and didn’t talk very much, and one time I heard my parents talking about how they were worried about her, but they shut up as soon as I came into the room.  Whenever I tried to talk to Aunt Bon, she just gave answers to my questions, and never asked me anything about myself.  I thought later that she must have not felt very well, because soon after she and Aunt Vivian left to go home that summer, we got the news that she had died.  My aunt!  At first I couldn’t believe it, that someone I loved, someone in my family, could die.  I was sad, and my mother was really sad, for the rest of the summer.  I was very sad for my mother and Aunt Vivi, and tried to put myself in their shoes by imagining my sister dying, but that was so upsetting I threw up and was put to bed the rest of the day.  I have been looking at that picture a lot, and in it, you can see that my mother and Aunt Vivian are in front, and close to each other, and look involved in the world, but Aunt Bonnie is in the back, looking puzzled, and kind of in the background, in the shadow of the others.

Written by Leslie Modena, Mangopunch’s Blog