| Name |
Fowler, Charlie |
- Charlie Fowler, who signed himself “your schoolmate” wrote “Bettie, The roses are red, the violets are blue. The girls are pretty and so be you.” Bettie was nearly 17 at that time and no longer in school. Was Charlie smitten? Bet he was!
|
| Birth |
Abt 1870 |
| Gender |
Male |
| correspondence |
2 Aug 1887 |
Gold, Ulysses, Potter, Pennsylvania, USA  |
| Charlie Fowler, who signed himself “your schoolmate” wrote “Bettie, The roses are red, the violets are blue. The girls are pretty and so be you.” Bettie was nearly 17 at that time and no longer in school. Was Charlie smitten? Bet he was! |
- 20201106HAv-
Words of Gold
Jeannette Morley Buck
Favorites · July 13, 2016 ·
As often happens, I stumbled on to the little autograph book that belonged to my great-grandmother while looking for something else. It was tucked into a notebook pocket behind some pictures and I nearly missed it. I hadn’t looked at it in years. I don’t remember how I acquired it other than probably no one else was particularly interested in it when we cleaned out her room. The older I get, the more I appreciate the fact that she kept it and cherished it all of her life.
On the inside flyleaf she wrote in her careful and very pretty handwriting “Bettie Rogers Book, Gold Pa. Dec. 25, 1882.” She would have been 12 years old. The book measures only four inches by three, but its pages contain family history, subtle humor and quiet love.
One of the first pages is inscribed “gold April the 9, 1883 Daniel Raymond, Aged 89 years.” Daniel Raymond and his family were the first settlers in the village that became known as Raymond’s Corners and Bettie (my Gram) was his granddaughter. She remembered him well. Her mother, Persis Raymond Rogers was a newborn when the family moved from New York State to the wilds of Potter County. Gram cherished her history without false pride and, as I have so often said, was a superb story teller.
Kids are kids, from any generation. An unreadable scrawl covers one page and the only recognizable words are “Ray Rogers”, who was Bettie’s little brother.
The dates in the book run from 1883 until 1887. Her mother wrote an admonition in a very precise hand. Her brother Willie begged her to “Remember me!” And on August 2, 1887, Charlie Fowler, who signed himself “your schoolmate” wrote “Bettie, The roses are red, the violets are blue. The girls are pretty and so be you.” Bettie was nearly 17 at that time and no longer in school. Was Charlie smitten? Bet he was!
Her sisters, her aunts, her cousins and yes, an uncle or two each took the time to write in Bettie’s little book. Some inscriptions are funny, others loving and some are downright gloomy. The message on one page is written in what is apparently Morse code. Along the edge of the page, written in very tiny script are the words “I showed you how to check”. Hmmmm!
On other pages there are simply signatures. Such as: “C. E. Williams, Gold, Potter Co., Pa.”
Bettie married C. E. (Edsil) Williams on Christmas Day, 1888, six years after she receive the autograph book. She was 18 years old. Edsil was ten years her senior.
When I knew my Gram, she was in her late seventies and a widow. She wore her dresses nearly to her ankles, her sore toes were hidden in cotton stockings and club-heeled shoes and her white hair was wound up in a bun. Of course, back then when I scrambled to spend every possible minute with her; when I teased her to tell me just one more story before I went to sleep; when I watched as she walked slowly from room to room in our house, it never occurred to me that she had ever been a young girl. She was old, for heavens sake.
I have written many times about her humor, her good heart and the love we all had for her. We lived in the home she and Edsil built and her room at the top of the stairs was always waiting when she returned from a visit with other family members. She kept busy in any way she could be helpful and didn’t seem to mind, too much, the uproar created by a houseful of noisy little girls. If we did get on her nerves, she sometimes jumped out of her chair and walked away, singing “Work for the Night is Coming”.
After I grew up I began to realize what problems there could have been for Gram and our mother, who was, after all, Gram’s granddaughter-in-law. “Was she as good as I remember, Mom?” I asked one day, “or was I too young to see any faults?” Mom turned to me with her jaw set. “She was better than you ever knew!” she replied.
I am so glad that Gram saved her autograph book. It gives me just a glimpse of the girl she once was. And it tells us that Bettie Rogers was as pretty as the roses and violets and once upon a time, a boy named Charlie Fowler had a big crush on her. I’m sure she knew it and I’m just as sure it made her smile. And then there is the fellow who wrote to her in Morse Code! I wish she had told us that story. See Less
Comments
Dale Ulkins
How wonderful. I bought an old autograph book when I was home once. I should find it, photograph some of the beautiful samples of penmanship and put them on Facebook.
· Reply · 4y
|
| Words of Gold |
13 Jul 2016 |
Gold, Ulysses, Potter, Pennsylvania, USA [1] |
| “Bettie Rogers Book, Gold Pa. Dec. 25, 1882.” I stumbled on to the little autograph book that belonged to my great-grandmother while looking for something else. |
- 20201106HAv-
Words of Gold
Jeannette Morley Buck
Favorites · July 13, 2016 ·
As often happens, I stumbled on to the little autograph book that belonged to my great-grandmother while looking for something else. It was tucked into a notebook pocket behind some pictures and I nearly missed it. I hadn’t looked at it in years. I don’t remember how I acquired it other than probably no one else was particularly interested in it when we cleaned out her room. The older I get, the more I appreciate the fact that she kept it and cherished it all of her life.
On the inside flyleaf she wrote in her careful and very pretty handwriting “Bettie Rogers Book, Gold Pa. Dec. 25, 1882.” She would have been 12 years old. The book measures only four inches by three, but its pages contain family history, subtle humor and quiet love.
One of the first pages is inscribed “gold April the 9, 1883 Daniel Raymond, Aged 89 years.” Daniel Raymond and his family were the first settlers in the village that became known as Raymond’s Corners and Bettie (my Gram) was his granddaughter. She remembered him well. Her mother, Persis Raymond Rogers was a newborn when the family moved from New York State to the wilds of Potter County. Gram cherished her history without false pride and, as I have so often said, was a superb story teller.
Kids are kids, from any generation. An unreadable scrawl covers one page and the only recognizable words are “Ray Rogers”, who was Bettie’s little brother.
The dates in the book run from 1883 until 1887. Her mother wrote an admonition in a very precise hand. Her brother Willie begged her to “Remember me!” And on August 2, 1887, Charlie Fowler, who signed himself “your schoolmate” wrote “Bettie, The roses are red, the violets are blue. The girls are pretty and so be you.” Bettie was nearly 17 at that time and no longer in school. Was Charlie smitten? Bet he was!
Her sisters, her aunts, her cousins and yes, an uncle or two each took the time to write in Bettie’s little book. Some inscriptions are funny, others loving and some are downright gloomy. The message on one page is written in what is apparently Morse code. Along the edge of the page, written in very tiny script are the words “I showed you how to check”. Hmmmm!
On other pages there are simply signatures. Such as: “C. E. Williams, Gold, Potter Co., Pa.”
Bettie married C. E. (Edsil) Williams on Christmas Day, 1888, six years after she receive the autograph book. She was 18 years old. Edsil was ten years her senior.
When I knew my Gram, she was in her late seventies and a widow. She wore her dresses nearly to her ankles, her sore toes were hidden in cotton stockings and club-heeled shoes and her white hair was wound up in a bun. Of course, back then when I scrambled to spend every possible minute with her; when I teased her to tell me just one more story before I went to sleep; when I watched as she walked slowly from room to room in our house, it never occurred to me that she had ever been a young girl. She was old, for heavens sake.
I have written many times about her humor, her good heart and the love we all had for her. We lived in the home she and Edsil built and her room at the top of the stairs was always waiting when she returned from a visit with other family members. She kept busy in any way she could be helpful and didn’t seem to mind, too much, the uproar created by a houseful of noisy little girls. If we did get on her nerves, she sometimes jumped out of her chair and walked away, singing “Work for the Night is Coming”.
After I grew up I began to realize what problems there could have been for Gram and our mother, who was, after all, Gram’s granddaughter-in-law. “Was she as good as I remember, Mom?” I asked one day, “or was I too young to see any faults?” Mom turned to me with her jaw set. “She was better than you ever knew!” she replied.
I am so glad that Gram saved her autograph book. It gives me just a glimpse of the girl she once was. And it tells us that Bettie Rogers was as pretty as the roses and violets and once upon a time, a boy named Charlie Fowler had a big crush on her. I’m sure she knew it and I’m just as sure it made her smile. And then there is the fellow who wrote to her in Morse Code! I wish she had told us that story. See Less
Comments
Dale Ulkins
How wonderful. I bought an old autograph book when I was home once. I should find it, photograph some of the beautiful samples of penmanship and put them on Facebook.
· Reply · 4y
|
| Person ID |
I82866 |
WETZEL-SPRING |
Abt 1870 - 
