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Philopoena Album
Ellie Stoneroad, student at the Harrisburg Female Seminary, passed around her Philopoena Album in 1857 for her classmates to sign. On the album’s pages, her classmates wrote inscriptions to remember them by–words of good tidings and immortal friendship, wistful remembrances of youthful times passed. They signed their names, and over the years, Ellie made further notations–where they were living, whether they were married, whether they had died. The writing is faint in many places and difficult to read. All pages with written inscriptions are posted here; a few selections are transcribed below. To Ellie “Oh! prize thou not too found to high; The passing scenes of earth; For many a…
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Ellie’s schoolmates
Ellie Stoneroad’s schoolmates at the Harrisburg Female Seminary wrote in the pages of this book–much as later generations signed yearbooks. Ellie, presumably, used this book to keep notes about changes in her friends’ lives, noting, for example, where they had moved, or whether they had married. To Ellie As half in shade and half in sun This would align its path advances May that pride the sun’s refrain Be all that & it shall meet thy glances Ellie McCune Shippensburg Married
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Twenty dollar kitchen
In 1877, $20 could get a homeowner a new kitchen, as we can see in this handwritten received from John L. Patterson (my third-great grandfather) to Daniel C. Matter Sr.
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Gnats, not fairies
Undated, from the pen of Ellie Stoneroad: It was on a bright summer’s day I had been wandering through the woods and finding a large oak tree. I seated myself beneath its wide spreading branches and in a few minutes I was in a sound sleep and far off in the “land of dreams.” I thought I was in a distant country which was thickly inhabited by a diminutive race of people, who called themselves Fairies but how different were they from what I had imagined Fairies to be. Instead of the beautiful little creatures dressed with rose leaves and possessing all the beauty and peace of (?) herself I…
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Remember Me
This mysterious, handmade valentine was folded among Ellie Stoneroad’s papers: Phila Feb the 14 1851 Dear Friend How I wish I could be with you at the fair, to assist and to mingle with my friends, since it cannot be so I must do what I can. I hope the small donation which I fairly tender will be accepted St Valentine
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Family home
The funeral home in Honey Grove wasn’t anything odd when I was a kid visiting my grandparents there. It was big and old. Maybe a little musty and certainly boring. But when I was visiting the place growing up, I never gave much thought to just how it came into the family. After all, grandparents are always old to a kid, and the house was old–so a big, old house in the family seemed just about right. I learned the family history little by little over the years–that the funeral home had once also had a store attached, that there had been a post office there, that it had belonged to my great…
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Beautiful horses
I don’t know much about this–the year, the occasion, the church–but this lovely photo is of my great great grandmother, Grace Patterson Henry, her husband Harvey Henry, and her mother, Ellie Stoneroad Patterson.
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Grace
Over the past year, off and on, I’ve been positing artifacts I discovered after my grandfather’s death in December 2013. These are old family papers, and while I have a varied collection, most of the collection relates back to Ellie Stoneroad Patterson, a name I never tire of typing. Ellie was my great-great-great grandmother, and she seems to have, from an early age, put many thoughts and observations to paper. She saved materials relating to both her forebears and the forebears of her husband, John Lyon Patterson. The real credit for saving this collection belongs to Grace Patterson Henry, Ellie’s daughter and my great-great grandmother. I’ve seen explanatory notes written…
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The Pattersons of Pleasant View
This undated photo, found in a trunk of old photos along with its gilded frame (in quite good shape!) depicts the Pattersons in front of their farmhouse in Pleasant View (Spruce Hill Township), Pennsylvania. From the left, we have young John J. Patterson, his brother Thomas Patterson, Grace Patterson (my g-g-grandmother), John L. Patterson (my g-g-g-grandfather), and Ellie Stoneroad Patterson (my g-g-g-grandmother). John J. was born in 1879 and looks no older than ten years old, and Thomas died in 1890 at the age of 13, leading me to place this photo at around 1889. The house still stands today along Route 75.
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Ellie’s grave
Ellie Stoneroad Patterson, my third-great grandmother, left this earth on July 16, 1909. She was buried among so many other Pattersons in the Lower Tuscarora Presbyterian Cemetery in Academia, Pennsylvania. Her memorial card was manufactured by H.F. Wendell & Co. of Leipsic, Ohio, “manufacturers of extra fine memorial cards.” The card is style number 2. (I don’t know why the death dates are a week apart from the card to the stone.)