Friday, April 5, 2013

The Gowns of Goodwood

Gowns of Goodwood
The Art of Dressing
Fashions from 1830-1930
Julia Stevens Croom (born 1815), sister-in-law of the first
family of Goodwood, Bryan & Eveline Croom.
Goodwood Museum & Gardens is fortunate to be the repository of over 150 years of fashionable gowns.  From 1837 to 1990, five families have lived at Goodwood and their gowns are represented in this exhibition.  The exhibition traces fashion styles that span important eras in American History:  the Romantic Era, the Civil War Era, the Gilded Age, the Edwardian Era, the Civil War Era, the Gilded Age, the Edwardian Era, the Great War Period, the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression Era.  

Like all art, fashion represents time and place.  The social and political changes in our country's past are reflected in the evolution of the gowns and accessories shown in the exhibition.  The viewer will note that fashion styles changed radically over these 100 years.

In the late 19th century, industrialization brought profound changes to the fashion industry.  Mass production of garments became the norm and department stores sprang up across America, giving access to lower-priced garments for ladies.

As you view the exhibit, note the influence of industrialization on style and design.  Buttons are replaced by zippers; cotton and silk are replaced by rayon.  Designers fashioned free flowing unencumbered gowns, freeing ladies of corsets and hoop skirts.  

Additional Resources:
Vintage Fashion Guild's "Fashion Time Line" from 1810-1970
Glamour Daze's Short History of Women's Fashion--1900 to 1969
American Textile History Museum
Chicago History Museum:  Costumes & Textiles

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Jergens Royal Perfume Violet

In our collection is a perfume bottle that once contained Jergens Royal Perfume Violet.  This bottle may have belonged to either Eva Hodges or Margaret Hodges.
J.J. Hodges, Eva Hodges, and William Cabot Hodges, early 1900s
Jergens founded in 1882 by Andrew Jergens of Cincinnati, Ohio. The company bought out Eastman Royal Perfumes in 1901. The company was purchased by American Brands in 1970.  Today the parent company of Jergens is Kao, founded in 1887 in Japan.  For a history of the company...
Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Jergens.  I bet she smelled sweet.
To see an 1918 advertisement for Royal Perfumes...

The Royal Perfume line was launched in 1910.  The company specialized in unique perfume names.  Other Jergens Perfumes from that year were Ponce de Leon, Pretty Pink Perfume, Queen of Hearts, Rose of Killarney, Scotch Thistle, St. Regis, Wild Grape Blossom, and Yutopia.

The Violet scent featured in a number of Jergens products:  Chloris Violet (1904), Panama Violet (1908), Normandy Violette (1918), Violet (1925), Violet Mt. Blanc (1925), Violette d'Orleans (1925), Violette de Lorme (1925, Violette de Saville (1925) and Violette Petals (1925).

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Mellier's Honeysuckle

Eva M. (Parker) Hodges was born in Garden Plain, IL, 1853.
She was the mother of Sen. William Cabot Hodge.
She lived at Goodwood with her son and daughter-in-law
from 1925 until her death in 1939.
From the perfume bottle collection:  Mellier's Honeysuckle, New York, St. Louis.  This perfume probably belonged to Eva Hodges.

Mellier's was a pharmacy.  Very little information is available regarding the founder.  The pharmacy was bought out in 1892 by Maurice W. Alexander, who already had a highly successful pharmacy in St. Louis. Alexander's pharmacy had a line of colognes in the 1870s and it is possible that the line continued on under the Mellier name. The Honeysuckle fragrance was launched in 1899. For more on the use of Honeysuckle in perfumes...

Mellier's had a number of interesting perfumes including Dewey Bouquet (1898, named after Admiral Dewey), Florita (1899), Espanita (1900), Essence of Jamaica Ginger (1900), Tongaline (1900), American Beauty (1908), and Ping Pong (1910).  
Mellier's "High Class" Perfumes postcard

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Old English Lavender by Yardley

Among the perfume bottles in our collection is Yardley's Old English Lavender.  This perfume likely belonged to either Margaret Hodges Hood or her mother-in-law, Eva Hodges.
Lavandula Augustifolia
Yardley is the world's oldest cosmetics company.  It was begun in 1770 and was a major producer of soap and cosmetics by the 20th century.  The perfume Old English Lavender was launched in 1813 and seems to have been discontinued by 1934.  Yardley is still known for their lavender fragrances.  The newer line, English Lavender, has been in production since 1873. While I can find no description of the Old English Lavender, other than "sweet and discrete", today's English Lavender line, considered Yardley's signature scent, combines "lavender leaves, neroli and clary sage with a heart of lavender oil and geranium, enhanced with deeper notes of tonka bean and sandalwood."  According to Yardley, the lavender they have used since the 1930s is Lavandula Augustifolia.  
1924
1931 French ad
"Partout avec l'Elegance"
Everywhere with Elegance

Monday, April 1, 2013

Bellogia Caron

Countdown for the Gowns of Goodwood exhibit (April 4-June 5).  This begins a series on the scents which graced the ladies who wore the gowns:

Based on the number of bottles in our collection, Bellodgia Caron appears to have been a favorite perfume of Margaret Hodges.  Formulated by the perfumer Ernest Daltroff, it first appeared on the market in 1927.  The inspiration for this perfume was the quaint Italian town of Bellagio, "The Pearl of Lake Como."  It is described as having top notes of carnation and rose; middle notes of jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and violet; base notes of musk, clove, vanilla and sandalwood.  Caron is now owned by the Ales Group and a reformulated version is still available for purchase (the bottle is unchanged after all these years).  The scent is described by Caron as "warm and lively... evocative of a field of carnations drenched in sunlight, punctuated here and there with roses, jasmine, violet, and lily of the valley... a shard of light stolen from the simmering Italian sun..."  Interestingly, this oriental perfume, inspired by an Italian town, was created by a Russian perfumer for a Parisian company and marketed to American women.
1926 advertisement for Bellodgia Caron perfume:
"latest creation of Caron of Paris"
1947 advertisement:  "Fleurs de Rocaille:
Bellodgia Parfume de Caron"
1960 advertisement, "subtly distinctive"

1961 Advertisement, "The Greatest Name in Perfume"
Caron Bellodgia

Friday, March 29, 2013

More Remedies & Recipes

More remedies* & recipes from the scrapbook.  This book appears to date from the late 1800s to the early 1900s and may have belonged to Clara Wilson, Margaret Hodges Hood's mother.  The Home Circle Magazine that many of the articles appear to have been clipped from was in circulation from about the 1850s until at least the 1930s.

*I do not recommend that anyone try these at home.

For Hoarseness
A flannel dipped in boiling water and sprinkled with turpentine and placed on the chest at beginning of cold or hoarseness will give relief.
For Disinfectant
Iodine is a poison and for external use only.  Diluted with an equal quantity of alcohol it makes an excellent disinfectant for wounds and sores.
For Cramps
For cramps in leg, wring a cloth out of hot water and rub well with toilet or laundry soap.  Tie around leg at knee and cover with another cloth.  Texas Girl, Brownfield, Texas.
For Tonsillitis
Dissolve two teaspoons of table salt in one glass of vinegar and use as a gargle for throat.  If vinegar is too strong, dilute with a little water. Use every fifteen or twenty minutes and gargle at least twice each time.  Sulphur is also very good to put in the throat after gargling.  A Sister, Lansing, Mich.
For Head Aches, Deafness, etc...
Will the sister who is troubled with head aches and others who are beginning to get deaf try this.  Five drops of tincture of iodine in a glass of lukewarm water to which one-half teaspoon of salt has been added.  Use as a gargle and to inhale through nostrils.  This is a cure for all nasal troubles, sore throats and colds.  For sore throats use as a gargle only.  If it causes a smarting sensation, too much salt has been used.  Edna O. Baker, Wales, Mass.
Sores on Mouth
Use polk berries as a wash.  Mrs. T.B McClure, Neola, Mo.
For Tired Eyes
Lay on eyes a cloth that has been wet in hot solution of boric acid water.
For Kidney Troubles
Make a strong tea of button willow and drink several times during the day.
For Bruise or Insect Bite
Mix clay with egg and vinegar to a paste, place on thin cloth and apply to injured part.  When poultice gets dry, moisten with vinegar.
For Ear-Ache
 Fill a medicine dropper with fresh warm milk and drop into affected ear.  Hold head to one side a minute, then throw back to opposite side.  Wrap head or put cotton in ear and lie down a few minutes.  Soon the buzzing sound and ear-ache will be gone.  Mrs. Harry Torrenga, Hebron, Ill.
How to Remove Ink from Woollens
Mrs. S.J., Guilford Co., N.C.--Please tell me how to remove ink from woolens.  Diluted acids do not injure the fiber so lemon juice, dilute oxalic or dilute hydrochloric acids may be used for ink and iron rusts.  
Furniture Polish
G.F., Putnam Co., Tenn.--Please give me a tried and true recipe for home-made furniture polish.  A very simple polish is made by mixing 1 part raw linseed oil with two parts turpentine and adding a little melted beeswax if desired.
To Remove Cataract of Eye*
Take fresh unsalted butter, melt and use just warm.  Lie on one side, the affected eye downward, let some one drop the melted butter into the upper most ear.  Lie still a few minutes until the oil has a chance to sink in. Begin with 3 drops first nigh, 4 drops second night, 5 drops the third night then miss 3 nights and continue for the next three nights, with 6-7-8 drops, again miss 3 nights, then go on with 9-10-11 drops.  If necessary to repeat performance, wait a week and then begin again.  It should be a sure cure.  In severe cases, it requires longer.
Red-Pepper Hash
15 medium-size onions; 24 sweet red peppers; 3 hot peppers; 2 small heads cabbage; 3 tablespoons salt; 2 tablespoons celery seed; 2 tablespoons white mustard seed; 1 1/2 cups sugar; 2 1/2 pints vinegar.  Remove seeds from peppers, and chop or run through grinder along with onions and cabbage.  Add other ingredients, mix well together, and heat until mixture boils.  Seal in sterile jars.  Miss L.H.

*This cataract remedy appears at least twice in the scrapbook.  I wonder if she ever tried it?  It sounds messy.  In another clipping, a reader asks:  "I am very anxious and have several friends who also wish to see repeated that old-time remedy for eye-film or cataract--the one containing unsalted butter I mean, especially, but shall be most grateful for any aid in overcoming this complaint.  Will you not do this?  I shall be most grateful, and will be careful not to lose the precious paper containing the reproduction as I did this one.  Sister Helena.  Altoona, Pennsylvania."

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Remedies & Recipes

We have in our collection a fabulous scrapbook with all kinds of newspaper clippings mostly pertaining to remedies and recipies.  This could have belonged Margaret Hodges' mother, Clara Idella Wilson (1832-1945).   Some of the clippings come from Home Circle Magazine, which was in print from the 1850s until at least the 1930s.   A few eno means do I endorse trying them out.  Brace yourself for a few posts on this scrapbook.  I am completely fascinated!  A few examples* follow, all from the first two pages of the book.  

*I share these remedies out of historical interest and by no means do I endorse trying them out.  

For Diptheria
Roast an onion with sulphur in it, squeeze out juice, give the juice, bind onion on the throat and give sage tea made into syrup with honey and give honey and salts often.  I would like letters as I am lonely, my husband died three years ago and I live with my two boys on a small farm.  I wish those who are successful with chickens would write:  Mrs. Rettie Garman, Cork, KY
For Cataract of the Eye & Asthma
Dear Mrs. Helm:  Here are two simple and harmless remedies for cataract of the eye.  The Mexican remedy is put a drop of the milk from the cocoanut in the eye.  It cuts the cataract.  The other is 1 drop of honey three times a day, and that also cuts the cataract.  Will you please publish these, as I see by the magazine some one is looking for a remedy.  Wild plum bark, made into a tea and drinking three cups a day will cure asthma.  Take it for 6 weeks.  Mrs. H. Heide, San Francisco, Cal.
Seed Beer
One-half cupful of pearl barley and one-half cup of molasses or dark brown sugar to each part water.  Put these into a jar and cork tightly.  Set in a warm place for twenty-four hours and it will be ready for use.  The seed multiply rapidly.  After the seed are formed you need only the syrup and water to make a new supply.  It should be strained before drinking.
For Tonsillitis
Here is a sure cure for tonsillitis.  I was given up and went to an Herb Doctor who gave me a handful of Sage and some Sumach Berries.  I made a strong tea of these and gargled the throat with it, making two teas and using one an hour after the other.  After using this 10 hours, bathe the throat with Sassafrass Oil to take the swelling down.  I have told several about it, and they laughed and through it foolish but it did work.  Writes J.E.G., Redlands, Calif.
For Hair-Restorer
Here is a formula for hair-restorer which has been used for more than fifty years.  Three ounces each of glycerine and bay-rum, one-half ounce of lac sulphur, five drops of bergamot and one quart of boiled water.  Use as a hair-dressing every day until the hair is restored to former color, and then about twice a week.  This is not a dye, but restores the hair to the original color, and used as directed will keep it that way.  Mrs. L.N., Maiden, Missouri.
For Warts
To Sister Mollie, who asked about those willow-ashes for warts, let me offer another simple remedy which I have proved good.  I had a wart the size of a dime on my thumb and every time I bumped it against something, or played the piano, or did typing it hurt so that I wanted to cry.  I tried everything I could learn of to no avail.  I tried every doctor who put nitric acid on it, and all used the electric needle, but it just wouldn't go away.  Finally, in accordance with my aunt's suggestion, I cut a hole in a lemon and would put my thumb in every few minutes for a few days.  In a week the wart disappeared and has never returned:  this was nearly two years ago.  If the wart is where you cannot treat it in just this way, cut a piece of lemon, apply to the wart and tie up for two or three nights, or until the cure is effected.  Mrs. E.H.B., Omaha, Neb.
For Corns
Have any of you ever suffered with corns on, or between toes, a good relief for that is to make a grease with salicylic acid, and apply twice a day on the corn until you kill it, then it will come off when you soak your feet.  Miss Amelia Vidrine, Ville Platte, Louisiana.
For Rheumatism of the Bone
Dear Mrs. Helm:  I have read Home Circle for years and find the Homemakers Club the best ever.  I want to pass on a tried and true remedy for rheumatism of the bone.  My husband suffered for years with his right arm and is as free of pain now as ever, due to this remedy alone.  Dig a large polk root and wash, put in the stove and bake till soft.  Cut it open down one side and mash the inside until it is smooth and soft.  Then bind to the palm (inside) of the hand where the pain is in the arm; this will draw very hard and soon relieve the most severe case of rheumatism in a short time.  If the pain is in the leg apply the same poultice to the bottom of the foot.  Mrs. Melvina Presnell, Matney, North Carolina.
Grandmother's Ginger Cookies
One-half cup shortening; 1 cup brown sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon ginger; 1 egg, 1 teaspoon soda; 1 cup sour milk; 4 1/2 cups pastry flour.  Cream shortening, sugar and salt.  Add other ingredients in order given with soda dissolved in sour milk.  Mix thoroughly; drop by spoonfuls on baking pan and bake in a medium oven. (50 cookies). 
Crisps Butter Cookies
1 cup butter; 1 cup granulated sugar; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon Watkins Cream of Tartar; 2 1/4 cups flour; 1/2 teaspoon soda; 1/2 teaspoon Watkins Vanilla; 1/2 teaspoon Watkins Lemon Extract 

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Ante-Bellum Tallahassee

From Ante-Bellum Tallahassee, published in 1971, by Bertram Groene:
Tallahassee's existence depended upon its official status as capital of the territory and later the state.  Its prosperity rested upon its merchants and the fortunes of the surrounding plantations and farms, and the labor of their slaves.  By 1860 there were over 300 farms and plantations and over 9,000 slaves.  The 3,000 white people of the Tallahassee country were to be outnumbered three to one by Negroes by the beginning of the Civil War...
In this year before the great war Tallahassee had only 997 white persons, 889 slaves and 46 free Negroes.  About one white family in 10 in town had slaves.  The county on the other hand had 2,197 white persons and 8,200 slaves.  The statistics show without much question that the great majority of the people in the Tallahassee country were farmers who lived in the county and not the town, and that they were massively outnumbered by the thousands of black slaves on the great plantations.  Tallahassee was the political center of the territory and state, but to her merchants and planters it was a cotton town and a cotton country first, last and always...
In the last 10 years before the Civil War the city grew little... A list of the more important 1860 general store merchants included liveryman P.B. Brokaw, D.C. Wilson, wealthy Arvah Hopkins, old pioneers G. and J. Meginnis, George W. Scott who later endowed Agnes Scott College, D.B. Maxwell, Alex Gallie, R.A. Shine and M.F. Papy, A.F. Hayward, and Charles West...
During the whole ante-bellum period, Tallahassee business was never to emerge from the small merchant class.  Manufacturing was never successful.  Business was still centered about plantations and politics from the great fire* to the great war. 
*Just twenty years after the founding of the Florida state capital, Tallahassee, a fire that began in the Washington Hall boarding house destroyed more than half of the city. Although volunteers saved the new capitol building under construction, and miraculously no one was killed, every downtown business burned in the great fire of 1843. 

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Martha Dykes

This is a detail from a 1911 postcard and is thought to
be Martha Dykes (left) and Elizabeth Arrowsmith (right).
The are standing in front of the Goodwood main house.
Despite the fact that she lived at Goodwood for 26 years, Martha Dykes receives little mention.  The photograph above, a detail from a 1911 postcard, is thought to be Elizabeth Arrowsmith (right) and Martha Dykes (left).  If this is so, it is only known image of Martha.

Martha was born in Beverly, a small town in Yorkshire, England, on May 10, 1855.  She was the sixth of ten children.  Her father, William Dykes, was a civil engineer, as Dr. Arrowsmith had been earlier in his career.  Martha witnessed Dr. Arrowsmith's daughter Lucy's wedding in London in 1877.  In the 1881 census, while the Arrowsmiths were living in Wateringbury, Kent, she is listed as their companion.

Martha moved with the Arrowsmiths to Tallahassee, living first in the Byrd Mansion, and then at Goodwood in 1885.  Dr. Arrowsmith died that same year of heart disease.  Martha and Elizabeth continued on at Goodwood until 1911, when they moved to a house in town.

Martha never married, but was reported to have had an offer of engagement from a man in Tallahassee.  The Arrowsmiths, it is told, did not approve and blocked the engagement.  The man then committed suicide.  Martha's reaction is not recorded.

In 1915, Elizabeth and Martha spent a pleasant summer with several friends.  During the trip home, Elizabeth died on the train just before it reached Jacksonville.  According to her October obituary in the Tallahassee newspaper, "her many friends were at the train to escort the body to the city cemetery where the funeral service was conducted by the Rev. D. Garnall of St. Johns Episcopal Church."  She was just shy of eighty.

Elizabeth's only child Lucy had died in 1902.  Of Dr. Arrowsmith's children from his first marriage, Caroline Annie died in 1898 and Horace died in 1893.  It is unknown when Alice Harriet died;  Alice's husband, George William Mackey, died in 1893.   Martha Dykes was listed as Elizabeth's sole heir.

When Martha died of a stroke in 1916, she was attending a gathering at the home of John W. Henderson.  Martha was described in her obituary as a "well known and popular young woman".  She was sixty-three-years-old at the time!  
The John W. Henderson Home. 
This home was moved in 1939 to
become the main house for the Southwood Plantation.
In 1916, it was located at the corner of Adams and St. Augustine.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Political Craftsman in the White House

Yesterday, we made an interesting find while cataloguing books.  Tucked inside an autographed 1939 copy of Collected Poems of Robert Frost, was article about Robert Frost clipped from the New York Times Magazine dated January 15, 1961.  The backside of the clipped article is also interesting.  It is the beginning of an article on John F. Kennedy by Pulitzer Prize winner, James MacGregor Burns. The biographical note on Burns included in the article reads:  "James MacGregor Burns, a member of the political science department at Williams, wrote 'John Kennedy:  A Political Profile.'"

POLITICAL CRAFTSMAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE
Mr. Kennedy, it is suggested, has both the talent and the inclination for Presidential politics--and he will need them to sustain continuous leadership in the years lying ahead.

By JAMES MacGREGOR BURNS

In the long sweep of history the decisive mark of the man entering the White House Friday will not be his age, or his religion, or his Senatorial background, or the other matters so much discussed this past year.  What is vital is that once again America will have a political craftsman as President.

Born of a political family in one of the most political cities, Mr. Kennedy has spent all his adult life, aside from the war years, in the scuffle of legislative and electoral combat.  The key difference between the outgoing and incoming President is that Dwight D. Eisenhower dislikes this kind of politics and that John F. Kennedy consideres it indispensable to the operation of a great democracy, even inevitable.  "No President," he says, "can escape politics."

The great test of Mr. Kennedy's Presidency will be the test he himself would be the first to apply:  not whether he will be a politician--he will--but what kind of politician he will be and whether  his kind of political craftmanship will be enough for the staggering job ahead.  What are the prospects?  The answer turns on the nature of the Presidential office and not on the nature of the man.

Most of the time the Presidency is not a command post from which clear and concerted orders are issued to troops waiting to spring into action.  Most of the time it is a fulcrum of maneuver and bargaining, with the President seeking to convert a limited amount of power into governmental action.  It is a place where he must deal with hundreds of other powerful men in the outside the Government with their separate sources of power.  Most of the time the Presidency calls less for a master leader than for a master broker.

By experience and by temperament, Mr. Kennedy should qualify as a master broker.  The Boston brand of politics in which he was schooled is a kind of institute of advanced training in political manipulation.  For fourteen years in the Congressional labyrinth he has learned to negotiate with pround legislative leaders and party factions.  In two hears of pre-convention delegate hunting, he had ot bargain with state officials and city bosses whose political interests were far different from those of a junior Senator on the make.

Like a good poker player, a master broker must be cool-headed and clear-minded, utterly realistic about his own hand and that of his opponents, unflustered and unwilling to be hurried.  These, again, are keynotes of the President-elect's political style.  Observers have noted again and again his detached attitute toward himself, his cold insight into the balance of power, and his capacity to move quickly or slowly as conditions demanded.  His Cabinet-making was a case in point.  Despite pressure to hurry on with the job, he took his time as he sorted and measured and cut to fit.

Skill in bargaining is vital not only in negotiation with foot-dragging Congressmen and Governors.  A President must also bargain with Cabinet members and agency heads "supposedly" under him.  "I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them," said Harry S. Truman.  "That is all the powers of the President amount to."

A new President soon finds that the neat lines of authority on the organization chart are actually snarled and broken by the political tempests that rage around the White House.  

"When it comes to power," says Prof. Richard E. Neustadt of Columbia, a former Truman aide, "nobody is expert but the President;  if he, too, acts as layman, it goes hard with him."  Mr. Kennedy can be reated as a professional in the care and nourishment of political power.  A President, he said to a visitor recently, must be careful not to use up his credit too quickly.  He nees the best people around him, but in the end he must depend on himself.  And, he added, he has only four years to make good.

To be effective, a master broker must operate at the center of the political cobweb.  (and here our portion ends...)

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Documentary Featuring Crooms Family



This is a UCF documentary, "Goldsborough: An American Story."  It includes information about the Crooms family.  Moses and Daphne Crooms were slaves on the Goodwood Plantation who moved to Sanford, Florida, after the Civil War.  Since this is long--11:15 is where it actually begins (there is an introductory interview segment).  At 16:20 (or so) there is a reference to the importance of education.  The first Crooms reference is at 20:10.  At 26:26, Moses Crooms is discussed briefly.  At 32:32 the Crooms School is discussed. And at 34:54 (and this is fabulous) Daphne Crooms, granddaughter of Moses and Daphne Crooms, has her 100th birthday celebration.  She talks about her grandmother.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Paris at Dawn

From one of Hodges' scrapbooks, with the inscription "after years of World wandering I paste this in my book.  WCH.  1923."  The author of this poem is unknown.

Paris at Dawn

Paris at dawn; Egypt beneath the stars;
And spring in Tuscany!
Where, through ruined temples of old avatars,
The young moon peers,
White with the silver of forgotten tears;
Still, down the years,
New Aprils move eternally,
In rhapsodies of almond bloom.
And poets loved this beauty, too,
Who walked the secret way they knew.
Down to a shadowy tomb.

And other splendors--on the sea,
Set like a jewel--Sicily,
Crown with the light of Etna.  On her breast,
Her ruins like a decoration, rest.
Marbles of Greece, that knew immortal hours;
Gardens of far Japan, steeped in a wine of flowers;
Faint temple bells, the nightingale,
And palace, mosque, and minaret;
The burning stars upon a desert trail--
An ancient symbol--lest our hearts forget.

After all splendors--if the South--
My South, still knows
And gives some word of beauty for a sign;
The waxen marvel of camellias, white and rose;
A wide-winged heron's cloudy flight;
A thrush's mouth,
Brimming with starry music, through a night
Where pine-tree shadows stir,
And lily-troubled waters shine--
I shall return!  Ah, not to call it lovelier--
This land--than all the rest
My pilgrim feet have pressed,
But only that these things are mine--are wholly mine!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Local Names: Live Oak Plantation Road

Florida's last territorial governor:  John Branch,
Father-in-law of Arvah Hopkins
From a March, 2004, Tallahassee Democrat article by Gerald Ensley:
Live Oak Plantation Road, between Thomasville Road and Meridian Road, is named for the plantation established on its western end in the 19th century.  Most of the plantation, which once stretched all the way to Lake Jackson, has been subdivided into homesites since the 1950s.  Originally, Live Oak was the 10,000-acre plantation of John Branch, a governor and U.S. Senator from North Carolina.  Branch moved to Tallahassee in the mid-1830s and served as the sixth and last territorial governor before statehood in 1845.  Branch's daughter married planter and merchant Arvah Hopkins, owner of Goodwood Plantation (and grandfather of the late longtime city manager Arvah Hopkins).  After Branch, it passed through many owners, including Dr. Tennent Ronalds, a native of Scotland, who built one of Tallahassee's first golf courses on the property in 1903.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

On His Record of Service

A paid political advertisement from one of Senator Hodges' scrapbooks from March 1936:

On His Record of Service
Not a Platform of Promises
We Recommend
Senator Wm. C. Hodges
for Governor of Florida

Of Carolina parentage, schooled in Jeffersonian Democracy.  For 20 years member of the Florida Legislature.  President of the Senate the last term.
  1. Twenty years ago Senator Hodges introduced the first bill to exempt homes from taxation.  The bill received two votes.  But he carried the fight on continuously, and in 1934 the people exempted the homes.
  2. Twenty years ago he began the fight for pensions for the aged, dependent mothers and crippled children.  Today all America demands pensions for the aged.
  3. At every session of the Legislature Senator Hodges has labored for a nine-months term for schools and prompt payment of teachers' salaries.  He had passed the Senatorial Scholarship Bill.
  4. He has successfully opposed every form of sales tax unless all ad valorem was removed from real estate, and has assisted in defeating the nuisance taxes on the theory that grits and bacon of the poor should not be taxed for government.
Senator Hodges by his experience, his sound judgement and leadership is the man who has a record for a platform, not a platform of promises.
(Paid political advertisement of friends of Wm. C. Hodges)

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Arvah Hopkins III

Arvah Hopkins III
Arvah Hopkins III, grandson of Arvah and Susan Hopkins, served as Tallahassee City Manager from 1952-1974.  The Arvah B. Hopkins Power Plant on Geddie Road is named after him.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

From My Garden

Margaret Hodges Hood in the gardens of Goodwood, April, 1962:
In front of large oak on lawn
This passage by Margaret E. Sangster (1838-1912) was found in one of the Hodges' scrapbooks.  This scrapbook was assembled by both Senator Hodges and Margaret.

From My Garden
by Margaret E. Sangster

I have learned many truths from my garden.  I have grown, with my flowers, in tact and gentleness, in laughter and in religion.  For a garden holds the essence of life and tells the story of life's loveliness. 
I have learned that growing things, no matter where they are placed, will lean eagerly toward the light of day.  I have learned that the dancing shadow of a leaf will change a grim brick wall to a thing of beauty. 
I have learned that weeds may be entirely charming, and I have learned that the sturdy green of those plants that do not bear blossoms is needed to lend leaven to a riot of color.
I have learned that thinning out is often necessary if one would have a garden grow in health.  And I have learned also that the process of thinning out may be accomplished in all tenderness and compassion. 
I honestly believe that it would be hard to own a garden and at the same time be an atheist.  For God's presence is in every breath of fragrance and His touch is on the petal of each flower. 
The most fragile blade of grass that pushes its way through the prison of the earth is one of His miracles.  His enduring mercy is in the courage of each perennial that has slept beneath the snow and has dared waken to the call of a new springtime. 
Every person in the world, I think, should have a garden, even if that garden is only a window box set on a sunny ledge, or a flat bowl of lily bulbs on a table.  Every person in the world should have the splendor and peace of a garden to fill the hours with living music and lyric verse. 
Some luxuries are beyond our grasp--and it is better, perhaps, that they should be.  But the luxury of owning a garden is beyond the grasp of no one. 
I have seen a scarlet geranium growing in glory upon a tenement windowsill.  And I have seen the pinched face of a slum child, bending above it, take on a reflection of its radiance.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

David Reid McKinnon, Grandson of Dr. Arrowsmith

Dr. William Lamb Arrowsmith married twice.  His first marriage to Annie Esther Eedes produced three children who survived to adulthood:  Caroline Annie, Alice Harriett, and Horace Reginald.  Caroline Annie married surgeon David Reid McKinnon.  They had four children.  The eldest, David Reid McKinnon, Jr., was born in 1861 and died in 1890.  His obituary, published in The British Medical Journal, follows: 

DAVID REID McKINNON, M.B, C.M.ABER., F.R.C.S.ENG.

Dr. D.R. McKinnon died at Belize, British Honduras, on October 4th.  He was the eldest son of Surgeon-General D.R. McKinnon of the Army Medical Service, and was born at St. Lucia, West Indies, in 1861.  He was educated at the Grammar School of Aberdeen and the University, and he entered upon the study of medicine at Marischal College in 1878.  After a distinguished undergraduate career he took the degrees of M.B., C.M. with honours in 1882.  For two years afterwards he held successively the offices of house-surgeon and house-physician at the Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen.

Proceeding to Vienna in 1884, he spent a year there, paying particular attention to various special branches of medicine and surgery.  In 1885 he came to London, and joined the River Ambulance Service of the Metropolitan Asylums Board during the small-pox epidemic of that year.  On the subsidence of the epidemic he was appointed medical officer at Bethnall House Lunatic Asylum.  During the three years of his connection with the asylum he took advantage of every opportunity of extending his clinical experience, attending the practice of the London Hospital, and for some time holding the post of clinical assistant at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields.  In 1888, he obtained the diploma of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, England.  In March of last year he accepted an offer to join a practice in Belize, British Honduras, where he proceeded in the same month.  For the last year yellow fever has been rife in that colony, and Dr. McKinnon devoted himself with his wonted enthusiasm to the care of his patients and the close study of the disease.  On September 26th he himself showed symptoms of fever, at first resembling those of bilious remittent fever, but soon developing the characteristic features of the more deadly malady.  At the end of the week he so far improved that a hopeful prognosis was given by several physicians familiar with the course of yellow fever; but, on the night of October 3rd, pneumonia supervened, and he rapidly lost consciousness, and died on the morning of October 4th.

The news of his death came as a great shock to his numerous friends in London and Scotland.  Few men had the faculty of attaching friends in the same degree as David McKinnon, and there are many to mourn the untimely closing of his promising and brilliant career, and the loss of a steadfast and valued friend.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Goodwood Hardware

From the Spring 2002 Goodwood Newsletter:

The Hardware

The scale of Goodwood's rooms is impressive.  With ceilings thirteen feet high, the doors between spaces were proportionately sized at nine feet.  Highlighting each of these doors on the first floor are silverplated door knobs, keyholes with covers, and hinges.  The smooth polished surface of the knobs reflected the aura of wealth and sophistication the Croom family sought to project.  The unusual hinges were designed to minimize the number of screws visible.  As the solid, nine-foot doors are extremely heavy--especially for just two sets of hinges--the hinges were designed with heavy iron plates that actually do the work of swinging the doors.  Over these iron plates a thin silverplated cover was screwed into place to enhance the appearance.  Also enhancing the appearance are the keyhole covers.  People often assume that these covers were used to assure privacy in a room and that may be a factor.  But builders' design books and ladies' home magazines from the early nineteenth century frequently  notes that these covers will do wonders to stop that annoying whistling of the wind through the keyhole.

In selecting their hardware, Bryan and Evelina Croom followed established social custom.  While the hardware of the first floor was of expensive and stylish silverplate level, the hardware on the second floor was much simpler.  Porcelain doorknobs and iron hinges were sufficient to do the job.  On the third level in the attic, some of the doors were closed with out-of-date brass and iron locksets dating from the early 1800s.  Even for families of wealth like the Crooms, cost was a factor they considered.

This distinction of quality between the first and second floor also held true for the servants' call ringers located on the outer walls of each main room on the first and second floor.  On the first floor they were silverplated and stylishly simple.  On the second floor they were brass and porcelain.  Originally, wires connected these ringers to a call station in the basement where a lever would be tripped or a bell jingled to identify the room where the ringer was engaged.  Although the call system was dismantled generations ago, the call ringers remain, silent testimony to a bygone era.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Margaret in the Garden, 1962

Kodachrome prints of Margaret Hodges Hood in front of Gray Cottage.  This Camellia is now nearly double the size.



Thursday, February 21, 2013

Stephen Hopkins, Mayflower Passenger


Stephen Hopkins, a Mayflower Passenger, was the 5th great grandfather of Arvah Hopkins.  The line backwards from Arvah:  Edmund (father of Arvah), Thatcher (father of Edmund), Jonathan (father of Thatcher), Joseph (father of Jonathan), Stephen (father of Joseph), Gyles (father of Stephen), Stephen (father of Gyles).  Arvah's 4th great grandfather, Gyles Hopkins, was also a Mayflower Passenger (more on him later).

Stephen Hopkins was aboard the Sea Venture, en route to Jamestown, when it was shipwrecked in a hurricane off Bermuda in 1609.  The survivors were stranded for ten months on Bermuda, surviving on turtles, birds and wild pigs.  Six months into this ordeal, Hopkins, who was a minister's clerk, fomented a mutiny on the grounds that the authority of the governor ceased when the ship was wrecked.  He was sentenced to death but later pardoned, having expressed penitence and fear for his wife and children who had remained in England.  The castaways built a small ship and sailed to Jamestown where Hopkins spent an unknown amount of time before returning to England. 

Stephen Hopkins and his first wife Mary Kent, had three children: Elizabeth (may have died young), Constance and Giles.  Mary died in 1613.  In 1617, Stephen married his second wife, Elizabeth Fisher.  Stephen and Elizabeth had seven children: Damaris (died young), Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth.  The Hopkins Mayflower party included Stephen, wife Elizabeth, Giles, Constance (or Constanta), and Damaris.  Their son, Oceanus, was born while the Mayflower was at sea.

Stephen was an active member in the Pilgrim group and was part of all the early exploring missions.  He was used as an expert on Native Americans.  Squanto, who we remember for helping the colonists survive the first winter, lived with the Hopkins for a period of time. 

While Stephen Hopkins was given positions of responsibility, such as assistant to the Governor, in the Colony, he was not always a law-abiding citizen.  Most of his troubles involved alcohol.  Twice he was fined for price gouging.  Two offences were of a serious nature.  In 1636 he seriously wounded a man in a fight.  In 1637 he impregnated a maidservant, Dorothy Temple, and refused to provide for her.  Another colonist agreed to support her and the child.  Stephen Hopkins died in 1644 at the age of 63. 

For much more on Stephen Hopkins, go to the Macarter Family site.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Missouri or A Voice from the South

Harry Macarthy
From the sheet music collection of Susan Hopkins:  "Missouri or A Voice from the South" by Harry Macarthy.  Given that I cannot find the tune online, we will have to make do with the sheet music here.  For more on Harry Macarthy, there is an interesting article at history.net entitled, "Harry Macarthy:  The Bob Hope of the Confederacy".  The Missouri History Museum has an entire website devoted to the civil war in Missouri
Sheet music from Library of Congress
Missouri, A Voice from the South
Missouri!  Missouri!  bright land of the West,
Where the way-worn emigrant always found rest,
Who gave to the farmer reward for the toil,
Expended in breaking and turning the soil;
Awake to the notes of the bugle and drum!
Awake from your peace, for the tyrant hath come;
And swear by your honor that your chains shall be riven,
And add your bright Star to our Flag of Eleven.

They'd force you to join in their unholy fight,
With fire and with sword, with power and with might,
'Gainst Fathers and Brothers, and kindred near,
'Gainst women and children, and all you hold dear;
They've o'errun your soil, insulted your press,
Murdered your citizens, shown no redress:
So swear by your honor that your chains shall be riven,
And add your bright Star to our Flag of Eleven.

Missouri!  Missouri!  where is thy proud fame!
Free land of the West, they once cherished name?
Trod in the dust by a tyrant's command,
Proclaiming there's martial law in the land.
Men of Missouri! strike without fear!
McCulloch, Jackson, and brave men are near;
Swear by your honor that your chains shall be riven,
And add your bright star to our Flag of eleven.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Ancestry of Fanny Hopkins Tiers

In answer to a recent question, "Was Fanny Hopkins Tiers related Arvah Hopkins?":

Fanny Hopkins Tiers descended from a different Hopkins line than Arvah.  Arvah's Hopkins ancester, Stephen Hopkins, was a Mayflower Passenger.  Fanny was a descendant of Gerard Hopkins who was born in 1650 in Canterbury, England.  

Fanny's Hopkins line:
Gerard Hopkins (b. 1650 in Canterbury, England, and died 1692 in MD) married Thomasin Baxter.

Gerrard Hopkins (b. 1685 in England)  (son of Gerard) married Margaret Johns (daughter of Richard Johns and Elizabeth Kinsey).  Gerrard's brother was the "Johns" of Johns Hopkins University fame.

Richard Hopkins Sr. (b. 1715 in MD) (son of Gerrard), married Katherine Todd.

Richard Hopkins Jr. (b. 1751 in MD) (son of Richard Sr.) married Rebecca Cumming (daughter of David and Sarah Cumming)

Nicholas Hopkins (b. 1788 in PA) (son of Richard Jr.) married Emily Macalester (daughter of Charles Macalester and Anna Sampson)
From Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition of Portraits by Thomas Sully,
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1922
Henry Hopkins (b. ca. 1829 in PA and died in 1870) (son of Nicholas) married Ellen Lathrop (daughter of Francis Stebbins Lathrop and Caroline Gilmore).

Then Fanny Lathrop Hopkins (born in 1861) (daughter of Henry & Ellen)

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Blended Lives Re-Cap

Over 2,600 fourth graders participated in the Blended Lives program this year.  This video about the program was produced by WLCSTV.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

"Blended Lives" Pieces Together History in Tallahassee

Goodwood was privileged to have archeologist Barbara Hines participate in this years' Blended Lives program.  You may read about her program on the Shovel Bytes blog.
Prehistoric artifacts recovered from the Goodwood property.
From left to right, an Archaic stemmed projectile point (arrowhead)
and a Ft. Walton period decorated ceramic sherd.
Historic artifacts, probably associated with the Goodwood house,
recovered at the Goodwood site. Bottom Left: etched glass fragment,
Top Left: Whieldon ware ceramic sherd, Right: small clay marble.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Welcome to Goodwood

From the Spring 1995 Goodwood newsletter:
Souvenir postcard of Goodwood, ca. 1920s,
with portraits of William C. and Margaret Hodges
"Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Goodwood newsletter!  Over the last one hundred and sixty-three years, Goodwood has been recognized as one of Florida's most significant historic sites.  For most of this time, the estate served as a private home for five important families.  Now, thanks to the considerate planning of the last owner/occupant, Goodwood is undergoing restoration for use as a public museum and park.  The Margaret E. Wilson Foundation invites you to join us as we seek to restore the grandeur, sophistication and style for which Goodwood was famous.

"Before we introduce you to the Goodwood of today and tomorrow, a brief history lesson to introduce you to the Goodwood of yesteryear.  In upcoming issues we will entertain you with the history of the five families who have called Goodwood home, but for now, we hope a simple listing will give you a frame of reference.  The first owners were the Croom family of North Carolina.  They owned the plantation from 1834 through 1857, and built the Main House in the 1840s.  The Crooms were followed by Arvah Hopkins and his family from 1857 through 1886.  Dr. and Mrs. William Lamb Arrowsmith owned the estate from 1886 through 1911; Mrs. Alexander Tiers, from 1811 through 1925, and the Hodges/Hood family, from 1925 through 1990.

"Women have played, and continue to play, a significant role in the story of Goodwood.  One of the most important women in our history is Margaret Wilson Hodges Hood.  Margaret lived at Goodwood longer than any other owner, and Goodwood is being restored to the elegant appearance it enjoyed when she came to the estate as the young wife of William C. Hodges, one of Florida's most powerful state senators.  Margaret dearly loved Goodwood, and Thomas Hood, her second husband, established the Margaret E. Wilson Foundation to honor her memory.  The restoration and preservation of her beloved Goodwood would surely please her."

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

To Him Who Plants a Tree

From a Hodges' scrapbook, dated 1922.  Hodges wrote two notes on this page:  "one of the very best," and "This makes me think of my father who was always planting a tree--He died at 80 1/2 years--at peace with all the world."  His father was John J. Hodges (1842-1923).

TO HIM WHO PLANTS A TREE
Perhaps our God has somewhere made a thing
More beautiful to see
Than a majestic tree;
But if He has, I think it grows
In Heaven, by the stream that flows
Where whiter souls than ours do sing.

Who plants a tree, his is akin to God,
In this impatient age
Where quick returns engage
The fevered service of the crowd.
In reverent wisdom he is bowed
And hides his purpose in the clod.

The blessed man that plants a long-lived tree
That shall grow nobly on
When he is dead and gone,
He seems to me to love his kind
With true sincerity of mind,
He seems to love his fellows yet to be.

Above his grave the suns shall flush and fade,
The seasons come and go
And storms shall drive and blow;
But sun and rain that from his tomb
Efface his name, renew the bloom
And glory of the monument he made.
--Author Unknown
The Goodwood drive, lined by "long-lived trees" that "grow nobly on"

Friday, February 1, 2013

Hearts and Flowers Dinner for Two

From Margaret's February, 1951, edition of Home Gardening Magazine:


HEARTS AND FLOWERS DINNER FOR TWO
Fancy for February and Valentine's Day... A Hearts and Flowers Dinner for two... the new bride and her groom! The table setting will look like one big Valentine... so get out your fanciest "wedding gift" china, your prettiest "trousseau" linens, arrange a fresh flower centerpiece, and add lighted candles. Now we have the frills... how about the food fun?

MENU
PINK GRAPEFRUIT APPETEASER             CITY CHICK             MILK GRAVY
FLUFFY RICE HEART WITH PIMIENTO ARROWS
TOSSED GREEN SALAD
LOVER'S KNOT ROLLS (packaged variety)
LEMON BUTTERED ASPARAGUS
CUPID'S HEART-Y STRAWBERRY BAVARIAN
DEMI-TASSE          MINTS

Start the meal off with this gay tangy appeteaser.  It'll click!

Pink Grapefruit Appeteaser

Cut pink grapefruit in half crosswise, remove core, and free meat from membrane by cutting around each section.  scallop edges of shells.  Now fill the center with canned green grapes, and garnish with maraschino cherry "hearts".

Now for City Chick... even a bride knows there isn't a smidgen of chicken in this "make-believe"--but that doesn't seem to affect its ever-growing popularity.  City Chick, bless it, is simply generous chunks of veal and pork placed alternately on a skewer to resemble a chicken drumstick.  No waste... all good eating!
City Chick

Have your butcher prepare city chick for you.  Allow two drumsticks for each serving--that'll mean four for your dinner for two.  Now roll each one in flour so that it is well-coated.  Melt 3 tablespoons of fat in a skillet, add the meat and season with salt and pepper.  Brown meat well, turning it so the browning is even.  When browned to suit your taste, add enough water to cover bottom of skillet.  Cover and simmer gently for about 45 minutes or until tender, adding more water if necessary.  Remove the "chicken" and serve at once.

Milk Gravy

The good browned flour, meat juices and fat that are left in the skillet make wonderful gravy.  Blend 1 tablespoon flour with the juices and stir until smooth.  Place over low heat and gradually add 1 cup milk, stirring until gravy is smooth and thickened. If you like a thinner gravy, add a little more milk. Season with salt and pepper. Serve spooned in the center of a heart of fluffy rice, pierced with a pimiento arrow.

Cupid cuts a few capers in the "party-like" dessert, which is quite simple to prepare.

Cupid's Heart'y Strawberry Bavarian

1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup hot water
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup crushed frozen strawberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream, whipped 
candy hearts
additional whole strawberries

Soften gelatin in cold water, dissolve in hot water. Chill until partially set. Beat until frothy. Add combined sugar, strawberries, and lemon juice; mix well. Fold in whipped cream. Chill in individual heart molds. Unmold at dessert time; garnish with additional berries, whipped cream "puffs" with a top-knot of candy hearts.

Au Revoir Til March
When A Southern Coffee Buffet ushers in the Spring Season!  Until then, remember, Hearts and Flowers are quite glamorous... but HEARTY food helps out a heap!

Erna Harris

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Construction of Main House

Description of the construction of the Main House.  A number to fix in memory is the square footage, which is 7,588 (I am often asked this question and often transpose the numbers incorrectly--hopefully now I will get it correct!)
It is clear that little expense was spared in the construction and furnishing of the structure.  At fifty-five-foot square footprint with brick superstructure, the exterior of the building was finished in stucco and scored with lines to emulate stone block construction.  Internally, the floors were constructed using heart pine planks, each hand-trimmed to assure stability and fit.  The ceilings on the first floor were fifteen feet high and the two parlors (north and south) displayed elaborately frescoed designs; the south room's designs were based on stories from Aesop's fables.  Sixteen sets of floor-to-ceiling French doors flooded the first floor with light and undoubtedly allowed cool breezes to permeate the house.  Each of the rooms on the first two floors had a fireplace and family history recounts that the marble used in all the fireplaces was imported from Italy.  The structure also had a small basement, apparently used as a warming kitchen, with a small staircase which accessed the dining room directly above.  Following its completion, the 7,588-square-foot home certainly reflected Bryan Croom's, and Goodwood's, stature as a major fixture in Leon County.
From:
Goodwood Plantation:  A Study in Southern Plantation Life
produced for Margaret E. Wilson Foundation
Matthew A. Sterner
Glen H. Doran
1994