The weather outside has returned to "delightful" with lots of sun and a cloudless sky. We wandered around the neighborhood this morning, up to a nearby hunting lodge and down to the shore, to soak it all in ...
... but have otherwise spent time pouring over various clippings, slides and photographs related to Heidi and Ken's family.
We've pieced together some interesting insights. Ken and a friend had traveled to Nova Scotia back in 1976 and had some images of the house in which their grandfather was born, a site -- now vacant -- that we were able to confirm that we, too, had visited this time around. The key was a nearby church, still standing but boarded up, which Ken had also photographed. So now we have a "before" and "after" picture of the house and empty lot, verifiable from two sources (including a picture their mother shared with Ken before he set out on his trip thirty-five years ago) that this was, indeed, the "Lake George birthplace".
Even more fascinating was a bound booklet given out at the grandparents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebration (attended by a hundred guests!) and the accompanying newspaper account of the festivities. Included in the invitation was a poem written by William J. Rutledge -- who, we figured out, had not only presided over the grandparents' marriage in Port Maitland in 1904 but had, we now believe, acted as Georgia Bent's guardian after the early deaths of her parents and had been instrumental, as well, in bringing the two grandparents together.
Also present at the anniversary party was the young wedding flower girl who, the poem revealed, had once observed the couple kissing "which gran'ma said meant wedding nigh." The pre-existing family lore had always portrayed this second marriage (of a widower left with four young children and an older orphan spinster) as, at least in part, one of convenience. The flowery anniversary poem disproved this convincingly and left quite the opposite impression. Both Heidi and Ken do remember the devotion the two showed one another, so this revelation wasn't all that surprising; but it did incorporate the notion of a genuine courtship into the equation.
Several other items, a business card and a wedding announcement, also provided specific addresses that hadn't surfaced before while newspaper articles supplied some interesting details surrounding various birthday and wedding celebrations.
Slowly we're gaining a more well rounded sense of this era of Martin-Bent family history, an enriching and increasingly fascinating encounter with personal history!`
... but have otherwise spent time pouring over various clippings, slides and photographs related to Heidi and Ken's family.
We've pieced together some interesting insights. Ken and a friend had traveled to Nova Scotia back in 1976 and had some images of the house in which their grandfather was born, a site -- now vacant -- that we were able to confirm that we, too, had visited this time around. The key was a nearby church, still standing but boarded up, which Ken had also photographed. So now we have a "before" and "after" picture of the house and empty lot, verifiable from two sources (including a picture their mother shared with Ken before he set out on his trip thirty-five years ago) that this was, indeed, the "Lake George birthplace".
Even more fascinating was a bound booklet given out at the grandparents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebration (attended by a hundred guests!) and the accompanying newspaper account of the festivities. Included in the invitation was a poem written by William J. Rutledge -- who, we figured out, had not only presided over the grandparents' marriage in Port Maitland in 1904 but had, we now believe, acted as Georgia Bent's guardian after the early deaths of her parents and had been instrumental, as well, in bringing the two grandparents together.
Also present at the anniversary party was the young wedding flower girl who, the poem revealed, had once observed the couple kissing "which gran'ma said meant wedding nigh." The pre-existing family lore had always portrayed this second marriage (of a widower left with four young children and an older orphan spinster) as, at least in part, one of convenience. The flowery anniversary poem disproved this convincingly and left quite the opposite impression. Both Heidi and Ken do remember the devotion the two showed one another, so this revelation wasn't all that surprising; but it did incorporate the notion of a genuine courtship into the equation.Several other items, a business card and a wedding announcement, also provided specific addresses that hadn't surfaced before while newspaper articles supplied some interesting details surrounding various birthday and wedding celebrations.
Slowly we're gaining a more well rounded sense of this era of Martin-Bent family history, an enriching and increasingly fascinating encounter with personal history!`
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| A SUMPTUOUS DINNER AT CHANDLER RIVER LODGE IN JONESBORO WITH KEN AND JANET MARTIN |
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