Mystery Solved

I have just deleted my last post because of some inaccuracies. A long time ago while reading an article in a magazine about quilting, I ran across a little information about a girl who lived in this house in the 1850's-60's and whose father was the minister of the Congregational Church here in town. I also remembered that there was mention of a diary. I was interested when Gudl left information about a diary kept by a young girl by the name of Caroline Cowles Richards. I was very excited to learn that her diary is on-line. You can read the entire thing here. (ignore the cover page which is for a different book. Just click on the arrows to turn the pages)

So I began to read the diary and soon discovered what I thought were discrepencies between the diary and what I remembered the magazine article saying. First of all, Caroline's father was not the pastor of this church. In fact, she lived with her grandparents. Her grandfather was the town's banker. Her great-uncle had been the first pastor of the Congregational Church many years earlier, so I chalked that up to what had confused me. But then I was puzzled by things she wrote about her home. She described a wrought iron fence on her property that was quite high with a stone foundation. There is no fence on the property on which this house is located. It didn't seem like such a structure would be taken down. In another entry in the diary, Caroline tells of it raining quite hard. Her grandmother would not allow her and her little sister Anna to walk to church. Instead, they sat in the kitchen with their window opened so they could hear the sermon coming from the Methodist church located next door to their house. Well that settled it. This house was not Caroline's house. How could I have gotten two things wrong that I was sure that I had remembered?

It bugged me enough to stay up late on-line doing research until about 12:30 am this morning...but I solved the mystery. I finally tracked down the original magazine article that I had read. The girl who lived in the house was Susie Daggett. Her father was the pastor of the Congregational Church. She is mentioned many times in Caroline's diary because they were school chums. These two girls, along with a few other girls decided to make quilts together to keep for the day that each of them would marry. In the diary, Susie declares to the other girls that she has decided that she will never marry. The girls come to a concensus that they will make a quilt for her anyway. I could not find a picture of Susie...but I did find one of her father, Rev. Oliver E. Daggett.