SEPIA SATURDAY The ghost of things to come

 

When I first saw this photo I was startled to see myself dressed in a vintage dress and holding a baby on my lap. It's actually my maternal great grandmother (Katherine White)  but she looks eerily like me. My grandmother is in the middle of the picture. On the wall in the background is a portrait of my great- great grandmother. 

Jesse Edwin and Katherine White on their wedding day and their 50th anniversary.  She doesn't look so much like me in either of these pictures.  

A poem written about their life was published in a booklet given out at the anniversary party. Here's an excerpt: 

Once Edwin took her for a ride

but she almost did skin his hide:

for river waters she did feel

when Edwin's buggy broke a wheel.

But this young Edwin, he was brave

and to his sweet, one day, he gave,

as proudly as some foreign king,

 the nicest little diamond ring.

Now Katherine dear was very shy,

she could not look him in the eye:

but with a low-toned voice she said:

"The sooner the better, if we wed".

Whoever wrote this was really stretching to make things rhyme. I'll spare you the rest and just say that they lived on a farm in Sublette, Illinois and had 12 children. 10 of them lived. 

 Jesse's ancestors, William and Susanna White came over on the Mayflower.  One of their sons, Peregrine, was born on the ship while it was anchored off of Cape Cod. His cradle still exists and is in the Pilgrim Hall Museum.

My ancestor was Peregrine's older brother, Resolved. 

William died the first winter and Susanna then married Edward Winslow who later became a governor of Plymouth.