The when and where of Alonzo Marion Poe

The following is a chronology of the life and times of Alonzo Marion Poe who I've written about before.

The energetic Poe in Olympia
about 1855.

Poe moved around ‘Oregon Country’ where he spent most of his adult life and trying to confirm his location at different times is difficult. 

In some cases, it seems he was operating in two places at once. He certainly had assistance from his brother Americus who probably ‘managed’ his land in Bellingham, preceded him to Napa and managed his affairs after his death. 

It is possible that his youngest brother Alexander was in Thurston County in 1853 as he bought a small block on the edge of the city. If so he would have also worked for his energetic brother.

One activity that does not show up in the chronology is his apparently successful export of fruit trees to Canada. When it began and how long this 'side-line' lasted is not clear. His interest in real estate (perhaps learned from his father) continued through his adult life. His interests in 'news' and printing were strong but he was also a politician, 'lawman' and 'civil engineer'.

‘Oregon Country’ was a disputed region of the Pacific Northwest of North America, occupied by British and French-Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s. Its coastal areas north of the Columbia River were frequented by ships from all nations engaged in the maritime fur trade. The region was divided between the UK and US in 1846.

Map of Oregon Country by Kmusser.

Key events in Alonzo’s life

April 1826 – Born in Clay County (now part of Clinton County formed 2 January 1833), Missouri. He was the second child and first of three sons for William Romulus and Margaret Ann Po(w)e.

April 1845 – Poe leaves Missouri on the Oregon Trail employed with the Lemmon-Walden group which was aiming for the Willamette Valley.

September 1845 – The group arrives in the Oregon Country.

19 December 1845 – Lewis County created as Vancouver County changing to Lewis in 1849.

1846 – Settles in Tumwater, Lewis County (now part of Thurston County).

15 June 1846 - The Oregon Treaty establishes the British-American boundary at the 49th parallel (with the exception of Vancouver Island which becomes British territory).

12 November 1846 – Poe submits a provisional land claim for property in Lewis County which he ‘intends to hold by personal occupancy’.

13 June 1847 - Elected sheriff of Lewis County.

The scorecard for the sheriff’s vote.

31 December 1846 - Submits a provisional land claim for property in Linn County.

18 April – 5 July 1848 – Enlists as a private in Captain Burnett’s Company N 1st Regiment of the Oregon Volunteers during the Cayuse War, in Thurston County.

14 August 1848 - Territory of Oregon incorporated into the United States. It includes the current states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and parts of Wyoming and Montana.

25 June 1850 – Listed in Lewis County census as a farmer.

1851 – Part of volunteer militia to Victoria to rescue sailors captured by the Haida Indians in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

1851 – Listed in Lewis County census of Olympia township as a single person.

June 1851 – Appointed County Clerk of Lewis County.

4 July 1851 – Olympia settler John B Chapman calls for settlers to split from Oregon Territory. Poe elected secretary of a preliminary meeting to form Washington Territory from Oregon.

29 August 1851 - One of twenty-six delegates at a meeting at Cowlitz Landing, Lewis County, to ‘take into careful consideration the present particular position of the northern portion of the territory, its wants, the best method of supplying those wants, and the propriety of an early appeal to Congress for a division of the territory’.

Memorial in Monticello celebrating participants of both the Cowlitz and Monticello conventions. The first is what lead to the creation of the new territory the second garnered popular support.

12 January 1852 – Thurston County created out of Lewis County.

7 February 1852 - A public hearing in Olympia, composed of the citizens of Thurston County and the passengers and crew of the sloop Georgianna, recently returned from Queen Charlotte's Island, elects Colonel M T Simmons as Chair, with D R Bigelow and A M Poe secretaries.

June 1852 – Elected Clerk of Thurston County.

1852 – Appointed Deputy US Marshall.

8 July 1852 - Petition by citizens meeting in Olympia demands the establishment of a newspaper to be called the Columbian and 'neutral in politics and religion, and devoted to the interests of Northern Oregon'. Poe appointed to receive funds.

11 September 1852 – First edition of the Columbian published by T F McElroy and J W Wiley in Olympia aims to create an independent territory and advocates Whig policies. The press was constructed by Adam Ramage and itself has an interesting history.

24 September 1852 – Land claim by Andrew Moses refers to an adjacent claim by Poe near Budd’s Inlet Thurston County apparently not referred to elsewhere.

25 November 1852 - Monticello Convention also produced a memorial to Congress calling for the creation of a new territory north of the Columbia, though it was received after the decision had been made.

22 December 1852 – Island County and Pierce County created out of Thurston County.

2 March 1853 – Washington Territory created with Isaac Stevens as governor.

17 September 1853 – Date of Poe's successful donation claim for 303.25 acres in Bellingham, Island County.

14 November 1853 -  Resigns as clerk of Thurston County.

1853 – Admitted to the Bar as a lawyer [Record to be located].

1853 – May have acquired land in Thurston County.

28 November 1853 - Isaac Stevens selects Olympia as capital of Washington Territory.

February 1854 – State Legislature’s first meeting.

9 March 1854 - Whatcom County created out of Island County. Poe appointed public notary in Thurston County.

September 1854 – Elected to the Territorial Legislature representing Whatcom County as a Whig candidate.

1854 – Appointed Auditor for Whatcom County.

20 October 1855 to 21 January 1856 - Lieutenant in Captain Charles H. Eaton’s Puget Sound Rangers during the Indian Wars raised in Thurston County.

October 1855 - When Lt. McAllister reports that Leschi, chief of the Nisquallies, had decided to fight for his land a small group of men, including Poe and McAllister, to bring Leschi in. McAllister is shot. Leschi is tried and hanged for 'murdering' A B Moses. Leschi was exonerated in 2004, by a special historical court.

1855 - Scrip Warrant Act authorised the issuance of scrip as payment for military or other service. This could be used to purchase Federal land. It was transferable and often sold for cash.

12 November 1856 – Submits a provisional land claim for property in Lewis County which he ‘intends to hold by personal occupancy’. 

11 August 1857 – Poe’s friend Captain Isaac Ebey killed and scalped at Coupeville, Whidbey Island, in Island County, as part of an Indian ‘payback attack’.

Poe’s network included the Independent Order of Oddfellows.

12 July 1858 – Elected surveyor at Whatcom County. He plats Whatcom town and quitclaims most of his land in Bellingham to his younger brother Americus.

1858 - Discontinuation of the land warrant program.

14 February 1859 - The State of Oregon admitted to the Union. The eastern portions of the Oregon Territory, including southern Idaho, portions of Wyoming west of the continental divide, and a small portion of present-day Ravalli County, Montana were annexed to the Washington Territory.

Early 1960 - Places advertisements in The British Colonist (Victoria, Vancouver) to sell fruit and ornamental trees.

The British Colonist, 19 January 1860, p 4

5 April 1860 - Returns Ebey’s scalp to his brother Winfred, after receiving it from Captain Charles Dodd who had purchased it from Indians.

4 June 1860 – Census shows Poe living in Thurston County as ‘Artist’ land ownership indicated.

5 November 1860 – Lincoln elected US President.

12 April 1861 – Civil War breaks out.

29 July 1861 – Founding editor of Overland Press published in Olympia, Thurston County, and its proprietor until 11 August 1862.

6 January 1862 – Elected Public Printer for Washington Territory by the Legislative Assembly. The British Colonist based in Vancouver wrote that ‘Mr Poe received 21 out of 35 votes cast on the fifth ballot. The office is worth about $7,000, and could not have fallen into better hands.’

About 1862 – Dr A G Henry, editor of rival paper The Standard assaults Poe with his cane and threatens him with a Bowie knife following a disagreement over an article. Henry shortly after joined his old friend Abraham Lincoln to become his doctor and political adviser.

Dr Henry after his spat with Poe.
Note that Lincolnesque beard!

11 August 1862 - Overland Press becomes a weekly and Poe assigns his interests to B F Kendall, who being less urbane and fleet-of-foot than Poe was murdered in the Press office the following January.

Saturday 23 August 1862 – Leaves for California to ‘recover his health’.

About 1863 – In Stockton, San Francisco as 'topographical engineer'.

19 January 1863 – Marries Emma M Hartshorn (1829-1872) daughter of Rev Chancellor Hartshorn in Napa, California. Many assume incorrectly that Emma is the daughter of Poe's associate Judge Chancellor Hartson.

21 November 1863 - Appointed enrolling officer for the Union in Napa County California under the Conscription Act.

January 1864 – Daughter Emma Agnes is born.

9 March 1864 – Elected corporal in a Cavalry Company in Napa City.

July 1864 – Tax return shows him operating a news ('intelligence') office and a real estate office in San Francisco.

3 May 1865 – ‘Baby’ Poe dies in Napa California.

9 May 1865 – Proclamation of the end of the Civil War.

1 August 1865 – Death of daughter Emma Agnes in San Francisco.

18 October 1865 – Elected one of two justices for Napa township.

29 January 1866 - Poe dies in Napa, California of ‘inflammation of the lungs’.

April 1966 – Emma returns to her father’s home in Michigan where she remains until her death without marrying again.

May 1866 – Brother Americus commences work of settling his affairs.

11 November 1889 – Washington Territory admitted to the Union as the State of Washington.

An impression of Olympia as Poe would have known it in about 1853.

Jottings of interest: October 2017

William R Powe and the D that wasn’t…

In an earlier post, I commented that William R Poe had not been found in the 1840 census in Clinton County, Missouri. The ‘omission’ may have meant he’d left Clinton and gone somewhere else or perhaps just been forgotten by the enumerator Mr Armstrong M'Clintock. 

It turns out neither is correct and it was just poor handwriting and a change of spelling (both can be blamed on M'Clintock) and not reading closely enough (my fault) ….

Here is an extract of the 1840 image.

The last name is 'Wm [William] R Pow'

Apart from the spelling being ‘Pow’, as opposed to Poe or Powe, the initial ‘P’ had been previously read and recorded as a ‘D’. Comparing it to other names, such as Poge confirms that ‘P’ is intended, it's just a distended loop which its one leg has been unable to hold up!

The names of the others in the households were not included, but the total number of persons have been grouped by age and divided into males and females. The numbers add up. That is, the numbers are appropriate for William his wife Margaret and their four children; Agnes, Alonzo, Americus and Alexander (my ancestor).

The other minor correction is about the statement that his second marriage took place in April 1949 in Buchannan County. This information came from his widow late in her life as part of a sworn statement for her to obtain a widow’s pension. My guess is that she would have remembered her wedding day and her attestation is very specific even giving the name of the celebrant, Mr Saunders, justice of the peace.  

It is possible that it took place in another County, though the obvious choice would have been Clinton. It turns out that the marriage is not recorded there either. However, wherever it did take place, Mr Saunders did not lodge the information with the County Recorder so there is no official record. 

So the event is probably correctly remembered by his wife; it's just that there is no official record.

Even if there were a record in the marriage record book, it would not tell us the names of William’s parents – which is what I am trying to find out. The information in the record books at the time say something to the following effect;

I (name of officiant) married (groom’s name) to (bride’s name) on (date) and (place—often just county name).  Name of the officiant.  Date filed. 

Later records would have included parents’ details and the consent of the father for an underaged girl, as the JP would have been required to convince himself of in this case.

I’ll tweak my earlier post to bring it up to date with these clarifications.

Joseph Swan now in Wikipedia

My short item on Joseph Swan is now part of Wikipedia and can be added to by anyone with an interest. It’s a ‘cut down’ version of my blog item on him.  Hopefully, more detail can be added to the story of his life.

Of course, Joseph was mentioned before in a variety of articles but generally only with his name and a designation as engraver or publisher – now he has a justified separate identity!

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia which aims to allow anyone to edit articles. Wikipedia is the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet and ranked the fifth-most popular website. Wikipedia is owned by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, a charitable organisation headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Lucy Poe Blandy: another picture and more details

Lucy was a member of United States Daughters of 1812 and it seems one of the last of the 'real daughters'. She passed away at the age of 94 on Christmas day 1946. I have previously obtained a copy of her Daughters of 1812 application papers which have been of great help in obtaining information about her father my ancestor William Romulus Poe. It was also the starting point also for my item on his daughter Lucy Poe Blandy.

The Society’s Newsletter of July 1947 had an item which stated that ‘Mrs Charles Henry Plotner presented a portrait of the late Mrs [Lucy Jane] Blandy, a Real Daughter who was a member of the society in the District of Columbia, to be placed in Headquarters.’ On reading that I wrote to ask if they still had the portrait.

Sadly, 70 years later after that gift, that portrait can’t be found, but the Society kindly kept looking and 12 October I received a note from Mary Raye Casper, 4th Vice President National. She informed me that:

Unfortunately, I was unable to locate a portrait of Mrs Blandy but did find mention of her in one of our District of Columbia Society scrapbooks. This information then led me to a familiar photograph that is at the Library of Congress which includes an image of Mrs Lucy Poe Blandy. I have attached this image taken on May 14, 1923, of four Real Daughters whose fathers "took an active part in the War of 1812".

From left to right: Miss J. E. Richardson, Mrs H. W. Blandy, Mrs J. F. Galliard, and Mrs Clara Louise Dowling, 14 May 1923 outside the famous Willard Hotel, Washington DC. 

The women were attending the twentieth-anniversary meeting of the founding of the national organization in Washington, DC, at the Willard Hotel. Comparing it to the photo in the earlier blog item, they were obviously taken at about the same time, which should make it easier to identify the blurry monument behind them. 

The photo is wonderfully clear and frank. The flag they are holding is a replica of the US flag as it was during the War of 1812 - with 15 stars.

By the way, the Daughters of 1812 are this year celebrating their Quasquicentennial! 

That's their 125th - from 1892-2017. 

Amongst their achievements, the effort to make the Star-Spangled Banner the official National Anthem of the United States began with the United States Daughters of 1812. The story and the efforts of Mrs Reuben Ross Holloway makes an interesting read.

The lyrics come from Defence of Fort M'Henry, a poem written on 14 September 1814, by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key. He wrote it after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the huge American flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the Fort during the American victory.

Flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814,
photographed in 1873 in the Boston Navy Yard
by George Henry Preble. Via Wikipedia

Mrs Casper confirmed that their records show that Lucy Poe Blandy was very likely the last surviving Real Daughter of the District of Columbia Society of the N.S.U.S.D. of 1812. They have records that indicate that Marie Burnham Bonorden of El Paso, Texas, was the last surviving Real Daughter of the National Society. 

Mary died on 26 June 1973. Her father was Rev Jonas Burnham, who had a most interesting life and his story is recorded in a short book, Seventy years a teacher. Sketch of the life of Rev. Jonas Burnham (1920) by, Arthur Wellesley Perkins. Mary’s mother was his second wife Mary Lovina Wells.  Mary’s grave is in the Evergreen Cemetery East, El Paso, Texas.

oOo

Agnes Miriam Bald: windows to her mind

The previous item about Agnes Miriam ‘Nan’ Bald outlined her life. This item describes some of her writing with a few examples to illustrate her preoccupations and mood.

The following are excerpts of some of her poems as they appear in her short book, Pencil Poems. They were written before about 1925 and the earliest may date from 1919, though there is no indication of the dates for specific poems. The book is dedicated to her mother whom she cared for after the death of her father in December 1925.

A sentence which represents a strong theme of the book is on page 15:

‘It would be nice to feel when ends life’s weary way,

We’ve done our best!’

There is another celebrating a betrothal which may reflect the experience of her youngest sister Ruth or perhaps her eldest sister Evelyn on page 20. The theme of betrothal is the subject of a number of poems and though none seems to refer specifically to herself it is clearly a topic which occupied her mind. 

One gets the impression that this theme comes from a personal experience which was too painful to describe directly. Apart from this, she is consistent in making clear when speaking about herself, which is helpful in identifying other aspects of her life.

‘The Bruised Reed; to a war hero’ tells of a soldier, Bill, who though wounded in the [First World] War and permanently confined to bed, dictates words of beauty which are printed in a newspaper to cheer and ‘comfort half the race’. The story seems to be of someone she knows about as the focus is a nurse copying down his words to send to an editor – whose name is unknown to the author. Her sister Ruth was a nurse during the War so could be based on her experience.  

The poem follows the title of a book by Richard Sibbes (1567–1635) published in 1630 to help struggling Christians see their Saviour as a tender shepherd. Sibbes is best remembered for his little book that draws from Isaiah’s description of the coming Messiah who will not break a bruised reed nor snuff a faintly burning wick.

Another poem called ‘The Proposal’ describes a proposal of marriage and might be the story of a female friend of hers.

‘You are young Mary meadows’ is a kind of tribute to ‘You are old Father William’ and though it shows genuine verbal fun – possibly the only poem to do so - there is the theme of marriage again which obviously preoccupied her. ‘You Are Old, Father William’ is a ‘nonsense poem’ written by Lewis Carroll and appears in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), recited by Alice. The poem was popular with my mother and I guess widely enjoyed at the time and was itself a parody of a now ignored didactic poem by Robert Southey ‘The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them’ published in 1799 and once well-known and loathed by children. 

The first two verses of ‘You are old, Father William’ (1865) by Lewis Carroll are:

“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,

“And your hair has become very white;

And yet you incessantly stand on your head –

Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,

“I feared it might injure the brain;

But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,

Why, I do it again and again.”

…

The first two verses of Agnes’ poem are as follows;

You are Young Mary Meadows

“You are young Mary meadows,” the young man said,

“And your eyes are as bright as the stars,

And yet you refuse charming fellows to wed

You seem to prefer their papas!"

“In the days of my childhood,” she said to the youth,

“I used to like young men like you;

But since I’ve grown up, I must say of a truth,

I seem to like older ones too!”

…

'Raggles' celebrates the Tibetan Lhasa terrier she had in India. The only picture in Pencil Poems is of this dog. Raggles also appears as an ‘extra’ in a family photo in front of her parents’ home at Tukvar shown in the previous post.

Raggles gets star billing as the only picture in Pencil Poems.

A glimpse of her love for India is in the poem of that name.

‘India, thou land of sheer delight!

Land of my birth, I know I love thee quite.

How many years have I spent on thy shore?

I think they’d reckon up to half a score.’

…

When you near home, and your verandah see,

You will be longing for some home-grown tea…’

The poem remind me of the following picture taken at Tukvar which shows Nan's sister Evelyn, mother Margaret and sister Jessie. The picture was probably taken by her father Claud.

Taking tea at Tukvar.

There are two poems about her nieces who visited in August 1922, my mother Joan and her sister dubbed ‘Maya’. We learn from the poem that it was Maya’s ayah who dubbed her thus. Joan ‘is a very bright wee spark, as clever as can be!’ and Maya is ‘a charming little child.’ 

Nan was delighted when the girls did come to join her and her mother a few years later. The phrase ‘wee spark’ reminds me that her parents were both Glaswegian and must have retained that accent through their lives.

Joan the 'bright wee spark' and her mother
 at the time she met Nan and her Bald grandparents for the first time.

The final poem returns to a theme which is consistent throughout the book; a life of pain which others cannot understand and in which she gained strength through her faith.  The title is ‘Be Strong’ and final verse reads;

‘When weariness and weakness is my lot,

What would I do if I ever forgot

These words as through this life I go along,

“Quit ye like men, be strong”’

The last phrase, like others in Pencil Poems, is from the Bible and illustrates her faith which persisted through her life. The phrase is a call to ‘man up’, take responsibility for yourself and do what you need to do. The Apostle Paul uses it in the context of what might be called a moral fight. The phrase had a military application in World War I, consistent with its Old Testament usage where the against the odds the Philistines took this approach and defeated the lax Israelite army. The approach is one my mother adopted though she did not have a specifically Christian sense of faith.

oOo

I think the crucial factor of Nan's life which the family memory may have missed is the devastating impact of the first world war.

Women's Army Auxiliary Corps tend the graves of fallen British soldiers.
Abbeville, France, 9 February 1918. Imperial War Museums. 

Nearly three-quarters of a million young British men died in the first world war. Their loss was also that of a generation of young women who had expected to marry. Virginia Nicholson's book Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War details the phenomena of the single women of the 1920s and 1930s. Even before the war, there were more women than men, but the 1921 census revealed that in Britain women exceeded men by 1.75 million.

Nicholson shows how difficult it was for women who viewed marriage as their birthright to adjust. They had not only to manage their own disappointment and reduced expectations in a climate that pushed homemaking to the fore but do so in the face of both pity and condemnation.

‘Surplus Woman and spinster’, she says, were terms of 'crushing weight'. While her book celebrates women who did climb out from underneath the weight, others would have simply found it very difficult. Nan had a tough time adjusting but was buoyed somewhat by her faith and perhaps her sister Jessie struggled more. In a strange twist, Jessie imagined that men were always chasing her.

For the Bald sisters, a clandestine affair would have been out of the question given their upbringing. This was underlined in the climate that life for the single woman meant enforced celibacy or the loss of respectability.

We have no information on how Nan was employed after her mother died in 1935, though the stipend her parents will provided for her may have meant finding a menial task was the necessity it was for many single women.

Her debt to her parents’ in this provision was significant and in recognition of this I suspect she is the person who organised arrangements for their grave which consists of a pink granite Celtic cross and a grave edging also in granite with the words

‘Their children and grandchildren record their deep gratitude for loving service and noble example.’

By this time her nieces Joan and Maya had returned from India to Worthing for their schooling and Nan spent much time looking after them as well as her ageing mother.

After her mother’s death, her nieces spent summer holidays with their Aunt Ruth and her husband Arthur Campbell in Bangor, North Wales or stayed on at School. 

Nan threw herself into a variety of organisations; she was a founding member and or honorary secretary to the Worthing branches of the Lord's Day Observance Society, Women’s International Fellowship, Protestant Alliance and Women’s World Day of Prayer. 

In 1938, she took up a position as leader of the Sunday Defenders, the children’s section of the Lord’s day Observance Society, based in Brighton, though had returned to Worthing after a year.

In late 1941 she suffered a breakdown in her health and resigned from some of these roles for what turned out to be a short time and returned to her various roles of public advocacy.

In these roles (before and after her break), she was a frequent writer to the editor of the Worthing Herald and spoke at public meetings in support of ‘The great need for women’s influence and responsibility’. She was not shy in offering public expositions of her views of the Bible for example.

In July 1936, no doubt still mourning the loss of her mother, she wrote on the topic of ‘The Pacifist and the burglar’ concluding in a characteristic way;

‘It is this spiritual freedom to serve the unseen Deity which our country still retains, for which we owe the deepest debt of gratitude to our heroes of the Great War, Jesus Christ commends watchful defence of property in Matthew 24:43.’

The tone of her writings had become combative, her feelings are often raw, bitter and unhappy and they often invited cynical responses.

Her apparently joyless advocacy of sacrifice in later life may have been a subconscious expression of bereavement not only at the loss of her mother but also of the married life she dreamed of as a younger woman. She would have been reminded of her loss regularly at the sight of couples with children and in a society increasingly interested in enjoyments such as Sunday cinemas instead of sacrifice. Her inability to regulate her emotions would have reduced her ability to maintain social relationships which would have exacerbated her sense of loss.

Nan’s faith may have provided some buttress to sanity and the absence of such belief, in the case of her sister Jessie, may have made her isolation complete.

Though the first world war deprived many women of potential husbands, it enabled the pioneering few to establish careers. A Bald cousin, Dr Marjory Amelia, dedicated her life to the study and teaching of women’s literature and supporting missionary work and is worthy of recognition for this. Her major work was Women-writers of the nineteenth century and it remains a go-to text for that study and her life a positive example.

The collection of Pencil Poems provides a fascinating glimpse into a part of Nan’s life. A more careful examination of the poems may identify all the people mentioned, the references made to other writings, and the circumstances referred to, though we may never know the name of the person whose loss caused her deepest sense of isolation.

Nan died on 4 May 1950 in a Worthing nursing home and was cremated.

Nan in happy times.
Taking nieces Joan and Maya to school in Worthing.

Let me know if you would like a soft copy of Pencil Poems.

Agnes M Bald – ‘loopy’ or lonely?

One of Mum’s memories of childhood is that her aunt ‘Nan’ was ‘a bit loopy’.

Nan (actually Agnes Miriam Bald) was a younger sister of Mum’s mother Evelyn. She busied herself with writing poems and songs. She was a spinster who lived with her mother and looked after her nieces when they were in Worthing as ‘foreign students’ in the 1920s and 30s.

I had wondered what psychological problems Nan had. She didn’t look unusual so perhaps she was autistic or suffered from Asperger’s syndrome. Although she was treated as someone who needed support, she effectively looked after her nieces which implies some ability to function independently.

.

'Nan' in Worthing about 1930,
after the publication of Pencil Poems.

Then there was Jessie... 

Jessie was another aunt, two years older than Nan. She was apparently ‘even loopier’. She was so difficult to live with that she lived alone. Again, although Mum’s childhood memory was that Miriam was in need of help, she was able to live independently.

I have finally got a copy of Agnes Bald's Pencil Poems published in 1926. It makes an interesting read. India is mentioned along with her pets and impressions of her life. There is a poem about my mother 'Joan' and her sister 'Maya'. Amongst others, 'Tommy' and 'Peter' are mentioned but I don't know who they are.

Reading it gave me the impression that part of her 'loopy' disposition may have come from being one of the many young women at the time who had a husband or boyfriend who died in WWI. Nan’s sister Jessie may have also been a victim of such circumstances. As far as I am aware neither were engaged, and certainly neither married, yet as their life went on they both seemed to imagine that men were ‘after them’.

Some of Nan’s poems seem to be reflections on Sunday sermons. Her parents were regular churchgoers and staunch Baptists. As a child in India, she would have attended the Union Church in Darjeeling, where her father was one-time treasurer.  On their retirement to Worthing, they were regulars at the Worthing Baptist Church. Nan was obviously familiar with the Bible and there are several references to it in the poems. Other poems seem to be self-encouraging.

Her father and many of his generation liked to write ditties so the form was one she would have grown up with. The local weekly newspaper in Darjeeling, Darjeeling Advertiser (all copies of which are now apparently lost) carried this kind of poem also. The contributions of one such writer, tea-planter J A Keble,  were gathered in his book Darjeeling Ditties (1908).

Pencil Poems indicates that Nan had lived a total of 10 years in India, almost half her life to that point. She clearly missed her life there and was melancholy at the thought that she may never have the opportunity to return. This prediction proved correct. Much of her writing also includes a sense of despair at her own circumstances (which are never explicitly spelt out) and this is contrasted with self-talk to ‘be strong’ or ’carry on’.

Her childhood home, Tukvar Tea Estate about 1914.
Left to right: Nan, her father Claud, Mother, sisters Jessie
and Evelyn and brother-in-law Fred Marsh.
Her dog 'Ruffles' also features in the book.

Her father, Claud Bald had died in 1924 and his will made provision for the support of his wife and his two unmarried daughters. Both daughters were provided with a life-ling allowance which seems to have lasted just long enough to sustain them. Bald seems to have anticipated that they would never marry.

One of the stories about the sisters, apart from a general view that they were ‘eccentric’ was that they both imagined that ‘men were after them’; an apprehension which grew stronger as they aged. 

When Nan’s mother died in 1935, it was the married siblings, Evelyn, Wylie and the youngest Ruth who worked out how to finalize the estate. The two unmarried siblings were provided for with a specified amount from which they could draw an income. Whatever else may be true about them, their father would have felt obliged to provide for them as they were not married.

What I had not considered was that he would have known that prospects for them to marry were significantly lowered after World War I.

Now ‘loopy’ is not a sufficient explanation of their circumstances and ‘eccentric’ is kinder but not revealing either. Jessie was certainly isolated and may well have been quarrelsome but this does not mean she was ‘disabled’ in the usual sense. 

Although Nan was living in England when her book was published it is likely that her father Claud used his networks in publishing to support the endeavour even though he had died before the publication date. He had published several works in his long career as a tea planter in India.

Nan was born at Tukvar Tea Estate near Darjeeling town and spent her earliest years there, but as was the custom she was sent ‘home’ to Britain for education. Exactly where she went is not clear but she and her siblings were probably sent to boarding schools in Scotland and during holidays stayed with families who may or may not have been known to their parents.

A brief chronology of her life runs as follows. It is likely that her life was similar to her sister Miriam but there is almost no direct evidence of Miriam’s activities except that she was born at Badamtam Tea Estate, Darjeeling and died in 1954 in Dorset.

Chronology for Agnes Miriam Bald

24 February 1894 - Born at Tukvar Tea Estate, Darjeeling, India.

4 March 1898 – Birth of her sister Ruth Stewart Bald at Tukvar.

1901 - She was a scholar with her sister Jessie boarding in Argyll, Scotland.

2 Apr 1911 - She was living in Islington, London, England but returned to India.

1914-1918 – First World War.

23 Jun 1919 -Arrives in London, England with her parents.

August 1922 – Visit of her eldest sister Mrs Evelyn Marsh with her two young daughters, Joan 18 months and ‘Maya’ 3 years.

31 Dec 1924 - Death of her father Claude Bald (1853–1924) at Worthing.

Early 1926 – Publication of Pencil Poems.

18 Aug 1935 - Death of Mother Margaret (to whom her book was dedicated) at Worthing.

In the 1930 - 1940s – Secretary to Worthing branch of the Lord's Day Observance Society, foundation member and secretary to the Worthing branches of the Women’s International Fellowship, Protestant Alliance and Women’s World Day of Prayer.

4 May 1950 – Death in Worthing.

Mother and siblings about 1905.
Brother Wylie standing.
Seated left to right:
Ruth, Margaret (her mother), 'Nan', Jessie and Evelyn.

The next post describes more of Nan’s writing with a few examples from Pencil Poems to illustrate her preoccupations and mood.

Noel Patrick Hilton finds a surname or two…

Strange as it may seem, the exact sequence of events in Dad’s life from when he left the Lyell home until his marriage in 1951 is not entirely clear. Further research may help sort out the timetable of events.

However, the major motivations and main events do seem to be clear.

His key motivation in leaving the Bill and Ivy Lyell household, apart from the common desire to find his own feet, was to find his own family – that is his natural mother and siblings in particular. My guess is that he moved out of the Lyell home in about 1939 or 1940 when he finished high school. What followed must have seemed like a roller coaster ride for the next decade before he settled down. ‘Mum Lyell’ was not keen on the quest but ‘Pop’ understood his motivations

He worked for a while in Sydney building his skills in catering, carpentry and sales work. He quickly reconnected with his mother and sister Joyce. His mother had friends and family in Sydney so it was easy enough to ask around to find them. Joyce worked for the Tivoli and seems to have been in Melbourne in 1935 and early 1936. She spent most of 1936 in Western Australia doing a series of shows with the Ritchie Brothers and their sister Mavis and in 1938 was in New South Wales.

Joyce and his mother had both adopted the surname Deering by this time. It was also used by his father. There were a variety of reasons why they dropped the use of the surname Poe. A common story is that it was a slang term for ‘bedpan’ in some areas. It is also true that Grandfather Poe would have been eager to leave much of his past behind him. He was, for example, determined that no one takes his photo – a strange thing for a showman. 

The surname Deering is a reference to grandfather Poe’s mother, Minerva Elizabeth Dearing. Poe, like most boys, seems to have been close to his mother and certainly had good connections with his mother’s family. He adopted Deering as he thought it was the original spelling of the name – which turns out to be correct going back to his fourth great-grandfather Edward who was born in Virginia in 1725.

Noel and his brother Jack used the surname Lyell when they lived with Bill and Ivy Lyell and while both boys knew their surname was Poe, no thought was given to making any formal change. Noel probably stopped using Lyell soon after reconnecting with his mother and while he also used the surname Deering he may have been more ambivalent about it and adopted the usage ‘Le Poer’ from time to time claiming that his father used it and that it was the original form of the name Poe. Whether this is correct or not, the Dearing family carry a story that the original form was ‘de La Poer’. Grandfather Poe used the form ‘De Poe’ for his first marriage in 1907.

Noel's sister Joyce Deering as a Tivoli soubrette.

Dad’s oldest brother Eric Alexander, known as ‘Al’, had been fostered out very early in his life also, but had an unhappy experience and ran away from families twice. Eventually, he settled with the Argus family in Gippsland. He told me that he was reacquainted with his natural family as the result of a train accident which killed his adopted father and stepsister…

His mother Beatrice managed to keep track of her family which was in various parts of Australia. She was probably living in Queensland at the time she saw a newspaper report of a fatal accident in the town of Bunyip in Gippsland, Victoria. She knew the names of the man and his daughter who were killed in a level crossing accident; this was the family looking after her eldest child Al. She contacted her daughter Edna who was living in Melbourne asking her to track down Al. It is possible that Noel had already contacted his mother by this time, but either way, Beatrice would have seen the tragedy as a way to rebuild connections with her far-flung family.

The accident took place in Jun 1939 and Al was 19 at the time. The police contacted him to ask if he knew the name Deering and when he said he didn’t they told him to forget it. Soon after, he awoke one night recalling that Deering was a childhood name. He rang the police back who put him in contact with Edna who connected him to his father then living in Prahran, Victoria. He met his father and half-sister Siddy who made him feel welcome. Al quickly adopted the surname Deering and must have met Noel in Melbourne not long after.

Noel’s decision to go to Melbourne probably came in 1940/1. His sister Edna, who had married Eric Storey, was in Melbourne at this time and it was where his father was living. At about the same time Beatrice had also moved from Brisbane where she was in 1940 to Melbourne. This was the time of the second world war which had an impact on society and certainly the family.

Unlike his older brothers, Al and Jack, Noel said he did not take part in the second world war. Al enrolled in the army in late 1942 under the surname Deering with his wife Alice (whom he married in January 1940) who lived in Richmond as his next of kin. Following his divorce, he listed his mother, Beatrice Deering, as next of kin. Jack enlisted in May 1941 under the surname Lyell with Bill Lyell as his next of kin though Jack’s legal name at the time was still Poe.

Dad never pointed out that he was too young – but he would not have turned 21 until after the war had ended. However, it was common for younger men to join up. He would often say he ‘had to look after mother’ – which meant his natural mother Beatrice.

But, he also used to say he was a ‘Bourke Street commando’ which in my mind conjured images of unruly youths roaming the streets at night looking for trouble. In fact, he joined the army in May 1944, in his 21^st year. At the time, he was living in Richmond. It took me a long while to discover this because he joined under the name Deering, using all his given names – Noel Patrick Hilton. His sister Edna, with whom he was staying, was listed as next of kin.

Certificate of World War Two Service for Noel Patrick Hilton Deering

When he first moved to Melbourne he stayed in Al’s home in Lennox Street Richmond. Al had married and then enlisted but soon divorced which may have meant his home was vacant. At about this time Noel ran a toy shop in Richmond. He made some toys and employed Al and other family members from time to time. Apparently, the toy shop business was in the name of Le Poer though as yet I cannot find any records of this.

It was late in the second world war that his sister Joyce whose work kept her between Sydney and Brisbane met a dashing US serviceman, Irving Steil. After the war, she joined him to America where they married and had one son David. She continued to support her mother from afar and keep in contact with her siblings. In the USA, she continued to work in entertainment and performed with the Mills Brothers, famous for Paper Doll, which she was very proud of.

Edna separated from her husband and was bringing up two daughters, Bonnie and Joyce, by herself. Noel had become involved in helping Edna’s husband to ‘move on’ and became a de facto father to his nieces though he was not much older than the girls. At some point, he moved to live with his sister in a one-room ‘bungalow’ is Erasmus Street Surry Hills.

Edna ran a catering business called ‘Cupid Catering’ which was established in partnership with an investor who also had a used car business. When the partnership was dissolved in 1948, presumably with the loan repaid, Noel was a witness using his actual surname – Poe.

Argus, Friday 18 June 1948, page 9.
Noel Poe as a witness

The business continued however and most of the work was to cater for weddings. Dad helped with the business and employed his cooking skills and also employed other family members including his half-sister who washed dishes.

It was probably late in the 1940s that Noel obtained a job at the Myer’s Store in Bourke Street Melbourne. He worked in the furniture department and quickly became the manager – something he would have been very comfortable doing.  Part of his carpentry experience with the Lyells included making furniture and he had some previous experience in sales. Perhaps this was a move for some financial stability after some business of his own. Whatever the case, he kept up working with his sister and continued to make toys though perhaps without the problems of also managing a shop.

But the hyperactive Noel was also a member of the Showman’s Guild at about this time and worked a Lunar Park, probably selling toys. At present no records of this activity have been found so I don’t know what surname he used.

In about 1950 Noel met Joan Marsh who had started at Myer’s. The two hit it off and Joan helped Noel deliver toys and washed dishes for Edna’s business. Joan lived very near to Noel and sometimes got a lift to work with him. Noel’s niece Bonnie also got a job at Myer’s and came for the ride too. Noel cut a dapper figure in his youth with an impressive car to match, a 1933 Reo Flying Cloud soft-top. Joan enjoyed stirring him by messing up his hair and cutting him off in traffic with her nifty Fiat.

1933 REO Flying Cloud via Pin Interest

In late 1950, Bob Patey – who also lived nearby – spoke to Noel about marrying Bonnie. Bob knew him as ‘Noel Le Poer’ and saw him as ‘a stern uncle’ to Bonnie and Joyce. Years later I spoke to Bob who remembered that Edna, Dad, Bonnie and Joyce all lived in a rented room on the corner of Erasmus and Bentley streets.  Bob was able to Noel that he meant Bonnie no harm and approved the marriage which took place in April 1951.

Bob also recalled that Noel made ‘monkeys on a stick’ – something which he would have learned from his father. ‘They all seemed to have the gipsy element in them.’ ‘All very private people.’ Bob’s comments echo the comment of Joan’s father, who saw them as ‘jungli wallas’ and ‘bizzari types’.

In circumstances which are not entirely clear, both Joan and Noel felt that their respective families were putting various pressures on them to conform to a variety of expectations. Some members of both families thought the relationship was not a good one. Noel, and Joan, in the end, decided that a new start was needed.

Late in 1950 Noel and Joan resigned from Myer’s ahead of marriage and an intention to live in NSW near the Lyell’s.

In February 1951 Noel formally changed his surname to Lyell and dropped the given name ‘Patrick’. He was then known consistently as ‘Noel Hilton Lyell’. On 13 February 1951, he and Joan were married at The Entrance, New South Wales. Officiating was Rev I Keith Watson Baptist minister suggested by the bride’s uncle, Rev Frank Marsh.

Noel did some further studies in building and sunk his savings into a partnership with his adopted father Bill Lyell, and together they completed a number of homes around The Entrance, north of Sydney, one of which was to be theirs at some later stage – at least that was the understanding.

Mr and Mrs Lyell on a building block.
The Entrance, NSW, circa 1951.

Joan got to know Noel’s family and some family friends including Harry Rooklyn who played the violin with her accompanying.  His younger brother Jack had been keen on Noel’s sister Joyce and treated the younger Noel as his nephew. Harry’s other brother Maurice had also been a magician and had at one time cut Noel’s sister Joyce in half.

There was a huge demand for housing after the war as the population increased as a result of migration and a surge in the natural birth rate. A shortage of building materials and labour prompted the development of different methods of construction. Bill and Noel were able to build new fibro-cement homes relatively quickly; however, it seems this contributed to a glut in the area and by about 1952 Noel decided to leave the business to Bill and seek his fortune elsewhere. The men apparently agreed verbally that ‘Pop’ would pay him back with one of the houses at some unspecified future date. Unfortunately, this never came to pass.

Initially, the move was not back to Melbourne. They moved to Sydney and Noel worked at Scruttons engineering supplies in Ultimo. On 9 February 1953, he resigned after working there for seven months and they moved back to Melbourne. Noel sold his possessions including a golf set and his Reo both of which he missed for a while, and arrived back in Melbourne with ten shillings. They managed to get a housing loan for a new development in Seaford to the south of Melbourne.

Noel worked for Boyes Brothers hardware merchants in Russell Street, Melbourne from about mid-1952 and resigned 13 June 1957 to start work at Sherlock and Hay in Frankston as by that time his family had begun. 

Noel had finally settled down as Noel Hilton Lyell, hardware salesman, husband and father.

The story of his married life is for another occasion, but for the remainder of his life he never entertained using a different surname and until very late in life could not be drawn on the subject. Many years later, after Joan’s death, Noel became a recluse and kept to himself problems with his health. He announced one day that he was going in for a blood transfusion. He had developed a kind of leukaemia which claimed his life in a short period of time. When the time came to go into hospital he accepted the move with no fuss. He saw his family and wished them off intending he said to have a restful night.

Later that evening, he called out, perhaps for the first time in his life a phrase he heard in the boxing ring ‘I concede’ and expired. His grave includes both his given and his adopted surname.