Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Mirror, mirror on the wall

There's this mirror at my parents' house that used to belong to Jack and Louise. It's a federal style wooden mirror, probably made from cherry wood with a gold eagle on the top. It looks something like this mirror, you get the idea. 


I don't remember where this mirror hung when Jack and Louise lived in the house at 3900, but I do remember the round gold convex mirror with the eagle on top. I never quite understood the point of a convex glass because everything was hilariously distorted, but it was a super cool mirror! 

So this federal style mirror has an envelope on the back with a yellowed piece of paper inside. 


Given to Nina by her Great Aunt Genivise (?)

Gregory Graves July 1899

This glass was bought by Amasa Gregory 

at an auction about 1844.


WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

We've been asking that question for years. 

As luck would have it, I've found two of the three people named on this piece of paper. 

I can't link Amasa Gregory to our family (yet), but he did have a daughter, Emily, that married a Graves. So I may have found the "Gregory Graves" link. I'll keep digging.

Nina could very well be Nina M. Benner, first cousin to Hattie Idella Benner. 


I haven't found much more about Nina that I can verify. She may have been married twice. The first marriage could have been to a Samuel Pinkham in 1899. However both she and Samuel show up a few years later with different spouses. The second spouse is George Savory who perished in an explosion on a friend's yacht in Buzzards Bay in 1908. There are conflicting reports about him. The death certificate lists him as married, with no name of the wife, but newspaper accounts of the accident say that he had no wife or children. I can find no record of Nina ever having children. 

I'll keep digging about Amasa. I think he lived in near the Boyntons and could have been a family friend. I'll let you know what I find out. 

As the weather gets more pleasant I spend less time at the computer, but I'm still digging around. I've scanned a few more photos and slides and will get them cleaned up and posted soon. 

I hope everyone is well!