Handwritten or printed poem on this book plate?

I can't find anything else for Miss W. A. Post. Bakers, if you have time, would you mind helping with this? I looked in Ancestry, but I think your skills are better than mine.

 

No luck so far, Pat. I did find this poem entitled "The Amaranth" in a Google ebook version of 1842 "Family Circle and Parlor Annual" (appears to be excerpts from Christian Family Magazine.) There was no authorship information given.

I could not find the references you mentioned about "Miss W A Post" in either the Bible Society annual report in 1838 or in the book by Rev. John Lauris Blake. They're both pretty "dense" though.

 

Thanks for trying, Bakers. Agreed, the book is very dense. This is where "my" Miss Post might be mentioned in the annual report, with her donation collected by Rev. J.J. Woolsey...

 

Ah. Very tiny print, no wonder I missed it. And there's a Miss L S Post next to her, so perhaps a sister. And more Posts too, probably the whole family!

One thing though. Given "Woolsey" and the other names, my personal impression is this is the English Essex, not the Massachusetts one.

What page was that on?

 

It's page 9 in the contribution section, somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3rds down the Google page on my monitor.

I looked at the preceding page and it is the U.S.... but Connecticut, not MA. I haven't tried searching again using CT.

I imagine that an awful lot of the names of people and places in New England were still very British in the first half of the 19th century?

 

Could be, that's true. Having lived in Essex County for so long (and a history buff at the time) those just didn't strike me as "Essex" names. The only Post households I could find in the 1830 and 1840 census lists for Essex County MA were in Newburyport.

 

Ok. It's got to be Connecticut. Found Rev. James J Woolsey, Baptist Minister, living in Norwalk, Fairfield, CT in the 1850 Census. I'll look for the Post names in Essex after dinner.

 

Super! Thanks so much, Bakers!

 

Well, dinner's taking longer than I expected so I had some time and got lucky!

Wealthy A Post, born 1810 in Saybrook, CT, daughter of Reuben and Elizabeth Buckingham Post. Found living with her parents and older sister, Sophia L (Miss LS Post?) in Essex, CT in the 1850 Census. In 1860 and 1870 she and Sophia are still living together in Essex. She died Dec 22, 1873 and is buried in the family plot. She never listed an occupation other than keeping house.

Tried to find any reference to poetry but Google only wanted to tell me about wealthy poets or poems about wealth. Grrr.

Of course it is possible that she wrote out the poem but did not compose it.

 

Wow, thanks, Bakers. I think you nailed it.

Interesting first name. I just looked up Essex, CT, and it's only about 20 miles from where my grandmother's family lived starting about 20 years after Wealthy Post died. Such a small world sometimes!

I know what you mean about Google. If I'm searching for something in Massachusetts, I often have to type it out and put it in quotes or Google will look for people with an M.A. degree.

My hunch is Ms. Post probably didn't write the poem.

 

You're welcome, Pat. A small world indeed. Over the years I have found quite a few relatives of one sort or another (but all from east of the Mississippi) who wound up here in Seattle - and within a couple miles of where I live! The most recent find lived only 2 blocks away!

 

I think I neglected to say that the title of the poem is "The Amaranth."

It appeared in an 1855 issue of the Floracultural Cabinet magazine, preceded by the following text about the amaranth:

"Yet Milton in another place classes it among flowers 'that sad embroidery wear' and Spenser describes the Amaranth as a purple flower. We will let the young botanist puzzle this matter out being assured that he will feel an interest in a flower hallowed by being consecrated to departed friends and which could suggest sweet lines like the following..." [followed by the poem in my book plate]

It doesn't sound to me like the author is attributing the poem to either Milton or Spenser, yet it surprises me that he doesn't give an author.

 

Bakers, that's incredible that you've found relatives so near to where you live. Are there still relatives in the area?

 

Well that makes two places we've seen it published without attribution. Interesting.

 

Not that I can find (so far.)

 

Hmm, the same quote that I posted above appeared in The Favorites of the Flower Garden by George William Francis, F.L.S.; London; 1844. This time, though, it's preceded by lines from a Milton poem. So I'm wondering if the book plate poem actually is by Milton?

 

The poem also appeared in the 1843 edition of The Christian Family Magazine, Vol 2, again without attribution. It was included in the table of contents with no author gived, though most other entries were listed with an author.

 

Bakers, maybe you were drawn to your location by ghosts of your family past!

 

You never know! The first to arrive (and the closest relation) was my 2X great grandmother's brother, about 1903. He brought his second wife and several sons from NYC; died here in the mid-20's. The sons never had any children, although 2 did marry. I have an RPPC of the 2 youngest boys with a small wagon on a wooden sidewalk. I've guessed that it must have been near their home, which was just a couple blocks from Alki Beach.

 

I can see the penciled lines in the enhanced picture posted (thanks).