What They Wore (2nd of two posts)

What They Wore

My dear daughter----

As sentimentality is one of the virtues--at least I term it thus--that the greater part of mankind possess and I know that my girl is in possession of this “virtue” I have here collected a few reminiscences from time passed, which have belonged to Mamma--Olga and Lulu, whose departure from the earth state, is well nigh forgotten and as I am growing old--and I fear after my death these things will be ignored, I have arranged them--as you see--in such a manner that they can easily be preserved, and I am certain that your children and grandchildren will find them more interesting as the years roll on, and you can continue to add articles to the treasure box, as you may see fit.  --I will also send  you the Daguerreotypes of Mamma & Pappa--some of whose letters, written to me from Memphis, two months before leaving the form of dust, & I will also send you.  You know, dear, that by rights they belong to Viggo, and shall give him the balance--3 or 4-- but if Florence or Ellinor would copy them, they are welcome to--and you certainly ought to have them all. I intended to also send you some of your own dear father’s letters, written from Missouri, during the time your Howard was born--but I began to glance over them just now, and became so interested that I concluded Pa & I read them together before you get them.  --The silhouette is a “Brenta” but I dare not say whether it is of my  mother’s brother --or her mother’s brother.  With love you and yours and many good wishes for a merry Christmas, both from Pappa and myself--not forgetting Mrs. Henriksen--I am, darling, your loving Mother----Emily Olsen


Note from Jaymie: The above is the transcribed introduction in the hand-stitched paper book of fabric swatches that Emily Olsen gave to her oldest child, daughter Anna Olsen Grund ("Aunt Arna" to Nancy, Wally and Don).  The book was made before 1906 when Emily was in her 70s.  The photos above show swatches of dress fabrics sewn into this paper book of "reminiscences" by Emily Olsen.  The swatches are from dresses, collars, wrappers, polonaises, worn by family no longer living:  her mother Anna Miller, her daughters who died young, Lulu and Olga.

Back to the story: Rynd Jay Lawder murdered 11/27/1905

It's taken me a long time to get back to the story.  In yoga class today, the theme was related to the Day of the Dead (yesterday and today) and the importance of remembering our ancestors with gratitude while we learn from them, "alchemize the negative" and move ahead.  I took it as a mission to start up with the blog again.  OK, remember John F. Lawder (1833-1908), the attorney in Pleasant Hill, Papa's grandfather, and father of the 4 deaf children?  He had seven siblings (all born in Ohio), the youngest one being Rynd Edward Lawder (1837-1890).  Both John and Rynd served in the Civil War but Rynd seemed to do very well.  He ended the war with the rank of colonel, was awarded 320 acres in Texas as a reward for his service and got a plum government job in eastern Missouri, Revenue Collector for Audrain County.  He married Hannah and used some of his money to acquire a mine near the Salt River.  Their youngest of their three sons was named Rynd J., called "Jay".  A promising young man, Jay went to U. of Tennessee and played football (right end) before coming home to take over the mine.  Maybe too sure of himself, this "bachelor and member of a prominent and wealthy family in Mexico Missouri" , and took liberties when pretty 26 year old Alva Bailey came into the mine office one day.  She was collecting the wages for her husband, Edwin Bailey.  Jay evidently won her "with a single kiss"  .... and her husband learned of the affair in late 1905.  Knowing that Jay Lawder would be boarding the train to Chicago on November 27th, Edwin Bailey takes a gun and waits for him, shooting Lawder dead at the station.  How do I know these juicy details.... they were reported in newspapers all over the country every day of the trail the following year.  From Fairbanks, Alaska to the Washington Post and the NY Times.  The dramatic finale came in September 1, 1906 when the jury voted to AQUIT the Baileys (husband and wife were charged in conspiracy) on the basis of "the unwritten law".  I kid you not.  Honor crimes not just in Sicily, but in the Show Me state in the 20th c.  [You can read the whole article if you are an ancestry.com member: Fairbanks Daily Times, Sept. 2, 1906, Headline: "Defense--Unwritten Law".] There's something ambivalent in the portrayal of the lovely Alva, now pregnant with Jay's child.  For example she has NAMED THE BABY 'JAY'.  Ah romance.

So what has this to do with us?  Jay's father and Papa's father were cousins, so Papa and Jay were like Jaymie Hyde and Nina Chernoff in their connection.  Could be close or far depending on the family communication.  Did Papa know of it?  The whole country was following it; could the Lawders just a few hundred miles away in the same state not know of it?  Papa was just 17 years old at the time of the murder and trial.  Yet, to Nancy Wolcott's knowledge, Papa never spoke of this story or any other Lawders other than his mother and sister.  His grandfather John, uncle to Jay, was still alive and practicing law, as was Papa's father Paul (1865-1915).  How could a story teller, a former newspaper writer, not use a story as good as this one if he knew it?