CCC Vol. 4 p. 21 Eva HOOKER Hills

Ed is in the Boston office every Wednesday¹ so on the two nights each week while he is away I try to accomplish some extra work such as letter writing (It's getting quite an effort with me.)² So tonight, March 17th, as I am listening to the good Irish music over the Radio I will commence my yearly contributions to the book in which I am very proud to have my signature.

During the past year much has happened to us in the way of pleasure. Our vacation trip in July, 1925, included Albany and Troy, (where we stopped a night with Clare Baxter Smith).³ For Cousin Harry Campbell's benefit I want to say she is just as pretty as he remembers her in Nelson as a girl⁴. She has two daughters, one a perfect picture of herself⁵.

Over the Mohawk Trail to Concord and Lexington where we stayed in the Mansion House of Revolutionary Fame. The reason we missed seeing Cousin Emily Blanchard was that I had understood she would be in Nelson at that time.

In Boston we tried to see the most important things. Junior wanted to see where Paul Revere hung the lanterns⁶ so he and Ed climbed the stairs in the Old North Church. I stayed on the ground and read tomb stones.

One night we visited friends in Swampscott near President Coolidge's summer home. I think I enjoyed the Vermont and New Hampshire scenery most of all. The trip along Lake Champlain was beautiful. We stopped at the Thousand Islands on our way home.

During the summer Cousins Tommy and Frank Campbell, Llewellyn and Mabel Shaw, Billy and Myra Sieders and children with Cousin Em Buck visited us.

1. Ed (who was a very nice man) was leather buyer for the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Co. In the 1920s Boston had a Leather District, where many leather goods factories were located. So there presumably were leather sellers there that Ed may have purchased from - wbt.

2. I'm not sure what the difficulty was. She was only 40 at the time. And from the time I knew her (from 1940 to her death), she was not infirm. I suspect she was finding herself busy as the mother of a 7 yr. old - wbt.

3. Clarissa Madge Baxter, called "Clara" or "Claire", was born in 1883 in Carbon Co., PA, but her father as from Nelson and Claire grew up in Nelson. She was a friend of my mother and the many photos I have of her prove that she was a beautiful young woman. When more photo albums are added to this website, I will try to remember to provide a link some of Claire's photos. Claire was a niece of Eva BAXTER Foster Hazlett and a granddaughter of the Hon. Geo. Baxter, whose 1st wife was Sarah Clarissa Campbell.

4.Eva is referring to Harry's mention of Clair in a previous letter.

5. Does anyone know which of Claire's daughters Eva was referring to?

6. Almost everyone then had read Henry W. Longfellow's poem, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. and remembered bits and pieces of, such as the lantern signal, "one if by land and two if by sea." But the next line was "And I on the opposite shore will be." In Longfellow's version of history, the lantern(s) were supposed to be hung as signals for Paul Revere waiting across the Charles River in Cambridge, not signals from him. If interested, you can read a more accurate account of the ride.

Just Christmas I drove to New York with Ed on business. We did a little Christmas shopping and took in a show. Next to Blossom Time I think Marilyn Miller in "Sunny" the best musical I've seen. Returning we had a short time with Cousins George and Anna Buck at Madison, New Jersey, found Cousin Em there and just missed Cousins Will Selph and Ann Owlett, who were driving over that afternoon.

We had a very nice visit with Betty and Roy Walker in North Brookfield one night on a trip to Utica last fall.

Christmas we spent with Treva and Mama. I suppose Treva and Jack are enjoying themselves in Florida, We do hope Jack's health is better when he returns.

Junior and I spent two weeks in Nelson in August and enjoyed the Campbell Reunion again. Mama is expecting us Easter so I hope the roads will be opened up⁷ after the long snowy winter we've had.

Johnson City had an epidemic of "Flu" in February but it is nearly over now. Aside from that, we've all been very well and enjoyed ourselves.

Heard so many good things over the Radio during the winter that we have always been well entertained.

During the coming summer we hope to see more of the relatives stopping on their way thru town.

7. It was difficult to drive the cars of the day on dirt roads (which almost all were) if either: a) they were icy; or b) a quagmire from spring rains. Driving cars had to be kept to a minimum until the Spring rains ended and the mud dried --- and the deep ruts could be filled in and the high spots scraped down --- thus "opening the roads." .