Name/Title
AU Lambert, Elsie Pauline [Warfel] - 1957-04-24 letter to Mrs. James Arthur HarrisEntry/Object ID
1989.2.1Context
Day in April 1957
Dear Emma:
As you can see by this letter I do things by impulse and intuition. I get to thinking about something and I must write about it....or to her in the case of a person. The other day all of a sudden I had a thought.... "How inappropriate it would have been for aunt Ida to have worn curls." You know that to me your mother in law was aunt Ida. I remember her when she and Jordan came to visit us and the various Harris families in and around Westerville. So I wrote a little sketch of aunt Ida. And here it is.
AUNT IDA WITH CURLS
(A sketch of Ida Lambert Harris as she seemed to me when I was 10 or younger, 1906–1911)
Pauline Lambert Warfel
April 1957
Something not to be imagined was aunt Ida with curls;
So quiet, so Quakerlike, so enthusiastic, yet so unemotional,
So proud, so dignified, even in misfortune, never of course admitted.
Her hair was as plain as her apron and her dress,
Perhaps a cameo pin or a gold brooch picked up by Nellie or Arthur in Europe her only concession to adornment.
Even as a farmer's wife she knew the ultimate about farming
And in that she was proud.
Always she was proud and straight and tall
And never gave an inch away from her inheritance in that regard.
Hot words and loud arguments, complaints or grumblings were undignified to her way of living
But she was sure in her quiet way
And once she set her head could no more be moved from that sureness than a stone wall.
She did not say "thee" nor "thou" any more but still she did too even as she said your and me....for with the you was added the name....
"Dear brother Otterbein how are you?"
"Little Lucile, being lively is good health but be careful lest you be thought more boy than girl."
She was proud of her son and daughter but modest too and only indirectly let you know of their abilities and achievements,
But when her grandchildren came she did not try to hide behind modesty.
She was completely overcome...by their brilliance, their actions, their smart savings
And although they startled her by their complete and open outlook upon life she was still proud because after all they were her grandchildren.
If her granddaughter was dressed for spring in frothy pink and had lovely dark curls and was completely a doll....so unlike herself
After all she was fine because she felt deeply but that also was hidden
For I never saw her cry.
I wondered whether maybe in the middle of the night away from all eyes but Jordan's she sometimes cried.
She often looked solemn ....over a "passing"....but how did she feel?
That I will never know.
Though she was quiet and Quakerish she had a sense of humor.
For that I will vouch....because quite often I have seen the twinkle in her eyes. She must have inherited that from grandmother for she had the same twinkle.
If you disobeyed and the mean old rooster pecked you she never laughed out loud
But when you looked at her there were the crinkles around her eyes as she told you without saying so
That the next time you would know better.
I thought you might be interested in my sudden flash as to what aunt Ida was like. I write a little every day just to keep from getting stale.
I hope now that your aches and pains are better.
[End of Page 1]
From us at our house to you at your house we wish the very best.
I hear about the Harris family indirectly sometimes. James wrote me as to some of the history of the Lambert family. Henrietta, my last step mother sent me some facts and letters the other day about the Lambert and the Stanton families. It seems that it is claimed that one of the Stanton ancestors was a signer of the Mayflower Compact. If I cared for the DAR and the Signers of the Mayflower Compact etc. I could he historically very busy. However I have neither the money nor the inclination right now. We are struggling up out of a bad situation into a better one at our house. When my husband parted company with the firm for which he had worked for 15 years he started a little business for himself but at first it was not very successful. Now it is looking up some. (We pay the government a token sum instead of the government paying us refunds!) However it has been a great struggle. Ted worked with Dick for a while because being 1A in the draft he could not get a very good job elsewhere. He worked a little bit at making models outside however. About 2 years after he graduated with a Fine Arts Degree from Carnegie Tech he was drafted and until recently has been a private but did not want to take Officers Training because it would mean a much longer time in the army. He has been fortunate and is classed Camera Expert or TV and Camera Repairman. He serves more or less as a clerk in Goeppingen where he has been since last October. He likes his quarters, has become active in the church, knows some very intelligent Germans...tries to speak some German,,,, is wanting to stay in Germany and spend a year in a German Design School....if he can speak enough German....but I do not know. He went skiing in the Bavarian Alps last winter.....on a Protestant Retreat....very nice he said....and is on leave now to see some of Europe.
Dick makes animations for the display trade and tries to sell materials handling equipment....on commission. Mostly we have been living on the animations.....machinery for display books (leaves 2' x 3') or for the "girl" for the telephone co.....etc. It's too hard work for him but takes inventive brains and he has "been thru college" in that regard in the last 2 years. Ted is sort of interested in the making and designing of cameras after Germany....he is a designer. He had photography for a hobby in college and that is how he got classed camera expert.
Among the papers from Westerville was a letter written by an Abner Monroe, a cousin of granpa Lambert's. It was written from Tennessee in 1863 when Abner was "guarding" there in the war. It is well preserved, as it is written on the best paper. I made a copy and sent it to Ted....as Ted mentioned that he did not have to go into the field "this time" but had to stand guard oftener because there were fewer men at the base. Time repeats itself.
Well, I do not rise and shine these days...and I write in the mornings because I do not feel able at night. Oh well! Some day we will have the things done to our house and yard that should be done. It is a big house and a big yard and I love it but it is hard to keep up without a man and a day helper. I love the big trees in this neighborhood and in Swarthmore. However every time a new project is started the builders think they have to take down the trees unless the yards are several acres and then they pride themselves on keeping the trees. How much nicer the trees are after all.
My New York neighbors are still next door...Jane Stewart Edwards Sinfield ....and her husband the rector. They were last from Garden City and they hate Morton and Philadelphia in general.
The mother and I are quite good friends too. I listen to her tell me about her family and her ancestors. She was Madora Stewart Edwards (Mrs John Edwards from Kentucky and N.Y. Her closest relatives were the Claflins....who used to own stores in N.Y.) Jane Stewart Edwards "came out" in N.Y. However their "fall" to this parish is a long story. He was Cannon of the Cathedral when she married him.....She had been engaged to a young man...from N.Y. but they quarreled and this was on the rebound. Mr. S. is English. Since you are a discreet person I will tell you....but I never discuss it here......he is an alcoholic! She has the greatest difficulty in keeping him in condition to conduct the rites of the church soberly. Every one in
[End Page 2]
their house lives on edge all the time. It is one of those stories. But I still go on being friends and they have few friends but some sympathizers with her....altho as long as he can keep going the congregation lets him stay on and the bishop does not know or closes his eyes. I never gossip about them so never hear any of the local opinions. Mrs S and her mother are like fish our of water here. Mrs E. says no one speaks her language. So I keep on letting her speak it to me and she says "I would have died without you." She is an invalid pretty much. I go to Swarthmore to church inasmuch as I do not understand this community very well either and they do not understand me except for the near neighbors. What lives we live. We use the basement and the garage of our house for our animation work here and if we would move into a house like this in Swarthmore we could not we figure altho we do not advertise or have any signs up anywhere. So we keep on living here. Ted hated it! Ted writes to a sweet girl in college now....whose home in in Oakmont north of Pgh. but I do not know whether any thing will come of it or not.
Mary Sue Webner, Lucile's daughter is a sophomore at Otterbein.....and Phil Charles oldest son is engaged to a girl a senior who is going to study medicine next year at O.S.U. as is he. She is from Latvia but a lovely girl. He is older than Ted but spent his time in the Marines. Mary Sue is pinned also. Mary Sue is lovely.
Well, forgive me for running on so......and love to you.
{Pauline}
[End of Page 3]
[Envelope Front]
Morton PA, APR 24, 5 PM, 1957
Mrs J. Arthur Harris
1415 Chelmsford St.
St. Paul, Minn.
{Save, About grand mother Harris, "Aunt Ida"}
[Envelope Back]
Mrs R. M. Warfel
1949 Forest Ave.
Morton, Pa.
{Ask Malcolm Smith}
