And so with this letter, the journey begins. A journey to rediscover my grandmother’s life as a young woman trying to make it on her own as a milliner. For years, I had known that my grandmother Madge worked in the hat trade before her marriage to my grandfather, but I never knew any details. She didn’t talk about that part of her life, and I was too young to realize the importance and bravery of her actions so long ago.
After my junior year in college, I married and started my own life, and put her information in the back of my mind for some other day. After all, there was plenty of time. But, unfortunately, there wasn’t any more time. Madge died of the flu within the year, buried in the dress she wore to my wedding.
Her daughter Jane, my aunt, who has done extensive genealogical research into our family history, going all the way back to England and Ireland, never thought about writing down her own mother’s history. I know a lot about the man Madge married, my grandfather, Ray Meredith. How he owned the Kansas Mattress Factory; about his Irish uncles who ran a stable in downtown Wichita; I even have information about his parents. A father who abandoned his family for the Klondike gold rush and a mother who, needing to support that family, traveled to Cripple Creek, Colorado, baby in tow, to cook for miners.
What I do know about Madge is that she was born on February 22, 1896, in Montpelier, Indiana, and the family traveled to Kansas by covered wagon in the early 1900s. I have a wonderful photo of her in her early teens, standing in front of their sod house. I also know that she married my grandfather, Ray John Meredith, on June 21, 1922, at age 26.
An age at that time that might be considered on the border of old-maid status. I have very little information about her life in between. My mom loved to regale me with tales about her dad, Ray, but Madge was just her mom. Now my Mom is gone as well, just when I would love to sit down and talk with her about grandmother Madge.
Earlier this year, my aunt Jane, excited about my new online vintage shop named after my grandmother, mentioned in passing Madge’s hat shop in Scooba, Mississippi. She also noted that she took my grandmother back to Scooba in the 1970s and found the building where the hat shop had been located. Never having heard any of this, I was astounded. In the mid-1910s, Madge somehow found an investor, moved to Scooba, and lived in a boarding house, starting a new life away from home and family. The bad news is that my aunt didn’t remember where the shop was located and hadn’t taken any photos of their trip.
So here I am, going through two huge suitcases of old letters, papers, and photographs from my cousin in Wichita, trying to find a hat shop in Scooba, Mississippi without an address, shop name, or exact date. I do know the shop was open only for a short time around 1917. Was Mrs. Steely the investor? Is this letter about Scooba or something in Chanute, Kansas?Today my husband, Mr. Madge, & I start our trip to his family reunion in Missouri. On the way, we will stop in Scooba armed with only a couple of old letters, one photo of Madge with a Scooba girlfriend, and a hand-drawn map that my aunt drew up from memories of her visit 40 years ago.
Once there, we will meet with Sarah Dauterive, a wonderful librarian at the Tubb-May Library at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, who has been helping me find the needle in this Mississippi haystack.
So stay tuned. Ora Madge Beals Meredith, I know you are out there somewhere.
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3 Comments
I don’t get on FB much anymore, but was happy to see this story! You know me and the history of things, so I will be watching for the the rest of this story. Here’s to your finding everything you are looking for. 🙂
This story had me riveted from the get go. I so admire your devotion to unearthing these historical roots.
I, too, long to know the whole history of millinery in a town, tho Chicago has not been a town for a long time. I plod away at it, thrilled with each tidbit uncovered.
Millinery was a part of every woman’s life. Many made a respectable tho usually meager living in the millinery business. It was a man’s world back in those days of business, but it afforded women some control of their destiny, and especially as one of their creative outlets.
Will look forward to the findings of your journey, and wish you more than a little luck.
Wow, what an inspiring adventure. Will be anxious to hear how it all goes.