Seven Hills High School - Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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title-page reads, uPoole,s lnstructive Memorandum-Book for the year 1809.-Printed by C. Whittingham, Goswell Street, London, England. There are also sketches on geography, history and astronomy, written in a series of dialogues by pupil and master. 6'Cahusac's New Country Dances for 1809,' is extremely interesting, though very hard to understand. An example is the '5Morgiana-First lady change places with second gentleman, first gentleman do the same with second lady, poussetteg and right and left. Other pages contain certain pieces of prose and poetry, '4Latin Words and Phrasesf' 6'lVlarks and Principles of True Politenessw and c'The Royal Family of Great Britainf' The pages on which my great, great, grandmother wrote her diary have one question for each day printed on them to uexercise the On January 28th, 1809, she writes, HAn agreeable proposal and a resolu- tionf' I imagine that this means that James Wood made a proposal of marriage and she resolved to marry him. On March 18th, she 'ccame to Cheltenham. While there she wrote, HA confirmation and a new resolve, but I do not quite understand what she means by this. On July 13th, she was apparently married to James Wood, and she writes, '6Que le bon Dieu nous rende tous heureux faMay God make us happy. j She and her husband then went to live in the United States. They left on August 31st from Liverpool and arrived in Philadelphia on October 14th, the journey taking forty-four days. The new Mrs. Wood was apparently very homesick in America, for she sent a great many letters to friends and rela- tives in England. During the month of November she sent a few letters every day by 'cpacketv fa type of vessel carrying mails and passengers and sailing at fixed timesj. There are no entries for the month of December. The Woods lived in Philadelphia for about fifteen years, during which time they had five daughters and one son. The one son was sent to England for his education. He became a Catholic and later Frederick William, Archbishop Wood of Philadelphia. The Woods moved to Cincinnati about 1824 or 1825. They lived on Broadway below Fourth Street, then the center of the residential district of Cincinnati. The house was near the present Queen City Club. Anne Wood's husband died in the Cholera epidemic in Cincinnati, in 1832. He became ill suddenly and died on the same afternoon. After her husband's death, Anne started on Pike Street a 4'School for Respectable Females in the present Taft Museum. She was assisted in her mdafone, 193 Q 1831

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1788, opposite the mouth of the Licking. One month later Colonel Israel Ludlow with Denman and Patterson, left Maysville, Kentucky, with twenty persons to settle an Mentire section eighteen and fractional section seventeen, in township fourv which was purchased by Judge Symmes. The town was at that time covered with dense forest and the course of streets was blazed on trees. The survey embraced only between Broadway and Central Avenue. The Indians outside of the settlements were constantly causing trouble. Some of the settlers were carried off and held captive or killed. Later block houses were built and the settlement was enlarged. There are many signs of mound builders in Ohio. There was a mound at the intersection of Third and Main streets. It was eight feet high, one hun- dred and twenty feet long, sixty feet broad, and oval shaped. Since then this mound has been almost obliterated by the grading of Main Street. As this mound has been obliterated, the Indians have slowly faded into oblivion. They are almost never seen in Ohio and live only in the west and in the north. LEE AVERY, 1941 A Life of the l9'rh Century Anne Bryan Wood was one of the first of our family to come to Cincin- nati. She came with her husband to this town in 1825. Anne Bryan was born .Ianary 30th, 1780. Her early life with her brother and two sisters was spent in Gloucester, England, her birthplace. She and her sisters were educated in a private school, where they had the fashionable subjects of the day, including French, music, dancing, and drawing. She made frequent trips to Manchester, where she met her future husband, James Wood. It is an odd coincidence that Anne Bryan,s two sisters also married men named Wood, though not related to James Wood. One of her possessions, which I have now, is a little diary and memoran- dum book which she had in her marriage year. This diary is small, com- pact and bound in worn red leather. The pages are naturally yellow with age and written in faded brown ink. There is a pocket, in the front cover of the book, which contains a small card with HDirections for Measuringn by Mlohn Cash, Tailor and Habit Maker, Liverpool, Englandf, There is also a small holder for a pencil. There are several pages of printed matter also in the diary. First, there is a ulVIap for Instruction of Youth in the Elements of Geography. The W mane, 193 Q l82l

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teaching of the young ladies by her daughters, one of whom was musical and gave piano lessons. Anne Wood had this School for several years. Between 1855 and 1860, after all but one of her daughters had been mar- ried, she moved out on Madison Road. The house was on the site of the entrance to Annwood Street, which street is named for her. She lived there with an attendant and her daughter, Catharine, until her death in 1867, on December 19th, at the age of eight-seven. lf the little old lady could have gone through a day with her great, great, grand-daughter, she would probably have been most interested in seeing a present-day Cincinnati school for girls. She would have been interested in the freedom of the girls of today, and in the marked difference between the modern girl and a young lady in her 4'School for Respectable Femalesf' ANNE RAMSEY, 1942 A Contrast in Social Life After 1802 Cincinnati began to grow into a civilized town with, as the Rev- erend Coss says, a definite social life of its own. To be sure, this social life was brought from the East, but in the new West it took on a different flavor. The primitive existence in a fort on the frontier became more civilized as more and more people flowed West. Instead of soldiers, men were coming West who were interested in raising their families and making their fortunes. As this steadying influence increased, social life became stabilized, and a social system was developed, in which there were class distinctions. It was all very well to talk of the democracy of the West and, in truth, the West was more democratic than the East, but there were still social barriers. A visitor from England, Mrs. Frances Trollope, was surprised to find that mechanics were not recognized socially, whereas shopkeepers were. Upon inquiring, she was told that the shopkeepers were HMerchants,' while the mechanics made the articles they sold. This constituted the difference. Early entertainments were, of necessity, simple, but entertainments there were. The first ones were cabin raisings where the men got together and helped their neighbor to build a cabin. While this was being done, the women cooked and, when the work was finished, they all feasted. A fiddler added to the merriment as he played for the Virginia Reels and country dances. The Reverend Goss says that perhaps the gayest of the pioneer parties was the ,Hstraw ridel' which was climaxed by a ball. For the ride, an old river boat was put on runners. There were ten outriders, two fiddlers, two fiute players, and a bottle of '4Black Betty circulating freely. The dance at the end of the ride was always a memorable event. The dancers were dressed in linsey-woolsey and buckskin suits. Despite the simplicity of the clothes, there was as much discussion over a new shade of home-made dye as there is today W atm, 193 9 i841