Posts Tagged Rachel

Mary Jane Vaughn Spencer

Audrey: Milton said that my mother (MaryJane [née Vaughn] Spencer) is the best woman in all the world. He came every night. She was glad to see Milton. He played the guitar. She let him in every night. Grandma loved music. She and her sister, Rachel, were two little girls in blue and they sang in church.

Mary Jane Vaughn Spencer sketched by Audrey Mae Spencer

Audrey: I think I called her mom. Or, I think I would have called her mama. If I said mother, she would have looked at me as if I were crazy. I do not know if anyone was calling her mother. I know my own mother when she spoke of her mother and father always said mother said this or father said that.

Grandma’s father always wore high boots. They (the Vaughns) had land. They were rich in land, but not in money. They had nothing but land. Grandpa Vaughn chopped wood and planted corn. Grandma and Grandpa Vaughn had five daughters and two sons. The daughters were MaryJane, Martha, Susan, Rachel and Margaret.

Martha married Harry Kirby and they had two sons, Harry Jr. and Ray. Harry, Jr., the first son worked on the trolley as did his father, Harry Sr. I gave Vaughn the middle name of Ray after Martha’s second son who was a big strong man who was always making everyone laugh (with his jokes and quick wit) just like his father, Harry, Sr.

One of the other sisters had to go be a housekeeper for a poor man who lived alone. None of them starved to death, but they were only rich in land.

Audrey: Susan, Margaret, Rachel, Eben and Walter. Rachel was the youngest and Susan, who did all the sewing, was the oldest, I think. Walter was sickly and I think he died when he was young. He was always sitting in his rocking chair and I think he died in that rocking chair. He probably had some kind of disease like infantile paralysis.

Audrey: Yes,  until she moved back to the city where she died. (Anna Jane’s family was growing and she needed more space in Gramma’s house.) Rachel was the youngest daughter and she was serious and everything had to be just right. She sold silk stockings (at the Outlet, a department store in Providence) so everything was proper in her space. There were long stockings and garters and long stockings with seams down the back. She married Walter, a comical man who was so funny and smart. He had something to say about everything. He died long before she did.

Audrey: Yes, Walter was small and always in a rocking chair. He died as a child.* Well, Heather, my arm is getting tired.

*Is this accurate?  Vaughnhistoricalcemetery.org give other sources recording Walter living to adulthood.

If any web site reader has more information, please add a comment and web site author will add this for clarification.  Thanks.