Will You Be My Valentine?

Postcard from Catherine North to
George W. Clark, Jr., 1907

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and in honor of the occasion, we’re featuring some Valentine cards from the Alice’s collection. Although Valentine’s Day has been celebrated in some form for a long time, cards are a relatively recent development.

Some authors have claimed that Valentine’s Day had its origins in the ancient Roman festival Lupercalia, which was held in mid-February and was dedicated to fertility. In the fifth century, the Roman church is supposed to have co-opted this rite and turned it into a Christian festival in honor of several early Christian martyrs named Valentinus, celebrated on February 14. There doesn’t seem to be much evidence for a direct connection between Lupercalia and Valentine’s Day, but over time various legends about “Saint Valentine” developed, including the belief that he was a priest who was imprisoned by the emperor for  performing secret marriages for soldiers in the Roman army. While in prison, he supposedly wrote a letter to the jailer’s daughter, which he signed, “Your Valentine.”

Postcard sent to
Mrs. George W. Clark,
1905

The connection between Valentine’s Day and romantic love may have its origin in Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem Parlement of Foules (1382), in which he wrote, “For this was on seynt Volantynys day/Whan eury bryd comyth there to chese his make”—that is, “For this was on St. Valentine’s Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate.” However, it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that Valentine’s Day evolved into an occasion where lovers expressed their feelings for each other by presenting flowers and offering confectionery as well as sending hand written greeting cards. 

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, hand written valentines started going out of fashion, giving way to mass-produced greeting cards, largely due to a British publisher who issued The Young Man’s Valentine Writer (1797), which contained sentimental verses for someone unable to compose his or her own. Using these verses printing companies began producing a small number of cards that combined different images and verses, called “mechanical valentines.” These cards were so popular that by the early nineteenth century, “mechanical valentines” were being assembled in factories. In the United States, the first mass-produced Valentines were made in 1847 by Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts, who had received one of these English Valentines.

This mid-nineteenth century Valentine was given to Alice Miner in 1916 by Emma Hodge, who addressed it to her “Partner in all sorts of collecting.” The original inscription reads, “Were riches rank and power/This day within my grasp/I’d give them all to gain thy love/No greater bliss I’d ask.”

Emma Hodge gave this Valentine to “dear Miss Matilda Trainer,” also in 1916. The inscription reads, “All I have I freely offer thee,/My heart my hand my Liberty.” Both Valentines are about 8 by 10 inches, made of hand-painted floral embellishments applied to paper embossed with lace.

In the early twentieth century, Valentine postcards joined the more traditional Valentine cards. Prior to 1898, only the United States Postal Service could produce postcards, but once that prohibition ended, the postcard business boomed. The cards themselves were inexpensive, and could be mailed for only a penny. Valentine postals could be romantic, humorous, saucy, or even mean—so-called “Vinegar Valentines.” The postcards shown here were sent to George W. Clark Jr. (father of Dr. George Clark), his mother, and his sister Mattie between 1905 and 1907.

Thanks to Becca Belton for researching Valentine’s Day and scanning the cards for this post!

The Making of a Country Doctor

When Dr. George W. Clark III (George Warren) was born in Chazy in 1920, he was quickly and happily swept up into a large extended family of hard-working locals - many of whom did not have children of their own. George Warren’s aunts, uncles, grandparents and parents were fixtures in Chazy and Mooers, New York. Familiar faces one would see daily – like the Postman, the Schoolteacher, the Builder and Telegraph Operator. Many of them were born in the area and spent their entire lives here, just like George Warren. Dr. Clark’s father, George W. Clark II (1882-1934), was a rural mail carrier for Chazy and his mother, Harriet McDowell Clark (1891-1960), was a schoolteacher in Mooers, Chazy, Champlain and Altona – all part of rural school district #1 during her years of teaching. George Warren was passed around between loving aunts and uncles at gatherings, one of very few offspring in his generation. The two families united by the marriage of George Warren’s parents were the Clark family of Chazy and the McDowell family of Mooers.

George Warren Clark II - your local Postman

Clark Family

By the time George Warren was born the Clark family had been a part of Chazy life for over 80 years. Dr. Clark’s great, great grandfather Henry owned the Fillmore Hotel in Chazy, selling it to his son, Harry S. Clark (1809-1885) in 1866. Harry lost his leg in the Civil War before returning to Chazy and buying his father’s business. He soon changed the name to Clark’s Hotel. Eventually Harry’s son, George W. Clark I (1834-1908), ran the hotel and raised his children there, including George W. Clark II, George Warren’s father.

The Clark Sisters

George W. Clark II was the youngest of seven children, and a favorite of his four surviving sisters - Caroline (Carrie 1863-1953), Marion (Mame 1866-1948), Helen (Nell 1867-1953), and Martha (Mattie 1881-1960). Their sister Alice (1871-1880) died at the age of nine. Nell married James A. Yale (1865-1936), head of Customs & Immigration in Rouses Point for many years. Carrie’s husband John H. North (d.1929) was a prison guard, Mame married Orrin E. Minkler (1864-1929), and Mattie was married to Henry Swenson, a bank employee in Wellesley, Massachusetts. They also had a brother who was a telegraph operator, William H. Clark (Will 1876-1944) who married Jessie Boyd (d. 1941).

Harriet McDowell (in carriage) with her parents and sister Leona

McDowell Family

Harriet McDowell Clark had six siblings. Her father, Julius McDowell  (d. 1908), was born in Canada and settled in Mooers – making his living as a builder. Harriet had two sisters she kept in touch with and who lived in Clinton County - Leone and Kate (d. 1945).

Kate McDowell Oliver

Harriet was very close with her sister Kate, who lived in Plattsburgh. Kate married Grover C. Oliver. Grover owned Oliver Lumber Company, a building and roofing material business in Plattsburgh. The Olivers owned the lighthouse on Point au Roche Road in Beekmantown. Kate and Grover often wintered in Florida, taking Harriet along with them after her husband, George W. Clark II passed away in 1934.

In 1915 these two families became intertwined when George and Harriet married and settled down in Chazy, New York. They were overjoyed when their son George Warren Clark III was born in 1920. This story continues! 

To learn more about Dr. George Clark and his family stay tuned to this blog. We are also preparing an exhibit, "The Making of a Country Doctor" that will open at The Alice in October 2012.

Making House Calls

In 1948 young Dr. George W. Clark returned from a stint in the Army in California (checking in military men before their discharge from the Army) and then in Europe (working for the Quartermaster Graves Registration Service - caring for deceased military personnel interred outside the continental limits of the United States) and his physician's residency in Stamford, Connecticut to start his Chazy practice in the old Fisk tannery. The tannery was a stone building next door to his family home, where the Little Chazy River flows between the office and Route 9. His mother and uncle had spent hours renovating and cleaning up the interior to make it suitable for the new doctor in town.

George Clark with his uncle Henry in 1945

In those days Dr. Clark's daily schedule consisted of office visits in the old tannery from his patients in the morning. After attending to them he would usually set out on his house call rounds. Remember, during this era there were very few nursing homes, so most people were being cared for at home by their families. 

Dr. Clark brought along everything he might need for these house calls, including the medicines for patients of all ages. First, he would visit the homes in Chazy, then, depending on the day of the week, the towns beyond - Chazy Landing, Coopersville, Rouses Point, Champlain, Mooers, Mooers Forks, Ellenberg, Altona, West Chazy, then on to Plattsburgh to care for his patients in the hospital. Every two weeks or so he would also be the attending physician in the emergency rooms there, finding Saturday to be the roughest night to work!

The practice of making house calls has virtually disappeared for many reasons, not the least of which is modern medicine's increasing reliance on sophisticated technology to assist doctors in diagnosing illness. Large machines simply don't fit in the doctor's bag - consequently, if the physicians have not been trained to diagnose problems without the use of this technology, they are frequently unable to help a patient at home. For George Clark,  and most doctors of his generation however, visiting one's patients in their own home was an important part of their practice. In fact Dr. Clark regularly put approximately 38,000 miles on his cars each year. He said that no one ever taught him how to do house calls, so when he first started his practice he did not know what to bring with him on the first house call! He soon figured it out:

~ a stethoscope
~ a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter)
~ an otoscope to examine ears
~ thermometers
~ tongue depressors
~ sutures, bandages
~ alcohol, eye wash, local anesthetic
~ myriad bottles of tinctures and drugs for all ages

The bottom of the bag held the medicines, plus all the little envelopes to put them in for each patient. His nurse would keep the bag filled and in the same place always, so he could grab it quickly when a call came. Dr. Clark cared for each patient until they recovered, frequently returning to their homes several times to treat the same malady.

As Dr. Clark aged so did his patients. After delivering babies for the first 25 years of his practice insurance became too expensive and this role was taken over by specialists. He said he missed delivering and caring for the newborn, but did not miss the disruption of the usual doctor routine while attending to births! Eventually the majority of his patients were of the geriatric variety, whom he always seemed to enjoy. He often found himself visiting over 100 patients in nursing homes throughout the area. 

One of Dr. Clark's bags

Finally, after 56 years of service to the local community, Doctor Clark retired in 2003. He felt 'sinful' for the first six months of retirement not having the responsibilities and ties that had precluded him from doing the travel he had always longed to do. After an adjustment period, however, he settled into a comfortable and relatively care-free retirement. After providing care to so many families and delivering so many of their babies into this world, and gently ushering many back out, time had come for George to just be himself and enjoy his golden years. 

Dr. George Warren Clark passed away in May 2009 - leaving hundreds of wonderful photographs and family documents to The Alice for safe keeping. We are currently preparing an exhibit about his life that will document the more than 100 years his family lived and worked in Chazy and surrounding areas. The exhibit will open in late October. 

The Old Country Doctor

While passing through Chazy recently I saw something that caused my thoughts to turn to a dwindling breed of individual. I'd passed the Riverview Cemetery and had spotted a large headstone with the name FAIRBANK carved in the face. I was moved to research Dr. Alexander Fairbank and found he had served the community of Chazy as a family physician for many generations - beginning to do so directly upon graduation in 1874 from Albany Medical College. Not only did Dr. Fairbank care for and heal many of his neighbors, he also helped inspire at least one youngster, George W. Clark III, to pursue the medical arts.

A young George Warren with his father George Clark II, ca. 1930

George W. Clark III was the son of a rural mail carrier and a school teacher, but he had dreamed from an early age of becoming a doctor. George Warren (as they called him in his youth - probably to distinguish him from his father and grandfather) wrote an essay in his last year of high school about his desire to become a doctor. Even as a teen he knew about the different disciplines from which a medical student could choose. He knew he could make more money as a surgeon or specialist, but George Warren wanted to help his community by becoming a Country Doctor like Alexander Fairbank. In the essay about his future he states that he chose this profession "long before" he entered high school.

After graduating from Chazy Central Rural School in 1938 he went on to Union College in Albany, eventually transferring to McGill University to study medicine. In college he began signing his name as George W. Clark. His father had passed away years before and George was now becoming a man.

He did very well in college, all the while keeping in close touch with the Chazy community and his mother Harriet. There were likely influences other than Dr. Fairbank that inspired the young George Warren to become a family doctor. After all, he had lost his father to an un-named illness when he was just a teen. But what young person in a small town does not dream of being admired by all? In his high school essay George Warren states, "In our own town Dr. Fairbank will always be remembered as a good citizen; always helping, always encouraging, always working for the good of the town."

Dr. Alexander Fairbank was an admirable citizen - aside from serving as healer, Dr. Fairbank did much for his community. In Nell Sullivan's A History of the Town of Chazy, she says he "contributed to the success of many organizations in Chazy, including the school and the library." Young George Warren Clark wanted to be admired, and he really wanted to help his neighbors.

George Warren with his mother Harriet McDowell Clark, ca. 1933

These days it is becoming more and more difficult to convince medical students to study family medicine. With huge debt accruing, most choose more lucrative specialities like surgery, oncology, or dentistry, etc. One study asserts that only twenty percent of medical students choose to enter into family medicine. Chazy itself is no longer home to a practice specializing in family medicine. This is true of many communities.

Whether in his little office, or through the virtually lost act of making house calls, Dr. George W. Clark was, for the time being, the last of the breed of community servants who healed generations of Chazy families through a general family practice. Let us hope others come along to revive this legacy. Hail to Dr. Clark and Dr. Fairbank!

Lena's Crazy Quilt

Over the 87 years The Alice has operated as a museum there have been times when interesting objects and letters came into the collection as donations or bequests. In fact, a few weeks ago we happily accepted the personal correspondence and photographs from Dr. George W. Clark's estate here in Chazy. The museum has become a repository for genealogy and local history information as well as for some objects and textiles donated by local families. It is a wonderful textile I will focus on in this article.

In 1983 the Blow family lost their matriarch, Lena. Lena M. (O'Lena) Blow was born in Chazy, NY on November 12, 1896 - the daughter of Napoleon and Eliza O'Lena. She went to school in the little red school house that William Miner attended, and lived in the area her entire life. Around 1916 (the year her wedding dress was made) she married Edward Blow and started a family. She was an accomplished seamstress and made her and her six children's clothing as well as many beautiful quilts, employing sewing and needle craft skills she learned early in life.

On November 21, 1983 Lena passed away and soon after her children donated a few of her possessions to The Alice to be kept and enjoyed by future generations of visitors. The two objects donated in 1983 are Lena's wedding dress and slip. The garments joined two other textiles previously donated to the museum, both are blankets made by Lena Blow. One of these she started making when she was just nine years old, a diamond popcorn stitch bedspread. The other is a colorful crazy quilt with voluminous embroidery stitching and writing.

The crazy quilt is signed "LO" and "Apr. 10, 1908 Sciota, NY". Like most crazy quilts it consists of a quilt top mounted directly to backing with no batting in between. The backing in this case also serves as a ruffle on three sides of the quilt and is a solid rose colored cotton. The pieces consist of a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes and patterns - and appear to be made up of mostly silk scraps. The scraps were pieced together into nine blocks of similar size and then sewn together along with a long narrow block running the width of the blanket at the bottom. This quilt top was then backed with the rose colored cotton.

Lena's crazy quilt is a striking piece and draws the eye as soon as you walk into the Sheraton Room where it is exhibited. But it's the detail in stitching that brings you in for a closer look. Lena used a large number of different embroidery stitches joining every piece. She also wrote a few messages, including "May You Be Happy" and embroidered flowers and birds. Perhaps her mother saved pieces from various sewing projects over the years and finally handed the scraps over to Lena to create something for her bed. My grandmother made quilts consisting of pieces that I could recognize from clothing she sewed for me and my siblings over the years. It's fun to look closely and see a familiar color and pattern that reminds you of the past. I imagine Lena lying in bed and tracing her family history through these bits of fabric.

This weekend is the Champlain Valley Quilter's Guild Show with hundreds of hand made quilts and wonderful craft items to enjoy. To experience a wide range of amazing fabric art made by local people, this is the show to see... Who knows, there may even be a few crazy quilts there! It's at Bailey Avenue School in Plattsburgh this Saturday and Sunday 10am - 4pm. If you want to see the true details in Lena Blow's quilt, come to The Alice for a tour soon.

And may you be happy!