The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing

Many years ago on I was driving with my grandmother, Esther McBee.  We were heading from Berkeley Springs, West Virginia south along Route 522 to go to Winchester, Virginia for some shopping.  Along the way threre used to be a grand, lovely old home with tall columns and front porch and a balcony.  There was a stone fence that ran along the front of the property. 

I had always admired the house and I mentioned it to my grandmother.  She said that the house had something to do with the girl in the red velvet swing.  I don't recall the rest of our conversation that day.  Likely we moved on to other topics of mutual interest.

So today in the newspaper I read an item under Crime History, that on June 25, 1906, Harry Kendall Thaw shot and killed architect Stanford White on the roof of Madison Square Garden.  Thaw and White had both been suitors of Evelyn Nesbit.  Despite being the more determined suitor and successful suitor (Nesbit married Thaw), Thaw held a grudge against White.  A few years later Thaw seized his opportunity and killed White.

You can get the basics of the story from Wikipedia.

It was termed the Trial of the Century!  Thaw was cleared by reason of temporary insanity.  Nesbit and Thaw divorced and Thaw eventually settled in a Clearbrook, Virginia in a home called Kenilworth.  That is the house that formerly stood along Route 522.  Miss Nesbit was the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.

There have been several books written about the people and incidents.  One with the title that was used for the 1955 movie - The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.  A more recent book is American Eve.

I am going to have to read this - a spark of interest has been ingnited!

Quotes from my ancestors

My family grew up in a sort of extended household. We lived in the same home where my mother and my grandmother had been reared. The house had been made into two apartments and we lived upstairs and my grandparents lived on the main floor. We respected each other's space, but we were back and forth constantly.

We would help our grandmother with chores - especially the fun ones like baking cookies! She taught all of us how to read music and play the piano. Our grandfather would take us for walks all over town.

And my grandmother, Nana, would tell us stories about her childhood and her parents and grandparents and various aunts and uncles. They were some real characters!  I have talked about my great-grandfather, Peter Randolph Lawyer before. Nana was certainly the apple of his eye!

Another prominent figure in the family history was Ma Casler - Anna Matilda Keefer Casler. She was born in the US, her parents had emigrated from Germany. Despite being born in the US, Ma apparently had a lot of German influence in her speech. The only comment from my grandmother was a story of someone stopping to ask directions and Ma instructed him to go down the street and turn the corner 'round. Others who were nearby laughed at Ma's turn of phrase and the upshot was that Ma never gave anyone directions after that.

Ma Casler was married to Jonathan Casler, a tailor and they had six children, one of whom died during a typhoid epidemic in his youth. The five children who survived were Charlie Casler, a grocer; Jonathan Casler, a veteran of the Spanish-American War; Ida May Lawyer, my great-grandmother; Harry Casler, about whom I know very little; and Uncle Howard - George William Howard Casler, about whom I heard many stories!

Before I get ahead of myself - I wanted to mention Ma Casler's sisters. She had four sisters. The oldest was Aunt Caroline Clay. She was born in Germany. There was a brother who was born in Germany but he died en route to America. I was told that he was buried in France. I will need to check Ma Casler's Bible to see if she wrote that down. The rest of the sisters were Margaret Maggie Rockwell, Mary Hillary, and Aunt Emmie - Emma Olivia Keefer.

Aunt Emmie was quite a character! Aunt Emmie was the youngest of the five girls - hard to think of them as girls since all I've ever known of them was photos taken in the adulthood. All of the women were of hearty, German stock - in other words, they were BIG women.

I know a fair amount about Aunt Emmie and will include it at some point. But this is about quotes. Aunt Emmie lived at my family home or at least she was there a whole lot! At one point my great grandfather enclose a back porch and enlarge the dining room. So one evening at dinner Aunt Emmie said to my grandmother, "Well Annie, what do you think? Here I am sitting at the dinner table on the back porch!" Okay - it was funny to hear my grandmother tell it.