I am happy to present the following article written by Monica Bessette and image provided by doll maker Elaine Sarnoff. This article is a small sampling of all the information Monica has gathered about Izannh, her friends and the city they lived in. I hope she will put everything in her head in a book for all of us Izannah-philes. Thank you to Monica and Elaine for collaborating and sharing this article and pictures on the Izannah Walker Chronicles! ~ Dixie Redmond
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Something to Bragg About
by Monica Bessette
One of the
wonderful things about the Izannah Walker Chronicles is meeting new friends
that share a common interest; or, in my case, an obsession. One such friend is
Elaine Sarnoff, way far off on the opposite coast of California, but close at
heart in her love for her special Izannah Walker doll she named Patience.
Elaine is a cloth
doll maker herself and has made wonderful reproductions of the Walker doll,
never dreaming she would someday have one of her own. One fateful day a dealer
friend offered to sell her a doll from a collection she was dispersing. Even
though she had always wanted a girl, and this doll spent the last 40 years
dressed as a boy, Elaine took a fateful chance that led her to become an
historical detective setting out to explore the doll’s past. I’m sure you’ll
agree that Patience makes a lovely lady and a doting mother to the twins made
previously by Elaine.
Elaine’s doll posed
an intriguing question, and together she and I found the answer that makes
Patience even more significant. Inscribed on the back of the doll in brown
Victorian ink is: I.F. Walker. 60 George Street. Elaine
sent me an email with this info. I recognized the address but needed to dig
into my early notes. What was the significance? Whose address was this? A few
days later I replied, “I know who lived at 60 George Street, and it is someone
very close to Izannah. I’ll call you.” I can only imagine her excitement and
the torturous wait for me to call. 60 George Street was the Providence, Rhode
Island home of Mary C. Bragg, a best friend of Izannah Walker, and the person
she purchased her first home with in Central Falls in 1853.
Our original
contact through the Chronicles got me back into my research, and a good thing
it did. I was in the process of selling my house and preparing to move 400
miles south from Cranston, Rhode Island to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (my
husband’s dream). I needed to find critical information in primary records and
take location photos before it was too late.
The house at 60
George Street was owned by Mary’s parents who had both died by 1847, leaving
Mary to settle the estate. The Providence City Directories list her there from
1850 to 1852. She moved across town in 1853 before she and Izannah bought their
large house together on Jenks Street in the village of Central Falls, RI. The
house at 60 George Street, on the fashionable East Side of Providence, held too
many bad memories for Mary, and she sold it in 1854 for $4,010.
Thanks to Elaine, I
was prompted to find this deed and discovered that Mary C. Bragg’s parents,
Wheaton & Diana, are not the parents listed on every other document
concerning Mary C. Bragg, such as her death record that lists her parents as
John & Mary. I also found Mary’s gravesite which confirms the identity of
her parents. This was a huge breakthrough. For years I had researched the wrong
Braggs!
How did Izannah and
Mary know each other? When did they meet? Those questions have kept my research
going for many years. One thing is certain, however, Izannah F. Walker and Mary
C. Bragg knew each other in the early 1850’s. Elaine’s doll must date from 1853
or before, since Mary left 60 George Street by that time. Patience is an early
example of Izannah’s artistry. With a center part, worn 90% of the time by
girls in the mid-19th century, and curls like that, I would say she
is definitely a girl. This particular doll came from an early collection of
Maurine Popp, the premier collector of Walker dolls. Elaine was told that
Maurine referred to the doll as George, and now we know why.
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Popp collection, note that “George is top center;
source: A Treasury of Beautiful Dolls, by John Noble, p. 40)
|
The house that Mary
and Izannah bought in Central Falls may have been a two family. The deed reads
in part, “I Solomon Higgins of
Smithfield in the County of Providence and for the sum of $1,250 paid by Mary
C. Bragg and Izannah F. Walker of Providence in said Providence County, a
certain lot of land with the dwelling house, barn, and all other buildings and
improvements thereon situate lying in Central Falls in the town of Smithfield,
Providence County, State of Rhode Island."
The 1857-58 Central
Falls street directory lists Mary Bragg at 11 Jenks Street and Isanna
Walker on Jenks near the Railroad. There is also a boarder listed at 11 Jenks
Street; a carpenter named Samuel Dearborn. The 1860 Rhode Island Census lists
the two friends living in this same house: Mary C. Bragg with $4,000 in real
estate: Izannah F. Walker with $500 in real estate—a pretty good return on
their investment.
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| Central Falls, Rhode Island |
The original house
has been gone for many years, so it’s impossible to know how the buildings were
situated. The barn may have been used as Izannah’s workshop to initially paint
and dry the dolls. Sometime after 1871, when Central Falls became a city, the
house number changed from #11 to #20. In 1871, however, Izannah had already moved
across the tracks out of the mill area into a residential plat of single family
homes—she had arrived!
Mary and Izannah
were close friends for many years until Izannah’s death in 1888, but the story
would not be complete without mention of another very close friend of
Izannah’s, Emeline B. Whipple. I’m not sure how or where they met, either, but
I do know that Izannah moved out of the house on Jenks Street between 1865 and
1870. According to the 1870 Rhode Island Census, she and Emeline are living in
an apartment together in Providence, RI.
In 1871, Izannah purchased the property on Illinois Street. This was the
first home she owned on her own, and she lived there with Emeline until she
died.
One of the most exciting
discoveries I’ve found to date concerns these three friends and their
involvement with the Methodist church. By the mid-1800s Methodists were the
largest Protestant denomination and intimately associated with the Women’s
Temperance Movement. Methodist/Episcopal was the American version meant to
improve the Church of England. It believed in freedom of the will and stressed
free cooperation in salvation, not pre-destination. It was a self-confidence
movement that swept the nation with the Second Awakening in the 1850s. It seems
a natural for these three independent single women.
The Temperance
Movement was big in Rhode Island. Many of Izannah and Mary’s neighbors and
friends were very involved. The 1860 RI Census lists Emeline Whipple living in
Providence with Marcy Gorham, who I’ve found was President of the Ladies City
Temperance Society and the widow of Jabez Gorham, founder of Gorham Silver. I
believe this may be a key as to how these three women met and became friends on
the East Side of Providence.
Mary C. Bragg was
one of the original founders of the Embury Methodist Episcopal Church in
Central Falls. The first meeting was held in their home on April 10, 1868. Both
Izannah and Emeline joined the church on May 16, 1869 “by letter from Somerset
(MA).”
However, things
went sour years later when a new Pastor was assigned. Izannah was “Expelled
Feb. 18, 1882, for willful neglect of all means of grace and violation of
church covenant.” Means of grace included public worship of God, family &
private Prayer, searching the Scriptures, attending class meetings & prayer
meetings. This prompted Mary and other key members to leave the church. Emeline
had already withdrawn in December of 1874 for reasons unknown. A testament to
the friendship between these women is what they bequeath to each other in their
wills:
Izannah F. walker LAST WILL & TESTAMENT
August 8, 1876
I give and bequeath to my friend
Mary C. Bragg my Gold Watch and Chain as a token of my unchanging love
requesting her when she is done with it to give the same to Emeline B. Whipple;
and it is my will and devise that she the said Mary C. Bragg may select any of
my Books and any articles of Household Furniture and wearing apparel that she
may choose for her own use. (Perhaps this is the watch mentioned in Izannah’s
1850 letter to her sister.)
I give and devise to my friend
Emeline B. Whipple my homestead estate situate on Illinois Street in the
village of Central Falls in said town of Lincoln for and during her natural
life.
I give, devise and bequeath unto
my friend Emeline B. Whipple all the rest and residue of my estate of every
kind and nature both real and personal and wheresoever situate of which I shall
die possessed to her, her heirs and assigns forever.
Mary Carpenter
Bragg LAST WILL & TESTAMENT July 13, 1886
I give devise and bequeath to my
friend Izannah F. Walker of Central Falls RI any one article of my furniture or
household which she may choose.
The remainder of my property and
estate both real and personal, after paying all my just debts and funeral
charges, I give devise and bequeath the interest of it to my friend Izannah F.
Walker, during the term of her natural life.
Mary C. Bragg Codicil to Will March
15, 1897
I hereby promise, give and
bequeath the following Household articles to my friends as follows: My toilet
table and small shelves, the handiwork of I.F. Walker, to Miss Jane H. Walker
of Somerset, Mass.
Izannah Walker and
Emeline Whipple are buried together in beautifully-landscaped Swan Point
Cemetery in Providence, RI. According to the cemetery, Izannah purchased the
two graves, one for each of them, on November 11, 1887, just months before she
died on February 15, 1888. On the record, Izannah’s middle name is “Franklin,”
but by birth she was Frankford. I haven’t been able to find where Frankford
came from, but maybe she adopted this middle name since “having designed a
parlor heater ‘that Beat Ben Franklin’s’.”
The story of
Izannah Walker, her family, and friends is very complex. There were hundreds of
Walkers in the US during Izannah’s lifetime, all descendants of the Widow
Walker and her two sons, who came to America in 1653 and settled Seekonk, MA
(now Rumford, RI). Her and Mary’s Central Falls neighborhood included many
Walker relatives that were thread manufacturers, prominent architects, Masons,
Civil War officers, merchants, hair workers, etc. Her lifetime, from 1817 to
1888, encompassed so much history and cultural change. Central Falls was
ideally situated between Boston, MA and Providence, RI, and although it was not
a booming metropolis, it was a very active, modern town filled with business owners
and artisans. My determination to tell her fascinating life story has been
sidetracked and put on the back burner more than once due to situations beyond
my control, but the search goes on. Please stay posted.
