Family History #12: Rovilla's Autograph Album

"WITHIN THIS BOOK SO PURE AND WHITE
LET NONE BUT FRIENDS PRESUME TO WRITE"
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

I have looked through Rovilla's autograph album before,
glancing over the girlish remembrances

from grade school
mostly from 1901, when Rovilla was 10 years old

and high school
mostly from 1904, when Rovilla was 13 years old

The entries continue in this fashion for several pages,
and then -- an inscription that surprised me:
1886? Rovilla wasn't even born yet!

However, 1886 was the year
of Anna and William's marriage
thus, "Mr. & Mrs. Heideman"
Maybe a wedding present?

I thumbed through carefully, page by page
locating all of the older autographs,
preceding the days when little Rovilla
must have been allowed by her mother
to bring the book to school.

This is the oldest dated entry,
a piece of advice penned on July 8th, 1885
to William from his brother-in-law Nathaniel,
complete with one of his personalized postage stamps:

A note to William Michael Heideman
from his mother Catherine Shank Heidemann
“My child, if wicked companions entice you, do not follow them.
Follow my counsel, do not go astray.” [Proverbs 1:10]
Your Mother

Two special notes from Anna to William . . .
month & days are given: March 23rd & April 30th
but not the year. I'm guessing 1886,
knowing that Anna Mary and William
were married on March 9, 1886

"Within a book so fair and white,
Let none but friends presume to write
And may each line in
friendship given, direct the
reader's thoughts to heaven."

This one seems to be a later message from Anna Mary
perhaps what she wrote after Rovilla had claimed
the book for her own and asked her mother to sign:

"Home's not merely roof and rooms;
It needs something to endear it.
Home is where the heart can bloom;
Where there's some kind lip to cheer it.
What is home with none to meet,
None to welcome, none to greet us?
Home is sweet -- and only sweet --
Where there's one we love to meet us."
Mrs. Wm Heideman

Cousin Edna Reider
[also signed Anna Mary's book -- see previous post]

Cousin Harry Heideman Miller
Harry had the special distinction of being a "double" first cousin.
His mother Sadie was the younger sister of William Michael Heideman!
His father Henry was the older brother of Anna Mary Miller.
So, a Heideman brother married a Miller sister --
and a Miller brother married a Heideman sister!
[I bet he used his familial middle name only rarely,
and struggled with the spelling.
I'm just thinking of it as a typo.]
You've gotta love his marginalia: "reindeer me"

A 1910 entry from Cousin Willie Golder,
Enroute from Waunika, Oklahoma to Canon City, Colorado
Willie and Rovilla were first cousin on her father's side.
Willie's parents were Allen Golder and
Augusta Heideman (sister of William Michael Heideman)

Rovilla ~ Wille Golder ~ Ruth
[See also July]

my Great - Uncle Melville
Rovilla's younger brother
He signed his mother's book in 1907 . . .

. . . and in this book, he dedicates one page to his father
and one page to his sister, Rovilla.

My Uncle John
(November 14, 1932 - August 15, 1983)
Rovilla's middle son, my mother's brother
Awwww . . .

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10
Family History #11
Family History #12

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #13
Saturday, November 14, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #11: Anna Mary's Autograph Album

REMEMBER ME, WHEN YOU
GAZE AT MY AUTOGRAPH ALBUM
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS
[Thanks to Larry Foster for colorized photo]

The Autograph Book of my great - grandmother
Anna Mary Miller Heideman (1862 - 1923)
begun Christmas 1884
perhaps at a family gathering,
with subsequent entires in 1902 & 1907

A sampling of highlights from within:

The dedication on the front flyleaf,
indicates that the books was a gift
to Anna from her youngest brother Jacob

Next comes the title page . . .

. . . and Anna's own inscription:
"If you want a good laugh
gaze at my Autograph Album.

Anna M. Miller"

Although I'm not sure who this friend might be,
I'm including this page from near the front because
it includes the date: "December the 21st [?] 1884"
Plus, I love the side-note: "A Mary Christmas"

A note from her older brother Will
You may recall that Will gave Anna
a small New Testament in March 1879

A Wish from Mother ~ Elizabeth Birkinbine Miller

A Blessing from Father ~ Henry Wise Miller

A Valentine from William Michael Heideman ~ 1885
They were married a year later ~ March 9, 1886
I have Anna Mary Miller's engagement ring, engraved
~ W.M.H. to A.M.M. Sept 27, 85 [1885] ~

As you can see here, William has already
dropped the final "n" of "Heidemann"
[though it appears as such on their gravestone
whereas his parents, who always used the double "n"
ended up with a single "n": Catherine & William]

Next, in the summer ~ June 4th, 1885 ~
comes a dated entry from Nathaniel Reider,
a friend who would marry Anna's sister
Alice the following Spring ~ April 23, 1886
Notice also that Nathaniel had created
his own personalized photographic postage stamp!

Near the back, an undated example
of Nathaniel's colorful calligraphy

And a fancy conclusion from Anna Mary,
which seems to be scribbled over in red pencil
probably by a little child at a later date.

In fact, the sweet little (3" x 5") autograph album
seems to have put away,
perhaps even forgotten about, for 17 years,
until suddenly some entries appear from
Anna's daughter Rovilla (my grandmother)
and Anna's nieces
(the 3 older children of Alice and Nathaniel).

Edna (b 1889) would have been 13 at the time,
and she chose some lines from Tennyson:

Ruth (b. 1892) only 10,
went with the tried and true:

Nina & Rovilla, both born 1891,
seem to be well - versed in the
classic autograph album rhymes of the day!

Then, the book goes quiet for awhile,
until 1907 when Anna's youngest child,
11 - year old Melville (b 1896) fills a page:

In conclusion:

I am entertained by this friend
who chose irreverence over piety
and had the final word on the back inside cover:

Actually, I will give the last word
to author Florence Hazrat.
While her primary focus is on puncuation,
these few lines capture perfectly
the intended message -- "Remember me!" --
of every simple rhyme, prayerful hope,
playful proverb, or sentimental couplet
that ever made its way into an autograph album:

"Writing embodies human hope We hope to project ourselves into the future, beyond the moment of forming words on paper or screen. We also hope our words will transmit our feelings or stand in for us, capturing our tone of voice even when we're not there." (pp 4 - 5)

from her book On the Mark:
From Periods to Interrobangs,
How Punctuation Remade the World

Previously:
the autograph book of my great - grandmother
Sarah Elisabeth Hartman Lindsey (1856 - 1937),
filled in as she traveled west in 1886 - 1894,
from Indiana to Illinois to Nebraska.

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10
Family History #11

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #12
Wednesday, October 28, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #10: The Miller Sisters

THE MILLER FAMILY
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS
~ picture posted previously ~

My Great - great Grandparents
Henry Wise Miller
(May 27, 1834 ~ October 29, 1915)
&
Elizabeth Birkinbine Miller
(February 28, 1838 ~ March 28, 1925)

& their children, standing back row L to R:

Alice Elizabeth (1866 - 1946), Henry Kitzmiller (1860 - 1933),
William Birkinbine (1859 - 1893), Anna Mary (1862 - 1923),
between his parents is the youngest, Jacob George (1870 - 1936)
& not pictured is eldest sister Celestial Rebecca (1858 - 1936)

Celestial was already married and stayed behind when the rest of the family relocated from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Lyon County, Kansas, around 1880. Her younger sisters, Anna Mary and Alice, spent the rest of their lives living not far from their mother, but for Celestial, visits were few and far between. She sent long letters to her mother and sisters, and to her niece Rovilla -- Anna Mary's daughter / my grandmother.

For example, 108 years ago this very week, she wrote:

Lititz [Pennsylvania]
September 29th, 1918

Dear Mother,

I received your letter all right. It found us all as usual. We had a delightful autumn day. This morning we were both to church and this afternoon to Sunday School rally services. This morning's service was for the Veterans; this evening it will be Harvest Home. This afternoon, John and I walked out to the cemetery . . .

[then, a few sad paragraphs of funeral updates and family illnesses]

I must come to a close for tonight. I am getting so sleepy and John is lying on the couch. I send my love to you and all of Alice's family.

~ From Your Celestial

Just a few months before her death, seventeen years later, she wrote to Rovilla:

November 17, 1935

. . . It is now time to close and say good night. I am alone and so I can read and pray and no one interferes. Someday I will be with my loved ones who are waiting for my coming. It will soon be 6 years since John left me. I will never see you here but will meet you in heaven.

~ Your Aunt Celestial

******************

Celestial and Husband John Krall

Celestial's Family

Son, Carrie, John, Celestial, Anna, Son
[the sons are named Frank and Harry,
but I'm not sure which is which]

Anna Mary and Husband William Michael Heideman
Wedding Day ~ March 9, 1886

Anna Mary's Family in 1911

Seated are my great - grandparents:
William Michael Heideman (1855 - 1931)
& Anna Mary Miller (1862 - 1923)
with their children, standing, L to R:
my Grandmother Mary Rovilla Heideman (1891 - 1966)
and her brothers
Melville Miller (1896 - 1966) & Harry Louis (1887 - 1940)

Alice and Husband Nathaniel Reider
Wedding Day ~ April 23, 1886

Alice's Family
The Reider Cousins

Parents: Nathaniel (1861 - 1921) and Alice (1866 - 1946),
Seated on either side:
Edna (1889 - 1976) and Willie (1895 - 1982)
Standing:
Nina (1891 - 1988), Little Alice (1902 - 1978), Ruth (1892 - 1968)
Inset: Nathaniel's ornate calling card.

*********************

A Poem for the Sisters

Louisa May Alcott's tribute to her sister may seem trite at first, but reading it alongside Celestial's letters -- and this one to Anna Mary from their elderly aunt -- makes it seem somewhat less sentimental and rather more true to life.

Lebanon [Pennsylvania]
April 4, 1916

My Dear Niece,

You may never see any of us as you say but keep on the narrow path. . . . Do not forget us. Write often and let me know about your Brothers and Sisters some times as you hear from them. Bidding you Good Night and Good Bye hoping to meet you in Heaven.

Yours truly
from Your Aunt Betsy
[half - sister to Anna Mary's father, Henry Miller]

To Anna

Sister, dear, when you are lonely,
Longing for your distant home,
And the images of loved ones
Warmly to your heart shall come,
Then, mid tender thoughts and fancies,
Let one fond voice say to thee,
"Ever when your heart is heavy,
Anna, dear, then think of me."

Think how we two have together
Journeyed onward day by day,
Joys and sorrows ever sharing,
While the swift years roll away.
Then may all the sunny hours
Of our youth rise up to thee,
And when your heart is light and happy,
Anna, dear, then think of me.

~ Louisa May Alcott ~
[FN ~ QK ~ KL]

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #11
Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT ~ On Rovilla's Birthday
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #9: The Reider Cousins

A LIST OF COUSINS & FRIENDS
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

My Grandmother Rovilla's early girlish handwriting,
on a tissue - thin paper napkin or placemat.
I wish I knew what this list represents --
maybe school chums or a Sunday school class?

I recognize the first three names:
Rovilla's first cousins:
Edna ~ b 1889; Nina ~ b 1891; Ruth ~ b 1892

[Their mother -- Alice --
and Rovilla's mother -- Anna -- were sisters.]
This family of cousins featured prominently in the memories that Rovilla (1891 - 1966) passed on to my mother and me. I was only nine years old when my grandmother died, yet I had already absorbed numerous stories of these cousins who were close in age to her and lived nearby in Emporia, Kansas

[Pronunciation tip: both "Nina" & "Reider" have a long "i"]

Ruth ~ Rovilla ~ Nina
as noted by Rovilla, in her later,
more sophisticated cursive

Further annotation from another cousin --
different handwriting

Here is the eldest, Edna, on her wedding day
October 3, 1907
Notice the fishbowl!

Nina

Ruth

Little Sister Alice

Brother Willie

In the recent novel The Correspondent, author Virginia Evans takes a curiously bleak view of the staying power of family photos, placing them a distant second to written correspondence:

"Perhaps if you have children . . . grandchildren, they . . . may keep some old photos in a book on a shelf, and perhaps two or three times in a lifetime may turn the page and find your face and think, Ah, yes, doesn’t Jimmy resemble this great-great-grandfather Mick, and continue to turn the page, and so that will be what is left of you, nearly erased, in fewer than three generations, and your life, the life you see from the inside, right now, as monumental, will be reduced to the blood in their veins and perhaps, if you are lucky, a distant namesake . . ." (46)

Only "two or three times in a lifetime"? Given my own experience, I'm not so sure about that. My son Ben agrees with me:

"Sounds like Evans needs to watch Coco again!
Just in time for Halloween!"
In this Pixar classic (2017), young Miguel goes to great lengths, even descending to the underworld on Día de los Muertos, to honor the memory -- and the photographs! -- of his ancestors.

As for my grandmother's cousins, I have been looking at these dear faces for decades and continue to pour over them, like returning again and again to a beloved novel, bringing all the characters to life in my mind's eye, piecing together whatever I can of Grandmother Rovilla's life before the brief time that I knew her -- and those before her whom I never knew. The thing about Rovilla -- she was a born archivist! Looking through all the letters and photos that she saved for posterity, I can see now -- 60 years after her death -- that it is going to take me the rest of my life to keep up with her.

I was recently re-reading Rovilla's obituary (June 14, 1966) and among those listed in attendance at the funeral, were "Edna and Will Morgan." I was nine years old that summer, but I was completely oblivious. I wish I could go back in time to that day and be more aware and retain a conscious realization of meeting Cousin Edna. I don't have that, but I do have her high school music books:

So, as you can see, these folks are not unknown to me. I knew that my grandmother's favorite childhood doll was named after Nina, and I knew that my Great-grandmother Anna Mary (known to the cousins as Aunt Annie) had hand sewn Nina's fabulous wedding dress:

September 12, 1911

Here is the dress today, lovingly preserved
by Nina's granddaughters -- my third cousins!
How grateful I am to have met several of them,
thanks to the miracle of blogspot & facebook!

To be featured again soon,
The Reider Family

Front: Alice (1866 - 1946), Little Alice (1902 - 1978),
Nathaniel (1861 - 1921 )

Back: Nina (1891 - 1988), Edna (1889 - 1976)
Ruth (1892 - 1968), Willie (1895 - 1982)
*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #10
Monday, September 28, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT ~ Old Photos vs Old Letters
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com