BLOG ARCHIVE

 

Meshic S. Graham: Grandfather of Bellefonte’s Fraternity OF Black Barbers 

(Part 2) 

Philip Ruth, Research Coordinator  

December 31, 2024   

 

Note from Co-Director Julia Spicher Kasdorf: In this second part of Philip Ruth’s biographical sketch of Meshic Graham, we see an individual who attained financial success as a barber, the most lucrative trade a Black man could practice in 19th century Bellefonte, and that he in turn mentored others from his community in this line of work. He is a leader in the local Black community through his participation in the AME congregation and Sunday school, as well as the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League. He also participated in the wider life of the town, serving alongside white members of a jury for a high profile murder case and engaging in real estate transactions with a European immigrant neighbor. He also suffered griefs common to many families of the time—deaths of children, a family member committed to the Pennsylvania State Hospital for the Insane in Danville (see the earlier blog entry about Adeline Lawson Graham’s mother, Milky), and loss of property shortly before the end of his life.  

 In the Graham house on Jail Hill, Sarah Graham presented Meshic with a seventh child and third son, Herbert, in the fall of 1868. An eighth child and fifth daughter, Julia, followed in January 1870. She was recorded as six months old on census schedules completed in July 1870. Mesh informed the visiting enumerator that he owned real estate worth $2,500, and had a personal estate (cash, bonds, stocks, mortgages, notes, livestock, furniture, etc.) valued at $1,000. If those numbers were close to accurate, they indicated that—at his reported age of 45—Mesh was by far the wealthiest Black resident of Centre County in 1870. He was also helping to train the next generation of Bellefonte barbers. One of those trainees—a 22-year-old Maryland native named “George” (his surname is illegible on the 1870 census schedules)—was boarding with the Grahams in July 1870. 

 In 1875, Bellefonte’s School Directors purchased a vacant lot abutting the eastern (uphill) side of the Graham property, then erected on it a two-story frame building to house the town’s first municipally-funded “Colored School” (Centre County Deed Book 35:562). The new public school replaced and greatly improved on the private facility erected on William Thomas’ land on Halfmoon Hill in 1847 to serve as a combination AME “meeting house” and primary school for Black children. The Graham children born during the 1860s and ‘70s likely received all of their formal education in the school house a few steps uphill from the Graham home. (Vacated when Bellefonte’s public schools were racially integrated during the 1887-88 school year, the “Colored School” building was converted into a residential duplex, and is now addressed as 216-218 E. High Street.) 

 

Sarah Graham delivered a ninth and final child in March 1874. The boy was named George, perhaps in honor of the Grahams’ recent boarder. His addition to the family appears to have been offset, however, by the loss of sister Julia. She would not be included in census enumerations after 1870, suggesting she died during the 1870s—the third Graham child to be carried off by an unrecorded disease or accident before the age of 10. No record of Julia’s burial has been found. 

 By the mid-1870s, Mesh Graham and his Equal Rights League colleague John Welch were pillars of Bellefonte’s St. Paul AME congregation. Both men were identified in an 1874-75 Bellefonte directory as trustees of the 36-member “St. Paul’s African M. E. Church.” They also joined Mesh’s father-in-law John Williams in teaching Sunday school in the “church on the hill,” as reported in the following excerpt from William H. Mills’ 1909 history of the St. Paul AME congregation: 

. . . A new inspiration caught us about the year 1877 and [Abraham V. Jackson and I] decided to visit the AME Sunday School once again, which we did. On our arrival there one Sunday, we found Messrs. M.S. Graham, John Welsh [sic], George Simms Jr., John Williams, and a few children, and they greeted us with a very hearty welcome. Those elderly men were accustomed to meet there every Sunday and read the Scripture, discuss the lesson and explain it to the best of their ability. There was no regularly organized system of conducting the school, and it had greatly diminished on account of not having a sufficient number of efficient officers and teachers. However, we continued there taking our place in the class, with the men I have mentioned. . . . 

On December 3, 1879, Mesh and Sarah’s eldest child, 23-year-old Katie, married 32-year-old Virginia native George W. Freeman, who was employed as a porter in the Bush House (as reported in Katie’s obituary in the Democratic Watchman; no other record of the Graham-Freeman wedding has been found). An obituary for George would note (in 1929) that “very little is known of his antecedents or childhood life, but from what information could be gathered he was born in slavery in Loudon county, Virginia. . . . When about seventeen years old [circa 1864] his young masters decided to enlist in the Confederate army and they gave George his freedom with the result that he made his way north and eventually landed in Bellefonte. Just what he did the first few years of his life in Bellefonte is not definitely known, but it is highly probable that he became a porter at one of the Bellefonte hotels. This is borne out by the fact that early in 1870, shortly after the [Bush House] had been completed, he was established [there and became] a fixture for fifty-four years, or until early in 1925. Personally he knew more traveling men than any other man in Bellefonte. When a young man, he married Miss Catherine Graham, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mesh Graham.” 

 Katie Graham must have been noticeably pregnant at the time of her marriage to George Freeman in December 1879, as she give birth to a daughter six weeks later, on January 18, 1880. The birth of Minnie T. Freeman made first-time grandparents of Mesh and Sarah Graham, who were enumerated in their home along E. High Street on June 1, 1880 with children Melissa (18), Prothenia (14), Herbert (11), and George (6). Eldest son William, now 20 years of age, was absent from the Graham household. He had just been admitted to the Pennsylvania State Hospital for the Insane in Danville, Pennsylvania (William was initially enumerated in June 1880 as an “insane” member of his parents’ household in Bellefonte, but that entry was later crossed out, and an appended note indicated that he was “Now At Danville Insane Asylum, Penna.”; William’s presence in the State Hospital as of June 23, 1880, was recorded on census schedules in Danville). No other records bearing on the nature and duration of William’s mental illness have been found. He appears to have lived the remainder of his life in the State Hospital. As late as August 1904 he would be identified as a “lunatic” residing in Danville, with his aged father still serving as his guardian. 

 The Graham family suffered another loss on April 20, 1881, as Sarah’s 81-year-old father John Williams passed away in his home on Halfmoon Hill. In an obituary published in the Democratic Watchman, “Uncle John” Williams was lauded as Bellefonte’s “highly respected colored resident.” He “had been class leader in the AME Church here for 40 years [i.e., from 1841 through 1881], and if there ever was a saintly man, John was the one. He was the father of Mrs. ‘Mesh’ Graham.”  

Mesh and Sarah welcomed a second grandchild on August 30, 1882. Named in honor of her grandmother, newborn Sarah Freeman was the second daughter of Katie and George Freeman. In short order, Sarah became known as “Sadie” (as did many other Sarahs of this era).  

On the morning of Friday, April 24, 1885, Mesh and Sarah’s son Herbert died at home from complications of “chronic rheumatism.” The cause of death was reported in an obituary published a few days later in the Centre Democrat, which described Herbert as “a bright young man of 16 years,” and a “son of Mesh Graham, the well known barber, of this town.” The obituary concluded by noting that “funeral services were held in the AME church on Sunday afternoon by Rev. Norris.” No location was cited for the burial of Herbert’s body.  

Eight months later, on December 18, 1885, Mesh leveraged equity in his E. High Street property to borrow $424.66 at 6% annual interest from Bellefonte attorney Henry Y. Stitzer, along with Marilla Dawson, the co-proprietor of a boarding house in the borough. The mortgage deed does not offer insight into Mesh’s need or plans for the borrowed funds. 

 In February 1886, Mesh and several dozen fellow citizens were summoned to appear for potential selection as “traverse jurors” (petit jurors or trial jurors) in the County Court House down E. High Street from the Graham residence. It has not been learned if Mesh was selected to serve on a jury in 1886, or, if that indeed occurred, whether his selection as a Black citizen in that year was unusual or otherwise noteworthy. We know more about his service as a juror three years later, as described below. 

On June 3, 1886, Mesh and Sarah’s 20-year-old daughter Prothenia (“Tennie”) married 21-year-old Maryland native John N. Riley in Bellefonte. An entry in a Register of Pennsylvania marriages somewhat confusingly identified the bride as “Tenia Graham,” a “white” (sic) resident of Bellefonte. Her new husband was recorded as a Black New York City waiter. The newlyweds appear to have moved to Newark, New Jersey, shortly after the wedding, as their first child of record—Raymond Clifford—was reportedly born in New Jersey just under nine months later, on February 23, 1887. The birth of the Rileys’ second and final child—John Percy—was recorded on March 8, 1889, in Newark.  

On the afternoon of Wednesday, January 30, 1889, Mesh and 45 other Centre County men who had been summoned for jury duty assembled in Centre County’s main courtroom to be sworn in and vetted for potential service in a murder trial. A Hungarian immigrant named “Andrew Baronovosky” (or something similar; spellings varied from newspaper to newspaper) had fatally shot railroad workman Bernard Cassidy during a scuffle at Enterprise Mines near Philipsburg the previous November 25. The “Hun” (as Baronovosky was sometimes tagged by newspaper reporters) had been charged with murder, to which he plead “not guilty” through an interpreter. Now, as the trial finally commenced before a standing-room-only audience, Mesh was subjected to voir dire and was eventually selected “as one of twelve qualified men” to serve on the jury (as reported in the Centre Democrat). As best as can be determined, the veteran barber’s fellow jurors—six farmers, a carpenter, a school teacher, a saddler, a day laborer, and a merchant—were all white men. As jury selection had taken several hours, court was adjourned at 6:50 p.m., and the jurors were dismissed to “special [overnight] quarters secured for them at the Brockerhoff House.” The trial resumed the following morning, and proceeded through witness testimony on Thursday and Friday, followed by closing arguments on Friday night and Saturday morning. As reported by the Centre Democrat, “the evidence on the part of the Commonwealth was strongly against the prisoner. [However] the Hungarians who were witnesses for the accused swore the shooting was accidental and left that impression with a large portion of the audience before the jury went out on Saturday afternoon at about 3 p.m. [The jurors] returned about 5 p.m. with a verdict of ‘not guilty,’ which seemed to be received with general satisfaction.”  

 Mesh was in the news again a couple of months later. The April 18, 1889, edition of the Centre Democrat reported that an “alarm of fire was given on Wednesday morning [April 17] and called out the different fire departments. The roof of M.S. Graham’s residence on jail hill was afire, but the application of several buckets of water put an end to all trouble. The companies are certainly deserving of much credit for the manner in which they respond to the many alarms.” 

 Mesh and Sarah’s brood of grandchildren increased in 1887, 1889, and 1892 with the respective births in Bellefonte of Richard Walter, Roxy, and Earl Taylor Freeman—all children of Katie and George Freeman. Roxy was enumerated in 1890 as the youngest member of the Freeman family, but was not included in any subsequent census enumerations, suggesting that she died as an infant during the 1890s. As of 1890, the Freeman family occupied a house at 111 S. Ridge Street (roughly 250 feet up Jail Hill from the Graham residence), as George continued his employment as a porter at the Bush House. Mesh and Sarah’s household, meanwhile, was enumerated at its longtime 110 E. High Street address. Mesh was recorded as a 63-year-old barber, living with Sarah and their 17-year-old son George. Daughter Melissa (a.k.a. Lizzie) does not appear to have been enumerated in Bellefonte in 1890. She might have already joined the household of her sister Tennie Riley in Newark, with whom she would be enumerated in an 1895 New Jersey census. Lizzie may have married prior to moving to New Jersey, as she was identified on census schedules compiled from 1895 onward as either Melissa or Lizzie Palmer. If she did marry, the marriage must have been relatively brief, as Lizzie was said to be “single” on census schedules completed in Newark in June 1900. 

 In the early hours of Monday, January 15, 1894, fire broke out in the Conrad House, threatening Mesh’s basement barber shop. The discovery of the blaze, and the frenetic activity that ensued, were extensively covered in the next issues of the Centre Democrat, Democratic Watchman, and Centre Reporter. It was not reported how quickly Mesh arrived on the scene to observe the fire-fighting attempts, but he ultimately learned that his shop—located “underneath the first floor offices of Wm. C. Heinle, Esq., and Charles Smith’s insurance agency” (according to the Centre Democrat)—had been “badly soaked” by water “played into and on the roof” of the burning building by the “Logan [Fire Company] engine located on the Diamond.” Mesh carried fire insurance, as did the other Conrad House tenants. If his policy paid him any or all of the $300 value he had placed on the contents of his barber shop, the payout would have come in handy as he quickly relocated his business to the basement of the Garman House, then paid McSuley Bros. to paint his new subterranean digs across E. High Street from the County Court House (as reported in the February 08, 1894 edition of the Centre Democrat; the article used the antique term “stripe,” rather than “paint”). 

 

On April 10, 1895, Mesh and Sarah Graham took steps to make Sarah (younger than her husband by about a decade) sole owner of the property at 110 E. High Street. They initiated the process by conveying the property to a straw party—German immigrant dry goods merchant Siegmund Joseph—in consideration of $1,500. Joseph immediately conveyed the property back to Sarah alone, for the same consideration. Those back-to-back conveyances presumably factored into Sarah’s conveyance three months later (July 5, 1895) of the property’s southern end to Gottlieb Haag, proprietor of the Hotel Haag (a.k.a. Haag House) along Bishop Street. Haag already owned a large two-story stone-and-brick stable on the south side of Cherry Alley, across from the southern end of the Graham property. He apparently purchased the southernmost 17 feet of the 60-foot-wide Graham parcel for $75 in order to expand his stabling and/or storage facilities. By 1897, a 17-by-60-foot two-story frame outbuilding stood on the piece of ground that Haag had acquired from Sarah Graham (as reflected on a fire insurance map pictured above). 

When a census enumerator visited the Graham residence on June 16, 1900, the Grahams informed him that Mesh and Sarah were both 64 years old, Sarah having been born in February 1836, and Meshic in March 1836. Those reported birth dates do not jibe with information recorded in other census enumerations (as noted above). Based on earlier reporting, Sarah was around 66 years of age, while Meshic was closer to 76. The age of their son George—unmarried, still living at home, employed as a barber—was accurately reported as 26. Sarah Graham also told the census enumerator that she had given birth to seven children, only five of whom were still alive. As previously detailed, however, Sarah had delivered at least nine children. The confirmed deaths of Mary Adeline, Johnnie Morgan, and Herbert, and the inferred death of Julia during the 1870s, would have left five children surviving as of 1900. 

In mid-April 1903, Sarah contracted an illness that ended her life three weeks later, on May 16, 1903. An obituary published in an unidentified Bellefonte newspaper a few days later read as follows: 

 Mrs. Meshac [sic] Graham passed away at her home on High street on Friday afternoon, having been ill only three weeks. 

Mrs. Graham was Sarah Elizabeth Williams before her marriage, and was born in this place in 1840. She was one of the town’s most highly respected colored women and had a large circle of friends who will be sorry to learn of her death. 

She is survived by the following children; Mrs. George W. Freeman and George Graham, of Bellefonte; Melissa Graham and Mrs. John H. Riley, of Newark, New Jersey. She also leaves one brother, Isaac Williams, of this place, and the following sisters: Mrs. Mary C. Harding, Mrs. Tamazine McDonald, Mrs. Julia Hawkins, of Bellefonte, and Marie Williams, of Nebraska.   

Sarah was also survived by at least six grandchildren. Her body was buried on May 18, 1903, in the Union Cemetery, according to an entry in “an Unmarked Burial Ledger of Bellefonte Union Cemetery, 1 April 1902 through 20 June 1919” (as noted in her Findagrave.com Memorial; no associated grave stone has been located). 

In the wake of Sarah’s death, a lawsuit was filed by Bellefonte attorney William G. Runkle on behalf of Marilla Dawson, one of the two parties who had given Sarah and Mesh a mortgage on their property in 1885. The suit prompted the Centre County Court of Common Pleas to direct Sheriff Hugh S. Taylor to seize the Graham property on E. High Street and put it up for auction. A subsequent deed for the Graham property indicates that attorney Runkle purchased the property at the March 27, 1905, auction for $400. By that time Mesh had probably already moved in with the family of Benjamin Franklin Williams at 13 N. Penn Street on Jail Hill. Of no known relation to Mesh’s wife (born Sarah Williams), 55-year-old Benjamin Williams was a Maryland native reportedly “brought to Bellefonte . . . by the late Judge [John Holden] Orvis. For a number of years he was sexton of St. John’s Episcopal church, until failing health compelled him to give up his job.” Benjamin’s wife Cecilia (née Taylor) would be recalled in a 1915 obituary as “born at Smoketown, Md. She has been a resident of Bellefonte forty-two years [i.e., since 1873] and was one of the oldest members of the A.M.E. church.” 

Widower Mesh Graham was reportedly in failing health when he moved in with the Williams family. According to an obituary, his physical decline induced him to sell his business and retire midway through 1904. An article posted in the Democratic Watchman on September 30, 1904, reported that white Centre County native “Milton Kern, who the past two years has been employed in various Bellefonte barber shops, has purchased the shop of Mesh Graham, in the Garman house block, and will take charge next Monday. Mr. Graham, who is the oldest barber in Bellefonte, is retiring from business on account of his age.” 

Mesh’s stay with the Williamses proved relatively brief. He died in the Williams residence “of diseases incident to his 78 years of age” on July 25, 1905, as related in the Democratic Watchman obituary quoted in Part 1 of this sketch. The reference in that obituary to a surviving child named “Sarah E.” appears to be in error; there is no record of Meshic and Sarah having a child by that name. At the same time, the obituary did not mention well-documented son William, admitted in 1880 to the Pennsylvania State Hospital for the Insane in Danville. William’s name and incapacitated state were referenced in the Court of Common Pleas proceedings of 1904-05, suggesting he was still alive at that time. William’s ultimate fate is not known. 

The Democratic Watchman obituary reported that, during Mesh’s funeral on Friday afternoon, July 27, 1905, “all the barber shops in town were closed as a mark of respect to a man who, notwithstanding his race, so lived and moved among his fellow-beings that he was honored by all.” According to a note posted on Findagrave.com, Mesh’s body was buried in an unmarked grave in Union Cemetery, presumably near his wife’s unmarked grave, and possibly near the marked graves of his children Mary Adeline and Johnnie Morgan. 

Mesh’s daughter Katie Graham Freeman survived him by 13 years, as reflected in the following obituary, published in the March 8, 1918, edition of the Democratic Watchman: 

FREEMAN.—Mrs. Katie C. Freeman, wife of George Freeman, the well known porter at the Bush house, died at her home on east Logan street last Friday, following an illness of some weeks with dropsy and rheumatism. 

She was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mesh Graham and was born in Bellefonte on April 21, 1856, hence was almost sixty-two years of age. 

She was married to Mr. Freeman on December 3, 1879, and he survives with three children, namely: Richard [Walter] Freeman, of Bellefonte; [Minnie] Mrs. William DeHorney, of Chicago, and Earl [Taylor] Freeman, at home. She also leaves one brother and two sisters, George Graham, Mrs. Tenie Rilly [sic], and Mrs. Malissa Palmer, all of Newark, New Jersey. The funeral was held on Monday. Rev. Jones had charge of the services and burial was made in the Union cemetery. 

 Katie’s earthly remains were reportedly interred in an unmarked grave in Union Cemetery.  

Additional records relating to Mesh and Sarah’s children George C. Graham, William Graham, and Melissa/Lizzie Graham Palmer have not been found. Only Tennie Graham Riley appears to have left a substantial paper trail. After the death of her son Raymond Clifford in Newark in March 1919, followed by the death of her husband John H. Riley in the same place sometime during the 1920s, Tennie lived most or possibly all of the rest of her life with her son John Percy Riley. Mother and son moved between homes in Newark and Bloomfield, New Jersey, several times during the 1930s and ‘40s. The last known record of Tennie’s existence is an April 27, 1942, draft registration for her 53-year-old, widower son John. Tennie, who must have been about 76 years of age, was entered on that record as John’s next-of-kin and housemate at 194 Sherman Avenue in Newark. 

Postscript 1: While composing Part 2 of this biographical sketch, I came upon an article written by local historian, columnist, and Bellefonte attorney J. Thomas Mitchell, published in the November 25, 1959, edition of the Centre Daily Times under the heading “Bellefonte on Underground Railway: Early Negro Families Recalled.” Mitchell wrote the following about Mesh Graham: 

 . . . One of the [Bellefonte-area] ironmasters, who were the rich men of that day, had trouble shaving himself and could not find a barber to suit him. A Negro, afterwards known as “Mesh Graham,” came through who had been a valet to a wealthy Virginian named Graham who had just died. “Mesh” was threatened with being sold, so he started North. Hamilton Humes had built a stone hotel [i.e., the Conrad House] where Temple Court now stands. Its front porch was four or five feet above the pavement level and the northern end of the basement was opened as a shop. Here “Graham” was eventually installed. I can remember him bowing to a customer who approached his steps. . . .  

Mitchell cited no source for his assertion that Mesh had been enslaved and serving as “a valet to a wealthy Virginian” prior to fleeing northward to an eventual home in Bellefonte. Perhaps the historian had heard the story from Mesh himself (Mitchell was in his early 30s when Mesh died). I have found no other references or allusions to Mesh’s history prior to his documented appearances in Centre County in the 1840s. If Mitchell’s assertion is accurate, it challenges Mesh’s consistent claims to census enumerators that he had been born in Pennsylvania. 

Postscript 2: In searching back issues of the Bellefonte Republican newly searchable online, I came across the following prolix report of the wedding of Teenie Graham and John N. Riley, held in the St. Paul AME Church on Thursday evening, June 3, 1886. This must have been a highlight in the lives of parents Mesh and Sarah Graham:

“At the Marriage Altar,
‘Blessed is the bride that the sun shines on.’ When the wedding occurred on Thursday evening the light of the sun had vanished. But it never before set in a clearer sky, never before did the wind blow more refreshingly, and the stars were coming out brightly. Therefore, if there is anything in the ancient saw quoted above, the bride of Thursday evening will be a happy one. The wedding was an event in colored social circles, and interested even the white population.
When we reached the A. M. E. church at 7:50 o’clock it was full, but the gentlemanly ushers, Messrs. William Mills and Charles Garner, showed us to an excellent seat. Rev. Mr. Norris, the pastor, awaited the coming of the wedding party and a handsome young lady, Mrs. Gants, of Williamsport, brought forth music from the organ, very acceptably occupying the time and entertaining the audience with appropriate musical selections. Mrs. Gants was dressed in white and wore a bouquet of natural roses.
She played the wedding march as the party entered the church. Charles Garner and Wm. Mills were the first to appear. Then came the groomsman, Mr. Robert H. Nelson, and the bridesmaid, Miss Lillie Wilson, both of this place. Miss Wilson is a cousin of the groom. She was attered in a white dress with a long train and a coronet of flowers in her hair. The groom, Mr. John N. Riley, of Newark, N. J., escorted Mrs. M. Graham, the bride’s mother. This lady was dressed in black silk. She stepped gracefully back of the groom, and allowed Mr. M. Graham, the bride’s father, to escort the handsome young bride, to the altar. This interesting young lady, Miss Teenie Graham, was the central figure of attractiveness. Her dress was of white albatross cloth, made with court train and oriental lace front, square neck and satin ribbon bows at side. She wore a wreath of orange blossoms. The dress was made by Madame Dürcan. The ceremony is long and impressive. The bride and groom joined their right hands and made the responses distinctly.
In leaving the church the order was first the bride and groom, then the bridesmaid and groomsman, then Mr. and Mrs. Graham, and the ushers guarding the rear.
An enjoyable reception followed at the home of the bride’s father, where wedding refreshments were partaken of and a handsome collection of presents duly inspected and admired. The wedding cake, the creation of Mr. Cradar’s, was very beautiful. Mr. and Mrs. Riley departed this morning for a wedding tour.
LIST OF PRESENTS.
Among the presents received were the following: Bridal dress, from mother of groom; cut glass set, Mrs. S. F. Wilson and sister; majolica set, Miss Tamar Reynolds; silver cake basket, Mrs. S. E. Graham, mother of bride; Saratoga trunk, silver tablespoons, teaspoons, set of knives and forks, Mr. M.S. Graham, father of bride; bed room suite, from the groom; set of china dishes, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. H. Palmer; pair of linen towels and match cases, Messrs. Emil and Sigmond Josephs; cut glass pitcher, George C. Graham, brother of bride, set of silver teaspoons, Mr. and Mrs. J.I Robinson; glass fruit dish, Miss Emma Green; silver buster dish, Mr. R. H. Nelson; glass fruit dish, Mr. William Green, Jr.; pair of napkin rings, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Palmer; majolica pitcher, Mr. J. Lewis; half dozen colored glasses, Mr Calvin Potter; majolica fruit dish, Mr. and Mrs. J. Williams; large garnet plush clock, gilded, Mr. A.W. Bond; blue plush clock, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Taylor; two sauce dishes, Mr. and Mrs. James Carter; Turkish towel, Mrs. Susan Thomas; set of linen napkins, Miss Hettie Thomas; pair of Turkish towels, Mr. and Mrs. Southerner; set of linen napkins, Miss Katie Miller; large linen towel and glass dish, Mr. and Mrs. Levi Pennington; pair of epergnes, blowed glass, Miss Tennie Potter; china match box, Miss Melissa Garner set cut glass dessert dishes, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Garner; glass set, Mr. and Mrs. James Shorter; blue cut glass water set, Mr. and Mrs. William Mills; cut glass fruit set, Mrs. Quinn and Miss Helen Mills; ornamented cigar holder, Miss Adaline Lawson; majolica set, Mr. and Mrs. McDonald; cut glass fruit dish, Miss Lizzie Wilson; Turkish towels Madame Duncan; a linen towel, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Norris; set of hand painted plates, Mr. and Mrs. S. G. Molson, Jersey Shore; pair of towels, Mr. Robert Butler, of Lock Haven.”

The Bellefonte Republican, June 10, 1886, p. 7