Note 36 — MEMORIES OF THE BOOT POND PLACE[36]
Reading edition
This book, written by Susan H. Burgess, is in the form of a story for children as a memoir of her own girlhood days at her grandparents’ farm. It was given to her niece, Frances Burgess O’Keeffe, and is so inscribed by the author. It may have been written in the 1920’s and covers a time presumably in the 1880’s. She was 12 years old by 1890. During the 1880’s her grandparents would be in their seventies.
Totaling 33 pages, it has 11 water color illustrations, 5-1/2” × 7” in size, each on a page of its own. It is hand printed in black ink in script writing. The author has made the plain cover and has hand sewn and bound the pages. They measure 12” × 9-1/2”.
The eight children mentioned were born over a period of 17 years, from 1868 to 1885, making a group of three boys and five girls. The 1880’s would be a good time in the ages of the children to enjoy their grandparents’ farm at Boot Pond.
Against the usual Plymouth custom of referring to bodies of fresh water as “ponds,” Susan Burgess refers to them as “lakes.”
An obvious contrast in the 100 years since then has been the growth of trees, not only in the open fields, but close to the house and barn. This fact was quite apparent to Miss Minnie Burgess and she emphasized it to me on a recent visit. She has known the Place for most of her 94 years. There are now three large white pines, many large fir trees, several deciduous trees, such as maples, beech, tamarack, catalpa and mulberry which have grown up in the intervening years since the watercolors were made. Then there were more open fields, pasture and orchard as well as a fence near the pond for keeping the cattle in bounds.
The Water Colors
1. THE CROOKED ROAD
This was on the curve downhill before the house could be seen.
2. THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE HOUSE
This is about 300 feet from the front of the house, showing an open field on the left and Boot Pond beyond.
3. UNTITLED
Shows a horse and covered buggy tied to a hitching post by the fence in front of the house.
4. UNTITLED
Grandma Charlotte sitting by the dining room fireplace and a glimpse through the door into the sitting room beyond.
5. OH WHAT A PLACE TO PLAY
Two little girls playing with costumes in the north end of the well-stocked attic.
6. UNTITLED
A boy and two girls and a head of a pig behind the pig pen fence running north from the house and showing the steps up into the barn.
7. UNTITLED
The interior of the barn from the front door, with a cow and horse.
8. UNTITLED
Shows the lower part of the field, the big oak tree and the Pond.
9. UNTITLED
A little blond girl on the swing under the big oak at pond edge.
10. LEARNING TO ROW WITH THE ANCHOR OUT WAS SAFEST
The sandy shore of the curving beach with three children. One is in the boat in the water with the anchor in the dry sand.
11. UNTITLED
In the rain are two children in a row boat near the pond shore.