while a landmark may survive "Last Monday night Emma, Mary and I 1889, and Hattie was 29 when she married The House structurally, rarer are the circumstances went to hear Bishop Dubbs and ma went Lorenzo Porter on June 1, 1893. Both girls in which the life and times of those who with Mrs. Kingsley. were educated as school teachers, and However, the letters, and dwelt in a future landmark have been so "George B. came home with me, and we both had attended the Street the discovery of their existence, are but a well documented through letters, papers sat on Mrs. Dodge's steps and visited. School on the north side ( now the building surprise culmination to quite another and photographs, so that vital and "He keeps talking as if he wanted to at 320 E. Washington), which, from 1866 story, which is the long search to marvelous portraits emerge from a time come up and spend some evening here but when it was built until about 1884 when the authenticate the date that the house was and environment outside the memories of I don't take the hint at all, at all." four-wing frame Hough Street School was built, its architectural inheritance and most of us. These are some excerpts from that April completed, served as a "School of Higher integrity. The architectural inheritance, 21st letter which is eight pages long, and Learning" for Barrington. While the and flourishing of the octagon style is from The Family already includes one of Hattie's frequent sisters were 10 years apart, the lists of an earlier period than the 1880's, and the integrity of the representation of that More than 700 times, the letters from references to the status of her courtships. pupils of the Washington Street School earlier style in the Barrington house is Barrington, begin "Dearest Laura" and It is interesting to note, that for the time in provide us with the names of many of the confusing when set against that 1882 after several pages of family news, local which they lived, both Laura and Hattie sisters' close friends, who were property title assumption by Joseph gossip, commentary on current events, married late. Laura was 32 when she subsequently mentioned frequently in the Brown. The noteworthiness of the house as and neatly drawn verbal portraits of married Joseph Nightingale on March 4, letters. far as Barrington itself is concerned seems friends and neighbors, they are signed "Lots of Love, Mother" or "Love, Ma." to have occurred only in more recent Others are signed, "your loving Sister, history. Locally always referred to as the Hattie Brown," for Hattie too contributed Hawley House, it has become the standard to this prolific correspondence, and "souvenir of Barrington" subject, with paintings, drawings, notecards, thereby shared the pangs of her young womanhood with her sister on the photographs, and even Christmas Minnesota prairie. Only the letters ornaments commemorating its uniqueness. outward bound from Barrington have been Given the fact that the house was surely found. an architectural anomaly in 19th century The letters of Emaline and daughter Barrington, it is amazing that none of the Hattie now form part of the permanent people who were quite prolific in collections of the Barrington Historical documenting the growth of the community Museum, donated by Ruth Nightingale of ever remarked on an octagonal house. Canandaigua, N.Y., great-granddaughter Even Arnett C. Lines, who devoted much of Emaline and Joseph Brown. Ruth has of his adult life to the compilation of his spent years working on the family history "History of Barrington".—with of the Browns, the Hawleys, and the considerable attention given to houses, Nightingales, and she brought the letters streets, who lived in, and moved around to Barrington from her mother's home in the community, and including the houses Fairmont, Minn. They are tightly packed, that were so frequently moved—never in five shoe boxes, sequentially numbered, mentions the Octagon House or its and represent nearly 8,000 sheets of close occupants. A scrutiny of early editions of and precise writing. Emaline's letters are the Barrington Review, which first newsy, lively, often opinionated, but published in 1889, hasn't yielded any totally familial, while Hattie's are more reference to the house itself, although introspective—her sister clearly her best occasionally the names of the Brown, friend, but now removed from the SS Nightingale and Porter families appear in possibility of a daily exchange of thoughts. those notations of comings and goings and In a sense, Hattie now had to manage her social doings, which were definitely the own life. forerunner of today's neighborhood In order to preserve these letters as part 4 columns. of the history of Barrington and of the How to find a link, when only legend is Octagon House, museum staff and definitive, between a carpentry tools volunteers spent three months copying maker arriving in Barrington from every page, so that two complete sets of Massachusetts in the mid-1850's and an copies now exist to be used for research, octagonal house in a village, incorporated instead of constantly handling the in 1863, of just more than 300 people? originals. The letter collection is Where is the connection, between "Pa" in registered with the for those 700 letters, and the expression of an the National Union Catalog of Manuscript architectural style which was in its heyday Collections. The Catalog cards and in the in the 1850's and identifying numbers have not been 1860's? At that time, octagonal houses, received yet. Some of the letters, including from simple one-story cottages, to a few the first one, are missing, apparently glorious mansions, were being built from because descendants of the Browns have New to California. borrowed them through the years for Massachusetts, State, family research and those letters have not northeastern Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, been returned to the main collection. Wisconsin, Iowa, are all states where Letter No. 2, written from Barrington on several octagonal houses can still be April 21, 1889, is the first in the Museum found. collection. When one of her daughters, Laura Ann Nightingale (right), married and By far the greatest number, -extant and "Dear Sister, not, is in Massachusetts where 21 have "Rec'd yours of numerous data moved away in 1889, Emaline and another daughter, Harriet Adeline (left), began writing the Octagon House letters to Laura. It was Laura's been accounted for. Many of these were in yesterday A.M. all O.K. and we were very towns of the Connecticut River Valley, glad to hear from you again. I am kept granddaughter who recently turned the 700 letters over to the Barrington Museum. although occasionally what were actually busy as I am the family scribe as well as round houses have been included in eyes. octagonal lists. "It is a lovely Sunday afternoon and I just came home from S.S. (Sunday School) Browns and Hawleys with Carrie. She has been off two weeks. Upcoming articles "Young George Comstock and Will It was in the Connecticut River Valley, Cronk went away a week last Thursday that Joseph P. Brown first made any -- George Comstock will continue as with George's father's horse and buggy In the future articles, as the letters definitive notation of his life. He was born the black sheep of the family; and have failed to return. unfold, the story of the "Hawley clan" at Mollerton, N. H. on Jan. 21, 1824, the son "George began by riding around town and their many pursuits in the —Emaline and Hattie will both visit of John Brown and Sarah Thayer. Joseph and coming back all right, and his father Barrington area will be documented. Laura in Minnesota, and Pa will go to Brown appears next only through his own Nebraska; thought it was allright to let him go. To be covered includes the following: ledger, now also in the Barrington —The telephone will come to "Result now is: Geo, his dad, swears The E.J. & E. Railway will be built Historical Museum's collection. The first through Barrington, with disturbing Barrington, and the Volunteer Fire entries place him in Amherst, Mass. in again. Department will be founded; "Walter told pa to tell you to write for social consequences; 1844, and there he first encountered —Jerome Kingsley will build the May kept him going to the office all the —The Barrington Review will begin members of a family that was undoubtedly publication, a look at the frst page; first house on West Lake Street, and the time to get her a letter from you. to dominate his life, and, through his two McIntosh's will have family problems; "Carrie and Aunt Addie want to hear — Fires will rage in downtown marriages to Hawley cousins, determine Barrington, and the appearance of the —West Station Street will be opened from you when you get time to write. that he would join that steady migration-to up, and Pa will start selling off his land; "Mrs. Townsend says tell Laura that business community will change as the the potentially rich lands of the century turns; and Minnie Hendrickson has a 'kid.' midwestern prairie, where a tribe of —Emaline and Hattie will comment "Ma has dictated so much of this letter, —Hattie Brown will visit the 1893 Hawley's, led by the patriarch Phillip, had on day-to-day life in a small and she wants me to write and think too World's Fair, and will be married in settled in Barrington Township, Ill., as that year too; community, with a curiosity and early as 1835. Perhaps the omnipotence and I 'bolted.' vitality, a humanity and compassion, "Well I suppose I may as well dip in my — "Little Arthur" will be born, and inherent by sheer numbers of Hawleys which give remarkable depth to their pen again and go to writing after a half before he is four, his grandmother will accounts for the fact that the Octagon call him a good Republican; lives. hour's meditation. (Continued on page 42)

Thursday, May 13, 1982 Barrington Courier-Review 25