Transcript of Taped Interviews with Berniece H. Glass and Marjorie H. Montgomery Hilton U. Brown Branch of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Oral History Project 1982 Marjorie Montgomery and Berniece Glass 189 4 Berniece Glass and Marjorie Montgomery 1982 o Notable Women Berniece H. Glass Marjorie H. Montgomery O Two sisters describe the culture! atmosphere of Irvington in the early 1900s where the Hall family professions included teaching, preoching and dry cleaning. C/j "We weren't prudes. There were no Joneses in Irvington. You were who you were and where you came from. Money did not decide that." — Mrs. Glass. */ 5/29/79 Baby Marjorie (left) and sister Berniece photographer. They are dressed in finery sewed all clothes for them until they married Mrs. F. Elbert Glass still stands by as big sister to Mrs. Walter Montgomery. Both ate widowed now. African violets are a hobby of Mrs. Glass. — The NEWS Photo, Gary Moore. 5'29/79 Memories Sisters Share By JEAN JENSEN refrigerator. Crocks of cream and but­ One Of A Series ter were set there to chill. "Even the owls in Irvington said She loved cream and was allowed to 'Who-o-o-m.' " scoop her finger in the crock for a taste. That about sums up the cultural Whenever her stomach rebelled, she'd climate of Irvington during the early take a drink of water out of the trough. 1900s when Mrs. F. Elbert Glass and When she was 6, she contracted and Mrs. Walter Montgomery were "the almost died of typho.id. Hall girls — Berniece and Marjorie." "I had a tutor because I couldn't go For them, it was an era: to school. When he came with lessons, • When a young man and a teen- Marjorie insisted on being right there aged girl became betrothed with a with me. Next year, we both were whispered promise to "wait for each enrolled in second grade together. Why other" — (Marjorie did); not? She knew everything I did." • When a summer Sunday enter­ Conversation with the pair takes tainment was a nickel soda at Wees- place in the Christian Retirement ner's ice cream store; Home, Zionsville. It has been their • When winter excitement was a home since last October when they left ' sled ride down Hilton U. Brown hill — a their spacious, Victorian houses for the i slide that coasted clear to the middle of carefree comforts of modified studio East Washington where traffic was "oc­ rooms. casional;" Family Treasures • When a picnic in Fairview Park meant carting a picnic basket on the Treasures that didn't go to Benton hour-long trolley ride to the area that House or younger family members fur­ now encompasses Butler University. nish their adjoining apartments. Orien­ The park stretched to the canal, and the tal rugs overlay wall-to-wall carpeting. old tow path (now Westfield Blvd.) was Tables, a tufted velvet sofa, upholstered just wide enough for two. rockers and straight chairs are set The Hall sisters, whose father, about the living room. Each is an Robert Hall, was a professor of Latin heirloom with baroque, carved cherry and Greek at Manual High School, or walnut frames and legs. A collection married soon after graduation. Their of figurines, objets d'art and glass husbands became the successive presi­ paperweights is safe in a glass cup­ dents of Crown Laundry and Dry Clean­ board. ing, a business started by an uncle, Brown Willow patterned plates, the Paul Jeffries. Montgomery was presi­ only six left from Grandmother Hall's dent 50 years after which Glass became wedding set of china, have vantage wall senior officer until his death in 1970. space among sentimental plates and pictures everywhere. Straighten Record "Our friends say it's just like step­ ping into the living room at 129 Many think the sisters are twins. Downey," says Mrs. Glass, referring to Mrs. Glass sets the record straight. her Irvington address. Mrs. Montgom­ "We're not. Some of our sorority ery had stayed in her parents' home for (Kappa Alpha Theta) sisters thought so 76 years before moving to her widowed too," she says. sister's residence. Mrs. Glass explains the confusion is The family abounds with scholars. because she and her sister, who is 14 The sisters boast 21 males in Delta Tau months younger, were in the same class Delta fraternity and a fair share in Phi in school. She missed the first year of Beta Kappa Honorary. school due to a bout of typhoid fever. The Scottish-born Forsyth, Sturgeon She recalls that when she was a and Hume forebearers who fought in child a trough ran through the dirt floor the Revolutionary Army (Hume as Gen. of the dairy cellar on her grand­ Washington's surveyor) give the sisters mother's farm. It carried cold water triple-entry into the Daughters of the from a spring and served as the family American Revolution. Present gener­ ations descend from the Hall and Jef­ him to resign from the pulpit calling fries families. him "a liberal Unitarian." Archibald The Hall family put down roots in Hall became a Disciples of Christ Indiana when the first of three Hall minister after graduation from Butler. brothers moved from Pennsylvania to Undergraduate pranks by the boys study at Butler in 1885. Eventually, they survived as family legend. Once the all came, inspired by a visiting boys waited until dark to steal a new preacher who was a Butler ministry buggy from the barn of the college graduate. Tom Hall continued on to president. They hitched up his horses Yale for his Ph.D and became a Con- and drove to Acton. When they finally gregationalist. Robert Hall took his stopped and were unhitching, out graduate studies at Harvard and be­ stepped Dr. Allen Benton. came a Unitarian. "That was a nice ride boys. Now you According to Mrs. Glass, her father can take me home," he supposedly said. 1switche d from preaching to teaching on the advice of a professor who advised Continued on Page IS •••••••• THE INDIANAPOLIS NEWS More About Hall Sisters Continued from Page 14 The sisters recount they were charter members of The subject turns to a near-forgotten episode — the the Irvington Dramatic Club but credit Helene Hibben, unusual wording of an engraved card announcing the Edgar Forsyth and Edward Kingsbury as founders. An marriage of Jacob D. Forest to the sister of his de­ aunt, Mrs. Charles (Grace Julian) Clarke founded the ceased wife. Irvington Women's Club inspired by the Indianapolis Originally, Forest, the first Mrs. Forest, her mother Woman's Club founded by her mother, Mrs. George Mrs. Allen and an unmarried sister of Mrs. Forest Julian. Bertermann's adult dancing class was another shared a home. Mrs. Glass explains that after the death social center that functioned in "pre-World War I" of the first Mrs. Forest and the subsequent death of Irvington. Mrs. Allen, Forest and the unwed sister were left alone. Pressed to divulge how the Crown Laundry came "That really rocked old classical Irvington, those into existence, Mrs. Glass attributes it to the resource­ two living under one roof — and not married," Mrs. fulness of Paul Jeffries, her mother's only brother. Glass says. "When he was going to Butler, he made expenses One day a card came which read: "Will you please by a pick-up laundry service for the professors. He refrain from congratulations. Mrs. Forest is not to be carried their collar and cuffs on the handlebars of his known as Mrs. Jacob Dorsey Forest, but as Mrs. Cor­ bicycle," she recalls. nelia Allen Forest." After graduation, he bought the one-room laundry. At a party soon after, Mrs. Montgomery's husband In the ensuing years, it expanded to 35 locations. On observed, "We've been here 15 minutes and no one has advice of its Harvard-educated president, Robert Glass, mentioned Cornelia Allen Jacob Dorsey Forest." the business was sold three years ago. Mrs. Montgomery sits silently and serenely composed Education for men and women in the family has on the Victorian sofa. Her head nods in agreement as been a persistent goal. Their maternal grandmother she listens, but she rarely interrupts. Her lips curve in Jeffries left the Trafalger farm to bring her four i small smile. Her hair is perfectly coifed. She wears children to Irvington after she was widowed beoause a wine colored dress, a choice background for the schooling in the country ended with sixth grade. double strand of cultured pearls around her neck. Her Through her determination, they became college grad­ suede and reptile pumps are the color of the dress. uates as their father had been. It is surprising to learn that this perfectly groomed A generation later, the Hall sisters graduated from woman is paralyzed on her right side. Her sister, Butler in 1915 with degrees in home economics. dressed in burgundy to offset garnets at throat, $ars Despite her major, Mrs. Montgomery admits she has and fingers, adds that Mrs. Montgomery had to have never cooked. many of her rings resized to fit swollen fingers. For "We had a cook, so there was no need," she states. them the lifelong habits of correct deportment, Irving- In her soft manner she adds for confirmation, "She ton-style, are unalterable. was with us for 50 years. Of course, I baked pies and Perhaps to correct an imags of Irvingtonians as things. But not a whole meal." staid or stuffy, Mrs. Glass says, "We weren't prudes, To divert attention from themselves, Mrs. Glass tod there were no Joneses in Irvington.