For Mothers Day I thought I would share a story that appeared in the Sag-Harbor Express newspaper printed on April 4, 1895.The Article “went viral” if you will, in addition to the Sag Harbor Express it also appeared in the: The Saint Paul Globe (MN), The Atlanta Constitution (GA), Leaf-Chronicle (Clarksville, TN), Hagerstown Exponent (IN), Yorkville Enquirer (SC), Chariton Courier (MO). All between March 14 to May 8th 1895.
In 1894 a mother and daughter shared their wedding day. The mother Mrs. Pelham Appleby, who was widowed, entered her second marriage, with Percival Graydon, her daughter married Cummings Gordon. About ten months later, in the spring of 1895, they found themselves having another shared life changing moment when they both were giving birth to their new babies, in the same house.
The babies were born happy and healthy, two boys weighing in at ten pounds six ounces with large brown eyes. Each mom had a personal nurse assisting her in the delivery. The respective nurses brought the babies out to the living to show them off to the gathered townspeople. The women who had gathered fussed over the new arrivals for about half an hour, by the time the nurses had settled with the mothers and came back for the babies, they had been mixed up. The nurses were beside themselves with fear that the right mother would not get the right baby back and they would lose their jobs. In the end the women who were there to see the babies took a vote to decide which baby to give back to each mother.
I sincerely hope that the right mother received back the correct baby. On a personal note, as a genealogist this story is a nightmare, forever I would be asking if the right baby really did go back to the right mother. I tried to find either couple on the census from that time period but was unable to verify their location, it is possible that they were just staying in East Quogue as borders at one of the establishments.
If any further detail come to light in my research I will follow up.
Happy Mother’s Day and happy researching.
In 1894 a mother and daughter shared their wedding day. The mother Mrs. Pelham Appleby, who was widowed, entered her second marriage, with Percival Graydon, her daughter married Cummings Gordon. About ten months later, in the spring of 1895, they found themselves having another shared life changing moment when they both were giving birth to their new babies, in the same house.
The babies were born happy and healthy, two boys weighing in at ten pounds six ounces with large brown eyes. Each mom had a personal nurse assisting her in the delivery. The respective nurses brought the babies out to the living to show them off to the gathered townspeople. The women who had gathered fussed over the new arrivals for about half an hour, by the time the nurses had settled with the mothers and came back for the babies, they had been mixed up. The nurses were beside themselves with fear that the right mother would not get the right baby back and they would lose their jobs. In the end the women who were there to see the babies took a vote to decide which baby to give back to each mother.
I sincerely hope that the right mother received back the correct baby. On a personal note, as a genealogist this story is a nightmare, forever I would be asking if the right baby really did go back to the right mother. I tried to find either couple on the census from that time period but was unable to verify their location, it is possible that they were just staying in East Quogue as borders at one of the establishments.
If any further detail come to light in my research I will follow up.
Happy Mother’s Day and happy researching.
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