Beschrijving
This project is based on the reminiscences of Elizabeth Hawley Bowen Everett (1857-1940). She originally compiled these stories, records, and reflections about her life and her family in response to curiosity expressed by her grand-daughter, Betty Bowen Hanes. Her collection is called, The Olden Time or Stories for Betty. As we immersed ourselves in this family’s history, we became convinced that the experiences of its various members represented those of countless Americans. Their participation in this country’s struggle for independence, the western migration, the establishment of towns on the prairie, in school teaching from Maine to Mississippi and Nebraska, make this story significant beyond its interest to the family’s descendents. In consequence, we made the decision to annotate the collection in an effort to aid the modern reader with obscure references and to provide some historical background. We have presented Elizabeth Hawley’s own work with only the slightest editing and occasional rearrangement, and we have clearly identified our additions as footnotes, by brackets or a change in typeface. Several observations should be mentioned here. The influence of New England culture on the prairie society is marked. The interest in education is attested by both the number of schools established in these small towns and the number of students who enrolled. Women and girls attended school as well as boys and young men. Women taught, even in male preparatory schools, and ran their own schools. Religion, in the form of protestant denominations, was a strong influence and along with it temperance societies. Little distinction was made among the various protestant traditions as long as the preaching was \