Shirley June Scott: The Baby Book

Shirley June Scott (1923-2002)

Elwood E Bradish (1921-2018)

parents

Losing your parents is never easy. Memories come flooding back accompanied by many questions that were never asked. Questions about their childhoods, schools, their parents, grandparents, and their hopes and dreams. Questions that weren't asked have answers now out of reach. 

 

I've lived nearly 400 miles from my family since I graduated from high school. When I made trips back home at Christmas and during the summer, those vital questions weren't on my mind. After I started working on the family's genealogy in the mid-1970s, I was focused on putting names to the faces in a multitude of old family photos with my mother and grandmother. 

 

I learned quite a bit about Dad's family through the years. He loved to tell stories. But most of the information on the Scott-Sealy side came from my grandmother, Gertrude Sealy. Even with everything Grandma told me, I eventually discovered holes in my knowledge of my grandparents' early lives. That lack of information extended to my mother. I had a serious case of "if only I had asked."

 

 

 

 

 

Left: My grandparents, Frank Scott and Gertrude Sealy, Uncle Jerry (1½ yrs), and my mother, Shirley (5½ yrs). Photo taken in the summer of 1928. (Bradish-Scott Family Collection)

 

 

 

 

 

– TRANSITIONS –

 

After Mom died in April 2002, Dad stayed in the house they built and had lived in since 1954. He eventually moved to a two-story duplex in the country. When the stairs became difficult for him he moved to a first-floor apartment with a nice view toward some woods. I went back home to help with the move. I was surprised that there were quite a few boxes that hadn't been unpacked after he moved from our house on Ridge Road years before. We didn't have time to sift through them at the time so they went to the apartment. 

 

After 57 years of marriage, sorting through those boxes could have been a monumental task. But my mother always, without fail, did spring and fall cleaning, and she did clean-outs periodically. When we were old enough, my sister and I were recruited to assist her. One summer when I was visiting my sister and I asked Mom if we could see her wedding dress, which we knew was in the attic. It had been years since we were up there. Much to our dismay, Mom told us she had cleaned out the attic and gotten rid of it long ago "because it was yellowing." We were stunned—her wedding dress was the victim of a purge.

– THE TREASURE TROVE –

 

Dad passed away in May 2018. It was then that my siblings and I finally sorted through those boxes. Among them were Mom's high school yearbooks, something I didn't realize existed. As I looked through them, I was amazed at how little I knew about her high school years. There were other things, too—her first shoes, some pictures I had never seen, and a tiny journal that Grandma used to document Mom's growth and milestones during her first year. This was genealogical gold.

  

– BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING –

 

My grandparents were married on 26 June 1916. It was my grandfather's 22nd birthday. My mother didn't arrive until 6½ years after she and Grandpa were married. I have sometimes wondered if Grandma had miscarriages because couples in the 1920s usually had their first child by their third year of marriage. But Grandma did join the majority of women who now gave birth in hospitals where pain management was available in the form of anesthesia, unlike her own home birth on the family farm in 1892. I don't know if she opted for that or gave birth naturally.

   

– THE BABY BOOK –

Grandma titled the little journal we found, Shirley June Scott's History. Mom's first year is documented in this 2⅛" x 3⅛" book with a leather cover. Almost all the entries are written in pencil, and either my mother or her brother, my Uncle Jerry, contributed some art work in a couple of places. 

 

Grandma's entries date from 12 Jan 1923 to 12 Jan 1924. (Bradish-Scott Family Collection)

Mom must have treasured that little book, given that it survived her purges. When I had children, I followed my mother's lead and kept a baby book for each of them because I always appreciated that my mother kept one for me. (I have kept my grandmother's spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.)

 

Whenever Grandma talked about my mother's birth, she mentioned how small Mom was. The nurses were apparently quite taken with this little baby girl.

 

January 12th:

My baby girl born this day at Six o'clock this morning. My but she is tiny only 4^#- 9 oz. but normal. No biger than a doll. 

My grandmother kept close track of Mom's weight and growth throughout her first year. She might have been concerned because her daughter was so small.

  

Mom and Grandma didn't leave the hospital until twelve days after my mother was born. This was a common practice at the time. After giving birth, there was a "lying-in" period of strict bed rest for 10-14 days. This allowed the mother to recuperate from delivery while doctors monitored for postpartum infection. Newborns were kept in the hospital nursery and taken to their mothers at scheduled feeding times. Fathers were not allowed in the birthing room and visitation was restricted while mother and baby were in the hospital.  

 

January 24th: 

Baby and I came home to-day. Frank's mother here. Baby weighed 4#14oz. Mother staid I until Jan 29. The baby will raise her head from your shoulder and hold it erect a few minutes she seems strong.

 

On Friday, February 23, Grandma wrote, "... lifts herself right off your hands, into a sitting position. She is some wiggler, hands and feet also head and entire body going most of the time. But she is so good will lay for hrs in her crib wide awake."

On April 12, Grandma noted that “Baby is three mo. to-day has doubled her weight 9# 2 oz.” By May 30, my mother weighed 11 pounds.

 

– A BUSY SUMMER: THE SOCIAL LIFE OF A BABY –

 

My grandparents were not timid about taking their baby daughter on outings. On Sunday, June 3rd, Grandma wrote, "Frank, baby & I went down home and staid over until Thur night. Baby good." A week later, Grandma noted that "F's mother & father came up this AM. We all went to Erie [PA] didn't get back until late."

 

June 17th:

Picture today Baby gained 2 oz. but is good. She has learned a new noise this wk. and has made it every minute to-day. Stoped to Claras Wilsons and Shirley laughed out loud good.

 

By July 1, there were only ten pages left in the miniscule baby book, and Grandma had six months left to document. Her notations got shorter, she started skipping more days, and her handwriting became smaller.  

 

The family was "out all day" on July 4th. 

 

Sunday, July 8th: 

Went down home stayed over & went to Buffalo. Up at 6 a.m. until 9 PM. Shirley didnt sleep all day but was good. 

  

 

Buffalo is roughly 60 miles from Gerry where Grandma grew up on the farm owned by her grandparents, Hiram and Ellen Barmore Sealy. They both died before my mother was born. Since Grandma's father, Otis Sealy, and stepmother, Nellie, lived in Jamestown at this time, I'm inclined to believe my grandparents visited Grandma's Uncle Mason Sealy, Aunt Cristelle (Harris), and some of her cousins.  

 

In 1923, the trip to Buffalo could have taken nearly three hours by car. Present-day Route 60 was rough, dusty, and had many potholes because it wasn't paved. If it rained, the road turned into a muddy, rutted mess, causing cars to get stuck. Present-day Route 5 was paved from Dunkirk to Buffalo, so most cars could to travel at their top speeds of about 30-35 mph.  

 

It's more likely my grandparents took a train to Buffalo, since they spent the night in Gerry. Conveniently, the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley, and Pittsburgh Railroad made a stop at the Gerry depot in the center of the village. Several stops were made at little towns on the way to Dunkirk. There was a 20-45 minute layover in Dunkirk and a transfer to the high-speed (40-45 mph) New York Central Railroad. They would have arrived in downtown Buffalo 50 minutes after they departed the Dunkirk depot. It was about a three-hour trip without the headaches of a road trip.

 

 

 

– A MILESTONE PHOTOGRAPH – 

 

In the 1920s, it was fairly common for people to have photos taken of their children at around six months of age. Grandma and Grandpa followed the trend.

         Right: The six-month photograph of my mother in

          its original 13” x 17” frame with curved glass.  

          (Bradish-Scott Family Collection)

 

July 12^th:

Baby is six months old to-day. Weighs 11 lb. 10 oz. height 23” had pictures taken.                                 

               

 

 

 – THE END-OF-SUMMER OUTINGS –

  

July 22^nd: We went to Lake Erie took lunch had good time gone all day got home 11:30. Baby is awful good to take out. Wouldn’t know there was one around.

 

Sunday, August 5th: 

The family went on an excursion to Rock City Park in Olean, New York with about 30 people. Grandpa's Aunt Lenna, his Uncle Rodney Scott's wife, went along. The park, which opened in 1890, represents the world's largest exposure of quartz conglomerate. Geochronologists have confirmed that these rocks are 315 million years old.

 

In the early 1920s, visitors accessed the park using the Electric Interurban Trolley. This ran directly up Rock City Hill (elevation 2300 ft). Once there, people could enjoy the amusement park with its elaborate carousel, box ball alleys (a variation of bowling), and photo houses where visitors could have souvenir tintype or early film portraits taken. In the evening, live bands played in the large open-air wooden dance pavilion. The elegant Hotel Bon Air was available for those who chose to spend the night. 

 

                             Entrance to Rock City (Planet Smethport)                                 

                              

Postcard of Hotel Bon Air (Bradford Landmark Society)

But the main attraction of the park was, and still is, the gigantic rock formations. Some spots have spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. After exploring the Rock City website, I'm not sure how my grandparents would have traversed the rocks with my mother in tow.

 

Rock City Park, Olean, New York (Photos: Trip Advisor)

Left: Looking up the Indian Stairs at Rock City Park (Photo: Yelp by Diane H.) Right: Looking down (uncoveringnewyork.com)

– AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTS – 

In mid-September, Grandma wrote, "K and (illegible) took Shirley to Shea's last night." (The "K" could have been for her sister, Katheryn.) An early image of Shea's Theatre at 18 E. Third Street in Jamestown can be viewed at Cinema Treasures. The site also has some of the history of the theater, which is now called the "Lucille Ball Little Theatre of Jamestown."  

On October 6th, my grandparents took Mom with them to her "first vaudeville show." This most likely took place at the Lyric Vaudeville Theatre at 203 E. Third Street in Jamestown. (See Cinema Treasures. There are two pictures and some background on the theater.)

 

– ABOUT THOSE SHOES – 

   

My mother was now nine months old. She could probably wear the little leather shoes I found in Dad's boxes. Mom wrote, "Shirley's first shoes that would stay on," on the bottom of the box she stored them in. They are only 4¼" long which, in the 1920s, would fit a baby that was between six and nine months old. 

 

By now, Mom was pulling herself up by holding Grandma's knees. Then she was on her way and getting "all around." Grandma noted that my mother wouldn't stay out of the kitchen and got into everything. 

 

In early November, Mom was saying "bye bye" and "cookie." She wasn't gaining much weight, but that could have been because she was so active. On December 30th, Mom weighed 15 lbs 4 oz., about two pounds under the lower end of the scale for girls of that age in the 1920s. My mother inherited her father's genes—Grandpa was quite slender. 

 

On my mother's first birthday, January 12, 1924, Grandma recorded that she still weighed "15# 4 oz." As a final note to her daughter's first year, Grandma wrote, "She is real well hasn't had a sick day, and again noted, "She sure is mischevous [sic] into everything but minds pretty good." 

 

It was a good year. 

 

(to be continued) 

 

 

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 – FURTHER READING –

 

– The anesthetic during labor and childbirth was a combination of morphine and

   scopolamine injected in a dose tailored to the individual) induced "twilight-sleep" 

   so the mother didn't experience any pain. The downside was that the concoction 

   resulted in amnesia and the mother had no memory of giving birth. She didn't 

   experience the joy of hearing the doctor tell her if her baby was a boy or a girl, or 

   seeing her newborn within its first minute of life.  

  

– Rock City Park is open May 1 through October 31. The Trip Advisor and 

   Enchanted Mountains websites have information about the park, as well as 

   over 200 pictures taken by visitors. 

• https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g48327-d1929989-Reviews-Rock_City_Park-Olean_Cattaraugus_County_New_York.html

• https://enchantedmountains.com/place/rock-city-park

 

 

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Bradish-Scott Family History − September 2026