The Philipsburg mail., 1899-10-27
THE CARY SISTERS.
THEIR EARLY LIFE ON THEIR
p. OHIO HOMESTEAD.
The Quaint Old House Still Stnndipr
where They Lived During Their
Houth-Amid Many Trials They Per-
severed in Writing.
Especial Lottery

About eight miles north of the Gin
cinnati postoffice, on the Hamilton elec-
trlc llne, is a pleasant country home
winch the passer-by is likely to notice
twice, even though ignorant of it's
identity. In the middle of large fenced
yard or lawn set with shade and fruit
trees, starred with peonies and lilies,
and tnlck-grown with lush blue grass,
stands cOmmodious, old fashioned
brick house, the whole structure, bar
ring Its green shutters, as white as
pant and Whitewash can make it, and
showing pure IS a snOwbank from
among the verdure and the flecking
SHADOWS. 1t is a house of sixty years
ago, the heavy, many -paneled doors
and square, small-paned windows i'm
parting flavor of quaintness, while a
row or white brick pillars in a rear
angle of the walls supporting an over
head piazza adds picturesqueness. A
hooded well hard by, furnished with
bucket and windlass, is in keeping
with the house, and looks so inviting
th&t the stranger feels he may, on the
plea. of thirst, enter the grounds with
perfect propriety.
10 DO so is worth his while, especial
~ II he has in him any strain of senti-
ment, for this immaculate old home
stead and its rural surroundings are the
once famous "Clovernook"-the nurs-
ing place of the Cary sisters, who fifty
years ago stood in the forefront of that
interesting literary group that had
sprung up in the Ohio valley presaging
an intellectual life in the West
Among the relics kept in the old
house, which the interested visitor may
see for the asking, is parchment gov
eTnment deed, dated 1914, signed by
lanes Madison, and emitting Christie
rher Cary (the grandfather of the
poets) to $50 acres in Hamilton
county, Ohio. Christopher's son Rob
ert took possession of these acres, and
here in 1920 and 1926 were born Alice
and Phoebe, the two sisters who were
destined to make the family name not
ed. There were other chi]dren-nine
of them all told-but they seem not to
have been literary. One of the flock,
an elder sister, Alice speaks of as a
>oAhpcAioA " WllOu size COuuuGQ uST
crude little verses, and who, in turn,
confided stories of her own composing;
but this sister died when the budding
poet was yet mere child. Then as
Phoebe's mind unfolded, she and Alice
grew together by the force of kindred |
tastes, and all through girlhood these |
two lived together and alone in the lit |
tie ideal world which they built up. 1t
was no easy thing to do. Life in the |
West in those days haa r~~~oa tho
pioneer period and in pioneer life there
was little time for cultivating the |
muses. and scant opportunity to ac-
.quire the education and training essen
tial to literary art.
The actual schooling the girls got |
was meager; an Unsuitable appetite for
reading and tireless attempts at liter
,ary performance did the rest, and this |
culture had to be snatched as best the |
aspirants could in a household where
work was never ended, and it was a |
struggle to provide the comforts of life. |
The publications that struggled for |
existence in the Ohio valley half CEN
tury ago had, as rule, very kindly |
attitude toward literary beginners, and |
SO the sisters, first Alice and then
Phoebe, soon found their way into
various columns. The harvest was
chiefly "fame," favored by an OCCASION
al mention, but it brought them into
the atmosphere for which they longed.
They became known to, and, in per-
sonal way, came to know people who
thought and aspired as they did. Kind
ly letters of goodwill and praise, not
only from nearby friends, but from
across the mountains, found their way
to the country home. The stimulus
ouickened them to a new growth. and,
within ten years after their first ap-
pearance in print, this pair of wild
flowers was fairly famous. Ere that,
pecuniary reward, in small way,
spurred them on, and, to help matters,
the father, as remedy for domestic
friction, built another house, and went
thither with the stepmother, leaving
the first house to the five surviving
children of the family, with Alice at