Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-01-21
ANN c. WHITALL
ISABELLA c. McGEORGE
The Gloucester County Historical Society
JANUARY II, 1904
ISABELLA c. McGEORGE
AS READ BEFORE
JANUARY IL, 1904.

%~VW
had time to sit down, much less to
write, for the household cares, the
''passel of children" with their fevers
and casualties, the weekday meetin gs,
which she rarely missed, once going to
a quarterly at Haddonfeld, riding
f, horseback through the rain. the water
ran down my skim the storms that
threatened to wreck the house and the
accident when her husband barely es-
capped with his life-but then she took
time to write of her gratitude: 20,
what a great favor he is still living:
Oh, how wonderful indeed; it is one of
the greatest blessings that his children
and I can have him with us! Oh, how
often l think what would become Of
me if he were taken awayw
Her sons, while obedient and indus
trious, would not attend the weekday
meetings of the Society of Friends as
! frequently as the mother deemed nee
essary; she bemoans the fathers bad
example and the fact that her sons
sometimes skated after meeting on
First-day. Her troubled spirit finds
expression in her diary thus:
~ mo. Sd, 1858. Hannah and / went
to meeting alone, and her father would
not go with u.s. But it is my lot to go
alone, or none must go. Oh, it is my
mind that any may contrive their busi-
ness so as to go to meeting constant
/ ly, if they will. But, OH this going,
when he has mind, or once month.
Once month! When 9Th day meeting
comes then more earnest at work than
ers g day in the whole, wnOle week
1t makes me sick sometimes to see
such doings, year after year. Now, We.
have been married about thirty years
and he so cold about religion, and the
children grown men, This is the great.
est trouble I meet with / go with a
heavy heart if my children don't go
to meeting nor their father. But I
must drink these bitters! OH the bit
ters that l have to drink Oh. the
wormwood and the gall and am Cver-
whelmed in sorrow every day | live
Oh! this wicked world To go skating
after meeting! How can the Lords
day be spent at such work?"
With sly numor. James, her husband,
would sometimes question if she were
any better than he and the boys, or as
good; that she had not escaped being
Lu4OUtI ellu h1ShSu UJa tu0 uldEG even
when she was on her way to meeting" +"
However, the meetings were not always
satisfactory, for she beheld there that
which troubled her as recorded on
10th mo. 1st Sixth-day, It'll. oh! the
concern was inl To think of so
many that can sit and sleep, meeting
after meeting, year after year"
She mentions also "a hard, laborious
meeting" that Joshua Lord spoke a
long while and he did rattle us ago
ling" and of the non-successful issue OF
her remonstrance with a drowsy wild
ow, who, being refreshed by her nap,
did not accept AIMS reproof in sub
missive spirit.
She vigorously denounced the "dod-
dry fashions the CANDY calico
was unfit garb for plain Quakers and
lshreWdly OWNED that the giddiness of
youth was traceable to laxity of their
elders The old people had not done
their duty, and that was the reason
the young were no better
In her disapproYal OF the excessive
use or the abuse of tea and tobacco,
she caustieally classified the users as
being as irresponsible as the "negors,
ESll one as bad as another"
i The negroes of New Jersey, as per
1 the provincial statutes, bore the repu-
itation of being aan idle, slothful peo-
pie, and free negroes proved very often
a charge to the place where they liv-
led"
Dame WhitalI seemed equal to all
lexigencies. Nothing unnerved her,
lDothing appalled, nor dismayed. Her
encounter with thief is. characterfs-
tic. While the location of the home
was very lovely, yet its proximity to
Philadelphia brought annoyances; the
herrOosts were depleted, the cows were
MIXED by stealth, fruit stoIen-for the
cove was very handy for sneak thieves.
One evening when her husband had
been belated at Woodbury., the help abb
sent and the children upstairs asleep.
Ann Whftall sat in the living room
knitting by candle. light A slight
sound attracted her attention to thu
open stairway. To her surprise she
saw a pair of ankles and shoeless feet
disappear on the landing. Hastily lay
lirg her knitting on the table, she
sprang up the stairs and collared a
man, who, upon his hands and knees.
was about to crawl under the bed OF
1.-THE northwest room Taken at such a
disadvantage. his bravado oozed out OF
hisRkin in great beads of perspiration.
What is thee after?
"Nothin.V was the sullen answer.
This is likely place for thee to be
llur tirg 1t, and slappirg him in the
face, she marched him downstairs, lee.
turing him the while on the wicked
ress OF theft. She turned him out OF
1.-THE house, bidding him be thankful
that she had been III time to prevent