Some Reid and Saunders Family History, Provided by Amy Spencer

Dear Uncle John,

Please find the attached letter from Ruth to me. I typed it exactly as she wrote it.

It was the best graduation present I received... don't recall if I ever let her know that. There is many a time that I wished with all my heart that I had taken her up on her offer to "watch the beans grow..." It was exactly what I needed at that time in my life. I suppose she knew that, but never pushed... just suggest in her gentle, wonderful way.

Love, Amy

Ruth Reid’s note follows. Note that Sallie is Sallie Saunders, Ruth’s Mother, and Amy’s great-grandmother. Note that the history of Margaret Reid follows that history of Sallie.

A letter from Ruth Reid to Ms. Amy Reid, Postmarked July 10, 1991

Dear Amy, “What shall we give Amy for her graduation present? A new red convertible? A diamond ring? A watch? Or something like one of the many, many Christmas gifts we have lovingly wrapped and sent? Well, maybe she would appreciate something- a little bit- of her heritage- as I know it…There are many other that could add their own bits to what I am sending… Best love and wishes, from

Ruth and Jim

Sallie’s Story as I Understand It

“Sallie was the youngest of five children born to Sarah Stetson Brummitt Harding and Edwin Allen Harding. Sarah came from Walpole, Mass. And Edwin from Norfolk, Mass. Sallie was born in North Cambridge, Mass. where her father kept a grocery store. Her mother died at age 36, when she was only two years old. Her father married Elvira Cole a year later. “She must have had a lot of courage to marry a man with five children,” said Sallie. She was the bookkeeper, a good friend of Sarah and only 18 years old. The family moved to West Medway, where they lived on a farm. Sallie was friendly with the Saunders girls in town and became interested in Stacy. In 1908, Sallie’s father moved to Seattle, Washington- “Apple Country”- where Relatives had an apple business. (This was after the Depression of 1907) Sallie could not bear to leave Stacy, so they got married, eloping to New Jersey (the nearest state which did not require a residency) on July 2, 1909. Stacy had been attending Brown University, majoring in Electrical Engineering. They moved into the apartment over the family store in West Medway. In the fall, Stacy got a teaching job in North Newport, New Hampshire. He was very sensitive about the appearance of his eyes, which were known as “cross-eyed” then, and were the cause of many remarks from the schoolboys. The next year he got a job in Laconia, NH. as a payroll clerk and draftsman. His eyes continued to bother him. In 1911-1912 he found a job in Puerto Rico as a principal of the high school, and Sallie became the cooking and sewing teacher when the hired on did not appear. They enjoyed life here, entertained all the American friends they made, but became worried when bubonic plague appeared, and Sallie was pregnant, so they returned to the States. Sallie went to Cashmere, Washington, to see her father, who was ill and dying. In February, 1913, Marion was born. (Sallie used to sign her name, Sallie Marion Harding when she was younger). That September, Stacy got a job teaching in Union, Maine, and Sallie and Marion lived there in a farmhouse. Sallie said she was very homesick, alone with a small baby all day. Stacy’s eyes were getting worse. They decided to have the eye operated on, but the clinic doctor punctured the eyeball by mistake, infection developed, and it was later removed. A cataract formed on the right eye, and blindness resulted, for 17 years. Sallie was taking her pre-medical exams in order to get into Tufts Medical School. (Had to pass 13 qualifying exams). Out of 12 women who started medical school, only she and one other graduated, in 1919. They rented rooms in Boston during this time. In 1918, when Sallie was a Senior, the local doctor in Hopedale, Mass. asked her to assist him on his rounds during the flu epidemic. (Aunt Jennie was taking care of Marion). Sallie used to get up during the quiet of the night, to study. Incidentally, she was influenced and encouraged to study medicine by “Aunt Manie”, Dr. Mary Halsall, of Winthrop, and borrowed the money for school from George Willett, a cousin and real estate developer from Norwood, Mass. Sallie or Doctor Sallie began her practice in Hopedale, but they moved to East Boston in 1921, then to Arlington, where Marion went to school. In June of 1922, they bought their first home in Winthrop, Mass. at 32 Woodside Park, where several relatives lived, a pretty little seaside town with its own electric railroad. Their house was originally built as a summer home – ten rooms for lots of guests, but for Sallie and Stacy, ten rooms meant room for boarders and roomers and a tiny office and “lying-in” room for maternity cases. The following year, Ruth was born- March, 1923, and the seawall washed out! What a struggle! Sallie answered house calls in the middle of the night, with Stacy driving at her side; she was idolized by many women to whom she ministered, accepting pay and donations of rugs, furniture, or whatever they were able to give, whenever they were able. The Depression years were full of people helping people; and our house was full of laughter and hope. In 1933, Stacy regained his sight after the cataract miraculously “freed itself” and an operation could be performed- this time, successfully. He first saw his little girl, Ruth, then- ten years old. He went to the movies every day for months, and eventually learned to drive. (He had studied law while blind, with the aid of readers, and took offices with his wife / physician over a pawnshop on Tremont St.

From then on, you pretty much know the story.

Grandma Reid (Great Grandma Reid to you-) had much the same kind of story- hard times, marrying a widower with two children, then having five of her own, struggling through depression years, watching her children go through all their ups and downs, yet not allowing herself to get involved in it, except through prayer- which must have saved us all! And she too leaves a legacy of courage, cheerful undertaking of what she saw as her duty, acceptance of all the quirks of friends and relatives, some of which make us smile today…

Amy, this is just a reminder of where you came from; hope you cherish it as much as I do… Best love and good wishes,

Grandma and Grandpa Reid

Keep in touch! Thanks for sharing your dreams and heartaches with us; don’t ever stop! BIG HUGS! Let us know if you need to come down here for a few months, get a job waitressing or whatever (everything shuts down along about October…) All the Florida people begin to go home…

Very quiet here…Listen to crickets, watch the beans grow…