December 15, 2009-The Teackle Connection

I have just finished reviewing another of my old favorite books. I acquired this book four years ago and have read it many times. It is a personal, handwritten diary and I do not know who wrote it. It was written in 1916 in Baltimore, Maryland. The book is small and red with the front cover reading, "Physician's Daily Memorandum for 1916". It has medication ads and brief descriptions of treatments printed at the top of every page. It is the kind of book that a pharmaceutical company may have given to physicians. When I bought the book at a used book store, I noticed a note inserted in the book that read, "Cyrus Weaver's mother". Since then, I have called the book, Mrs. Weaver's Diary. Throughout the book, the author would end her sentences with the letter "c" with a circle around it. I assumed her name started with a C and so I named her Cassie Weaver.

Cassie Weaver was employed by a very wealthy Baltimore family, the Arunah S. Abel family. The Abel family was the founder of the Baltimore Sun newspaper. It is clear in the diary that Cassie's primary responsibility was to provide care for Ellen Teackle Schley, the mother of Mrs. Abel ( Ann Teackle Schley Abel). Cassie rarely refers to them by their full names, but instead refers to them as Mrs. S and Mrs. A. The only way I was able to determine who the family was is that on a few occasions, she referred to Mrs. Abel or the Abel family and once called Mrs. S, Mrs. Schley.

Every day that Cassie made an entry, she stated what the weather was that day. Almost every day she described how unhappy she was, how hard she was working, how ill she was feeling. She also commented on how Mrs. S was feeling. The themes running through the diary were Cassie's desire to leave this home, how she felt she was not being treated well, and that she went long periods without being paid. Everyday she asked the Lord to help her and wrote, "show me the way". On two different days when she questioned why she was treated so badly she said, "I am not bound out". And once when questioning her treatment she said, "I am not a slave".

She would get days off every now and then and would go visit Cyrus, her son and other members of her family. Cyrus would bring her clothes and one day she mentioned making Cyrus a birthday cake. She would also go to church when she got a day off. In one entry on a Sunday, April 16, 1916, she noted that it was the first Sunday she had been off in two and a half years.

She described one really happy experience. It was when she accompanied Mrs. S and the Abel family to Blue Ridge Summit, PA and stayed at the Buena Vista Hotel for several weeks. I have learned that the Blue Ridge Summit area was a popular vacation retreat for wealthy families in the region. In fact, it is only about 25 miles from where I live. I did a bit research and found some very old photos of the Buena Vista Hotel and the surrounding area that included Pen-Mar Park. Pen-Mar was an amusement park and it is still there. The Buena Vista Hotel is no longer at Blue Ridge Summit and all that remains from the old structures is an old stone chapel. Cassie describes watching the dancing and the women in their beautiful gowns. She seemed also to enjoy sitting on the huge porch, eating ice cream and talking with the "other ladies".

As the year progressed, Cassie mentions that Dr. Gross came to see her and gave her medication several times. She had terrible back pain. She also went to Dr. Gross' office on several occasions. Finally, in October 1916, she was hospitalized. She gives the names of her nurses, states how ill she is and that she wishes she could get well. In one entry, she said that Mrs. Abel came to visit her and brought her flowers. It seems that Cassie may never have fully recovered. In her entry of November 7, 1916 she writes, " Dr. Gross brought me home. John and Earl carried me upstairs. Thank God I am home". That is the last entry in the diary.

It was pretty clear in the diary that Cassie was taking care of Mrs. Schley in the Schley home. In 1916, her daughter Ann Teackle Schley Abel lived in a huge mansion on Saratoga Street in Baltimore with her children. Her husband, Arunah S. Abel, died in 1914 and she was left to raise seven children. And Cassie would mention when Mrs. A came to visit. The Baltimore City Directory of 1911, shows Mrs. Schley living on North Ave. That's not real far from Saratoga Street, but it is not a street lined with mansions.

Let me tell you about Mrs. Schley. Ellen Teackle Schley was born in 1848 in Maryland. She was the daughter of St. George Williamson Teackle and Catherine Hays. She had a sister Ann Upshur Teackle and a brother Dr. St. George W. Teackle. Her father was a lawyer and the family was quite wealthy. Ellen married William Cadwalader Schley in December 1868. William Schley was also a lawyer. The Schley family is well known in Maryland as being some of the first to settle the area. The town of Frederick, MD was founded by the Schley's. Ellen Teackle Schley died February 27, 1917. That was just three months after Cassie's last diary entry. Her obituary states that she died at the home of her daughter (Mrs. Abel), "where she was spending the winter".

The importance of the diary is the story Cassie is telling. It is one that is absolutely opposite from the lifestyle lead by the Arunah Abel family and also opposite from the lifestyle in which Ellen Teackle Schley was raised. Cassie never described being harmed physically, but she clearly was ignored and expected to continue her work caring for Ellen Schley regardless of payment or appreciation. In re-reading the diary, I always think I am going to find clues about Cassie's identity, but I haven't. I also have found no records of her son, Cyrus Weaver.

Some clues to who Cassie was may lie in the names she mentions of her friends and family. If you read this and know any of these people, let me know and then maybe I can learn who Cassie was. These are the people she mentions: Emma Barrington, Dorothy Huffington, Mabel Linwood, Grace Whittaker, Bessie Whittaker, Mrs. Volk, Mamie Duvall, Fred Duvall and Ella Jackson.