To the editor:
Errolyn, oh, Errolyn, where did you go? What were you doing all those years? How could you leave us without a trace? Even a thread we might follow to find all the answers at the end? What about your family?
Genealogist I am not. If I were, it would be ever thus: I would be talking to all those people long gone, seeing them as they were, human beings of substance. Settling for lost souls or spirits out in the ether — up above, or down below in the nether world, the place of departed spirits — would never do. The professionals, including Nina Brawn, with her “Family Searches” column in the Pioneer, and my own niece, in New York state, remain more objective, grounded in today’s world.
My niece has amassed a comprehensive pile of facts about the Porter family, from records and cemetery markers. So I was surprised when she reported that she was stymied by one relative; that so far, no one alive has any memory of her. I recognized the unusual name and said, “I do have a memory of her, a joyful one.”
When I was about 6, a very pretty, stylish young woman came into the studio one summer day, introduced herself to Ina and Porter, as Errolyn, his relative, and talked awhile. Then she asked to take me shopping. At the J.J. Newberry five-and-ten jewelry counter I chose a chain necklace and bracelet with rows of lustrous red balls about a half-inch in diameter. She picked another necklace for me of clear glass balls containing tiny red and blue feathers inside. I still have the red set.
My memory of the spelling of her name, with my theory that it came from Errol Flynn, was not supported in the information my niece had. (She is actually a half-niece, daughter of Laureston in Porter’s “other family,” that left Houlton, after his divorce, in 1925 for the Washington, D.C. area.) Her source was “The History of the Family Heirlooms,” by Emily Robinson Porter Blair and Saidee Porter Byrne.
Emily (first name Inez not used) was Porter’s first wife and Saidee his only daughter in a family of five children.
According to their “Family Group Record for Samuel B. Howard,” he and Lillian Leavitt, born October 2, 1866 in Ludlow, were married in Crystal October 3, 1887 and had two daughters, Annie, March 30, 1890, and Aroline (the spelling used most often) June 28, 1891. Lillian married her second husband, George Sawyer, October 20, 1896, and the Howard girls then went by Sawyer. In the 1990s, when asked for details, Saidee said, “Mother didn’t know what became of Aroline, but Annie married Brayley Webb, who was Dad’s first cousin. Annie and Brayley live in Island Falls and are quite respected citizens with quite a large family.” (Lillian Leavitt died June 30, 1961.)
Aroline S. Howard would have been 47 when she came into the studio. I had barely heard of Brayley, but our family occasionally visited his mother, Porter’s Aunt Lizzie Webb, in Island Falls on a Sunday, and one time when she came to visit us, she slept in my room. I watched her comb out little curls made with rags, as she put bits of white hair left in the comb into a shallow glass dish; the celluloid lid had a hole in the center for the deposit of hair. (I still wonder what was done with the hair.)
My memory as a 6-year-old followed a once-in-a-lifetime adventure with a stranger who liked me, treated me as a grown-up and made me feel special. The child saw a woman of youth and beauty, and perhaps an inner beauty not seen by adults.
Now that I have written this, the richness of that memory suffices and I can forget all those questions I had. Answers might only interfere with the memory.
Byrna Porter Weir
Rochester, N.Y.
