Jane Caroline Reed's Copy Book - Christmas

 Here is a poem by Harriet Elizabeth Prescott:

Christmas

Over the hills of Palestine

The silver stars began to shine;

Night drew her shadows softly round

The slumbering earth, without a sound.

Among the fields and dewy rocks

The shepherds kept their quiet flocks,

And looks along the darkening land

That waited the Divine command

When lo! Through all the opening blue,

Far up the deep, dark heavens withdrew,

And angles in a solemn light

Praised God to all the listening night.

Ah! Said the lowly shepherds then,

The Seraph sang good-will to men:

O hasten, earth, to meet the morn,

The Prince, the Prince of Peace is born!

Again the sky was deep and dark,

Each star relumed its silver spark,

The dreaming land in silence lay,

And waited for the dawning day.

But in a stable low and rude,

Where white-horned, mild eyed oxen stood,

The gate of heaven were still displayed,

For Christ was in the manger laid.

“Our Young Folks”

Harriett E. Prescott

Dec. 1865

Jane Caroline Reed's Copy Book-The Three Little Chairs

 From a newspaper clipping that is lose in the book

THE THREE LITTLE CHAIRS

They sat alone by bright wood fire.

The gray-haired dame and the aged sire,

Dreaming of the days gone by:

The tear drops fell on each wrinkled check,

They both had thoughts that they could not speak,

As each heart uttered a sigh.

For their sad and tearful eyes descried.

Three little chairs, places side by side,

Against the sitting-room wall:

Old fashioned enough as there they stood,

Their seats flag and their frames of wood,

With their bucks so straight and tall.

Then the sire shook his silvery head,

And, with trembling voice, he gently said:

“Mother, those empty chairs!

They bring us such sad, sad thoughts, to-night,

We’ll put them forever out of sight.

In the small, dark room up-stairs.”

But she answered, “Father, no, not yet,

For I look at them and I forget

That the children went away:

The boys come back, and our Mary, too,

With her apron on of checkered blue,

And sit here every day.

Johnny still whittles a ship’s tall masts,

And Willie his leaden bullets casts,

While Mary her patchwork sews;

At evening time three childish prayers

Go up to God from those little chairs,

So softly that no one knows.

Johnny comes from billowy deep,

Willie wakes from his battle-field sleep,

To say good-night to me;

Mary’s a wife and mother no more,

But a tired child whose play time is o’er,

And comes to rest on my knee.

So let them stand there, though empty now,

And, every time when alone we bow

At the Father’s throne to pray.

We’ll ask to meet the children above,

In our Savior’s home of rest and love,

Where no child goeth away.”

Mrs. H.T. Perry, in Evangelist

Jane Caroline Reed's Copy Book-Fear Not

Here is the next entry in her book of poems and songs.  I believe it was titled Fear Not.

Deeper, Father, grow the shadows,

Darker still the night comes on,

Every human hope departing,

Now I look to Thee alone.

Hopes which I have fondly cherished

Thou hast laid in ruins low;

Props on which I leaned have failed me;

Like a broken reed I bow.

Over all the distant landscape,

Stretching dark and cold away.

Say, my Father, will will thou keep me,

Shall I never lose my way?

Hark! I hear a voice a cheating,

Sounding through the gathering night

Fear not, for I have redeemed thee,

I will be thy guide and light

Only floor whenI call thee,

Let no fear turn thee aside

Not a for shall dare to harm thee,

While I am thy constant guide.

Father, full of all compassion

I will take thee at Thy word, 

Meeting danger and temptation

Is the strength of Christ, my Lord

Nov 1865

New York Observer

Jane Caroline Reed's Copy Book

 Here are a couple of more poems from my Great Grandmother's copy book.  These are both by John Greenleaf Whittier, a Quaker poet from Massachusetts.  

Yet, on life’s current, he who drifts

Is one with him who rows or sails;

And he who wanders widest lifts

No more of beauty’s jealous vails

Than he who from his doorway sees

The miracle of flowers and trees,

Feels the warm Orient in the noonday air,

And from cloud minarets hears the sunset call to prayer.

Whittier

Better to stem with heart and hand

The roaring tide of life, than lie,

Unmindful, on its flowery strand,

Of God’s occasions drifting by!

Better with naked nerve to bear

The needles of this goading air

Than, in lap of sensual ease, forego

The godlike power to do, the godlike aim to know.

Whittier

Elizabeth (Betsy) Wheeler (1779-1855)

Elizabeth (Betsy) Wheeler (1779-1855)

Birth: January 5th, 1779 in Mason, NH

• Father: Timothy Wheeler(1752-1820)
• Mother: Sarah Hubbard(1756-1823)

Death: January 11th, 1855 in Mason, NH

I am putting this biography together because of some samplers and embroidered purses that have been passed down to me through the family.  Betsy Wheeler was my 3rd Great Grand Aunt.  Here is how we are related:

4th Great Grandparents: Timothy Wheeler(1752-1820) and Sarah Hubbard(1756-1823)
3rd Great Grandaunt: Elizabeth (Betsy) Wheeler(1779-1855)	3rd Great Grandparents: David Sanders(1791-1863) and Amy Wheeler(1793-1874)
	2nd Great Grandparents: Benjamin Franklin Reed(1819-1900?) and Sarah Wheeler Sanders(1823-1919)
	Great Grandparents: David Joy Wright(1851-1908) and Jane Caroline Reed(1846-1936)
	Grandparents: David Sanders Wright(1887-1967) and Florence Edna Smith(1892-1937)

Betsy Wheeler was born on January 5th, 1779 in Mason, NH to Timothy Wheeler and Sarah Hubbard.  She was the second of ten children.  There isn't much documentation on here life and she appears to have lived in Mason, NH for all of it.  Her father died in 1820 and her mother passed away in 1823.

I have inherited a sampler and a set of embroidered purses from her.  She completed the sampler when she was 23 in 1802 and I don't know when she made the purses.  Here are some photos of them.

Betsy died in Mason, NH on January 11th, 1855 according to her grave site and February 6th, 1855 according to the death records.  Given that the death record is a copy done in 1906 I tend to trust the gravesite more.  She is buried with her father, mother and brother in Pleasant View Cemetery, Mason, NH.

There is a second sampler that is tied to a woman named Caroline Snoden and says she was born on May 8th, 1800.  I don't know how this one came into the family.  Caroline Snoden appears to have been born in Martha's Vineyard and married Samual Whitmarsh in Boston on November 26th, 1822.  They seem to have ended their years in Northampton. This could be where it ended up with the family.  

Sources:

• New Hampshire, Birth Records, 1659-1900: Name Betsey Wheeler Gender Female Birth Date 5 Jan 1779 Birth Place Mason, New Hampshire, USA Father Timothy Wheeler Mother Sarah
• New Hampshire, Births and Christenings Index, 1714-1904: Name: Betsy Wheeler birth date: 05 Jan 1779 birth place: Mason, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, USA
• New Hampshire, U.S., Death and Burial Records Index, 1654-1949: Name Betsy Wheeler, Birth Date 1779, Death Date 6 Feb 1855, Death Place Mason, New Hampshire, Death Age 76, Clerk Locality Mason, New Hampshire, Event Type Death, FHL Film Number 1001113
• New Hampshire, U.S., Death and Disinterment Records, 1754-1947: Name Betsy Wheeler, Birth Date 1779, Death Date 6 Feb 1855, Death Place Mason, New Hampshire, USA, Age at Death 76
• U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current: Name Elizabeth Wheeler, Birth Date 5 Jan 1779, Birth Place Mason, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States of America, Death Date 11 Jan 1855, Cemetery Pleasant View Cemetery, Burial or Cremation Place Mason, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States of America, Has Bio? N, Father Timothy Wheeler, Mother Sarah Wheeler, URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149522179/elizabeth-wheeler