June 10th, 11th & 12th, 1887

“June 10^th, 1887

We took and excursion on the Mississippi River on a private boat. At least the boast was not private but papa hired it for the day. A few ladies and gentlemen went with us and they seemed to have a very pleasant time. I enjoyed it too but would have done so more if I had had someone of my own age with me. We stopped at the Barracks which are very prettily situated on the river. They had one of the finest bands in the U.S. Army. It played while we were there. In coming back we had a very pleasant lunch on the ship and got back in St. Louis at about three o’clock.”

 “June 11^th, 1887

Early this morning we left St. Louis traveling all day through Missouri. The country through which we travelled is extremely flat and our journey was a very hot one. We arrived at Kansas City at a little after four o’clock taking rooms at the Coates House. 

http://www.kclibrary.org/?q=blog/week-kansas-city-history/worst-fire-kansas-city-history

Kansas City is the most Western looking city we have yet visited. The streets are hilly and the houses not very large. It has however only commenced, that is the city part, about five years ago so the progress is wonderful for so short a time.”

 “June 12^th, 1887

Today is Children’s day in the churches. We went to Dr. Shaw’s church where they had a children’s service. There was no sermon but different gentlemen made short addresses, papa being among them. The church was very prettily decorated with flowers and two birds in cages hung from the ceiling and the birds kept singing all the time which seemed rather strange in a church but notwithstanding was very pleasant. Tomorrow on our way towards Colorado.”

June 8th & 9th, 1887

“June 8^th, 1887

It was too hot to go out in the morning but at five in the afternoon we took a drive. We stopped at (can’t remember the name) where we saw quite a collections of pictures and statuary. We then drove through Pine Street, Grand Avenue, Washington Avenue and the park and several other streets. We drove as far as Forest Park which is situated at quite a distance from St. Louis. It is one of the prettiest parks that I have ever seen. Its drives are broad and there are beautiful trees all around. We did not get back to the hotel till 7:30 which is the time when all the families are sitting on their door steps which seems a very funny custom as I have never seen it before.”

 “June 9^th, 1887

In the morning we visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens which belong to Mr. Henry Shaw. They are about the finest collection of plants in this country, those inWashington, I believe, can only be compared with them.

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/media/fact-pages/brief-history.aspx

In the afternoon we went to the races. They were very exciting and were the first I have ever been too. There were four altogether. In the first, 14 horses ran. The prize for the winner being $500. In the second there were six horses, the prize was $800. In the third race there were eight horses and the prize here being $1,000. This was the most exciting of all. The length of the race being one mile and a quarter. The last race was a steeple chase. There was jumping over five hedges and two pieces of water. This race was the longest of all being two and a half miles. The grand stand in this course holds hundred’s of people. There is also a private stand belonging to a club which is where we were.”

June 6th & 7th, 1887

“June 6^th, 1887

We started at 8 A.M. but had breakfast at the hotel. We traveled till 3 P.M. and had a very hot journey. The country through which we passed is extremely flat; corn and grain are cultivated upon it in large quantities being the chief products of Illinois. We went to the Deland House. It is the best hotel in Springfield but by far the worst we have yet been in. Before tea we took a walk but the weather being extremely hot we did not stay out for very long”

 “June 7^th, 1887

We took a drive in the morning and went to the Lincoln Monument. It stands 100 feet high from the ground and has at each corner a bronze statue, each one representing different scenes in war. Mr. Mead is the architect. Lincoln is buried inside under a stone floor. They could not leave him in his sarcophagus as there was an attempt made to steal his body. We also saw the house of Lincoln which on the outside is very stiff and old fashioned. We also visited the Springfield Watchwork factory and after going through it we went through the capitol. At 3 P.M. we started for St. Louis where we arrived at 7 P.M. and are staying at the Southern Hotel.”

 http://genealogyinstlouis.accessgenealogy.com/hotels.htm

 Sally here: An interesting tidbit about the Southern Hotel inSt. LouisMissouri. Two years before the Vanderbilt’s stay at the hotel an interesting murder took place in the hotel in 1885. Wonder what room Edith stayed in?

http://murderbygasslight.blogspot.com/2011/02/st-louis-trunk-tragedy.html

May 31st, June 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th 1887

“May 31^st, 1887

We had breakfast at about half past nine and afterwards took a drive through the city which in places is also extremely pretty. We mounted the tower of the City Hall and there had an excellent view of the neighborhood and its surroundings. It began to rain at about one o’clock so we closed the carriages but before coming back to the hotel we took quite a drive. We saw the picture of the last house of Mozart which in many respects is very beautiful. In the afternoon we all stayed at home and read or wrote.”

 “June 1^st 1887

We started from Detroit very early and had breakfast on the cars and did not arrive in Chicago till about 7:30 P.M. We went to Hotel Richelieu where we had very pleasant rooms. They were the same as Madame Patti had when she visited Chicago and so I am nearly into ecstasies. I am going to put everything in this journal that comes in my head, no matter how absurd it may sound when I read it over.”

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelina_Patti

 “June 2^nd, 1887

I am reading the “Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens now and find it so interesting that I can scarcely lay down my book for one minute.”

June 3^rd, 1887

I went out and took a drive in the morning up to the boulevard which is quite a distance from the Richelieu. It has been laid out but lately and extends for six miles.”

 “June 5^th, (no entries on the 4^th)

We went in the morning to Mr. Hall’s church and heard a very good sermon. Mr. Hall is the son of Dr. John Hall. In the afternoon we all stayed at home and in the evening we sang.”

 (Her next entries are long and detailed as the family starts from Chicago heading to Springfield then to St. Louis and soon into Kansas)

May 29th & 30th, 1887

“May 29^th, 1887

In the morning we went to the Second Presbyterian Church which is on the corner of Prospect Ave. and Sterling Street. We heard an excellent sermon by ??. He is not the pastor of the church but preached this Sunday as the regular clergyman was absent. After writing a little while in the afternoon I took a walk with some of the others. Cleveland is a very pretty city with each house having a garden around it and the streets being very broad. The business part, however, is very smoky.”

 

“May 30^th, 1887

Cleveland to Detroit Michigan,

After an early breakfast we drove till half past ten around the city of Cleveland after which we went to the station and took the cars for Detroit. The train was an hour late in starting and it was rather tiresome to wait so long in the smoky station. At one o’clock we had our lunch and soon after we arrived at Toledo where we were to wait an hour for another train. In the mean time some of us took a drive around the city which did not strike me as being very interesting. We arrived in Detroitat about 2:30 P.M. and after going to the wrong hotel we finally arrived at the Russell House.”

http://www.encore-editions.com/items?q=Russell+House+detroit+michigan

May 27th & 28th, 1887

“May 27^th, 1887

We took a drive in the morning around Goat Island and went on the Three Sister’s Islands. These small islands are connected by foot bridges under which roar the rushing waters with great force. I think the water here was as impressive almost as thegreat fallsthemselves as one can approach them much nearer and even stand over them as they rush beneath you. After our lunch we took a sail in the maid of the mist right under the falls. At about 4:30 P.M. we took the cars for Buffalo where we arrived in forty minutes. Here we went to Power’s Hotel.”

 

“May 28^th, 1887

We took a drive through the city which is extremely pretty. The chief avenue for private residences is Delaware Ave. This has splendid rows of trees on either side running through its entire length. Each house is also surrounded by a garden and thus it makes the street very pretty and delightfully cool in summer. We left Buffalo at twelve o’clock and had a very comfortable journey to Cleveland Ohio where we arrived at 6:15 P.M. and had very comfortable rooms in the Stillman House which is situated on Euclid Avenue.”

 

Sally here: I saw that the Stillman house was opened in 1884 and called an “Apartment Hotel”. It was a place where Mark Twain staid. Sadly it was torn down to make way for other business.

Vanderbilt’s “Riva”

Sally here: I hope the person who gave me the following information doesn’t mind that I post it here.  Someone who has been interested in the Vanderbilts for at least 20 years  just emailed me about the “Riva”, the one Edith wrote about in the passage below. He said that it was her uncle George Vanderbilt’s private train car at this time and that George would soon sell the “Riva” to buy another fancier one. Isn’t that facinating. So, now we know that Edith and 10 other people actually rode in the families private train car while traveling on their westward journey.

     I’ll been very busy in the last few days and haven’t been able to blog here or on John’s 1927 grief diary blog page but I will be blogging on both pages tomorrow.

May 24th, 25th, & 26th, 1887

“May 24^th, 1887

We started from the Grand Central Depot at 10:30 A.M. Our party consists of eleven persons and we had a very pleasant days journey in the “Riva”, which is the car we are to travel in on this trip. At 9:45 P.M. we arrived in Rochester N.Y. and went to Powers Hotel.”

Sally here: I couldn’t find the “Riva” as yet on the web but I did find a photo of an 1887 personal train car that would have been much like what the family would have been traveling in on their trip to the west:

http://www.printsoldandrare.com/railroads/002rr.jpg

Then this next image is of the Power’s Hotel taken in 1892:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nypl/3990457939/

“May 25^th, 1887

We took a delightful drive in the morning outside Rochester to the little village of Brighton and returned by East Avenue which is the best in the city. Afterwards all but Gussie and Nellie went to see the Noyes family whom we met in Wiesbaden. In the afternoon we went to Mr. Power’s picture gallery which is one of the finest in the country. At 5 P.M. we started again for Niagara where we arrived at about half past eight o’clock. The inhabitants of Rochester is 25,000.”

(Sally here: I just want to add that the population of Rochester today is 219,773)

“May 26^th, 1887

Cataract House, Niagara

Before breakfast I took a walk to the falls. It was a bright brisk cold morning and the air was full of life. I first saw the American Falls. Nothing, I do believe, could possibly express the grandure of this powerful work of nature. Only those who have seen it can know what they are. But when later on in the day we drove to the Canadian side and could see the Horse Shoe Falls and the American. It was at first almost over powering and one felt like saying nothing for what good is it to speak if you can’t express yourself in words? We also went to the Whirlpool rapids which place is reached by descending in an inclined railway to their level. These were to me just as grand as the falls, of not more so. In the afternoon we took a sail on the Niagara River in the “Maid of the Mist.” After which we took a walk on Goat Island.”

http://gingerstrand.com/niagara_lost.htm

Edith Vanderbilt Shepard Fabbri’s 1887 Diary

This is the cover of Edith’s diary from which I will be posting her entries very soon.

1887 Vanderbilt Diary

     Well, I think I’ve decided what diary I’m going to share with you for our next adventure and it was written in a facinating time in American history known as the Gilded Age.  This diary originally belonged to a young woman who came from one of the riches 19^th & 20^th century American families; The Vanderbilt’s. Her name is Edith Shepard (1872-1954) and her great-grandfather was none other then Cornelius Vanderbilt. On his deathbed in 1877 he was known as the wealthiest man in the United States.

http://www.nnp.org/nni/Publications/Dutch-American/vanderbiltc.html

     She was the granddaughter of William H. Vanderbilt, who was also a very prominent citizen and wealthy businessman:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Vanderbilt

     Edith’s parents were Elliot Fitch Shepard and Margaret Louise Vanderbilt. Her father served as aide-de-camp to Governor Morgan during the Civil War. After the war he became a prominent attorney in New York and the founder of the New York State Bar Association. In his later years he entered the Newspaper business. You can imagine what kind of opulent life this young woman led. Her life also became rather controversial when her marriage to Ernesto G. Fabbri ended in divorce. Check out house that Edith’s parents gave the couple as a wedding present!!

http://nyc-architecture.com/UES/UES016.htm

     I also found an incredible web site showing a large group of the houses owned by the various family members and it also gives a good background for Edith which is good to read (if you want to) before I start quoting from the diary. The first photo shown in this web site is a marvelous photo of the family from one of their many trips:

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1905363

     So with all that said, the diary I’ll be sharing with you is written in 1887 when Edith is just 15 years old. It represents her trip from New York to the “Wild West” which includes Missouri, Colorado, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington Territory, Canada and Alaska. It’s amazing to be able to read and share in the life of a wealthy young girl and relive her experiences. The west was so young and untamed at this time in history and seemed so “wild” to most people from the East Coast.

     I’m still working out the process of how I’m going to blog this diary. I don’t know if I should continue on the same page as Madeleine or start a new blog page. I don’t want to goof anyone up whose already subscribed so it will take me a few days to figure this out BUT, very soon you’ll hear from Edith and be taking a trip across county over 125 years ago…..