What's In a Name?
by Erika J.
Just as they are now, names were an extremely important feature to a person living during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s and probably even more important than now. The name of an individual has always been a very important part of a person but not always for the same reasons. Over the past two hundred or so years, the popularity of some names have changed drastically but others have remained at the top of the list such as John and Mary (shown on charts one and two), which are still extremely common names. It is quite amazing to look at all the different origins of names, surnames and their history and background information.
Since the late 1800’s, surname pronunciation and spelling has definitely evolved as the generations have. Many people became very unaware to the changes in surnames and it just became a part of the generation change. Names such as Schwarz became Black and names like Mlynar became Millar. The surname Tilton originally started in England and was named after a small village in England. However, it has also been said that the certain Mr. Tilton who we are researching has family who were named after the town Tilton in New Hampshire.
Over the years, names have evolved immensely as the style and generation moves on. Now a day most people would never imagine naming their child any name like Mildred, Gladys, Elmer, Bertha, Agnes, Herman, Thelma, Myrtle, Homer, Beulah, Otto, Opal or many other names which we would consider strange and very uncommon. But from the year 1880 to the year 1910 these names were all among the top one hundred in America. Other names such as John and Mary have remained among the top fifteen names all the way up to now where they still remain at the top of the charts as shown on charts one and two. The main idea of why it is that names like these ones have remained popular for so long is because they are old English or biblical names and people have always used them because people have always studied and used these languages. These biblical names like Luke or Paul have remained popular and in-style for ages and are still because they are names that will always be heard and used as long as people study the bible.
The name Washington was most likely inspired from the president George Washington and if you were to name your child this like the parents of Mr. Tilton did than it may have been that you were honoring George Washington. People often named their children after people who they admired or they did it to honor these people like Mr. Tilton’s parents may have done. The initials V.B stood for Van Buren, which was also the name of a president. Van Buren was an extremely common name/middle name for males living during the time Mr. Tilton was around probably because it was passed down from around the time when Martin Van Buren was president.
Middle names most often came from a relative who the parents felt was extremely important or someone who the parents felt the child should look up to and honor. Olive Rosilla Tilton, daughter of Mr. Washington Tilton got her middle name from his deceased aunt but obviously her parents felt that they should honor or remember her and they did so by passing her name on to their child. The last name of a previous generation in the family is also used a lot for middle names too like Harry Stiles Tilton who was another one of Washington Tilton’s children who got his middle name from his mother’s maiden name.
Many of the most common names used during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s were either old Germanic names or biblical names. Over the years more and more old English names re-entered the generation and became popular once again. Biblical names have remained in-style and extremely common for as long as the bible has been around. It seems awkward that every single name has a meaning because unlike the people living around the time of Mr. Tilton, we do not usually think of the meaning of a name before we give it to a child. Now a day when we name children we do not usually have a reason for picking a specific name beside the fact that we like the name and sometimes because it is a family name but these are mostly the only things we really consider before choosing a name. When the people living around the time of Mr. Tilton chose a name for their child they had some important reason for the name that they chose besides the fact of just liking it.
Girls and boys were often named for completely different reasons. Girls were usually named after biblical characters or traits that their parents, especially the father, wanted them to have or to learn in their lifetime such as Patience or Hope. Today girls are still named after biblical characters (as shown in chart two), but it is not very common anymore to name a girl after a specific trait you wish for them to have.
Boys were also often named after biblical characters and also many times named after famous people like presidents and usually this was done to honor whoever they were naming their child after. Boys were also named after their father or grandfather a lot so the same name may be in the family for three or four generations. Washington V.B. Tilton had a son who was also named Washington obviously because of his father. Today male biblical names such as Peter and Joshua along with many others are used even more than they were during the late 1800’s to early1900’s as shown in chart one. After this time period boys started to not be named after famous people very much but they were still sometimes named after their father. Whenever this would happen though it usually lasted even more generations than it did during the earlier time periods.
It is very clear that as time moves on so does the style and therefore so do names. Over the past two hundred years names have changed immensely and there are names that used to be the most popular in the United States that most people would never imagine naming their child today. Do you know anyone by the name of Washington or Perley or Olive? Most likely not but back then this was the style and these were popular names that people actually had. There are factors and clues to the mystery of why names have changed so much over the years but the real reason is that people follow the style as it changes and over the years the style is bound to change. People want their children to have names that are in style and gradually the style has and will change and people will start naming their children different names. This cycle will continue on forever and you never know but some of the names could come back into style and become popular once again, which has happened before in history. So now take a moment to think about your name and all of the history behind it. Do you believe that it will still be around in another two hundred or so years?
Bibliography
Books:
Websites:
- Nook, Julius Nicholas, All Those Wonderful Names, 1983, Canada, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
- Wasson, Joanne, Deerfield Fair- A History, 2001
- “Top Ten Names Through the Centuries”, http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/topten1.html, cited February 2, 2004
- “Top 100 Names of the 1900’s”, http://www.behindthename.com/top/100us1900s.html, cited January 28, 2004
- “Surnames, Genes and Genealogy”, http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/beyond/factsheets/surnames/surnames_origins.shtml, cited February 8, 2004
- “Surnames Origin and History”, http://www.intl-research.com/surname.htm, cited February 3, 2004
Cock fighting
Cock fighting was very popular in the whole world. Cock fighting is when you make two chickens fight till the death. Cock fighting was said to have been around way before Christ. Religions would have whole temples to the fighting cock. They would hold matches inside the temple, the dead bird would be put in to a golden urn and burnt. In some countries the fighting cock was so sacred that is couldn’t be eaten.
The United States was very popular for it’s cock fighting, and at one time it was the center of conventions and activities for cock fighting. The game was addicting and a lot of people loved the game, even some presidents loved the game. For instance George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln were famous in the sport.
It was socially acceptable for men, in the United States to own a group of game birds and to be good at the sport. Some presidents would hold cock fights in their committee rooms. Cock fighting was so popular that the fighting cock was voted to be the national emblem, but it lost by one vote to the eagle.
Cock fighting lost the peoples’ interest during the civil war considering that men were more concerned with the war. It never grew back as a popular sport after the war.
Cockfighting was popular in the United States, but not very fun for the chickens.
Alcohol addictions
The causes of drinking were ethnic and social; each new wave of immigrants brought their own form of drink. Drinking was a big problem for the rich and even the poor.
“In 1880 New York it, for every 100 male citizens, it had one saloon. The national average for that year was 1 saloon for every 735 people.” (Bettmann pg. 129) Even during the prohibition it was common for farmers to have easy access to liquor or to have there own supply of it. They would convert rye and corn into their own liquor. In New England many rural Americans made liquor from apples and came addicted to “apple jack.”
“Everyone indulged: men, women and children, preachers and church members as well as the ungodly” (Bettmann pg. 130)
At this time There was no help for alcoholics as alcoholism wasn’t understood and therefore they had no where to go. In addition children often became alcoholic themselves.
“The quality of alcohol made it easy to become addicted as the drinks had a very high alcoholic content. Saloons also aided in this addiction as “many saloons offered free lunches, making their foods “saltier then the seven seas” to ensure that the drunks would remain thirsty and inside” (Bettmann pg. 133.)
There were bars and saloons all over in the 1800s, even in Deerfield.
Drug Addiction
The situation in 1900; In 1900 there were far more people addicted to drugs then there are today. In 1990There were between two and five percent of United States adult population were addicted to drugs.
A big reason for this high level of drug addicts was due to the fact that morphine was used in medical operations. If you had and operation where something were to be removed they would give you morphine as a painkiller and morphine after the operation. You’d come out with the object removed and addicted to morphine The use in the battlefield was so extreme in the civil war that by the 1880 so many union soldiers were addicted to morphine it was named the “soldiers disease.” The addiction was only common in the union troops because the confederate troops were too poor to afford morphine so they simply amputated the limb while they dank some whiskey.
“In the 1880’s not a mother could be found without Winslow’s baby syrup or Kopp’s baby friend, which were liberally spiked with morphine. Both medicines could put the baby to sleep but at a high risk of addiction for life.” (Bettmann pg. 153.)
Heroin was marketed as a cough medicine it was developed by Bayer. They also made aspirin in 1898,
Bibliography
- The history of cock fighting, http://www.psu.edu/users/c/d/cda121/history.html
- The Good Old Days – They Were Terrible!, Otto L. Bettmann
- The history of non-medical use of drugs in the United States
- http://www.druglibray.org/olsen/dpf/whitebread.html
The Journal of Washington V.B. Tilton
Fiction by Ricky L.
September 12, 1864
Dear Journal,
Today the greatest thing that could ever happen to me happened. I met this girl, she was amazing her name is Susan Veasey. She was so elegant, I thought I had seen an angel. The way she beautifully walked… I saw her today at the market when I went to go get some feed for the chickens. I haven’t done a lot of dating, and I think she is someone who would be a very suitable spouse. I think tomorrow I shall go down to the market again, to get some feed for another animal…even though I do not need anymore. And just maybe I will ask her for a date.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
September 13th, 1864
Dear Journal,
I went back to the market today, and I decided I should try to at least talk to her. And it was better than I expected. I just carried on a normal conversation with her for maybe a minute…because I bought more chicken feed. Then I got up enough courage to ask her for a date, and she said yes, I was very surprised at this. So I asked her if she wanted to on a picnic and then for a walk and she said yes! I asked her to go out with me on Saturday, and that’s two days away, so I guess I’ll write back in two days.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
September 15th, 1864
Dear Journal,
I couldn’t wait to write back into you, I just had to express my feelings. I am thundering with excitement, I just can’t wait till the clock hits 3 o’clock. I just feel so anxious, but nervous, I haven’t been on many dates before and I really hope to make a good impression on Susan. I am going to go get ready now, when I get back I will write to you about how the date went.
***************
Dear journal,
I am now back from my date with Susan. It was wonderful, I think she liked it also. We had a nice picnic and then we took a walk around. I would have to say this is the most fun I have had in a long time. I think I will ask Susan out on another date. I’m not sure what I will do for the next one, I know I have just met this Susan…but it would be really nice if I would be able to marry her. Maybe she even feels the same way about me? The only thing I’m not completely sure about is that I think I will be able to support Susan and I, and a child, probably more. Farming is not easy work but I will do anything to get through the marriage. I am thinking quite far ahead I know but it never hurt anyone to think ahead right? I don’t think I will ask Susan to go out on another date right away, I will ask her in a few days.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
September 20 , 1864
Dear Journal,
It has been a little while since I last wrote to you. But there is somewhat of a good reason. I have been working very hard on my farm. I haven’t had a chance to ask Susan for another date, but there is a party that I have been invited to by a friend of mine that lives in town. And I was thinking about asking her to go with me. Maybe if I asked her to go with me she would be very happy, and think we are more serious? I am a bit scared to ask her, but I would like very much for her to join me in going to the party. I think I will ask her soon, and once I do I shall write in you again with what happened… I might even ask her what she thinks about us and see what happens.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
September 22, 1864
Dear Journal,
Today I went into the market, to ask Susan to see if she wanted to go to the party with me. She said yes. So I am going to go pick her up with my wagon and horse at 6 o’clock or so and then we shall head off to the party together. I wonder what people will say when I show up at the party with Susan? I wonder if they will be happy, I wonder if they will think who is she, why is he with her, or why is she with him? Well I guess the only way to find out is to go to the party with her and find out! But you don’t know how I feel right now journal, I feel overjoyed that I have found someone who feels the same way that I do about her… I really thought I was never going to find someone to live a good life with. Now I still don’t know how well Susan and my relationship will go, but I am hoping for the best. I know I haven’t known Susan for very long, but she seems to be a very suitable spouse. I am not looking for a whole lot for a wife. I just want someone who is going to want to be by my side till the end. Someone who will be happy with me, take care of our children, our home and etc. And everything I have learned about her so far, she is very good at everything a women probably could possibly be good at. She loves children and I am sure that if we had children they would be taken care of very well and would be very happy. I do not want to rush things with Susan, but I also don’t want to waste anymore of my life looking for a spouse… I do not know what to do, but I am not going to worry about it right now, I’ll worry about it some other time. I have a party to get my priorities ready for.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
September 30th, 1864
Dear Journal,
I’m sorry that I haven’t written to you in a couple days. Just things have been so hectic, with this party, working around the farm, and just doing things in general. Well I went to the party with Susan, it went very well. I went and picked her up around 6 o’clock, then we went to the party. I was surprised at how many people were very happy for us. And I think that that means Susan feels the same way about me…well that scratches one thing off the list of things I have to worry about. But I asked Susan what she thought about marriage, and she seems to feel the same way as me, and that she wants to marry soon, and start a family. Even after the few times we’ve dated, we both have decided that we would like to marry. I think a New Year marriage would be great. I think I will talk to her about that.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
November 3rd, 1864
Dear Journal,
Wow, has it been a long time since I last wrote in you. It seems that ever since I have met Susan I haven’t been able to write in you. Well I guess it’s because we have been out together so much. We go for walks, we went apply picking the other day. Together we have been to a few parties, some on her side of the family, and some friends of just both of us. I really do believe that we will be very happy together… We are going to wed in a small church in town, and have a small wedding. Nothing fancy, just a few of our friends and family. I’m not sure about a lot of things though, I am pretty sure that I can support both of us, but if we have a hard winter, or the crops don’t do as well as they usually do and then we have a child on top of all of that. Things may not be so easy. But I am going to think as if none of that is going to happen. I want us to be happy together, and not have to have Susan worry about those things. I am the man and I will take care of them.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
The next couple of months, go fine with Washington and Susan. Washington writes in his journal every chance he got. He expresses how excited he is for the wedding, and how he can’t wait to start a family with Susan. They continue to get along. And they become even more in love. Susan and Washington plan their wedding, for New Year’s Day and get ready to have a wonderful wedding…
December 31st, 1864
Dear Journal,
It is the night before my wedding…finally. It feels like I have been waiting for this moment forever. I don’t know how I am going to be able to get to sleep tonight. I wonder what Susan is thinking right now? I hope she is as happy as I am. I really want our marriage to go well. It has been a long time since I have been in love, and I want to spend the rest of my life with Susan. She is pregnant right now with our child. I wonder if it is a boy or a girl? If it is a boy I am going to teach him everything my father taught me. I will teach him how to farm, we will go fishing together. And if it is a girl, well I know Susan will be a wonderful mother, and the child will learn everything she needs to know. Well I am going to go to bed…I don’t know how I am going to get to sleep, but I will manage. I will write to you probably in a few days, after the wedding telling you how it went.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
January 6th, 1865
Dear Journal,
Well now Susan and I are married. I’ll tell you I have never been happier in my entire life. I don’t think that anything in the world can change how happy I am. The wedding was beautiful. She wore a white dress…she looked amazing, she was so graceful. I thought she was an angel at first. The wedding was very nice, nice and small. Not too many people, not to little. The church looked amazing too. And that night I wrote to you, and said I couldn’t get to sleep…well I never did get to sleep. I think if I did fall asleep I didn’t know. Because all night I was thinking about if I was going to mess up something. Well now we are living our lives on our farm together. Susan says she loves it, and we both can’t wait for our child to be born. I know when he or she is born they will be the most beautiful child ever. I hope that the farm holds up well, and we will have a very good family. Well this is probably the last time I am writing to you and I just want to thank you for being here for me, I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t express my feelings like I have in here.
Sincerely,
W.VB.T
- Ellen K. Rothman, Hands and Hearts, A history of Courtship in America,1984,New York, Basic Books Inc., Publishers
- Primary Resource Packet
Disease In the Tilton Family
by Marlana R.
When Washington V.B. Tilton was married to his first wife, Miss Susan J. Veasey, she died at the age of 35. The twist to it all is there wasn’t anything on her record of what she died from. [Teacher's note: According to Deerfield town records, Susan died of "consumption", as tuberculosis was known at the time.]
I don’t know how many years Washington was married to his second wife Rosella [Teacher's note: About a year], but she died very young from the disease called apoplexy. That is a disease that is in your brain or blood vessel that either ruptures or gets plugged in the brain. When you have apoplexy, you have strokes. When you have apoplexy you may not know it because sometimes when you have this disease it comes with out warning and you can just have a stroke. There are symptoms to apoplexy though. You get headaches all the time, you get dizzy or you can be uncomfortable all the time.
When you have an attack you don’t always die. You can go to the hospital and stay there for awhile. One thing to relax you while having apoplexy is having warm soup. (Little known about apoplexy: A lot of people died of apoplexy in 1800’s; about 1,421.)
The same year Rosella (Tilton’s second wife) died he remarried again! He got married to a 27 yr. old named Annie Styles. Twenty-two years later Washington V.B. Tilton died from the disease called Senile Bronchitis.
Bronchitis is a disease in your bronchial tubes. The age group that usually gets this disease includes children and older adult. When you have bronchitis when you are older, like pass your 50s the doctors call it Senile Bronchitis. The symptoms of bronchitis are mild fever, mild headaches, chills, cough, and raw sensation behind the breastbone. There was no real cure, then so you had to just wait on it.
There are two ways you can get bronchitis. They are from smoking and debris. You can die from this disease. So I put two and two together. Since he was a farmer, he probably had to do a lot of dirty work.
The next 22 years went by and Annie (Tilton’s third wife) passed away from the same disease Tilton’s first wife Rosella died of; it was apoplexy.
There is no more information about his children and what they died of but he had many children.
Bibliography
- Deerfield Town Records ( packet Mr. Fladd gave to the kids)
- UCLA NEUROSURGERY/ Pituitary Disorders & Disease, http://neurosun.medsch.ucla.edu/Disgnoses/Pituitary/PituitaryDis_14.html
- www.dictionary.com/dictionary/aoplexy
- Extent and Distribution of Consumption in the New Hampshire by Irving A. Watson, M.D
- Smoking and Health
Childbirth in the 1800s
by Lace R.
In the 1800s, it was even more difficult to have a child than it is today. Most of today's technology was not available and a lot of the doctors were not as experienced as our modern doctors. Most of the deaths that occurred from having children were because of disease. Washington V.B. Tilton's wife died of Tuberculosis ("consumption", as it used to be called). Apparently, Washington's wife must not have been pleased with him when she died, because she took him out of her will. Interesting.
[Teacher's note: Lance has confused Washington Tilton's first wife Susan, who died of Tuberculosis with his second wife Rosilla, who probably died in or of childbirth.]
In the 1800s, most women were farmwives and had good-sized families. The children were usually born in the house with the help of a doctor, but eventually, the childbearing process was done in a hospital. Other doctors, who did not want to be left out of the action, made special instruments to make the process "better". By the 1950's, childbirth in hospitals was considered "normal".
I am assuming that Mrs. Tilton had her baby in the hospital. I think that the reason she died of tuberculosis was because the insturments used on her were not thoroughly cleaned or sanitized.
Bibliography:
http://216.239.41.104search?q=Cache:o9eNwkgWv84:spiritualmid
Events on January 22, 1905
by Nicole N.
For my dead person project I did events that happened on January 22 1905. I looked up some events that happened on January 22, 1905. This date is important because this is the day that Washington V.B. Tilton died on. The events that I looked up are: Flaw in Durham Rail, Aged General Killed, Japanese lost Cruiser, I also looked up how a Guy Hung Himself, the last thing that I looked up was what people called Bloody Sunday.
The flaw in Durham railroad was because there was a broken rail down along the way. The way this happened was because the bare eye could not have seen what might have happened before it did; they said that you could not have prevented it from happening. You could see nothing on the surface of the rail. That’s why they examined the rail with the microscope. People would not let anybody that worked at the railroad help with the observation that they were doing at the time. You could see nothing on the surface of the rail. From where the surface broke to about seven and a half feet there were indications of the rail collapsing. Everything that was wrong with the rail was hidden from sight.
It was just like a regular day when just the usual people would walk by in the direction of the Winter Palace. The real trouble started at eleven o’clock. That’s when they reached the bridges and there were Cossacks there waiting for them to show up. The first thing they did to hold them back was just use whip like things it just wouldn’t hurt as bad. Then once that didn’t work they used sword like structures. Then they just ended up using guns. Then the Cossacks let the first row past because they fell on their knees and begged to them and protested that they had no intentions on hurting anybody. They could not control them and by that time there were dead people in the streets and blood everywhere. So they called for some more help. By two o’clock they were given orders to fire at anybody, men, women and kids. They all got carried away in ambulances, sledges, and carts. They ended up splitting the two workmen apart, by shooting some in the arm and shoulder and others just killing others. There were people who got lost and they could not find them and then there were the people who are dead. Either way this was a very tragic incident.
This happened off of Port Arthur. When a mine in the water struck a submarine. There was Captain Tajima who wouldn’t give them assistance and was just sitting there watching what was going on. When the cruiser sank the captain and thirteen others, petty officers and men, were engulfed in the waves. They looked for the captain and thirty-one others they were unable to find.
This happened in St.Petersburg on January 22, 1905. He was stopped by an angry mob of people when he was driving in the direction of the troops. Then some people from the crowd decided to yell out, “Are you going to have them fire on us.” The general just ignored them and kept on going until he got hit in the head. The person who hit him was a wealthy man. Then he got pulled down from his sledge and got beaten and trampled to death by the angry mob of people.
These are just a couple of events that I though was interesting. They all happened on the same day just in different places around the world. The day was January 22, 1905 the same day that Washington V.B. Tilton had died on. So I told you about the events that I looked up and what I know about them. There was a bunch more events that happened on this day I just didn’t get to look for them all.
Bibliography
- Concord Monitor, on January 22, 1905
- Press Accounts of Bloody Sunday January 22, 1905, www.shsu.edu/~his-ncp/1905bc.html
