Tales from the Attic

Lowry Helm Vaughan (1887-1927) did well in summer 1907 marriage to Sarah Elizabeth Early (1888-1967). His estate had been stock and store appurtenances at “fancy grocery” on corner of Sixth and Limestone Streets, Lexington, Kentucky. Notices began appearing in February 1908 that his father-in-law Rogers Randolph Early, Sr. (1852-1913) would step between Helm and his creditors.^[1]

Images enlarge when clicked.

It is to Helm and Sadie’s first-born I turn. Eleanor Rogers Vaughan made 27 September 1908 appearance … at the comfortable East Maxwell Street home of her maternal grandparents, Roger Randolph Early, Sr. and Ella Frances (Wheeler) Early (1855-1936).^[2]

The Lexington Leader (right) gushed over “beautiful baby,” “proud grandparents” and “good wishes” for the child. Eleanor was Roger and Ella's first granddaughter.

Sarah (Early) Vaughan of LindenWalk appeared in absolute swirl of society-column disclosures over the next two years … often as adjunct to her mother, aunts and older sister at teas, luncheons, bridge and garden parties and the like. The Vaughans had likely been gifted with a country home by her father, where they also entertained. Reception for her brother’s anticipated nuptials, not two months after Eleanor’s birth, drew attention to Sadie’s lavish silk gown.

The Lexington Herald reporting (right) on party at Eleanor’s second birthday described baby hostess wearing her own “dainty white mull gown.” At happy afternoon gathering of nearly three dozen known guests on lawn with music and games. Decorations were especially pretty; guests were gifted souvenirs following “birthday feast.” Beautiful Eleanor was “showered with good wishes for many happy returns of the day.”

According to Webster’s dictionary, ‘happy returns’ expressed hope that our subject would live to celebrate many more birthdays in the future. Let us proceed.

Miss Eleanor Rogers Vaughan, the groom's niece, served as an attendant at 6 March 1912 wedding between Loura Kittrell Leer (1891-1984) and Roger and Ella's third son, Roger Randolph Early, Jr. (1893-1951). Family lore has my grandfather Roger deeply enamored of the three-and-a-half-year-old.^[3]

After requiring ever-increasing care for some years, Roger Early, Sr. succumbed to intestinal cancer 4 January 1913. In his Maxwell Street home. Widow Ella, mother to Sarah, Roger and four others, was hospitalized at Lexington at the end of April 1914. Sadie resolved to clean her mother’s brick home, prepare it for convalescence. Her daughters [Ada Helm (1911-1997) had been born to the Vaughans] were dispatched, with their nurse, to the attic. Where they would not be underfoot.

In the five minutes her caregiver was absent, Eleanor managed to light a candle. Family lore has her dressed in wedding gown, playing in ceremony. Perhaps she emulated my grandparents’ wedding; a likely fairytale come true for her, in which she’d played visible and honored role.

‘It is supposed that the little girl's thin dress brushed against the candle flame and became ignited. The nurse was just returning to the attic when she heard Eleanor’s screams, and she with Mrs. Vaughan hurried to the child’s assistance. The two together, after an exciting struggle, finally extinguished the flames, but not until the little one was terribly burned about the arms and back.”

Two physicians were summoned. Eleanor joined her grandmother at Good Samaritan hospital. Where vigil began, to determine whether her injuries would prove fatal.

Initial reports were buoyant. Eleanor was seriously burned, but attending physicians pronounced her “out of danger” on the first of May. “The parents and relatives are naturally overjoyed to learn that the life of the little one has been spared.” Stressors must have been considerable, particularly for a widow just out of mourning: “Mrs. Early, grandmother of the child, who has also been a patient at Good Samaritan hospital for several weeks, is reported to be much improved and it is expected that she will be able Monday to visit the little sufferer.” I found no reporting on repairs to Ella’s home (right).

Newspapers remained attentive. Two days later the Leader ran headline “Little Girl Is Not Out of Danger.” She had been scorched over her entire body, except for face and head. “Her fever is very high and [she is] suffering intensely.”

The Winchester Sun re-reported, 9 May, Eleanor hovered between life and death, had taken a turn for the worse. “Her condition was such as to arouse grave apprehensions of the family. An additional trained nurse has been called … to attend the little sufferer.”

The Herald declared on front page, 13 May and two weeks after the fire, Eleanor continued in hospital … and was slowly improving. She remained hospitalized on 26 May, and was then listed as “recovering.”

Perhaps sixth birthday depiction expresses arc of hardship. Eleanor in September 1914 entertained in bedroom where she’d been confined since hospital discharge ... apparently to her grandmother’s home, lingering scene of her misfortune. Seven little friends were “much enjoyed.” “Her room was fairly abloom with flowers and games and music were enjoyed. Ices, cakes and candies were served and on each plate was a pretty little souvenir.” “There were good wishes for the lovely little hostess for her recovery to health” … and many happy returns of that undoubtedly bittersweet day as well.

Regional interest remained, in Eleanor’s plight. In January 1915 she required further surgery: an arm’s flesh had adhered to her body as she mended. “The operation was soon over and the little girl is now getting along nicely, with prospects of complete recovery,” reprinted the Paduca Evening Sun nearly 300 miles west of Lexington. Promoted into Cincinnati home office of the Columbia Life Insurance Company, her father Helm Vaughan days afterward moved the rest of his nuclear family to Covington, Kentucky.^[4] Ella’s ministrations, her easy facilitation of professional staff, may have suited Eleanor; it may also be true that the granddaughter longed for her parents and sister.

“It is a coincidence that just a year from the very hour she was severely burned, on the evening of April 28, 1914, and narrowly escaped death, little Eleanor Vaughan … was pronounced sound and well by her physicians who visited the child last night at the home of her grandmother, Mrs. R. R. Early.” “The little girl, who is unusually bright and attractive, has been almost constantly under the care of Physicians since the accident, and her many friends will be much gratified to learn that she has completely recovered and has no marks on her face or neck to mar her personal appearance.”

The Leader on their front page also hinted at Eleanor’s excitement the following day … as she motored to new residence in Ohio River environs.

Helm's fortunes changed and the Vaughans all took up residence at Ella’s Lexington home in 1918. Eleanor blossomed in 1920. Instructed by her mother’s spinster aunt, Cora Inez Early (1850-1925), she performed in music recital. She was awarded for public speaking in January 1921.

Thirteen guests attended farewell dinner for Ella in February. She planned departure for three months’ visit to the Vaughans … who had relocated to Terre Haute, Indiana.

She was at Eleanor’s bedside when her twelve-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter passed away on the first of June. The Herald dutifully devoted part of front page (left) to render ‘Little Eleanor Rogers Vaughn Sinks to Rest.’ I could almost hear lonesome whistle blowing, at notice that her body would return to Lexington on the 9:20 train. Our subject was commemorated as “an unusually bright child, much beloved,” and my grandfather’s affection for her bears that out: Roger Early, Jr. died before my birth, but a son and daughter passed poignant lore to me.^[5]

Family stories expressed Roger, Jr.'s misery, at hearing Eleanor’s agonizing; that the young twenty-something rode off in tears to grieve privately. “Her death comes as a shock to many,” read obituary.

I found no Indiana death record for my first cousin, one generation removed. On the night of her burial at Lexington Cemetery, Eleanor’s parents raced back to Terre Haute by night train. Their remaining child had been severely stricken with diphtheria: a second round of anti-toxin had been ordered. “Hope is entertained for her recovery” came report. Sadie promptly fell ill with the malady, “but doctors think she will recover,” came follow-on update from The Leader.

Mother and daughter indeed recovered, Ada Helm became lifelong boon to my mother, born 1929. It interested me to note that Ada Helm and mother Sadie accompanied my grandparents in August 1921: en route to Terre Haute, they left Lexington for visit to Milford, Ohio dairy farm that Roger Early, Jr. had the year prior taken an interest in.^[6]

As coda to this saga, let me introduce Ella’s brother Warren G. Wheeler (1870-1921). He had married Amy Collins (1877-1924) in 1891 and left Lexington to farm Scott County, Kentucky.^[7] They had no children. Warren lodged farmhands and employed modern machinery to bring in his crops.

I was startled to discover fire took his 1914 crop. Spark from a threshing machine set sixty acres alight, he lost an estimated 700 bushels of wheat. “It was only through the heroic efforts of fifty laborers, threshing hands, who formed a bucket brigade, that the large tobacco barn on the place was saved.” “When the straw rick caught fire, the flames could be seen for many miles.”

Seven months later, “Fire of unknown origin destroyed the handsome two-story frame home of Warren Wheeler, situated about one mile from Georgetown on the Lemon's Mill pike [and] known as the Tice Hall place.” It was quite likely the same farmstead.

Wife Amy entered the story. The family had smelled smoke for three days “... but could not locate the trouble. Monday morning Mrs. Wheeler went into a spare room in the second story and found the room filled with smoke. She opened the windows and discovered smoke coming from the eves of the house.”

I can imagine the cascading financial hardship. Warren brought in 1918 harvest, sold up and retired from farming. He, Amy and an adopted step-niece, without servants, moved into handsome colonial home on Main Street at Georgetown, Kentucky. He became a hardware merchant.

Warren died three years later. Of ‘convulsions’ at age 51.

Amy burned to death in that Georgetown home in 1924. I offer lurid account (left), from Danville, Kentucky.

She was cleaning her attic, a coal oil stove was implicated. Flames spread rapidly, cutting off all means of escape. “It was reported that some men rushing in saw the flames and, seeing a vessel of what they thought to be water, threw it on the fire, but the contents proved to be gasoline that Mrs. Wheeler had been using in cleaning, which caused the flames to spread more rapidly.” Chillingly, after a large crowd assumed she’d been overcome by smoke, Amy appeared at an attic window “... but no possible means of rescue could be found.”

The Kentuckian-Citizen at neighboring Paris, Kentucky described Warren as “formerly, a wealthy Scott county farmer.” It is unclear to me whether he was formerly alive, or formerly wealthy.

Happy Hallowe’en.

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NOTES:

[1] Creditors promptly accused Vaughan and Early of defrauding them. The groom’s father, Robert Walker Vaughan (1865-1933) appeared in (court filing and) company advertisement (right); of the incriminated, R. W. more likely encouraged his minor son to purchase what he could not afford to pay for. I suspect Early picked up the pieces.

Early, grown prosperous in land speculation, was generous with his children: he, in his lifetime, gave a town home to each of two daughters, working farms to four sons. BACK

[2] Note “Mr. and Mrs. Rogers Early” in Eleanor’s birth announcement. His mother was born Adeline Rogers (1812-1887), named him in salutation for his Rogers and Randolph progenitors. Roger generally dropped concluding ‘s’ … a style I (named for his son of the same name) will adopt in this writing. Another Tongue o' Clishmaclaver eventually depicts Adeline’s great-grandmother Mary Isham Randolph (1718-c1772), and tawdry association with noble Virginia family.

Roger and Ella were in their home when 1907 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (left) was plotted. Just off the corner of Lexington Avenue, the Kentucky Humanities Council now occupies 206 East Maxwell. From 1984 listing in National Historic Register: “2½-story, brick late Richardsonian/ Colonial Revival house with flush stone trim. High pyramidal slate roof projecting forward into room-size, semi-octagonal tower parlor bay. Massive house with handsome details. Slate roof with finials at apex intact. Various shaped bay projections and dormers. Oriel on first floor of east side of house.” Built 1898, the Earlys were second to occupy it.

I have deduced that informant to Herald and Leader society pages on Early and Vaughan matters was Ada (Early) Nichols (1881-1962), eldest surviving child born to Ella and Roger Early, Sr. We owe her for exacting observations of home decor and apparel at parties, for guest lists and travel notifications. Her sentimental intimations tinged health status updates. BACK

[3] The Leer-Early wedding (may have been candlelit and) was held at “beautiful” Idlewild. Photos (right) do not do justice to the 11-room home on Russell Cave Pike, eleven miles from Paris, Kentucky. Music room and library were ornamented for the event. For home’s interior appointments, owners Benjamin Franklin Buckley, Sr. (1863-1933) and the bride’s eldest sister Corday Kenney (Leer) Buckley (1877-1963) relied on George Connell, who decorated the 1914 Kentucky Governor’s Mansion. 

A Basket Filled with Tears and Flowers shows images of ‘New Forest’ home of Loura (Leer) Early’s childhood. Roger and Ella Early had moved four miles into Lexington following 1905 trade of ‘Noweta’, with its ballroom and modern amenities, for chandeliers at Maxwell Street home. BACK

[4] Sadie’s maternal uncle, Charles Cuvier Early, Sr. (1844-1913) may have given grocer Lowry Helm Vaughan a new start … selling insurance. Following Cue Early’s death, Helm was by 1915 elevated to his former position, ‘Supervisor of Agencies’ for Columbia Life Insurance Company, and headquartered in national responsibilities at Cincinnati, Ohio. Helm would bounce around in financial schemes during the Roaring Twenties, returning to Columbia Life at one point … perhaps selling policies. He died in April 1927 car wreck at Terre Haute; I found no Lexington obituary, none mentioning his wife by name. BACK

[5]  Roger Early, Jr. named his first surviving son Roger Randolph Early (1916-2003). He was my maternal uncle and an excellent storyteller. BACK

[6]  Ada Helm (Vaughan) Harris (1911-1997) stands with my mother and her daughter in late-1940s photograph (right).

The Early family sold part of what had been Miami Valley Dairy to Miami Township, in Clermont County, Ohio. Farmhouse was improved and upgraded; has become centerpiece to Community Park. BACK

[7] Amy, as Mrs. Warren Wheeler, was among family receiving guests at Roger and Ella's undeniably lavish 25th wedding anniversary just before Christmas 1905. She wore white muslin over pink to E Maxwell home. BACK