E-Newsletter: March 5, 2021

e-Newsletter | March 5, 2021

The Day it Rained Shoes

by Bethany Groff Dorau

The Poore branch of my family has lived in the same house on Poore’s Lane in West Newbury for seven generations, since 1817, and before that, we lived just down the road.

This particular branch of the family stayed where we were planted, shedding off our more adventurous sons and daughters in each generation. Some moved to the city, some out west, some even made it to (gasp) Amesbury. My parents were among those who thought they had thrown off the yoke of the ancestors and so I was raised in Canada, but that is a story for another time.

We returned to the Poore House on Poore’s Lane in 1985, back in with my great-aunt and grandmother, and there my parents remained until 2015, when Aunt Emily Noyes Poore, age 96, bid the old world adieu from the couch in the living room. A year and some deft maneuvering later, I had purchased the house from my parents.

Because this house never left my family, it was never cleared out completely, never renovated in any sort of comprehensive way, never mortgaged and so never inspected.

Every inch of the house was crammed full of things that someone once thought they might need, from single mittens to straw tick mattresses to so many baby carriages, to my Uncle Howard’s dress suit from his 1926 Harvard graduation.

And all of it, every inch of it, had become home to thriving colonies of rodents, bats, snakes. There had been no vigilant cat on the property for many decades, and the space between the timber frame and the dropped plaster ceiling had become a rodent superhighway.

And so, after sorting and cleaning, we tackled the failing plaster ceilings, beginning with the careful removal of crumbling plaster and when it could not be saved, ending on one frustrated late night in September 2017 with a pickaxe and an unpleasant shower of centuries of accumulated bones.

I remember looking up as I pulled down a chunk of plaster ceiling over the original front door. Of course, I was mask-less and glasses-less, having gone to work the moment I came home from the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm. I remember a rain of pellets hitting my horrified face, and then a gasp as a solid…something…hit me in the mouth. I assumed it was a mummified rat, and though I am a tough cookie, my husband says that I screamed like I was being murdered.

Shoes found concealed in the ceiling of Bethany's West Newbury home during renovation.

It was a shoe. A singe baby shoe, to be precise. And there, creaking on the precipice of the gash in the ceiling, was a boot.

After I stopped screaming and put on a mask, I kept going and the shoes kept coming. In the end, there were nine of them, single shoes, all different styles and sizes, and all in one spot in the ceiling over the front door.

Another shoe, this one a silk boot with the silk eaten away, was found in another part of the ceiling, likely dragged there by some sort of hungry creature.

My mother produced one last shoe, with Aunt Emily’s careful handwriting identifying it as coming from a repair to the ceiling near where the rest of the shoes were found. In the end, there were eleven shoes, ten from the same general location.

Though it is certainly possible that the shoes were dragged into the ceiling somehow and assembled there, their placement and size (a full-size men’s boot is among them) suggest that they were left there intentionally.

Many of you have likely come across shoes hidden in the walls, ceilings and attics of older houses. I have certainly seen them before, and there are several examples from Newburyport houses to be found in the Museum of Old Newbury collections.

Shoes found concealed in local homes, now part of the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.

There was something about this collection that spoke to me in a profound way, however. If these shoes were placed in the ceiling, either in 1817-1820 when the original house was built, or in 1856, when the only major addition was made and some ceiling replaced, they represent people I know, at least from the record. They are my family. If, as I believe, one shoe was contributed from each member of the household, they are a record of hope, a kind of prayer for luck and safety by a family whose luck often ran out.

The National Museum of Scotland has done significant research on concealed shoes, and several theories of their use have emerged. As is the case with the Poore family shoes, they are often well-worn and found above a doorway or within a chimney breast to prevent evil spirits and bad luck from entering the house.

“A well-worn shoe carries the imprint of human character as the leather molds to the wearer’s foot.” Other theories include their use as a fertility symbol or in mourning rituals, supported by the preponderance of children’s shoes.

Alma Hall Poore

In either case, one of the shoes in my ceiling belonged to my great-great-great-grandmother, Alma Hall Poore.

Whatever her hopes, her luck ran out early and often. Left a widow in 1837, she was tending a stove in an upstairs bedroom on a Sunday morning in October 1866 when her apron caught fire.

Her son, Aunt Emily’s grandfather Moses, ran upstairs and was badly burned himself as he tried, and failed, to save his mother’s life.

The Newburyport Herald carried the story of her death, a cautionary tale for elderly women wearing flammable clothing.

I left the shoes out for the builder to see when he came to work the next day.

That night a gale blew through the Poore House, sighing and whistling as the gutters rattled and the timber frame racked gently back and forth.

The next morning, the shoes went right back in the ceiling, with an apology, and an addition – my daughter’s ceramic baby shoe, a gift from the hospital where she was born. I am taking no chances.

A regular contributor to the Museum of Old Newbury's e-Newsletter, Bethany Groff Dorau is a historian, writer and Regional Site Administrator for Historic New England, based at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury. Some of the material used in this story is taken from Dorau's book, A Brief History of Old Newbury (History Press).

Editor's note: Inconsistencies in spelling of names, etc., are from the historical record and not a typographical error.

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Thanks to the wonder of the Zoom platform, all of our programs are recorded and available online shortly after presentation. Visit our website for upcoming events, previous recordings, including the four 2020 Virtual Garden Tours, our Annual Meeting, children's and holiday programs, as well as all episodes of "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!"

In lieu of a printed program book, we will be featuring monthly events here, as well as maintaining a complete list on our website: www.NewburyHistory.org.

All of our virtual programs are free, however donations are gratefully accepted to help defray speaker fees.

Zoom in today at noon for "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!"

Jack Santos, Custom House Maritime Museum, and Colleen Turner, Museum of Old Newbury, welcome Edward Carson, historian, community activist and Dean of Multicultural Education at the Governor's Academy, on today's episode of "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!"

Edward Carson was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. He earned a B.A. in History and Religion, and a graduate degree in History Education from Harding University. This past summer he published Socialism and Democracy in the Life of W.E.B. Du Bois.

His working book is W.E.B. Du Bois's Editorial Influence on African American Western Migration. He has published and presented papers that focus on diversity and inclusion, Black identity, religion, Du Bois, and history teaching.

Carson edits for The Christian Century Magazine Then and Now, and sits on the Christian Scholars’ Conference Diversity committee. Furthermore, Carson published a text for students and teachers through Norton Publisher, titled, Historical Thinking Skills in European History, and is currently completing a book chapter on Du Bois’s political evolution for Oxford University Press.

Zoom in here.

It's Not Too Late: Register for March Programs Now!

More than a Tea Party: Tea's Social & Political Symbolism. Talia Jachimowicz, '21, The Governor's Academy, takes a look at tea, taxes and the American Revolution. Register here.

Naomi Wade: A British Woman in 18th Century New England. Meet an 18th century woman from London who became a camp follower with a British Regiment during the American War for Independence. Register here.

Coming in April...Save the Dates!

Wallace Nutting and the Invention of "Old America" Shelburne Museum's Tom Denenberg digs deep into Nutting's shaping of "Old America." Register here.

The Governor's Academy student symposia concludes with China's Rocket Man: A Deportee from the US Launches China into Space. Presented by Tianyu Fang, '20, this program serves as a cautionary tale for our time. Register here.

Puzzle Me This...

Porch of Bartlett House, a high-style Georgian built in 1782 and located at 32 Green Street, Newburyport. This 1915 watercolor is by Cornelia P. Stone.

From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.

Click on the image to begin.

Something is Always Cooking at the Museum

Ideal to eat now or freeze for later, Greg White's sausage based soup is sure to fill anyone up! Serve with a crispy, warm baguette to sop up all the flavor bits.

Sausage Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound hot Italian sausage

1 pound sweet Italian sausage

2 large onions, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2 cups red wine

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

5 cans beef broth

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

1 teaspoon finely minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

In a large saucepan, heat oil and sauté sausages until lightly browned. Discard grease, leaving 2 tablespoons in pan. Add onions and peppers and cook until soft. Add wine and allow to boil for 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 6 to 8 hours. Serve or freeze in desired portions. Defrost when ready to eat and reheat. Serves 6.

Recipe from: "Cushing House Cooks" book – $25 – Order.

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