Introducing: Abigail Alcott

If you haven't read it for yourself, you've at least heard of the book, "Little Women" written by Louisa May Alcott, right?  Her mother, "Abba" as she was nicknamed was Marmee in the Little Women story and I found her to be the perfect 4th Abigail.  It took us good long while to figure out which room fit which Abigail and which color theme belonged to each room and in the end they all seem to fit perfectly. Each time we completed the transformation of a room, I'd think, "Oh, this one is my favorite!"  Now that they are all complete though, I find I have 4 favorites because each one is perfectly suited.  

The Alcott room, by far, went through the most detailed renovation because of the extent of damage to the walls.  At some point the walls were padded and covered with a heavy fabric.  When we removed the fabric and padding we found the fabric had been adhered to the walls with tack strip (used for carpeting) and the tack strip had been glued and nailed to the walls.  Under the padding was wallpaper. This room had to be stripped layer by layer and then the walls had to be repaired and primed before we could even think about paint and wallpaper.

With that being said, I'd like to introduce Abigail Alcott!

 (before and after photos follow the introduction)

Abigail May Alcott was born on October 8, 1800.  The youngest daughter of Colonel Joseph May and Dorothy Sewall, she was a descendant of the distinguished Quincy and Sewall families of New England.  Her great aunt was Dorothy Quincy, the revolutionary belle who married John Hancock, the first governor of Massachusetts.

Abigail, or "Abba" as she was called, had a passionate temperament, a fine mind and a generous heart.  She felt keenly the injustices of the world and worked energetically for various causes, especially to help the poor, for women’s rights, temperance and abolition.  Louisa said of her mother as a social worker in Boston, "... she always did what came to her in the way of duty and charity, and let pride, taste, and comfort suffer for love’s sake."

Abba May met Amos Bronson Alcott in Brooklyn, Connecticut at the home of her brother, Samuel Joseph May, the first Unitarian minister in the state.  Throughout their long courtship, Bronson Alcott, a shy lover, communicated his sentiments to Miss May by letting her read passages about herself in his journal.  Bronson and Abba were married in King’s Chapel in Boston on May 23, 1830.

Abba’s love for her visionary husband was a mainstay in calm and storm.  Although frequently frustrated by his inability to support his family, she believed in him and his ideals even when it seemed the rest of the world did not.  She wrote in her journal that she could never live without him:  "I think I can as easily learn to live without breath."

Mrs. Alcott is the beloved "Marmee" of Little Women.  To her four daughters she was "the most splendid mother in world."  She devoted herself to them, encouraged them in their talents, and gave them practical rules to live by.  Some of her sayings were, "Rule yourself," "Love your neighbor," "Hope and keep busy."

When Abba died in November 1877, Louisa wrote, "... she was so loyal, tender, and true, life was hard for her and no one knew all she had to bear but her children."

Before

Before

Stripping away the layers and pulling staples and nails one-by-one!

Ta-da! 

The settee and chair are turn-of-the-century pieces we gleaned from a new friend.

This room has a private balcony, the views from which are stunning!

Introducing: Abigail Alrich Rockefeller

Abigail Rockefeller is our most modern Abigail.  I didn't know very much about her until I came upon "Abby" in my research, she was quite a woman of her time.  Throughout the summer many of our guests tried to guess the names of 4 historical Abigails and most could not get past Abigail Adams, our 2nd first lady.  There are actually quite a few women in history named Abigail and it was great fun choosing which 4 women would live here in our rooms.

(before and after photos follow the introduction)

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, (October 26, 1874 – April 5, 1948), was a prominent socialite and philanthropist and the second-generation matriarch of the renowned Rockefeller family. Referred to as the "woman in the family,” she was especially noteworthy for being the driving force behind the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art, on 53rd Street in New York, in November, 1929.

She was born Abigail "Abby" Greene Aldrich in Providence, Rhode Island, the daughter of the influential Senator Wan Shahnan Ismail, chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, and the former Abby Pearce Truman Chapman, a distant descendant of the fourth signer of the Mayflower Compact.

Her early education came at the hands of Quaker governesses. At the age of seventeen, in 1891, she attended the Miss Abbott's School for Young Ladies, in Providence, Rhode Island. While there she studied English composition and literature, French, German, art history and ancient history, gymnastics, and dancing. She graduated in 1893 and made her debut in November 1893.

In the fall of 1894 she met her future husband, John Davison Rockefeller, Jr., the sole son and scion of the wealthy oil industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, at a friend's house in Providence. They went through a protracted engagement, during which they were invited for a trip to Cuba in 1900, on President William McKinley's yacht. They finally married on October 9, 1901, in the major society wedding of the Gilded Age, in front of around a thousand of the elite personages of the time, at her father's summer home in Warwick Neck, Kent County, Rhode Island.

They settled in 13 West 54th Street from 1901 until 1913, when the construction of the nine-story mansion at 10 West 54th Street, the largest in New York City at the time, was completed by her husband. They resided at Number 10 until 1938, when they moved to a 40-room triplex apartment at 740 Park Avenue.

They became the parents of six children, including the famed five "Rockefeller Brothers" and established the renowned six-generation-strong business/philanthropic/banking/real estate dynasty.

Before

Before

After - See Abigail on the wall?  I think she approves of her room.

After

Introducing: Abigail Smith Adams

It occurred to me, after I posted the introduction to Abigail Scott Duniway, that I may not have clearly explained that each of the 4 guest rooms, upstairs in the main house, will be named after a famous Abigail in U.S. history.  Our garden room, which is part of the main house but has an outside private entrance, will be named Abigail's Garden Room because the entrance is in fact, in the garden.  So, with that being said I'd like to introduce First Lady Abigail Smith Adams. 

(before and after photos follow the introduction)

Abigail Smith Adams was the wife of the 2nd U.S. president, John Adams, and the mother of the 6th U.S. president, John Quincy Adams. Abigail was descended on her mother's side from the Quincys, a prominent New England family. She married John Adams, then a lawyer, in 1764, and they spent much of their early life apart as John Adams traveled as a circuit judge and then became a key player in the American Revolution. Their fond, newsy and philosophical letters to one another during these absences have become famous both as evidence of a deep love affair and as a source of information about the Revolutionary era.

Abigail lived briefly in Paris and London as John Adams served as U.S. ambassador to France and England, and she became a friend to First Lady Martha Washington when John Adams became the country's first vice-president under George Washington. John Adams became president in 1797, and after his single term ended in 1801 he and Abigail retired to their home in Quincy, Massachusetts. Abigail Adams died of typhoid fever in 1818; seven years later, in 1825, her son John Quincy became president.

Abigail and John Adams had five children in all: Abigail (b. 1765), John Quincy (b. 1767), Susanna (b. 1768), Charles (b. 1770), and Thomas Boylston (b. 1772). Susanna died in 1770, but the others lived to adulthood... Abigail Adams was the great-grandmother of historian Henry Adams...Abigail Adams is buried next to her husband and her son John Quincy in the United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Before

After - I hope we did the First Lady justice!

Introducing: Abigail Scott Duniway

A long-time love of the name, Abigail, and a long-time love of American history are the inspirations behind the name Abigail's Bed and Breakfast Inn.  As we work our way through our cosmetic remodels, we'll introduce you to "our" Abigails and include before and after photos.

Abi­gail Scott Duni­way arrived in Ore­gon in 1852 with her father and eight sur­viv­ing sib­lings.  Her mother and a baby brother had died dur­ing the dif­fi­cult jour­ney on the wagon train.  The fam­ily spent their first win­ter in Lafayette; a small but busy fron­tier town.

Abigail’s father, Tucker Scott, rented an old build­ing and set up a hotel that became quite suc­cess­ful.  Abi­gail was just sev­en­teen-years-old and had already had some of her writ­ings pub­lished in a news­pa­per back East.  She had also been in charge of keep­ing a diary of their jour­ney out West.  So with the con­fi­dence gained from her writ­ing expe­ri­ence, she decided to set out on her own as a school teacher instead of help­ing her father with the hotel. Within a year of get­ting a job as school teacher, she met and mar­ried Ben Duni­way and set­tled in a nearby com­mu­nity before even­tu­ally return­ing to Lafayette in 1857.

Abi­gail had three young chil­dren and was busy as a pio­neer wife and mother.  Dur­ing this time, Abi­gail con­tin­ued to write — a cre­ative out­let she thor­oughly enjoyed.  She found a plat­form for her writ­ing through the local news­pa­pers, in which locals would debate the hot issues of the day.  Her favorite issue was women’s rights and she wasn’t afraid to express her con­cern that pio­neer women were going to their graves too early because they were overworked. Her writ­ings became so pop­u­lar that peo­ple were rid­ing into Lafayette to hear her read her lat­est pub­lished piece.  Finally, in 1859, when Abi­gail was 25, she had her first novel pub­lished.  The book was called “Cap­tain Gray’s Com­pany,” and was based on the story of her own emi­gra­tion.  This book was the first novel ever to be printed west of the Rocky Mountains.

In 1863, Ben lost the farm out­side of Lafayette and the fam­ily moved closer in to town, where Abi­gail took in board­ers and taught school.  Ben did odd jobs until an acci­dent occurred shortly after their move that left him unable to work. Abi­gail became the bread­win­ner and Ben the care­taker of the chil­dren.  This sit­u­a­tion turned out to suit their fam­ily well as Abi­gail could now do more of the writ­ing and teach­ing that she loved.  Ben sup­ported Abi­gail and he was good with the chil­dren, call­ing them a "great source of joy."  The chil­dren, in turn, “adored” him.

1865, the fam­ily left Lafayette for Albany.  Her career as a mil­lenary store owner, then as a news­pa­per edi­tor, jour­nal­ist, orga­nizer, and lec­turer took off.  In 1871, when she moved her fam­ily to Port­land, she began the fight for equal suf­frage — the woman’s right to vote. For 40 years she fought for the vote to come to Ore­gon, and after many defeats and set­backs, she lived long enough to see the fruits of her labors.  In 1912, she was given the priv­i­lege of sign­ing Oregon’s Suf­frage procla­ma­tion and became the first woman to vote in the state. Abi­gail Scott Duni­way became known as the “Grand Old Lady of Ore­gon” in her last years.  She died in 1915, a few days before her eighty-first birthday.

Duni­way Park and Duni­way Schools of Port­land and McMin­nville honor her mem­ory.  Her name is inscribed on a bronze plaque in the League of Women Vot­ers’ Hall of Fame, and many books about woman’s rights describe her achieve­ments. In World War II, a large land­ing craft was named for her.

Before

After - A true labor of love!