The price of success…The two wills of Stephen Tyng Mather’s mother-in-law.
Stephen Mather’s mother-in-law, Sarah Hoole Floy was widowed in 1895. In 1916, Henry, one of her two sons, died. When she wrote her...
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FRESH OFF THE PRESS!
Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 3 min
Oh to be in England…A letter to Family written from Bristol in 1858.
A recent blog looked at a letter mailed from Paris in 1869. Recently discovered is a letter mailed from Bristol England on August 27,...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
Hey, we’re still here…Not to forget the chests and trunks in the Homestead attic.
In blogs we’ve often featured items discovered in the chests and trunks found throughout the three rooms of the Mather Homestead attic. ...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
Safekeeping indeed! A first look at documentsin the Mather Homestead basement safe.
Recently we opened a safe in the Homestead basement. Its contents will fuel several blogs. We begin with added information on the...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
So, what’s for dessert? The evening dinner when the ceiling came crashing down.
A note on Bertha McPherson’s yellow legal pad begins, “A large piece of the plaster ceiling of the parlor fell at dinner time on the...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 2 min
“No man was earlier in his seat at church than he…
”More about Joseph Mather Jr., Stephen Mather’s grandfather The title of this blog comes from an obituary for Joseph Mather, Jr. as it...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
From silk hats to horse manure…The voluminous paid bill files of Joseph Wakeman Mather
In the Homestead attic was an alphabet-tabbed accordion file containing invoices paid by Joseph Wakeman Mather (Stephen Tyng Mather’s...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 2 min
Bad enough Loyalists raid your house… Deacon Mather and his pursuit of a Revolutionary War Pension
On June 7, 1832, Congress enacted pension legislation extending benefits more universally than under any previous legislation. Men who...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
“What shall we name the baby?" From family suggestions to a 21st birthday letter from dad.
We recently found a little booklet titled “Baby Days.” The printed heading of one of the first pages is the title of this blog. Bertha...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 2 min
“Whose garden was this? It must have been lovely…”
From Chicago to Connecticut to Canberra…An appreciation of Walter Burley Griffin, landscape architect for Stephen T. Mather Looking to...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 2 min
Enigmas in the attic…two 175-year old documents
How did these documents make their way to the Homestead attic—and why were they saved and sequestered for so long? It is unlikely that...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
Vests of interest: the latest attic discovery.
Two waistcoats of belonging to Joseph Mather (1789-1864) Carefully wrapped and stored in a chest of drawers in the attic were two...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 2 min
Under the watchful eye… Bertha Mather McPherson upbraids Professor Joseph Lawrence Sax
Professor Joseph Lawrence Sax (1936-2014) widely known as the “father of environmental law” was author of the first environmental law...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 2 min
“…to take up my new duties at Washington…” Letters from Stephen Mather to George C. Purdy
Although much of Stephen Tyng Mather’s correspondence is now at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, we are fortunate to have a few...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
Travels of the little lost sheet.How a woven heirloom made its way back to the Mather Homestead.
A closet shelf on the western side of the Homestead attic holds a simple red cardboard box. Within the box is a flaxen sheet...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 3 min
The French Connection. An 1869 Letter from Samuel McPherson to his brother Theodore
When letters and printed materials were removed from the attic and sorted, one letter defied categorizing. It did not relate to the...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
“Come down and see my etchings…”A discovery on the Homestead basement floor
In the far reaches of the Homestead basement, a keen-eyed observer recently noticed a carved circle in which the following had been...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 2 min
“…and bequeath my watch, piano and books to my son Stephen Tyng Mather…”
On June 27th 1864, at St. George’s Church in New York City, the Reverend Stephen Tyng married Stephen Mather’s parents. At that time,...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 1 min
In the days before Kindle… Three centuries of books and four selected first editions
The Homestead preserves and presents not merely a single moment in time, but captures and reflects the lives and pursuits of six...
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Donn Smith
- Feb 9
- 3 min
Stephen T. Mather, cub reporter Stephen Mather, The New York Sun, and James G. Blaine
We know much about Stephen Mather’s time in the borax business and certainly his time in the Interior Department and the National Park...
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Docent Donn Smith has been busy poking around the attic of the Mather Homestead and he's found treasures abound! Check out his blogs which document his findings including artifacts fro 250 years of American life - a bible from 1743, a girl's dress from the 1860's, Stephen Mather's camera, a love letter written by Stephen Mather to his wife ❤️ and more. Oh the stories they tell!
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