Anna Appleton Flichtner 1907 Diary related images

 

 

 

Anna Appleton Flichtner
Taken around 1907, the year she wrote her first diary at the age of 15.

 

Anna aged six - around 1897.

 

This photo was found in Anna's diary. It could be Anna and her best friend Mathilde Theriot.
She describes a Masquerade party in the diary but these costumes aren't the ones that she describes.

 

 

Taken about 1910
Cousins, Best friends and Ipswich neighbors.
Top to bottom: Anna Flichtner, Margaret Smith and Violet Thayer.
During the summer of 1907, Anna and her mother lived with Cousin Violet and her family at Holiday Hill, the Thayer's summer home, in Ipswich.
Margaret Smith lived next door. Margaret's and Violet's fathers were first-cousins. Margaret's and Violet's mothers were sisters.
This made them second-cousins on their fathers' side and first-cousins on their mothers' side.
Anna was Violet's first cousin and Margaret's second cousin.

 

Anna's second-cousin, Otis Smith, taken around 1905.
Sadly, Otis died of Scarlet Fever, in 1908, the year after Anna wrote her first diary.
He was in his first year at Harvard.

 

Anna's cousin and friend, Joan Tuckerman. Taken around 1908.

 

 

Anna and her cousin, Violet Thayer, at Cranes Beach, Ipswich, Mass."
Taken around 1910

Anna Flichtner in 1924, the year before she married Laurence Brevoort Barretto.
Larry Barretto (1890-1971) was an author, assistant editor of Adventure magazine from 1920-1924 and a journalist with the New York Times.
Anna and Larry lived in Manhattan, then in Goshen, New York, then in Carmel, California.

 

 

 

"The Uncles"

James Appleton Thayer and Robert Helyer Thayer 2nd.
Born 1858, they lived at 140 Montrose Ave. into the 1920s.

 

 

The cover of Anna's 1907 diary.

The label actually has Anna's address in Goshen, New York written on it.
She and her husband, writer, Larry Barretto, moved there in the 1930's.
I added my title for her diary, and her autograph to the label as a potential cover design for a published version of the diary.
The title, To Begin With..., is a phrase that she uses, several times in her diary.
Under the label the original cover reads: "The 1895 Book."
Anna has crossed out the printed text and written "1907."

 

 

Anna and her husband, Larry Barretto on their 40th Anniversary.
Carmel, California, 1965

 

 

This is reputed to be the 21st Birthday celebration of Sarah Thayer whose parents were Anna's grandparents, Robert and Hannah Thayer, of South Orange, NJ.
Sarah is sitting in the center with the bouquet.
If this was her birthday, then the photo was taken in 1888.
Sarah was married in 1890 and died only three years later, when she was 26.
Sarah's future husband, Charles F. LaCombe, is in the photo - probably the young man on the far left, in the back row.
Anna's aunt, Violet Otis Thayer, made a diagram, on the back of the photo, using the names of the individuals, in the photo.
The positioning of the names, on her diagram, do not quite corelate to persons in the photo, so the identities of certain individuals have not been sorted out.

Sarah Thayer's older brother, William G. Thayer (my grandfather), is standing in the center of the middle row, behind Sarah.
He wears a pocket handkercheif and a boutonaire. He was Anna's uncle - her mother's younger brother.
Anna's twin uncles, Jim and Bob Thayer, who lived with her in the house in South Orange, are kneeling at the lower left and standing on the right.
The house may be the Thayer house in South Orange, but is more probably one of the houses at Appleton Farms, Ipswich, MA - perhaps "Briar Hill."

 

 

Taken in the 1840s.
Anna's grandmother, Hannah Appleton Thayer is at the lower left. She was born in 1823 and died in 1903.
Her sister, Annie Appleton Osgood is standing directly behind her.
Annie moved into 140 Montrose Avenue sometime at some point, late in her life.
Daniel was a successful jeweller, like his father. His watch company eventually became the famous, Waltham Watch Company.
He wintered in New York City and was on Mrs. Astor's famous 400 list.

 

 

 

Luncheon at Appleton Farms, August 1897
Anna is the little girl in the big white hat, in the back row, left of center, on her father's shoulders.
Her mother is standing directly in front of her with her hands clasped.
Many of the cousins that Anna mentions in her diary, are in this photo.
The elderly man at the far right of the photo is Anna's great-uncle, Daniel Fuller Appleton.
He is the young man in the photo just above this one.

 

 

"The General's Grandchildren"
Taken at Appleton Farms, Ipswich, Mass., in August 1897 - the same day as the group photo above this one.
"The General" is General James Appleton, Anna's great grandfather, who earned his rank as head of the militia in Gloucester, Mass., during the war of 1812.

Anna's mother, Harriette Thayer Flichtner, is the woman on the left.
Anna's uncle, William G. Thayer, is the standing at the far left. He is her mother's younger brother.
Because Anna's older half-sister, Nelly Flichtner Doughty, had recently had a child and was living in the Flichtner summer home, in Ipswich,
Anna and her mother spent the summer of 1907 with her uncle, William G. Thayer, at his summer home, Holiday Hill.

The others in the photo are all first-cousins and/or siblings.
L to R: W.G.Thayer, Harriette Thayer Flichtner, Annie Smith Tuckerman, Randolph Morgan Appleton,
Ruth Appleton Tuckerman, Harriette Smith Woods, Nellie Smith Wood, Rev. Roland Cotton Smith, Julia Smith Post.

A bit about the General

One of twelve children, the James Appleton moved away from Ipswich to make a living as a jeweller and watchmaker.
He eventually settled in Gloucester, Mass. and married Sarah, the daughter of West Gloucester clergyman, Rev. Daniel Fuller.
During the war of 1812, James Appleton was placed in charge of the militia there.
He was promoted to General after repelling a sea attack on Gloucester, by ships of the British navy.
Sometime around 1850, the General bought Appleton Farms from his brothers, Isaac and Timothy.
His ten children and their families built summer homes around the perimeter of the farms
and their entwined social lives are detailed in Anna's 1907 diary.

Appleton Farms was founded in 1638 and was, until it became a Trustees of Reservations property, in 2000,
the oldest family-run farm, in America. It is still a working farm, and is now open to the public for hiking.

 

Anna's Grandparents, Hannah Appleton Thayer (1823 - 1903) and Robert H. Thayer, Jr. (1820 - 1888)
They were the first owners of the Thayer house at 140 Montrose Avenue, in South Orange.
They called their home "Montrose."
He owned a drug store at 33 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

These photos were taken at different times in their lives. She looks quite young - perhaps in her 20s. He seems to be in his 40s or 50s.
They are buried in Forest Hills Cemetery, near Boston.