Week 42 - A Life Compared to Mine - George W and Anna Porter

Comparing a life to mine seems like an easy task. I have photographs, records, newspapers and documents for them and the same for me. But that doesn't tell the whole story. I don't know what it felt like to be them.

Touching on my great grand-uncle George Washington Porter and his wife Mary Ann McCowan they were travelers just like I was. GW was born April 4, 1864, in Rochester, Iowa the third oldest of six children of John J and Margaret (Matter) Porter, my 2x great grandparents.  GW's older brother John had left home and headed for Kansas and then finally settled in Texas.  

GW headed for Kansas also - maybe even traveling with his older brother for a time. But then he headed for Oregon and was settled there by 1900. After arriving in Polk County, Oregon he married a widow named Anna Mary McCowan Cavitt on May 3, 1894. Anna was born March 16, 1866, in Kansas. She was a young widow with four young children (Martha, Jessie, John and Ira) when they married and then she and GW had four more (Chloe, Esther, Jay and Mabel). A full house for sure.  

                                                                                                                                               

Family back in Iowa probably never met his wife or any of their children in person. Vacations were not something that was a common term then. The US Mail and telegrams would have been their only form of communication. The telephone was not a common occurrence as it is today. My parents didn't have one until the 1960's.

On the other hand, we moved often because of my husband's work. It was always a company move; another rung up the corporate ladder. But we had moving companies that came in and packed us up, loaded up a semi and delivered to the next address. Stressful and busy times but not like in the late 1800's. GW would have probably had nothing more than his horse and a duffle when he made his moves to the west. At the best, he would have taken a train and still had his duffle and maybe a trunk that traveled with him.  A few changes of clothes and maybe a small, framed picture of his parents or a piece of china or lace as a remembrance would have been all he could carry.

We were able to send letters easily and cheaply and even with the costs of telephone long distance we still found the funds to talk with family back home at least once a week. And we did the same household things as our earlier ancestors - painting, building, cleaning, cooking, laundry. Those things were the same no matter what decade or year you lived in.

Moving around for us included interstate highways, movers, and flights. All within our reach. For GW and Anna, travel and communication was virtually a rare, expensive and monumental luxury.

In the long run we all laughed, worried, worked, loved, made mistakes and sat down at the end of the day wondering what tomorrow would bring. Their life was very different than what mine has been.  But perhaps not as different as the years between us would suggest. 

Barbie