The prompt for 52 Ancestors this week is Back to School. I have just sent my oldest to kindergarten. He’s doing great, so far, but it has been an emotional week.

This week I have a few things to share from our family collection related to school and learning.

A Notebook

My 4th great-grandfather, Silas Lanier, owned this notebook. The dates in the book range from 1810 to 1815 and include a variety of topics mostly related to finance and farming. It’s not clear if he attended school or had training of some sort. He was engaged in agriculture for all of his adult life. What I wouldn’t give to have handwriting like his.

As much as I love having this, I wonder why it was saved this long. We have fewer things from more recent ancestors, but from Silas, we have this notebook, wallets packed with handwritten receipts, letters, and a rifle (this last item may or may not have belonged to Silas, but my dad believes it may have been used in both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War by our ancestors in that line).

From another line, my 3rd great-grandfather was Julius Franklin Carne DuPre, more commonly known as J.F.C. DuPre. He dabbled in many things including horticulture. He later became the first professor of horticulture at Clemson University. In the collection of my grandmother’s books is this primer, Progressive Primary Arithmetic. It has J.F.C.’s name in the front.

JFC’s name is at the top.

My grandmother’s sister was Sarah DuPre. She died in 1927 at the age of 14 from cancer of the leg. In our things is this autograph album. In the front cover, Sarah has written her name and drawn the school logo for Abbeville High School with the year she would have graduated, 1929.

This was a fun find. My 5 year old and I have been reading The Little House on the Prairie series and in Little Town on the Prairie, Laura is given an autograph album, which is the new fashion at the time. Sarah’s album reflects the same practices that are described by Laura of getting friends to write a verse and sign their name. There are some nice ones and some that I can’t quite figure out, like the one from Harry Briggs Wilson, pictured below, top right.