Sentimental Sunday: Little Trinket Box

Grandmother Denison's Trinket Box, 1890

Carefully saved by my maternal grandmother, was this little wooden box that belonged to her husband, Evans Stewart. I think it might have been used for pocket change or cuff-links. 

I kept it in a small drawer in my bureau until I came home from school one day and found it sitting on a folded newpaper, drying from being stained this brown color. It was unfinished prior to my mother deciding it was too boring and needed to be decorated. 

When she applied polyurethane to it and it was dry, I decided it needed to be hidden so I put it in my desk with items over it.

When I moved to my own home, I took all of the items that belonged to me from my parent's house and put them in mine. I set this on a small table in the hallway. One day, my toddler daughter opened it and scribbled on the piece of paper inside. I have erased the pencil marks, scanned it  and lightened it up so that I can read it and it says:

"Evans Stewart/Grandmother Denison/ July 22, 1890."

Today,  I decided to try to puzzle out if the date was of any significance. 

In 1890, my grandfather was three. His father, Charles E. Stewart was 31, his grandmother Eliza Fish Denison Stewart was 56. 1890 is the year Westerly Laundry was founded. 

Then, I found a matching exact date. 

This is the date, that Levina Fish Denison (1794-1890) died. She was my grandfather's great grandmother. She lived to be 95. Eliza Fish Denison must have inherited it from Levina who was her mother. Notice that it does not say "from", it simply says her name.

If it wasn't for blogging, I might have not realized who Grandmother Denison really was....