INTRODUCTORY
COMMENTS
and
LINKS
for
The Miles of
Yesterday (1935)
by
Olive
Irene Hills Bliss
(born
1860, died 1941)
 |
You may be wondering why you are seeing The Miles of Yesterday: The Life Story of a
Minnesota Woman on Wyoming Woman’s Website. My mother, Louise Hause, helped care for the author
during the author’s final years. Mrs.
Bliss’ family was very fond of my mother, and the book was one of many things
they gave to her. I have found no
evidence that Mrs. Bliss’ book had ever been copyrighted, so I decided to type
it for my Wyoming Woman Website. Over the nine years that I have worked part-time at
a museum, I have come to especially appreciate history when I read it as
people’s own experiences, whether they are appear in memoirs, such as written
by Mrs. Bliss, or in personal letters that have been saved over the years. Such history is in context, never altered by
hindsight or what could broadly be termed “political correctness.” |
The book itself measures 8-1/2” x 11” and its 44
pages were covered with printed yellow cardstock and stapled together. It appears to have been typed by a manual
typewriter onto mimeograph masters, from which copies were produced. I have retyped the book using the Courier
New font on my computer, which is the closest match I have to the original
typeface. I have corrected various
typographical and spelling errors that I encountered in the book, but have left
some words spelled two different ways when I had no way of knowing which was
correct (such as the name of a boarding house – Angel’s or Angell’s). I have heard two stories about how I happened to be
named “Irene,” and one version is that I was named after Mrs. Bliss. I do not know if David Scott Bliss, the man
mentioned in the ENVIRONMENT section of Wyoming Woman, is a descendant of Olive
Irene Hills Bliss. Irene L.
Hause |
 |
Please
click on the links below
to take a
nostalgic trip back in time.
TITLE PAGE, FORWARD, and PHOTOGRAPH OF AUTHOR
CHAPTER I. ARRIVAL
IN RICE COUNTY
A Quarrel in the Post Office
Before the Days of Prohibition
Grandfather Hezekiah Provides a Farm
A Justice of the Peace and His Troubles
CHAPTER II. A LITTLE
GIRL ON A MINNESOTA FARM
Trip Tried His Teeth on Snakes
When the James Boys Shot Up Northfield
CHAPTER III. OFF TO
CARLETON COLLEGE
An Interval as a Northfield Teacher
The Study of Greek and Human Nature
A Butter Churn and “The Youth’s Companion”
CHAPTER IV. A
PROPOSAL AND GRADUATION
“The End is but the Beginning”
An Only Brother Drowned in the Mississippi
CHAPTER V. LIFE AT
RICE LAKE AND MARSHFIELD
Brown Heads Bobbing in the Hazel Brush
A Little Musician Listens to the Birds
A Major Event at the Opera House
Romney Taken to Specialists
From Lincoln to McKinley
How Fashions in Garments Change
A New Home and a Great Sorrow
CHAPTER VI. ST. PAUL
BRINGS SORROW AND JOYS
Thanksgiving Day Joy and Tragedy
A Memorial to Romney A. Bliss
Death Comes to Alden S. Bliss
“What lots of broken people!”
Grandfather Hills and His Romance
CHAPTER VII. THE
BLISS FAMILY GOES TO HARVARD
A Small Legacy and a Scholarship
A Visit at the Home of Cousin Selleck Hills
Plain Living, High Thinking in the Town of Cambridge
When a St. Paul Girl Had Sweet Revenge
“3000 Miles to Keep the Past Upon Its Throne”
When President Lowell Read Scripture Lesson
A Bon Mot by Grandson of Poet Longfellow
CHAPTER VIII.
BOSTON, NEW YORK AND DALLAS
Miriam Graduates, Enters Playground Work
Something for the Newsboys to Shout
Farewell to the Statue of Liberty
The Shenandoah and Tablets to John Brown
Sheparding a Flock of Oil Kings’ Daughters
When Henry Drank Something Stouter Than Adam’s Ale
Miriam Comes Home from Dallas Position
Rumors of War Participation Become More Substantial
CHAPTER IX. THE
YOUNG MEN GO OFF TO WAR
The Womenfolk Wait in Iowa
At the Small Arms Firing School at Camp Perry
Mother and Son Move to City of St. Louis
To One Fixed Trust My Spirit Clings
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Photo
of Louise Hause, circa 1944 (born 1913, died 1981)
Memorial
Folder from Funeral of Lodowic Hause (1945)
Letter
of Condolence from Miriam Bliss McIntyre to Louise Hause (1945)