Deborah Remembers

By Lillie V. Albrecht

Children’s historical fiction, ages 9-12.

If you should visit the Edwin Smith Historical Museum at the Athenaeum in Westfield, Massachusetts, you might meet Deborah, a very special doll.

Her story, which she’ll share with the other antique dolls every night at midnight, that magical hour when the dolls wake up, began three hundred years ago. Deborah, together with generations of girls who loved her, saw—and sometimes took part in—many scenes from American history in her little New England town.

Deborah can remember the terrible Indian massacre at Deerfield in 1704, and the old Puritan settlement of Westfield where little Mindwell played with her. She remembers Mercy Ann, who was so frightened of the Hessians during the Revolutionary War. She can even tell an exciting story about how she and her little mother Martha saved some runaway slaves in the Underground Railroad.

Deborah Remembers was based on many real local events and personalities from New England history. Deborah’s long, rich, often poignant story, which first delighted young readers in the 1950s and 60s, was created by Westfield historian Lillie V. Albrecht. The tale now returns, with annotations by Mrs. Albrecht’s granddaughter, author Susanne Alleyn, to enthrall a whole new generation of readers. Deborah will captivate you and touch your heart.

“A doll’s eye view of American history might be the subtitle of this delightful book. . . . Any little girl who ever loved a doll will love Deborah’s remembrances.”
The Chicago Tribune (1959)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spyderwort Press
• Release date: Jun 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301339631

Lillie V. Albrecht

Lillie V. Albrecht (1894-1985), a descendant of seventeenth-century English Puritans, Nantucket Quakers, and Dutch settlers on Long Island, began working as assistant children's librarian at the Westfield Athenaeum in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1927, and was the first curator of its Edwin Smith Historical Museum, serving from 1928 to 1952. The museum's Colonial Kitchen is now named after her. The Albrechts lived for many years in Westfield, where Mrs. Albrecht became interested in the town's three centuries of history. It was to teach history that she first started writing short stories for children set among the real people and places of western Massachusetts and created the story of fictional antique doll Deborah. The stories she wrote about Deborah's adventures in Westfield's history eventually became the full-length children's book Deborah Remembers. Publishers at first turned down a book about a doll's memoirs, but encouraged Mrs. Albrecht to write more historical children's stories. She then wrote Hannah's Hessian, which appeared in 1958 and was an immediate success; soon her publisher was eager to publish Deborah Remembers, which has since become the best-known of her books. Deborah was followed by three more stories set in Westfield and western Massachusetts in the colonial and Revolutionary eras, The Grist Mill Secret, The Spinning Wheel Secret, and Susanna's Candlestick. Mrs. Albrecht's granddaughter, author Susanne Alleyn, is delighted to bring her books to a new generation of readers.

Book preview

What the Reviewers Said About Lillie V. Albrecht's Books

Deborah Remembers:

A doll’s eye view of American history might be the subtitle of this delightful book. . . . Any little girl who ever loved a doll will love Deborah’s remembrances.

The Chicago Tribune (1959)

A painless way of surveying American history, this story, with its sentimental portrayal of a rag doll who longs to be held in the arms of a little mother, will have an immediate appeal to any but the most callous little girl.

Kirkus Reviews (1959)

The Spinning Wheel Secret:

Joan couldn't spin, knit, cook and clean because she didn't want to, but after the Indian raid on her village when her mother was captivated Joan found she needed every skill to meet the wants of her family. Before the story is over, she finds her fishing, hunting and swimming prowess called on too, in a plot that remains reasonable as well as exciting.

Kirkus Reviews (1965)

The Grist Mill Secret:

By making friends with Tories living nearby, Tabitha Copley caused a crisis in her own family and great concern in the town. This mystery of pre-Revolutionary days has a well-developed plot, good characterization, and gives an authentic picture of divided loyalties in a time of crisis.

Library Journal (1962)

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Deborah Remembers

Lillie V. Albrecht

Published by Spyderwort Press at Smashwords

Copyright 1959 by Lillie V. Albrecht

Annotations copyright 2011, 2013 by Susanne Alleyn

Illustrated by Rita Newton

Discover other titles by Lillie V. Albrecht and Susanne Alleyn at Smashwords.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, please contact Don Congdon Associates, Inc., 110 William St., Suite 2202, New York, NY 10038, USA.

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First published in hardcover by Hastings House, Inc.

This book is available in paperback from online retailers.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, with the exception of historical figures used fictitiously, is purely coincidental.

Spyderwort Press

Albany, NY

Contents

1. Abide

2. The Walls of Jericho

3. The Meetinghouse

4. The Crazy Quilt

5. Idle Gossip

6. The General Sheldon

7. The Cap'n's House

8. Hoopskirts

9. Hampton Plains

Some History and Historical Terms in Deborah Remembers

Timeline For the Events in Deborah Remembers

About the Author

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For

the boys and girls of

Westfield

Massachusetts

Chapter One

Abide

Darkness had fallen in the museum. The visitors had all left. The door was tightly locked. Only the scratching of a mouse in the cupboard in the Colonial Kitchen broke the silence.

Deborah, the old rag doll, sat by the fire and remembered. She remembered a wild Indian war whoop on a snowy night in Deerfield. She remembered the gay song of the fife and the drum when the Minute Men marched away. She remembered the shrill blast of the Captain's horn on the canal boat. Most of all she remembered the happy voices of the little girls who had played with her long ago.

Finally, the old grandfather clock struck twelve and then all the dolls in the glass case jumped quickly down from their places and hurried across the museum to Deborah's kitchen. They did this every night at twelve. It was the magic hour when all the dolls woke up.

Tell us a story, Deborah, cried Kitty, the hoopskirt doll.

We want to hear about when you were new, said Jerusha, the little wooden doll.

Tell us about your first mother. Tell us about Mercy Ann, said Harriet Jane, the doll with the china head.

Oh, Mercy Ann was not my first mother, said Deborah. Dear me, no. The first mother I ever had was little Mary who lived in Deerfield way back in 1704.

Oh, how long ago that was! cried all the dolls. Do tell us about her. And they seated themselves cozily on stools near Deborah's chair by the fire.

Yes, indeed, sighed Deborah, as she took up her knitting. I am older than anybody would think. You see, my face has been painted over many times and I've often been mended. This dress I am wearing was made for me when I came to live here in the kitchen in the museum. I look very young, I know, but I am really an old, old doll.

Tell us about Mary in old Deerfield, Jerusha prompted her.

Mary lived in Deerfield over three hundred years ago, Deborah began.

* * *

She was not a very strong little girl and when the other children used to run out in the deep snow to play, poor Mary had to stay at home by the fire. Of course, I know that if she were a little girl today, her mother would give her plenty of milk and vitamins. Then she would turn her out in the bright sunshine, and the child would be well and strong. In those long-ago days, however, people knew very little about how to keep well and healthy. If a child were sick, some poor old woman was blamed for having bewitched her.

My little Mary was tucked up in blankets on the settle and day by day she grew weaker and weaker. The hours she spent by the fire were long and dreary and finally Mary's grandmother decided to make her a doll. That was how I began.

My first memory is of hearing Mary ask a question. What sort of hair will she have, Granny? asked the child.

I've planned it all, lass, so don't fret yourself, said the old lady. I've saved an old mitten that your sister Joanna had last winter. 'Tis frayed and torn, but the bits of brown wool will make seemly hair for your rag baby.

Oh! So I'm going to be a rag baby, am I? I said to myself. You see, in those days girls called their dolls either puppets or rag babies.

Then I heard another voice. I learned later that it was Mary's mother, who was walking back and forth behind the big wool wheel.

I am not at all sure that you are doing a wise thing, Gran, she said. I fear Father will say a rag baby is a vain thing and that the child might better be reading her Bible and studying her catechism than playing with worldly toys.

Fiddlesticks! snorted Granny. Every little girl loves a puppet, and the days are long for the child shut up here in this dark kitchen. There, Mary. Her hair is done. Now I'll paint in her face with a bit of charcoal and a touch of dye and no child in Deerfield will have a finer rag baby.

When I was all finished, Granny made me a little gown of a bit of homespun—not the one I wear now. Dear me, no. I have been dressed over and