Katharine Carpenter Conklin (updated)

I found this scrapbook at the historical society on Tuesday. It was started by a 12-year-old girl, Katharine Carpenter, in 1903, and completed in 1908 when she was 17. It is priceless, probably one of the most uniquely fascinating artifacts I have ever had the opportunity to see in person. It is a very personal record of Katharine's experiences, thoughts, and dreams. The ephemera it contains - including letters, photographs, dance cards, playbills, advertisements, drawings, and even trinkets like pressed flowers, decorative napkins, and ribbons - are all captioned in Katharine's lively and playful voice. One of my favorite pieces is a pledge that Katharine made her friend sign: "Maude Fish will not tell anyone that Katharine Carpenter is going to try to go to the party at the Opera House on February 3, 1903. Signed, Maude Fish."

I hope to digitize the entire thing (somehow), but right now it's almost too delicate to handle. As you can see, the binding has broken and many of the pages are flaking away. I am currently exploring options for its restoration. In the meantime, I decided to look into the Carpenter family and see what I could find out about them.

There have been several Carpenter families in the village, but the question of which one Katharine belonged to is answered in the scrapbook itself. A pass allowing her to leave school early was signed by both her parents, T. Ellwood and Ella (Sutton) Carpenter. T. Ellwood Carpenter was the president of the Mount Kisco National Bank, which he founded in 1895. Ella Sutton Carpenter was a Quaker. They were married in 1885 and had three daughters, Helen (born 1887), Katharine (born 1891), and Mildred (born 1897). Their son, Herbert Ellwood, was born in 1885 and died as an infant.

Frank sent me this photo of the Mount Kisco National Bank, which was located on Main Street.

This was one of the family's houses, possibly the one where Katharine wrote and compiled her scrapbook. Aptly, it was on Carpenter Avenue.

Katharine first appears in the 1900 census, living with her parents, her uncle George Sutton, and their servant Ella Ryan. The same group was living together in the census of 1910.

1900 US Federal Census

1910 US Federal Census

Katharine attended high school at Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey (then known as Blair Presbyterial Academy). Her father, T. Ellwood Carpenter, died in 1917 at the age of 62. In 1925, she married DeWitt Conklin,an electric fixture salesman. In 1920, the couple was living with Katharine's widowed mother and her two sisters. Helen and Mildred both worked in a lawyer's office, Helen as an assistant and Mildred as a stenographer.

1920 US Federal Census

By 1930, Katharine and her husband had moved to East Orange, New Jersey, where DeWitt now worked as the president of an investment bank. Katharine's mother and sisters had also moved to East Orange. Mildred worked as a bank clerk, presumably in the same bank that her brother-in-law was president of.

Ella Carpenter died in 1935 at the age of 74, and Mildred died in April 1987 at the age of 90. Katharine died in December 1977 at the age of 86. I haven't yet been able to determine when Helen Carpenter died.

I also haven't been able to determine who gave the scrapbook to the historical society. Katharine doesn't seem to have had children, and neither of her sisters married or had children, so she had no nieces or nephews either. Who inherited her property? Was the scrapbook given to the society after her death or did she herself give it to the society when she was still living?