We thought you might be interested in hearing what the deWitts were doing on the 4th of July in 1917 and 1918.
Thursday, July 4, 1917 (Julia is still just 14 years old)
“Independence Day” this was a holiday so there were lots of special cars. Hity made more candy and made about $0.60. I cooked all the meals. One awful thing happened as I was taking the lids off of the dishes and placing them on a waiter. Elizabeth got up for some more milk and over went the waiter with all the dishes creating a big mess too. It broke a cut glass dish, a big platter, two dishes, and a gravy boat.
Thursday, July 4, 1918
“Independence Day” there was a large crowd of people down in the area where no fireworks were allowed to go off. Our cousin Louis DeWitt and his wife came to see us. Aunt Carrie fixed a lot of dresses and brought them over for me. The children went bathing three times. Harriet and Sarah went and sold candy. She has been elected secretary of the Red Cross for Princess Anne County, but, it is a little bit too much for her to do. Mrs Billingsley, the lady John works for sent me a lovely card as she often does because she is so fond of him. I sewed some. We had a game of cards, Aunt Carrie, Cornelius, Elisabeth, and I and the prize was $0.25 and I won it. Aunt Carrie cut the rest of my hair off.
Fast forward again to June 1923. Cecile’s (Mama) health has continued to decline.
Friday, June 1, 1923
There is no entry in Julia’s journal for this date or for the 19th of June. In fact, the entries for these two dates were torn from the journal. Either Julia could not find the correct words to express the loss of her dear mother or she was very dissatisfied with the words she had written. The page was replaced with this picture of her mother. Cecile Amelie Mottu deWitt had died at the age of 49.
Julia was the third oldest daughter of Cecile at age 21. Now she and her older sister, Elizabeth age 22, were left to care for the remaining seven children ranging in age from 20 to 10 years old. Amelie, the oldest of the dewitt children at age 24 had married and was living in West Point, New York
