Treasure Chest Thursday ~ Greeley Family Bible

My second cousin Suzanne shared some images from an old family bible. No Births, Marriages, and Deaths, but what is here is a treasure!

First a photo of the outside of the bible, obviously very old!

Then an image of the title page, showing that it was new in 1883.

The next page tells me that it was a gift to "Ethel May Greeley from Auntie Ruth" on Dec. 28, 1884. This must have been for her ninth birthday. "Auntie Ruth" was Ethel's mother's sister, Ruth Lyman Wells (1862-1943).

The bible was later given to "Ruth Lyman Copeland from Mother" Nov 1919, when this Ruth was about twelve. I am guessing that Ruth Copeland was named after her great aunt Ruth Wells and that is why she got this bible.

This is the treasure:

Lightly penciled on this page: "First Flowers Townsend Brought his Mother May 17 1901" with a reference as to which page in the bible these flowers were to be kept: "flowers are at pages 124-125 N.T."

(The date is little puzzling, as Townsend was born on December 21, 1900, and would have been about five months old. I don't know if the date was entered incorrectly or his father (Ethel's husband, Lowell Copeland) "helped" his son give her the flowers.)

And here is the page where the flowers were kept:

Thank you to my cousin Suzanne who shared these images with me! Ethel May Greeley must have loved her oldest child and only son, my grandfather, to save these flowers in this bible.