I knew Aunt Hattie, but can't tell you much about her. I was very young when I was taken to visit her in her home, which I believe was in Philadelphia, somewhere around 41st and Chester. (My wife and I once lived at 42nd and Chester.)
I was somewhat afraid of her. She was very old (she was 80 the year I was born) and I remember her place as dark and suffocating.
Probably my most vivid memory is not of my Aunt when she was alive, but of her after her death. She was cremated and her ashes were given into the hands of my Grandmother. There was a box that sat on a dining room bureau in our house for weeks. I use to pass it with some apprehension.
Finally, we all went to a cemetery and my Grandmother spread my Aunt Hattie's ashes across a grave, whose I do not know.
My Aunt Harriett was known for her wide and varied hats, as can be seen in these photos, thus her nickname of "Hattie", which is what we all called her. (Although it may be she wore the hats to live up to the nickname. I have discovered her first census listing was in 1880, when she was 9, and she was listed as Hattie. I hardly think at nine she was famous yet for big hats.)
When I knew her, she was the women in the picture on the right, an old lady. I do not know who the child is with her, only that it isn't me.
Aunt Hattie never married and lived alone most of her life.
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