Carrie Patten Cronk Diaries - Introduction
Written by Carol Cronk Cole.
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Carrie Irvilla Patten was born at 107 Rivard Street, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan on the 21st of May 1865 to Silas and Cynthia [nee McClellan] Patten. The Patten family goes back through Lyons, Wayne, New York to England in the late 1700s while the McClellan family came to Ohio from New Jersey. Carrie was the eldest of three daughters: Carrie, Edith and Lena, called "Did." Carrie's father had served two years in the Civil War and his diaries have been digitized by the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio. In 1873 the family moved to Otisville, Genesee, Michigan where Silas ran a general store, but also "owned a stave mill, broom handle and peavey handle factory, a saw mill and a mile or two out in the county they manufactured peach crates and barrel heads." It was there that she met Corydon Pirnie Cronk, born on the 6th of January 1859, on the Cronk farm in Flint, Genesee, Michigan. He was a descendant of Cronks who had lived in Putnam and Erie Counties, New York, before surveying and then settling in Michigan when it was pretty much wilderness. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Michigan Agricultural School in 1879 when he was 20 years old and then taught school in several Michigan counties. In Carrie's own words, "It was owing to the fact that he knew how to play the clarinet that I ever met him. It so happened that the village of Otisville had two brass bands, led by two doctors who were bitter enemies. Each was desirous of securing the best musicians, one of the doctors was the school director. Almost his first question when he [Pirnie] made application for the school was, 'Can you play a clarinet?' Finding that he could, he immediately engaged him as principal of Otisville School." There Pirnie boarded first with the aunt Carrie was named after and then eventually with her family, while she was away at school in Flint, Michigan.
On July 1st 1882 Pirnie resigned from his Otisville School position and enlisted in the United States Signal Service at Washington D. C. After 6 months military training at Fort Myer, Virginia, he was first sent to Washington D. C. and then to Cape Henry, Virginia. While Carrie was still in High School Pirnie proposed by letter and they were engaged on the 6th of March 1883. After High School Carrie taught for two years in the Primary Department of the Otisville School she'd attended and where Pirnie had been Principal. During this separation Pirnie decided to leave the Signal Service for the newly developing Weather Bureau. There were many, many letters written [which I also have] during this separation before they were married in Otisville on the 6th of July 1886, at the Patten family home.
During his time in Washington, both before and after marriage, Pirnie "studied for a year at Columbian University taking a special course in French, German and higher mathematics. The following year he commenced a four year course in medicine at the same university, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine on March 15, 1888." On December 9th 1887, Pirnie's and Carrie's son and only child was born in an army hospital. In the fall of 1888, at his own request, Pirnie was transferred to Baltimore, Maryland where the family remained almost ten years. There Pirnie practiced medicine outside his Government office hours and also completed a post-graduate course in Bacteriology at the Johns Hopkins University. Carrie too was studying and completed a three year course in Theory and Piano at the Peabody Institute Conservatory of Music, 1 May 1891. She also continued her piano studies there.
Possibly the most exciting thing to happen to the Pirnie Cronk family was their move to Cape Henry, Virginia on the 22nd of February 1898. There Pirnie was in charge of the Weather Bureau and the Vessel Reporting Station. Unfortunately they had only six years there as Pirnie's health tragically failed. He resigned his positon on the 1st of August 1903 after 21 years in Government service. His death came from Addison's disease on December 13th, 1903 at the City Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He would have been just 45 years old the next month.
Thus the lives of Carrie Patten Cronk and her son "Don" changed dramatically. Carrie moved with her sister "Did" to live with their other sister, Edith, and her husband, Wesley Thompson, in Newark, Essex, New Jersey. Carrie taught piano while Did painted and sold china. Don finished his schooling at the Jacob Tome Institute in Port Deposit, Cecil, Maryland, before taking two degrees in Forestry at the University of Michigan. That led him to several years learning everything he could about forestry and lumber in Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia. It was a very different life for them all. However, during this time Carrie and Did enjoyed some interesting travels. In 1908 they toured Europe on Cook's 66 day Vacation Tour 37, visiting Gibraltar, Italy, Italian Lakes, Switzerland, Germany, the Rhine, Holland, Belgium, France and England. Then these same two ladies spent the summers of 1913 and 1914 in the woods of British Columbia with Don as well as travelling and visiting other relatives in the west. World War I brought Don in the service back to Washington DC.
After the death of Carrie's and Did's sister Edith on the 1st of September 1919, a move must have seemed necessary. Eventually a lot was purchased at 52 Sommer Avenue, Maplewood, Essex, New Jersey and a house built there where Carrie and Did lived until Did died on the 10th of February 1941 resulting in Carrie's move to 17 High Street, Natick, Middlesex, Massachusetts. That was the next town to where Don had settled with his family at 10 Crown Ridge Road, Wellesley, Norfolk, Massachusetts. Carrie died in Natick on the 16th of December 1947 and was buried with her parents and sisters in Woodmere Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan. She began keeping a daily record of her life when she was 16 years old and continued until shortly before her death.