Clues to Growing Up at Stonehurst

Meet George and Lily, the youngest of the five Paine children (and 17 cousins), who lived in Waltham in the 19th century. George Paine was age 12 and Lily was 10 in 1886 when Stonehurst was built. Can you find them in the photo above?

Before writing George and Lily’s story, A Home in the Woods, the children of Stonehurst were a complete mystery to us since they lived so long ago. We did a lot of detective work, exploring their house, land, and other clues they left behind to learn about their life at Stonehurst in the 19th century.

Discover their story as we did through George and Lily’s actual words, images and objects, known as “primary resources.” We have also found “reproductions” or copies of artifacts for this activity, which we normally send into your classroom in a big trunk.

Can you match these primary resources to reproduction artifacts below?

What did children do for fun before the invention of the telephone, television and computer?

Primary Resources

Click on the arrows to move from one slide to the next. Hover over the image for more information from George and Lily.

“My recreations are tennis, autograph collecting and chess.”

—George, 1936

Image: George Lyman Paine, 1886, Stonehurst Archives.

“Like Mama, Lily was very fond of dogs, especially her cocker spaniel…Dash.”

—George, 1965

Image: Lily Paine, 1886, Stonehurst Archives.

“At the big house in Waltham, many of the children [from Boston] gathered yearly.”

—Paine Ancestry, 1910

Image: Ethel Paine’s Photo Album, 1903. Stonehurst Archives.

"I am also fond of chopping trees."

—George, 1921

Image: “Lumbering in Winter.” Drawing by Winslow Homer, 1871. Brooklyn Museum.

“The fields were very pretty…[with] heather, thyme and strawberry… the flowers and fruit in every stage. George got some for us.”

—Lily, Greece, Nov 13, 1890.

Stonehurst Archives. Image: Cropped pastel portrait of Emily Storer, ca. 1891, at Stonehurst.

"Lily…had her pet Shetland Pony, Faery Queen, on which she daily galloped bareback.”

—George, 1965

Image: Lily Paine with Faery Queen by the stable at Stonehurst, 1885. Stonehurst Archives.

“Have ‘hobbied’ a little with birds and butterflies, with coins and stamps.”

—George, 1921

Image: 19th-century advertisement.

“Across Beaver Brook, which ran in front of [Great Grandpa’s] house, he built two dams, thus making three lovely ponds. On the middle one…we had our row boats.”

—George, 1965.

Image: Ethel Paine’s Photo Album, 1903. Stonehurst Archives.

“We built a tennis court; grass, of course… Here the young folk of all three families played most every sunny day.”

—George, 1965

Image: George Paine Photo Album. Stonehurst Archives.

"At half past four I got out the cards, & George and I played sixty-six, with two packs."

—Lily Paine, 1890

Image: Oil painting by Nancy A. Sabine Pasley, 1887-1891, Gaffrey Museum.

"Mama, Ethel & I went to Redfern’s to try on dresses, then we looked at some hats & then we…bought lots of gloves and handkerchiefs."

—Lily, 1890

Image: John Redfern & Sons Advertisement, 1885.

"Later [cousin] Evelyn, Lily and I had school in [Uncle Arthur's house], The Vale with Elizabeth Bridge for our teacher."

—George, 1965

Image: Ronald Lyman and others with their teacher at 16 Mt. Vernon St. in Arthur Theodore Lyman and Ella Lyman, Letters and Journals. Privately printed, 1932.

Rainy, but bean bags in the hall and music in the parlor

Quote: RT Paine, June 7, 1902, RTP Diary. Stonehurst Archives. Image: Great Hall, 19th century. Stonehurst Archives.

The gate led to a simple walk through the wood which she called her morning walk. Early memories of her dressed in walking shoes, longish skirt, & a scarf on her head, walking through the woods.

Quote: Ada, Pearl and Ruth Landstrom, “Memories of Ethel Lyman Paine Moors,” Heath Herald, June/July 2007. Image: Map by R.T. Paine, Jr. 1925. Stonehurst Archives.

Reproduction Artifacts

Resources for Quotes:
“George Lyman Paine,” Harvard Class Reports, Class of 1896 (Cambridge, 1921, 1936).
George Lyman Paine. “The Lymans, Searses, Paines of Waltham and Boston,” Typescript, 1965. Stonehurst Archives.
Lydia Lyman Paine, Travel Diary, 1890-1891. Stonehurst Archives.

Tour with great grand children

Children's book