------------------------------------

Mrs. Washington Wright aka Mrs. Elizabeth Chamberlain Wright aka Carrie Carlton aka Topsy-Turvy. Carlton is sometimes misspelled Carleton.

She went by the nom de plume Topsy-Turvy in the "Sunday Mercury" and Carrie Carlton for the "Golden Era" and her books.

A contemporary of and known by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) who also contributed to local newspapers.

Not to be confused with Mary H.C. Booth who also published a book called "Wayside Flowers" and lived in Milwaukee in the 1860s.

------------------------------------

Funeral of Mrs. Washington Wright. - Quite a large concourse of people attended the funeral of Mrs. Washington Wright ("Topsy Turvy,") at the Unitarian Church yesterday. Rev. Horatio Stebbins officiated. He spoke briefly, but with much feeling, about the life and character of the deceased; the trials through which she had passed from earliest youth till she cast her fortunes in this far off land, and the triumphs which she had achieved in the face of poverty and severe domestic afflictions.

(San Francisco Bulletin - Tuesday, May 05, 1868)

------------------------------------

Daughter of Rev. Isaac S. House and Abigail Scarritt House. Granddaughter of Rev. Elisha House and Rev. Isaac Scarritt. Likely named after her aunt (her father's sister).

"The History of the Scarritt Clan in America" by Ralph E. Pearson (1938) does not seem to provide the correct history of the Abigail Scarritt House family.

Her father and older sister died in Massachusetts of consumption.

She lived with her grandfather and relatives in Michigan after her parents died.

In 1854 was married to Charles Chauncy Chamberlain, a Milwaukee postal clerk from New York. The marriage occurred at the house of her maternal aunt Martha Scarritt Springer who was living in Milwaukee. Rev. Elihu Springer, Martha, and their children were living in Milwaukee on the 1850 Census. Rev. Springer died in 1850 of cholera and is buried in Wisconsin.

A poem she wrote for her youngest child that died implied that she gave birth to five children but that only two were still living.

She journeyed ahead of her husband when they went to California to live with his brother Lou Chamberlain. While she was voyaging from New York to California in 1863, her husband died while still working for the Post Office in Milwaukee. According to a newspaper article about her life, just before landing in San Francisco her infant Archie Dean died. Another poem published earlier in Milwaukee mentions a son Willie ("Wee Willie") in heaven so I would guess the child to be named William.

After this she tried to make a living with her writing. She wrote for both the Golden Era and the Sunday Mercury. She was known as a humorist and feuilletonist writer.

In 1865 she married Washington Wright. He died in 1866.

She gave her two surviving children up for adoption in 1868 when she was dying of consumption. Her grown daughter Mabel lived in North California in the 1890s and still had some of her mother's poems. (According to "The Story of the Files: A Review of California Writers and Literature" by Ella Sterling Mighels published in 1893). Her son Louis was living in San Jose with William Manly and Mary J. Manly in 1870 but is not seen on the next census. Unsure if this was who adopted Louis originally, but W.L. Manly was an early pioneer of California and survived and early expedition through Death Valley. It seems that Lou may have been a young man that killed himself in Andrews, Oregon in 1904. He had been living life on a ranch, but prior to that had been in the news printing business and involved in literary societies near San Jose.

Books:

Wayside Flowers (1862, Milwaukee)

Inglenook (1868, San Francisco)

The Letter Writer (1868)

Wayside Flowers was dedicated to "To Darling Cousin Sue" (Susan Candace Springer). Sue had 12 children, 11 which saw adulthood (her daughter Florence "Floy" died as a child in 1858). She wrote a poem about Little Floy that was published in one of her books. Was published by Strickland and Co., "Booksellers and Stationers." Strickland & Co. was William Strickland and Edwin Upson. This book is also cataloged on its library of Congress Card (in the 1930s) by "Mrs. M.H. Chamberlain or Carrie Carlton.

In 1867 started a magazine called "Every Day Life" along with Robert Desty. Unsure how many issues, if any, were published.

------------------------------------

A few days before her death some one said to her: "When you are dead I shall kiss this lily-white hand." That night she set up to write the poem which has made her best known.

When I Am Dead.

When you are dead and lying at rest

With your white hands folded above your breast-

Beautiful hands, too well I know,

As white as the lilies, as cold as the snow,

I will come and bend o'er your marble form,

Your cold hands cover with kisses warm,

And the words I will speak and the tears I will shed

Will tell I have loved you-when you are dead!

When you are dead your name shall rise

From the dust of the earth to the very skies,

And every voice that has sung your lays

Shall wake an echo to sound your praise.

Your name shall live through the coming age

Inscribed on Fame's mysterious page,

'Neath the towering marble shall rest your head,

But you'll live in memory-when you are dead!

Then welcome, Death ! thrice welcome be !

I am almost weary waiting for thee;

Life gives no recompense-toil no gain,

I seek for love and I find but pain;

Lily white hands have grown pale in despair

Of the warm red kisses which should be their share.

Sad, aching heart has grown weary of song,

No answering echo their notes prolong;

Then take me, Oh, Death, to they grim embrace!

Press quickly they kiss on my eager face,

For I have been promised, oh, bridegroom dread,

Both Love and Fame-when I am dead!

-Elizabeth Chamberlain Wright ("Carrie Carlton," "Topsy Turvy.")

------------------------------------

Goldenhair Sleeps

Out in the garden, the angels' new garden,

Make for my darling his last peaceful bed;

Make it so lovingly, smooth it out tenderly;

Remember my bosom last pillowed his head.

Hush, little sister; hush, little brother;

Pierce not my heart with your pitiful cries;

Nestle here in my bosom, you're all that is left me,

Two on the earth and three in the skies.

Though we are almost heart broken, my darlings,

'Tis the good Shepherd our little lamb keeps,

Safe in His bosom, now happy forever,

Goldenhair sleeps.

------------------------------------

Lines:

WRITTEN WITH A PENCIL ON MY CHILDREN'S TOMB.

A MOTHER'S idols sleep in silence here,

In Heaven their songs are swelling high;

Let pity drop a sympathizing tear,

But not for them, for her whose eyes are dry.

For her whose heart goes mourning all the day,

Listening for voices that she may not hear;

Yearning for faces hid beneath this clay,

Her grief too deep for a refreshing tear.

(From "Wayside Flowers" published in Milwaukee in 1862)

------------------------------------

From https:/www.abaa.org (Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America): Wayside Flowers. By Carrie Carlton [pseud] "The pseudonymous Carrie Carlton seems little known by her real name or even with certainty identified. OCLC catalogs her under Carlton, though the British Library makes the only feint toward Mary Booth Chamberlain; she apparently settled in California and wrote for the Golden Era and the Sunday Mercury, becoming what Ella Sterling Mighels (in her standard account of California literature, The Story of the Files) would characterize as one of the first professional women journalists in California. Though the Library Journal in 1877 gives the name Mary Booth as the identity behind the pseudonym Carrie Carlton, Mighels reports that she was the widow of one Washington Wright and gives her name as Elizabeth Chamberlain Wright. (Mighels also misspells the poetís pseudonymous surname as Carleton.) Per Mighels, Carrie Carlton died in 1868 at the age of 32, and was buried in Masonic Cemetery in San Francisco."

------------------------------------

"And there was Carrie Carlton, the author of several books and of a great deal of bright, cheerful verse in the Golden Era while, at the same time, she conducted a sort of gossip column in the Sunday Mercury under the pen-name of Topsy Turvy. She is said to have been the first woman in California who tried to live by journalistic work exclusively. That she did not succeed is attested to by the fact that she died in 1868, at the age of 32, of malnutrition and privation.

(California's Literary Women by Gustave O. Arlt - The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly - 1949)

------------------------------------

The photo of Topsy Turvy was in the belongings of John Macdonough Foard, publisher of the Golden Era newspaper.

------------------------------------

Possibly a friend/associate of fellow Sunday Mercury contributor "Old Block" Alonzo Delano/a).

------------------------------------

Mrs. Washington Wright aka Mrs. Elizabeth Chamberlain Wright aka Carrie Carlton aka Topsy-Turvy. Carlton is sometimes misspelled Carleton.

She went by the nom de plume Topsy-Turvy in the "Sunday Mercury" and Carrie Carlton for the "Golden Era" and her books.

A contemporary of and known by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) who also contributed to local newspapers.

Not to be confused with Mary H.C. Booth who also published a book called "Wayside Flowers" and lived in Milwaukee in the 1860s.

------------------------------------

Funeral of Mrs. Washington Wright. - Quite a large concourse of people attended the funeral of Mrs. Washington Wright ("Topsy Turvy,") at the Unitarian Church yesterday. Rev. Horatio Stebbins officiated. He spoke briefly, but with much feeling, about the life and character of the deceased; the trials through which she had passed from earliest youth till she cast her fortunes in this far off land, and the triumphs which she had achieved in the face of poverty and severe domestic afflictions.

(San Francisco Bulletin - Tuesday, May 05, 1868)

------------------------------------

Daughter of Rev. Isaac S. House and Abigail Scarritt House. Granddaughter of Rev. Elisha House and Rev. Isaac Scarritt. Likely named after her aunt (her father's sister).

"The History of the Scarritt Clan in America" by Ralph E. Pearson (1938) does not seem to provide the correct history of the Abigail Scarritt House family.

Her father and older sister died in Massachusetts of consumption.

She lived with her grandfather and relatives in Michigan after her parents died.

In 1854 was married to Charles Chauncy Chamberlain, a Milwaukee postal clerk from New York. The marriage occurred at the house of her maternal aunt Martha Scarritt Springer who was living in Milwaukee. Rev. Elihu Springer, Martha, and their children were living in Milwaukee on the 1850 Census. Rev. Springer died in 1850 of cholera and is buried in Wisconsin.

A poem she wrote for her youngest child that died implied that she gave birth to five children but that only two were still living.

She journeyed ahead of her husband when they went to California to live with his brother Lou Chamberlain. While she was voyaging from New York to California in 1863, her husband died while still working for the Post Office in Milwaukee. According to a newspaper article about her life, just before landing in San Francisco her infant Archie Dean died. Another poem published earlier in Milwaukee mentions a son Willie ("Wee Willie") in heaven so I would guess the child to be named William.

After this she tried to make a living with her writing. She wrote for both the Golden Era and the Sunday Mercury. She was known as a humorist and feuilletonist writer.

In 1865 she married Washington Wright. He died in 1866.

She gave her two surviving children up for adoption in 1868 when she was dying of consumption. Her grown daughter Mabel lived in North California in the 1890s and still had some of her mother's poems. (According to "The Story of the Files: A Review of California Writers and Literature" by Ella Sterling Mighels published in 1893). Her son Louis was living in San Jose with William Manly and Mary J. Manly in 1870 but is not seen on the next census. Unsure if this was who adopted Louis originally, but W.L. Manly was an early pioneer of California and survived and early expedition through Death Valley. It seems that Lou may have been a young man that killed himself in Andrews, Oregon in 1904. He had been living life on a ranch, but prior to that had been in the news printing business and involved in literary societies near San Jose.

Books:

Wayside Flowers (1862, Milwaukee)

Inglenook (1868, San Francisco)

The Letter Writer (1868)

Wayside Flowers was dedicated to "To Darling Cousin Sue" (Susan Candace Springer). Sue had 12 children, 11 which saw adulthood (her daughter Florence "Floy" died as a child in 1858). She wrote a poem about Little Floy that was published in one of her books. Was published by Strickland and Co., "Booksellers and Stationers." Strickland & Co. was William Strickland and Edwin Upson. This book is also cataloged on its library of Congress Card (in the 1930s) by "Mrs. M.H. Chamberlain or Carrie Carlton.

In 1867 started a magazine called "Every Day Life" along with Robert Desty. Unsure how many issues, if any, were published.

------------------------------------

A few days before her death some one said to her: "When you are dead I shall kiss this lily-white hand." That night she set up to write the poem which has made her best known.

When I Am Dead.

When you are dead and lying at rest

With your white hands folded above your breast-

Beautiful hands, too well I know,

As white as the lilies, as cold as the snow,

I will come and bend o'er your marble form,

Your cold hands cover with kisses warm,

And the words I will speak and the tears I will shed

Will tell I have loved you-when you are dead!

When you are dead your name shall rise

From the dust of the earth to the very skies,

And every voice that has sung your lays

Shall wake an echo to sound your praise.

Your name shall live through the coming age

Inscribed on Fame's mysterious page,

'Neath the towering marble shall rest your head,

But you'll live in memory-when you are dead!

Then welcome, Death ! thrice welcome be !

I am almost weary waiting for thee;

Life gives no recompense-toil no gain,

I seek for love and I find but pain;

Lily white hands have grown pale in despair

Of the warm red kisses which should be their share.

Sad, aching heart has grown weary of song,

No answering echo their notes prolong;

Then take me, Oh, Death, to they grim embrace!

Press quickly they kiss on my eager face,

For I have been promised, oh, bridegroom dread,

Both Love and Fame-when I am dead!

-Elizabeth Chamberlain Wright ("Carrie Carlton," "Topsy Turvy.")

------------------------------------

Goldenhair Sleeps

Out in the garden, the angels' new garden,

Make for my darling his last peaceful bed;

Make it so lovingly, smooth it out tenderly;

Remember my bosom last pillowed his head.

Hush, little sister; hush, little brother;

Pierce not my heart with your pitiful cries;

Nestle here in my bosom, you're all that is left me,

Two on the earth and three in the skies.

Though we are almost heart broken, my darlings,

'Tis the good Shepherd our little lamb keeps,

Safe in His bosom, now happy forever,

Goldenhair sleeps.

------------------------------------

Lines:

WRITTEN WITH A PENCIL ON MY CHILDREN'S TOMB.

A MOTHER'S idols sleep in silence here,

In Heaven their songs are swelling high;

Let pity drop a sympathizing tear,

But not for them, for her whose eyes are dry.

For her whose heart goes mourning all the day,

Listening for voices that she may not hear;

Yearning for faces hid beneath this clay,

Her grief too deep for a refreshing tear.

(From "Wayside Flowers" published in Milwaukee in 1862)

------------------------------------

From https:/www.abaa.org (Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America): Wayside Flowers. By Carrie Carlton [pseud] "The pseudonymous Carrie Carlton seems little known by her real name or even with certainty identified. OCLC catalogs her under Carlton, though the British Library makes the only feint toward Mary Booth Chamberlain; she apparently settled in California and wrote for the Golden Era and the Sunday Mercury, becoming what Ella Sterling Mighels (in her standard account of California literature, The Story of the Files) would characterize as one of the first professional women journalists in California. Though the Library Journal in 1877 gives the name Mary Booth as the identity behind the pseudonym Carrie Carlton, Mighels reports that she was the widow of one Washington Wright and gives her name as Elizabeth Chamberlain Wright. (Mighels also misspells the poetís pseudonymous surname as Carleton.) Per Mighels, Carrie Carlton died in 1868 at the age of 32, and was buried in Masonic Cemetery in San Francisco."

------------------------------------

"And there was Carrie Carlton, the author of several books and of a great deal of bright, cheerful verse in the Golden Era while, at the same time, she conducted a sort of gossip column in the Sunday Mercury under the pen-name of Topsy Turvy. She is said to have been the first woman in California who tried to live by journalistic work exclusively. That she did not succeed is attested to by the fact that she died in 1868, at the age of 32, of malnutrition and privation.

(California's Literary Women by Gustave O. Arlt - The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly - 1949)

------------------------------------

The photo of Topsy Turvy was in the belongings of John Macdonough Foard, publisher of the Golden Era newspaper.

------------------------------------

Possibly a friend/associate of fellow Sunday Mercury contributor "Old Block" Alonzo Delano.

------------------------------------

Note:

Meanwhile, a woman named Anah Caroline Waters Aldrich (1835-1879) of West Sutton, Massachussetts used the pseudonym "Carrie Carlton" to publish poetry and some prose in "Mothers' Journal", "Boston Cultivator," and other papers. She was the first wife of Moses Alphonso Aldrich. She had six children. (From "The Descendants of Eleazer Flagg" published 1903).

------------------------------------

------------------------------------

Note:

Meanwhile, a woman named Anah Caroline Waters Aldrich (1835-1879) of West Sutton, Massachussetts used the pseudonym "Carrie Carlton" to publish poetry and some prose in "Mothers' Journal", "Boston Cultivator," and other papers. She was the first wife of Moses Alphonso Aldrich. She had six children. (From "The Descendants of Eleazer Flagg" published 1903).

------------------------------------