Mrs H M Boies recalls the way Scranton appeared fifty years ago. She was a little girl when her father, the late Thomas Dickson, lived on Washington avenue.
"Across the street on the other corner there were stumps that afforded a playground for us all," said Mrs Boies in speaking of the times. "We used to play 'I Spy' and a certain big stump was the goal. Kitty Chittenden, (Mrs M I Corbett), Nellie Chittenden, George Sanderson and other boys and girls were among my playmates.
"I remember we used to have to walk on planks that were raised up on stilts along where the Republican building and the postoffice are. The miner boys, riding on mules used to come out from the Fairlawn after us along the swamp and scare us girls almost to death.
"I remember during the war that father wanted to get up a regiment and mother objected. All the little girls that I knew used to go to Mrs Stowers' house (Mrs A M Decker's mother), and she taught us how to make 'housewives' -- little bags, something like those they call 'comfort-bags' now. We sent them off to the soldiers. I put a New Testament in my 'housewife' and wrote a little letter to the soldiers who might happen to get it. After a long time a letter came to me from a Jacob Schultz, who was wounded at Antietam. He wrote that he hoped I would be a good little housewife for a good man. He lived at Andover, NY.
"One thing I can remember about the war was that a piece of cotton cloth cost $50."