Treasure Chest Thursday - Grandma Hibsch's Bible Verse Book

Don't you just love it when discoveries show up unexpectedly? For me this time it didn't happen in a library but in my own home.

A box of photos had been sitting in my home "genealogy space" for months.  The assortment included family and work-related pictures.  Somewhat organized by me a long while ago.  Recently I was going through the box again removing all Halloween pictures from my former office.  I had promised to send a co-worker all the pictures in which he appeared.

What fun going down memory lane reflecting on the very creative people that I worked with! Ok, enough of that I said to myself.  About a dozen pictures featured my friend Jim so into a padded envelope they went and were mailed.

As the sorting continued, I came across a small book that I didn't know I had.  The envelope in which I found it included photos and documents my father gave me several years ago.  Maybe he had the book all along and that's why I don't recall receiving it.  And why oh why did I not look inside the envelope upon receipt?

The book was  called "Bible Forget me nots". The cover is slightly padded in a silk-like fabric.  The condition seems quite good, no stains are evident.  Look at those dainty blue flowers.

Cover of "Bible Forget me nots"

Copyright 1898

The DeWolfe, Fiske and Company of Boston, Massachusetts published the book in 1898, the year before Ethel May Kendall Hibsch, my grandmother, was born.  Each of its 31 pages have short selections from the Bible.  The book was intended for children.  Only one edition was published.  Ten WorldCat member libraries have a copy, the nearest to me being The Huntington Library in San Marino, Los Ageles, California.

Inscription page

And here's the page of two treasures.  I almost missed the page that makes this book most valuable to me because they were stuck together.  Look at that - a handwritten note from Grandma Hibsch:

Dear Denise, This book

was given to me by my

Mother, your great-grand-

mother Kendall. Please keep

it always.

Grandma Hibsch

Can you see the top of the page?  Click the image for a better view.  In pencil, in the handwriting of my then 10 year old Grandma Hibsch was her inscription:

from Mamma

December 25, 1909

First Day of Bible Verses

Did 10 year old Ethel have a favorite Bible verse? Unfortunately, none of the 31 daily selections had a mark signaling any significance to her.

From her girlhood days my Grandma Hibsch valued everything with the family name on it.

Her foresight is my fortune.
  
Moral of the story - clean out your box of photos.