This Mother’s Day card was made by Sarah E. Horton (1904-1975) for her mother, Maria Horton (1879-1964), on May 13, 1917. Possibly a school project, Sarah’s heartfelt booklet is bound together with a green string and contains several pages of writing about her mother and the holiday’s history, and quotations by historical figures. Created only three years after Mother’s Day was deemed a national observance, Sarah’s card exemplifies how the day was initially celebrated.
Sarah’s card also gives us insight into her life in East Hampton. Her mother, Maria, was the oldest daughter of George Lewis Fowler (1860-1931) and Sarah Melissa Horton Fowler (1857-1928), who lived in the Fowler House in Freetown, the first and only designated landmark recognizing the Montaukett Tribe.
Today, the Fowler House stands at 95 Springs-Fireplace Road, near the intersection with North Main Street. Parts of the house were originally located at Indian Field in Montauk, where the Fowlers lived before being forced out by Arthur W. Benson’s purchase of most of Montauk in 1879.
By 1885 the Fowlers had moved to Freetown, where the couple lived with their seven children and grandchildren, who included Sarah and her two older siblings, Dorothy (1899-1917) and Leonard (1903-1986). Sarah and Leonard attended East Hampton schools, with Sarah achieving high academic marks.
According to naturalization records, Sarah moved to Brooklyn after she married Ashley Boyce, a Trinidadian immigrant, in the mid-1920s. She eventually moved back to Freetown to live with her mother and brother, and, according to the family, kept a library in the Fowler House. Leonard was the last of the family to reside there. Sarah died in 1975 and is buried with her family at Cedar Lawn Cemetery.
Sarah’s card, now in the Long Island Collection, has been preserved for more than a hundred years by her descendants, reciprocating and memorializing the love she had for them.
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Megan Bardis is a librarian and archivist in the Long Island Collection.
