Purple Violets: Prologue

Boonville, New York, was inhabited by the Iroquois Confederacy and settled by the Europeans in the late 1790s. Indigenous people hunted the region for centuries until the land was sold to incoming settlers. In many indigenous cultures, adoption was a widespread traditional practice that legally and socially recognized a person as part of a family or tribe. This shared ancestry involves individuals who share a common ancestor, but are not necessarily descendants.    

  Ellen “Nellie” Binhamer was born on August 3, 1870. She and her husband, Charles, born in 1865, were married on June 6, 1889. They had three children: Winona, Nicholas, and August. Winona married Edwin Crandall in Watertown, New York, in 1919 and moved to Boonville, New York, in 1920.  They raised three daughters, Ellen, Dorothy, and Eunice. 

The social norms of the late 1800s shaped Winona’s relationship with her mother. She was taught the importance of being the keeper of tradition and the essential skills for managing a home and family. She never felt a need to emulate her mother and had little interest in creating her own identity. Her life revolved around consuming large amounts of alcohol, knitting and crocheting, and tending her prized red rose bushes. 

Her overbearing father, Charles, made decisions for the entire family, without affection of any kind, and used the allotted amount of punishment for the slightest amount of disobedience. His sons were considered their father’s “property” until age 21 and were expected to work for their father or be indentured to learn a trade. Charles took up carpentry. August navigated a perilous yet lucrative career as a bootlegger alongside his father. 

Winona’s family moved in with Charles. He died unexpectedly in a suspicious fire started from a smoldering cigar, and as a result, Nellie had a breakdown. She began an addictive lifestyle, furthering her declining health, and because of her excessive hostility and drunkenness, she kicked everybody out. A speck of guilt led her to permit Winona and her family to live next door. 

August found a small apartment on Main Street and a year later married his childhood sweetheart, Stella. Infertility denied them the ability to bear children. Nicholas married Florence, and they lived on the other side of the duplex with their daughter, Betty.   

Nelli, having secrets of her own, squandered the little money Charles left her. She then persuades Ellen to stay with her on unspecified nights to cook meals, carry out household chores, and run errands during the day. Her father, Edwin, didn’t mind as long as she was there in the morning to make him breakfast, while her mother, Winona, cared very little.