Three Sisters From Boonville

Sisters Ellen, Minerva (Mina), and Dorothy Crandall, grew up in a disadvantaged family in Boonville New York during the era of the Great Depression. They often went barefoot in the summertime and wore cast-off shoes and clothes at a time when young girls were expected to perform domestic labor, such as washing clothes, fetching water, and cooking meals.

While other girls played games like hopscotch, skip rope, and double Dutch, they left school to enter the world of work, all while having to deal with dysfunctional parents who suffered from alcoholism and mental illness. Despite living a hard life and enduring the usual childhood diseases and their own issues with alcohol abuse and emotional distress, they were always at each other’s side offering solace.

During their childbearing years they set aside the family bickering, discord, and strife, to provide a household of love, comfort, and stability to their children.