The Waverly Balls

In Buffalo's Delaware Avenue. the Waverly Balls given by Charles Cary Rumsey's granparents are mentioned.

The first time I heard about them was in the Delaware Avenue exhibit at the Buffalo History Museum in the late 1990s. The Barlett Family was featured. These events were inspired by novels by Walter Scott. You were expected to come dressed as one of the characters from his books. In City of Light, Lauren Belfer's novel about the Delaware District in 1901, the characters go to these. The Rumseys in this book from the Dexter Rumsey branch of the family tree.

You can see photographs of the balls in the "Scrapbook Collection" at Central Library.

Several years ago, a neighbor was getting rid of books, and I found a Walter Scott novel. I kept it just to have a tangible reminder of the Waverly Balls. I did try to read it, but Old English is so much harder to read than new English!

Image: This Victorian cabinet cardwas taken by Leo Palmer of 512 Main St. in Buffalo, New York. A hand written note on the back identifies the subject as Elizabeth Bates Griffin Warren, Mrs Orsamus George Warren, and the occasion as the Waverley Ball.

To learn more about the Warrens, visit http://books.google.com/books?id=te2ZTSdTOU0C&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=Orsamus+George+Warren3&source=bl&ots=-rAQVaDxtU&sig=ui-FfiXtEz47ROttIB3ubLFs6VQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YueHUpnoIrbesATO1YLgCw&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Orsamus%20George%20Warren3&f=false

When not time traveling, working out, or hanging out at the Burchfield Penney, Mary Beth Parrinello is the religion teacher in the Montessori program at Nardin Academy in Buffalo, N.Y. She also volunteers her time at Westminster Presbytarian Church, C.G. Jung Center, and Junior League of Buffalo, which was founded by Mary Harriman Rumsey, Charles Cary Rumsey's wife!