Mistletoe Kisses

Sent a Box of Mistletoe to Recall a First Kiss

“SIGN on the dotted line, lady.”

“But are you sure this is for me?”

“It says, ‘Miss Martha Brent, 220 Cassland;’ ain’t that you? There’s no mistake; its yours all right.”

Miss Brent drew the box into the house and opened it with trembling hands. And there stood a box filled with mistletoe, lovely white berries like pearls.

“What in the world!” ejaculated Miss Brent. “Mistletoe for an old maid! It must be a joke!”

But she took it out and decorated her tiny home.

That night her door bell rang. When she went to the door there stood a prosperous, middle-aged man.

His hair was beginning to turn gray and he had a vaguely familiar look.

“Miss Martha,” he said, “thirty years ago tonight we were attending a party at Mary Holland’s. I kissed you under the mistletoe and you boxed my ears soundly. I said, ‘I thought girls liked to be kissed.’ You replied, ‘Not by a good-for-nothing Fitzgerald.’

“I’m no longer good-for-nothing. May I try again, Martha?”

— Jane Roth.
(c. 1927. Western Newspaper Union.)

The Deming Headlight (Deming, New Mexico) Dec 16, 1927

Appleton Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Dec 2, 1921

A Queer Old Maid

Fort Knox, Vincennes, Indiana

Death of a Queer Old Maid

A charitable old lady, named Rosa Dellahans, more familiarly known as “Aunt Rosa,” lately died in Vincennes, Indiana, in the 83d year of her age. She had such an antipathy to the male sex that she never held communication with males when she could avoid it. Even her will had to be written by her female friends, to whom she also entrusted the disposal of her property.

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) Mar 22, 1852

On the 1830 census for Knox County, Rosanna Dolohan is listed living with two females, one under the age of 5, and another between 10 and 15. Rosanna is shown to be between 40 and 50 years of age.

On the 1840 census, Rosan Dollahan is shown living with two females between the ages of 5 and 10, in Knox County, Indiana.

In 1850, Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana, she is shown living with a Mary Gadlet, age 20, born Illinois. Rosan is listed as being about 76 years of age, and born in Ireland.