Take a look at pictures of Rosa roxburghii, the Chesnut Rose.
It's a repeating rose (when trees aren't shading it out after first bloom.)
The phrase "Momma's blushing" would be a lovely way to express the colors on roxburghii as it grows in our part of the country. Elsewhere, the blush is a bit less with stronger sunlight in midsummer.
It is impervious to fungal problems, which may explain why it is a survivor here.

Most other found roses around here that could be described as blushing aren't repeat bloomers. (Seven sisters and the rose that might be Shailor's Provence.) A bicolor rambler came along about eighty years later and is a once bloomer.

I haven't been under my roxburghii yet this season but I may have a sucker for you. (I'm in Grainger Co. Tn, just down the road from the road to Cumberland Gap.)

Ooh, thanks.
I've had this mentioned as well as 'Seven Sisters' and 'Old Blush'.
I may need to find someone to question more closely about the color!

Ok, I've made an error- it was not "good, healthy pink", but "good healthy plant".
I just had it described to me as "very pale pink, almost white."

Sorry- 100% memory fail on my end.

Any pictures, even old black & white ones, would help.

Jackie

Could it be Old Grey Cemetery Noisette? OGCN might be too young for early 1800's, but it does rebloom, it can be six feet tall easily, and it hasn't had any black spot in my garden. And the found location isn't far at all from where the trail to Cumberland Gap used to be.

Take a look at this link for a picture of it with my white cat in the background...it's the only way I could get that very pale pink to show up at all. And the photo was late fall; midsummer the pink is much less subtle.

The Clotilde Soupert photo in that thread is another pale pink possibility, but is much younger having been introduced in 1890.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos at the end of the thread

That is a lovely rose, but I have never seen the one I am looking for and no photos exist. I am going off of old descriptions from letters written.

Thanks everyone for trying to help, and keep suggestions coming :)

Blush Noisette is an early rose, it has a lovely blush hint of color to the bloom. The blooms are a pinkish-white shade.

I grow it, and have found it to be quite a tough rose that can tolerate cold winters.

Just to clarify,

It grew as a shrub about 4-6 feet tall/diameter and was a prolific bloomer and quite hardy.

by "prolific" do you mean it repeat-bloomed (multiple times throughout the growing season with a rest in between each round of bloom), or did it just bloom a lot once per season for a few weeks in springtime?

A repeater.

Would that Blush Noisette have been widely distributed that early? I believe they would have "come through the Gap" as early as the 1820's or so...
I guess they could have acquired it after that, but again- it was a very isolated area and not a lot of traffic.

I had no idea there were so many named varieties that early!

According to Helpmefind, Blush Noisette dates to 1814.

It's fascinating to think about the histories of the antique roses, so many gardens graced over the years.

Eastern Kentucky is a half a zone to a full zone colder than my garden. I have a friend who is a half zone colder and the classic noisettes die to the ground for her most winters.

Another factor is the freeze of 1985. That freeze found temps in our part of the world going down to -25 to -29F for three consecutive nights. This acted like a lethal sieve to most modern roses and (presumably) to many old roses that were to that time taken for granted. A local hybrid china that is a once bloomer only survived from roots UNDER a huge stone step from which it's canes emerge whenever the road crews don't cut too closely.

The weather and found roses we have now has to be understood in the context of that horrid three day freeze and the damage it did.

I rooted cuttings of my husband's great-grandmother's rose from the old homeplace in TN a couple of years ago. Found out that it is Marie Pavie. It is very healthy, very easy to root, blooms almost constantly and smells wonderful. It is a pale pink, almost white. My husband's family is from Humphrey's County, TN. I have many of them now and guess that they would round out at about 4 feet. My first guess was "old blush". Was the rose scented?--Old blush is not very scented. Marie Pavie is 1888, but in my experience, people can estimated roses to be a bit older than they really are. If you Google "Marie Pavie Rose" several good photos come up.

Krista, you didn't grow Blush Noisette in Zone 4, did you?

cearbhaill, take a look at this photo. It's what made me get this rose, but I'm in Florida.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Ronda in Carolina's Blush Noisette

Sherry, I do currently grow Blush Noisette in my upstate NY garden. It does get some cane dieback in the winter, but rebounds well. It doesn't grow tall here, reaches 4 feet tall.

It has done well for me, so I've added more Noisettes to the garden in recent years: Tutta's Pink Noisette, Annie Vibert, and Mme Alfred Carriere.

Here is a link that might be useful: Noisettes in a Vase

I am 6b because of my proximity to the Ohio River- there is a ribbon of 'warmth' along either side that extends for a couple of miles, and as the crow flies I am about a mile away. My bananas and Needle Palm and bamboos survive with protection (I use straw and burlap, even Christmas lights if necessary), so one would think I could keep a rose going.

But I lived in Ft. Lauderdale in '85 and those temperatures scare me to death!!

Loving all the suggestions. So far appearance wise I love the Blush Noisette most as it just looks so charmingly antique. I suppose if there is one variety that would be a lot more hardy than another I should choose the hardy one. But size is not really an issue as I don't particularly want huge plants and to be honest, if it died back each winter and came back all neat and compact it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I am thinking of putting three in my front yard, so don't necessarily want the extreme monsters I have in the back with my other roses. I have Iceberg climbers along a fence line and they can be difficult to "manage". I want to spare myself that in the front by first getting the shrub form, and second not ending up with something that knows no bounds.

Have you visited the Lanier House in Madisonville Indiana? It's also on the Ohio and they have a long history of growing old garden roses (and keeping them alive.) They also have a pair of solid wood obelisks that are built so that they can be lowered to the ground for protection in winter.

If you go, ask about the noisettes that they grow as low growing shrubs that come back yearly. They're on either side of the brick walk stairs that are at the top of the garden closest to the house. I'd like to know if the pair have survived for the eight years since we visited that garden.

I am not the right person to talk about an American rose but I believe Banshee is old enough to qualify as a candidate?

I was going to suggest Banshee myself as an excellent candidate except that Cearbhaill said the family rose was a repeat-bloomer. Banshee does not repeat.

Rosefolly