Letter Excerpt, Dec. 30th 1918 Saturday, Dec 7 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events , , acairfearann 20:41

Also known as: ‘And we think we have problems with the mail, and waiting more than five minutes for a reply? Horrors!’

“Dec. 30, 1918

My dear Dad,

Your letter of Dec. 9th and mailed on Dec. 12th just received so mail is going to be better perhaps. It usually has taken much longer you see. By Dec. 9th you should have heard from me, but Lord only knows what becomes of mail from this end. No! I’m not a Major but have had the pleasure of running three of them as operations officer thru the fighting and am back at my old job as Reg. I.O. and quite content as I’ve written before. When anything is fresh in my mind, it seems as if I could sit down and write reams of interesting stuff, but the old war is stale already and tonight no incidents pop into my head to come out on paper – when the things you wanted to know about happened old boy Censor was on the job, (he still is by the way on certain matters – casualties for one) and opportunities to sit down and write those reams were few and far between. What we want most is to sit down and talk about it and as the soldier was never accused of being any kin to the violet we will do some talking one of these days – even in talking amongst ourselves the stories that were originally concerned with patrols are now all about attacks – from some of the clippings you have sent, New York is already suffering. Wait ‘til we all descend on you!

New Year’s Eve is almost here and our mess is much troubled over the outlook – shopping for food hereabouts is difficult but today I managed to find some wild boar meat and know where the champagne tree grows – it still flourishes here – so we won’t fare badly at all. Our Xmas was a great success – did I write to thank you for the cigarettes? They helped a lot – at that time none had received a Xmas 9 x 4 brick and we All appreciated this one.”

From a letter by Capt. Bradford Ellsworth, A.E.F. 306th Infantry, 77th Division; to his father, William Webster Ellsworth, back home at Esperanza. (although by the time he received the letter, they would have closed the house for the winter and would have been in NYC, delaying its arrival even more!)

Yes, still working on that transcription project.

 

Gambling Man Saturday, Nov 30 2013 

Historical Events , acairfearann 14:31

From a letter by Morris to Julie, 1856 (she was in Brockport, NY; he was in New Orleans)  He was thirty (I think), managing the New Orleans branch of the business, in what was a boom town.  Julie was 38, managing three children (another on the way), and elderly parents in upstate New York.  The letters are a testament to a rock-solid marriage…

“For preface you must understand that Dick made a bet with John P. Fowler and Geo W. Helm on his account, in connection with Shepard and myself. As the odds were 1,000,000,000 to 1 in our favor, of course Shep and I went in. The bet was this. If Fowler got married the ensuing summer and Helm did not, Helm was to pay a dinner costing $100 – and if Helm was married and Fowler not – Fowler was to pay. If neither were married the bet was off. If both were married – Dick, Shep, and I were to pay.  The extreme improbability of our losing was great odds in our favor. I had forgotten all about it – and was surprised when called on for the payment of the bet.”

The company (it ended up being a dinner for 13) involved got their money’s worth…. “Among the curiosities that were shown me next day was the following wine bill: 1 Bottle of Hock, 4 Bottles of Claret, 6 Bottles of Sherry, 12 Bottles of Champagne, 1 Bowl of Whiskey Punch.”

I am hoping that either the Champagne was actually glasses, or the bottles were small, or something.  If not….

 

11 a.m. November 11 Monday, Nov 11 2013 

Historical Events , , acairfearann 10:37

23 November 1918

La Neufor (near St. Menehould, France.)

My Dear Dad and All:

It seems strange to start a letter by naming a town, and stranger still this town, for this is where we started the great drive through the Argonne Forest to the Meuse, which we had crossed when the Boche quit.

…Since August 10th this regiment has slept under the open sky, right up until the 11th of November. On August 10th we went in on the Vesle River and scrapped there and to the Aisne. As soon as the Aisne was reached we came here, or rather to Givry in trucks, and started the greatest forest fighting in history.

…We have not had the publicity or the limelight of some others but Gen’l Pershing has said, “there is no better in the army and none that can be banked on to accomplish its task as well as the 77th.” That’s praise enough for us, and history will tell the story someday.

…Sept. 20th at 5 A.M. was the start of the attack with artillery. Lordy! How they did roar. Some days we would nibble off a kilo (kilometer), other days not a foot, but never could the Boche make us give way a foot. The Argonne is as thick a woods as you have ever seen; steep ravines covered with thick underbrush, and it was defended by the 120th division Landwehr troops, who had been in these same woods for eighteen months. They were a first-class division, and made up of woodsmen who knew every path and trick in those damnable woods…

I’ll never go into the woods again or underbrush without my heart in my throat. It was literally impossible to discover a machine gun nest except by the sudden cutting down of yourself or someone else. The manual says that machine gun nests shall be destroyed by ‘flank attacks and by the use of hand and rifle grenades and the 37 mm. gun” Oh Jay! The man or board who wrote that knows nothing. Did he ever try to throw a ball and have his arm caught by brush? Or fire a rifle grenade which would be stopped by woods in ten feet? Or pull the lanyard on a 37mm gun knowing that the shell would explode as soon as it left the muzzle? You can bet something he wasn’t thinking of the Argonne. ‘Use your auxiliary arms” Another joke. The arms you used were your own and twenty-two days of hand to hand fighting was what we got. The regiment got just that and ended up with the brilliant and expensive taking of St. Juvin and Hill 182. That was in the open, wide open, and it was this that carried men forward who were so worn and weary that they would sleep when halted under the heaviest kind of shell fire. It was the relief after being stifled by underbrush and woods that made us take that hill and carried two and part of another battalion against three regiments of Germans – youngsters this time of a Guard Division – and we licked them to a standstill. Two regiments of Hell’s children counter-attacked…and they were literally beaten to death, those that didn’t get by as prisoners.

I’ll never forget the days of October 10th and 14th. It took twelve of my best friends in the regiment that one afternoon of the 14th, but they died the most glorious death in the world and we mourn them not….

Right after St. Juvin we were relieved for fourteen days, staying just behind the lines for replacements and equipment, preparing for the push to the Meuse…and then back for another go at the Hun. We started almost exactly where we had left off…We jumped off Nov. 1st and crossed the Meuse near Stenay-Autrecourt on the night of the 6th and held there under the Boche’s nose until the armistice went into effect.

…As for staying in the army, no. I’ve done enough. I’m tired, so damned tired I’ll never get rested it seems to me…Personally, the war has brought me knowledge of men and things, what they think even without their speaking. It has brought me a greater love for my country, it has brought me the satisfaction of doing my job well.…and Dad, I’m through.

Will see you soon

Your affectionate son,

Bradford.

(Captain Bradford Ellsworth, Intelligence Officer, 306th Regiment, 77th Infantry Division)

Bradford was the son of William Webster Ellsworth and Helen Yale Smith Ellsworth.

 

Healthcare Sunday, Oct 27 2013 

Uncategorized acairfearann 19:57

and different worlds…. a paragraph from a letter by Julie, 1859, to Morris:

“Lottie has been in bed since Sunday (letter written on Wednesday) and is under the Dr’s care. She has a fever, I suppose it is an attack of worms, and is as restless and uncomfortable as only she can be. I hope she will be better soon. I was afraid we should lose her. There has been such dying among the children in this quarter that I was very nervous. She seems though to be better and I hope she will soon be on her feet again.”

Before and after that paragraph in the letter discusses other, more mundane news as usual.  There was, of course, nothing to be done one way or the other: Julie was in Hartford and Morris was in New Orleans; if their daughter was deathly ill it would, most likely, have been over before any letter (let alone a reply!) arrived.  Given the emphatic past tense in the paragraph, Julie may well have held off on writing until the outcome was certain, but still…  A very different world from ours of instant communication!

 

Confound this pen! Monday, Oct 21 2013 

Historical Events , acairfearann 18:33

From a letter by Julie, winter of 1859:

“Dear Morris,

I hate to write today because this abominable old pen makes me nervous, and my head aches on the top of it to split. It rains out of doors and drizzles and drops. The clock ticks loud enough for a drum in a dead march. The children can’t go to school because the slush is a foot deep on the pavement. Altogether, I feel out of sorts, confound this pen! I have a great mind to crunch it on the floor, it spoils my temper.”

 

One does wonder if the original letter had an ink blot or two due to a difficult fountain pen….  Despite her difficulty with the pen, Julie goes on for a bit over a page (typed) perhaps with a new pen?  There are some good things about modern computers!

 

Texting has not the same flair… Wednesday, Oct 2 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events acairfearann 22:16

I haven’t done a letter excerpt from Julie and Morris in months, so here is a particularly fine passage from Julie, April 26, 1857:

“Now Dearest if you reach home once more in safety, as God grant you may, I will try if I can to make you happier than I have ever done. My boy, I hope the romance of your first love has not quiet died out. If so I must be in fault, for it ought to live always. I love you with the same kind of passionate fondness as I did at first. I feel the same wild thrill of pleasure when your image rises before me and I sit musing. Your voice has still the magic spell that held me and led me long ago almost against my better judgement to stay near you and listen to your words. I sit now as then, and ponder your dear ways….*….You inspired the first poetry of love I ever wrote and that bright star is still the brightest, and the dearest that shines in my Heavens.”

*It is a private love letter, nothing explicit but private indeed, and your editor is feeling old fashioned!

 

Deciphering old letters Wednesday, May 15 2013 

Genealogy , acairfearann 12:54

Reading difficult handwriting is an interesting example of how the mind works. We have a wonderful ability to fill in gaps and decipher unreadable pieces, as long as there is some context. It has some similarity with certain word games, combining Scrabble and Fill-in-the-blank. One rapidly becomes aware of whether or not one has mastered a hand, however, when confronted with a proper name. Context and familiarity can help: if the place name or last name is an expected one, chances are better that it will be deciphered. On the other hand, if it is a place name or last name (those are especially bad) which is entirely unfamiliar, one’s actual ability is quickly revealed. Sometimes, a last name is doomed to obscurity. I have a passage here: ‘we moved Mrs. P????’s piano’ from a letter I am working on. Well, Mrs. P. doesn’t show up again in the letter, and the involved letters ‘i,e,l,b,r’ are blurred. An educated guess can be made: ‘Pollbiers’ but, frankly that doesn’t ‘feel’ right. So, a question mark is left, and one moves on. Maybe, at some point it will be made clear, either by increased familiarity or by a better example. Still it is likely that she will remain as ‘Mrs. P.’ Personally, I have a sneaking suspicion that the difficulty in deciphering odd last names is part of the explanation behind the old style of saying, ‘Mrs. B.’ or ‘Mr. M.’ along, of course, with space and labour saving.

 

Letters Friday, Apr 26 2013 

Historical Events , , acairfearann 10:02

A short vignette from a letter by Martha Kilbourne to Helen, dated 1873. Martha, or Mattie, was one of Helen’s close friends, she was 16 when she wrote this letter.
“Lizzie is in Great Barrington and will stay there until school commences. It is so very warm she does not dare to go down to Conn. She is boarding in a splendid old farm house. It has two very large rooms on the first floor, her room is over 20 feet square, is furnished in the modern style and very richly. Her parlor is richly furnished it has pale green with rose buds embroidered on it (note: she means the furniture in the room, not the room!). It has two sofas, one sleepy hollow chair, four easy chairs, a large table, inlaid cabinet, piano, and a beautiful case for music. She has a balcony running by both rooms.”
It is clear from the description, since the parlor is unlikely to have been much larger than Lizzie’s other room, that excessive amounts of furniture are typical in upper middle class houses of this time period. The sheer number of chairs! (the original transcription, I should add, suggests there are another 11 chairs…but I have my doubts about the transcription)* A piano would almost be a required item for Lizzie, or any girl in that class, during the summer in order to keep up with her lessons.
Esperanza’s excess of furniture was clearly not a unique situation…

* the eleven is the only number that is typed as a number and not as a word, and there are several other longer numbers in the letter which are typed as words. This discrepancy rings alarm bells.

 

Historical Perspectives Sunday, Apr 14 2013 

Historical Events and Projects , acairfearann 12:15

I am poking at the project of working through the Ellsworth letters (mostly Emily Webster Ellsworth, Oliver Ellsworth, and Caroline Cleveland Smith with dates between 1820-1860)* I say poking, because the transcription is going to be daunting and it is an open question as to how many people are actually interested. Still, on my first letter I think there is some promise.

This is from July 1847 from Roswell C. Smith to his daughter Caroline (later the wife of Oliver, who was the grandson of the chief justice Oliver and son of William Wolcott Ellsworth). It is a curious letter in many respects, but it is also an interesting glimpse into a very new technology: railroads. Caroline was travelling from New Haven to Hartford by the railroad, rather than the stage. We would look at this letter and wonder why her father is making such a fuss (she was grown and living independently) until we remember that the railroad is the first Mechanical form of travel. A horse or a stage coach, though potentially quite dangerous, will attempt to react and avoid someone stepping out in front of them; they may not succed, but a reaction will occur. A rail car (or an automobile or a plane or an industrial engine or a power tool or…) cannot and will not. We, theoretically, understand that there are many mechanical devices which will continue on their path regardless of a person being in the way.* However, in 1847 many people unless they worked in some of the factories would have little or no experience with this. Looked at that way, the paragraph makes a bit more sense, in my opinion.

“It will be rather difficult for you to pick out your baggage, get it carried up to the City Hotel etc. but you will know more after the trial. Recollect not to stand outside or in front of the cars at any time, one man, Mr. Stockport, who married Miss Benjamin of Norwich, Foster’s wife’s mother’s daughter, lost his life instantly by so doing. Keep in the cars till they stop. In Hartford the baggage is taken off a few rods behind where the cars stop, before it comes to the depot, it goes over a little bridge near ?, then backs some ways into the Hartford depot. Always remem. to stay inside of the cars till they stop. I may give Burgess some directions, as I shall probably be there the day before you arrive as I shall learn by your letter.”

*That is what the box says…whether the list is accurate…no one knows.
*I say theoretically, Youtube gives us hours of proof that we seem to be incapable of figuring out physics.

 

High Spirits Tuesday, Apr 9 2013 

Historical Events acairfearann 12:38

The romance, if ever there was, of long voyages is rather gone these days… The excitement of people leaving for months or years, with no possible contact but the odd letter (which may or may not correspond with letters sent by the other party), cannot exist in today’s world.
Here is a short excerpt of a letter written by Edward B. Hooker to Helen Yale Smith just after she left for Europe in 1873. A bit of background, she had just turned 18, he was a senior in highschool. They were close friends, but nothing more; although a passing comment in one of Edward’s letters suggests that he would have been happy to be more… In regards to context consider also that this letter to Helen could not have possibly reached her for several weeks, as it would have been on the next mail boat and would then have had to be forwarded to which-ever hotel she was in. All unknowns.

“My gracious how I did yell and cheer when the Baltic left the dock. You must have heard me. Didn’t you? I saw you and Mattie waving your handkerchiefs to a part of the dock entirely remote from our position. Then I up and yelled and I think you saw us for you waved in our direction. I proposed three cheers and gave most of them myself. I don’t see how I managed to stand up on those beams I was so excited. As a last farewell my little deringer made himself heard. Did you hear it?
We all kept up bravely while we were on (could see) the ship, but when she gradually faded away and grew beautifully less and less there was a general caving in. In fact I own to a slight dampness myself. Then the sad remains of us went back.”

Edward would be in Europe during 1875, but they did not see each other again for over two years, though many letters went back and forth. His letters still exist, though not hers, and we see a shift in them from a bouncing teenager to a young man.

 

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