Post by doug630 on Jun 14, 2018 20:39:15 GMT
This man writing his wife, from the deck of the steamboat Niagara, on a sultry July evening in 1857, DID NOT KNOW his letter would be transcribed in an unimaginable world 161 years later. Here is what he wrote in his one page folded letter, now bearing a faded, torn Scott #11, the most common stamp of this era, postmarked with a plain round blue barred cancel. In 1857, while there were rumblings, even the Civil War was not yet anticipated, and Abraham Lincoln was a skillful orator and debater, but still a gangly country lawyer, not nearly presidential material.
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S. B. Niagara (Steam Boat)
Tuesday Eve.
July 22, 1857
My dear Lucinda,
I embrace a moment's opportunity to drop you a note. We are gliding along over Lake Erie with smooth water and pleasant weather. Shall be at Dunkirk tomorrow morning. I take the New York & Erie line for N.Y. where with usual providence shall be tomorrow night, making the journey in two days. So far the journey has been very pleasant having had pleasant weather to this hour. I found none of our folks at Dexter at the Depot. I left word with the Station Master that I had passed and that Mother was talking about coming home next week, but that I thought it doubtful whether she would or not.
I found Becker at Ann Arbor & had a moment's chat with him, the folks all well. Sophia (?) talks of going East with him in August and cannot go to Milwaukee - (?) has gone on -- had (?) in Company & could not stop.
Dear, I have been lonesome all day and have not found any body whose company I have enjoyed much, and have wished many times that I could have had you with me.
I bought a book at Detroit, one of Mother's (?), The Banker's Wife, but it turned out a dark and dismal thing, and has left an unpleasant impression -- I always want a story to have a good come-out. The moral of this is good to be sure, but in illustrating it the finale is sad enough.
Just at this time, the babies are having their evening frolic. Going on bare feet, "Come, Mary, let us go on "bare feet." The reply to this as likely to be no as any (?) but if consented to, off goes two pretty little girls in all their childish joy & happiness & then speedily back when perhaps they may be directed to lay down and say their prayers and go to sleep - and then comes that very serious way of doing things on Battery Park. When she repeats, "Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord...keep...and if I die...wake...pray the Lord...take" & then probably comes a tumble & frolic upon the bed of these little candidates for sleep in which I wish I could share to-night. Well, God bless you & them & us all and keep us safely from all harm and in His own good time and good providence bring us safely together to share an aftertime in these happy delightful scenes which to you & me God has so freely and abundantly given.
(?) more and more that we pray so as not to offend Him in his judgements upon us. Remember me affectionately to all the family.
Affectionately yours in the insoluble bonds of love, Edmund
P.S. Give much love to Mother & tell her she must not leave till I get back. I want to send some money down by her to pay for (?) clothes.
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I have spent a lot of time transcribing old letters, without regard to philatelics, including one 1716 example laboriously translated from the Italian, addressed to the police of Florence. It was a plea that mercy be shown to a condemned prisoner.
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S. B. Niagara (Steam Boat)
Tuesday Eve.
July 22, 1857
My dear Lucinda,
I embrace a moment's opportunity to drop you a note. We are gliding along over Lake Erie with smooth water and pleasant weather. Shall be at Dunkirk tomorrow morning. I take the New York & Erie line for N.Y. where with usual providence shall be tomorrow night, making the journey in two days. So far the journey has been very pleasant having had pleasant weather to this hour. I found none of our folks at Dexter at the Depot. I left word with the Station Master that I had passed and that Mother was talking about coming home next week, but that I thought it doubtful whether she would or not.
I found Becker at Ann Arbor & had a moment's chat with him, the folks all well. Sophia (?) talks of going East with him in August and cannot go to Milwaukee - (?) has gone on -- had (?) in Company & could not stop.
Dear, I have been lonesome all day and have not found any body whose company I have enjoyed much, and have wished many times that I could have had you with me.
I bought a book at Detroit, one of Mother's (?), The Banker's Wife, but it turned out a dark and dismal thing, and has left an unpleasant impression -- I always want a story to have a good come-out. The moral of this is good to be sure, but in illustrating it the finale is sad enough.
Just at this time, the babies are having their evening frolic. Going on bare feet, "Come, Mary, let us go on "bare feet." The reply to this as likely to be no as any (?) but if consented to, off goes two pretty little girls in all their childish joy & happiness & then speedily back when perhaps they may be directed to lay down and say their prayers and go to sleep - and then comes that very serious way of doing things on Battery Park. When she repeats, "Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord...keep...and if I die...wake...pray the Lord...take" & then probably comes a tumble & frolic upon the bed of these little candidates for sleep in which I wish I could share to-night. Well, God bless you & them & us all and keep us safely from all harm and in His own good time and good providence bring us safely together to share an aftertime in these happy delightful scenes which to you & me God has so freely and abundantly given.
(?) more and more that we pray so as not to offend Him in his judgements upon us. Remember me affectionately to all the family.
Affectionately yours in the insoluble bonds of love, Edmund
P.S. Give much love to Mother & tell her she must not leave till I get back. I want to send some money down by her to pay for (?) clothes.
=====
I have spent a lot of time transcribing old letters, without regard to philatelics, including one 1716 example laboriously translated from the Italian, addressed to the police of Florence. It was a plea that mercy be shown to a condemned prisoner.
