Further Adventures of Mirinda Piper

Mirinda Piper (later Andrews) was the eldest living child of the traveling Baptist preacher Beverly Bradley Piper and his first wife, Delia Deborah Norton. At the beginning of 1853 the family were living in Farmersville, Indiana, a tiny town in the southwest corner of the state, close to the junction of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers. Mirinda turned 13 in July of that year.

1853

We had now been living three years in one place, longer than I had ever lived in the same place before. Father was getting restless. The Baptists where he and Mother visited in the spring before in southern Ohio were urging him to come and preach for them. You will take notice that as they paid no fixed salary a preacher was not at all bound to any one church. If he wanted to move he just packed up and went. There was sometimes a little grumbling. Father always seemed to be in good demand among his members, and I have been told by some of them that he ranked as a first class preacher among them. Mother was always ready to go when Father was, and we children liked the novelty and change, though I disliked leaving some of my friends. Father sold the farm and we concluded to move to Hamilton, Ohio.

Steamship at Mt. Vernon, Indiana

Where we had been living, we were very near the Ohio River. Mount Vernon is situated on its banks, and we started from there on a steamboat. We went as far as Louisville and stopped at an old friend of Father’s who had often urged him to visit him with his family. We stayed there one day and one night. I don’t know how the rest of the family enjoyed themselves, but I wasn’t very happy there, although the family treated us very kindly. The man was a wealthy provision dealer named A. L. Shotwell[i]. Their house was far grander than anything I had ever seen. They had ten Negro house servants (slaves). The children had beautiful clothes, and altogether I felt very shabby and out of my element and was very glad when we started for the wharf to get on a steamboat bound for Cincinnati. The young lady of the family presented me with ten paper covered novels, but Mother burnt them before I had time to read but one or two.

This is the route up the Ohio River from Mt. Vernon
to Hamilton, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati. It would
have been over 300 miles to go this way.

Again we were on the river, and how grand the ladies’ cabin was—but I enjoyed everything on the boat, because the feeling was very different from being in a private house that I had no share in—in a certain way I had a share in the boat, it belonged to me quite as much as it did to the other passengers. We arrived in Cincinnati and did not stay there any length of time but went immediately to the cars. It was the first time any of us children had seen a railroad train. My brother Asa was very much surprised that the cars did not travel faster. “Why,” he said, “I thought they almost flew.”

We went to a station beyond Hamilton where Mother and we children were to stay with a Baptist family while Father went preaching for two weeks. We found a very pleasant old couple with two old maid daughters to receive us. They lived on a farm in a large stone house, and had an abundance of everything in the way of good things to eat. Lots of stock, two fine carriages, etc. While we were there sister Annie had scarlet fever, but Mother cured her with water as she always did any of us when we were sick.

When our visit was out there, another farmer’s family invited us to stay with them while Father made arrangements for us to go to housekeeping. At this place, Mr. Potter’s, we children had a grand time. There were two girls near my age, Ann and Belle, and we spent most of the time roaming over the farm or in the woods, or playing in the large barn. School commenced before we left and I went with the girls a few days. There were two young gentlemen in the family, one of them was very deaf. The house was a large red brick structure. They also owned two carriages so we could all go to church at once if we wished.

Finally we went to housekeeping in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio. The town was built on two sides of a river like Rockford. One side was called Rossville, we lived in Rossville. A few years later that name was given up and it was all called Hamilton. A large covered bridge spanned the river and I had to cross it every day to school. There was a Young Ladies’ Academy on the other side which I attended. I liked the teacher, he was a white-haired old man, and very kind if we tried to learn, and very sarcastic if we did not. We lived in a very comfortable cottage with a hall and three rooms below and two rooms above.

Two blocks away lived a family named Longfellow. I visited there quite often, and liked Jane Longfellow very much, though she was several years older than I. She had a brother Jim that I did not see much of. I met him years afterward in Illinois, after we were both married. I took lessons in crayon drawing that summer to please Mother, but it did not amount to anything.

Mother’s health gave way and she went to a water cure establishment near Cincinnati. She was there only two weeks when the building took fire and burnt down. Then she came home not much benefited. None of us were satisfied; we did not like the place and did not care for the people who were strangers to us. I think Father was a homesick as the rest, but he did not say so. We settled in March, and by September were wild to go back to Indiana or Illinois, we did not care which. So we packed up and started.

We went to Cincinnati on the cars and took a steam boat for Mount Vernon. The boat stayed three days at the wharf after we went on, loading for New Orleans, it was tiresome, but we were all so glad to get started for our old stamping ground that we did not complain. At last we arrived in Mount Vernon, and went to Mr. Barter’s where we were cordially received. We had left a large black dog there when we left in the spring, and he was so delighted to see us, he nearly went wild.

Father owned a small piece of land adjoining Grandpa’s with a house on it, we decided to go there for a year. We hired a hack to take us to Cynthiana (Indiana) where an Association was to be held and spent the week there. Oh how happy I was, there were many of our friends there, young and old. It seemed so good to be among people we knew and not strangers, as we were in Ohio. After the Association was over, two of the Baptist brethren took us in to Grandpa’s, and we went to housekeeping in our new home.

From jhir.library.jhu.edu

What a lonesome looking place it was, and the house was the tiniest little two roomed affair ever lived in. But in my life I never spent as happy hours as there. There was no other house in sight. There was no cleared land on the place except a little garden spot. A little cowshed and corn crib were all the out buildings there were, no cellar, no modern improvements. The well stood in the front yard and looked like the well in the picture of the “Old Oaken Bucket.” There was a grass grown road in front of the house which nobody travelled. If it led anywhere I never heard of it. Whenever anyone came to our house they went back the same way they came, which was the road that passed by Grandpa’s, leading to Russellville, three miles away on the Wabash River. In front and on two sides of the house was a dense wood of oak, hickory, and a few persimmon trees, wild grape vines abounded. Our only view was from one end of the house which looked over part of Grandpa’s farm.

His house was out of sight quarter mile away. Quarter of a mile farther on lived Uncle William Norton, and still farther on across the creek lived two old great aunts of mine, in houses quite near each other. One was a widow (Sarah Norton Tobey) and her children were all married, the other (Lydia Norton Grimes) was living with her third husband, she had no children of her own, but had an adopted daughter and a step daughter, whom I was quite intimate with. Uncle William had married when quite young a lady he almost adored, but she only lived a year, she and her baby boy dying at the same time, and leaving her husband nearly paralyzed with grief. He lived a widower ten years, then married a young widow with one little girl.

Soon after we got settled Father cut a bad gash in his foot which kept him in the house for several weeks. During the winter we children went to school to a young married man, named Highsmith. He taught the three R’s, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, and spelling. He asked me to study grammar, as I had studied it for three years he thought I could teach him, so I did. On Friday afternoons we would spell each other down. I enjoyed the term very much.

1854.

This summer Father took a long trip east. He visited Washington, spent some time in Virginia and New York states. In all he was gone three months. Mother and we four children stayed alone. Mother was courageous, and we never thought of being afraid. We spent much of the time in the deep woods which nearly surrounded the house. The little children went to school about a mile from home. We kept no stock except one cow, and some chickens, and we had such a tiny house our work was light. There was a terrible drought that summer all through southern Illinois, scarcely any rain fell for three months. If we had tried to raise anything we would have failed. Father said it was a good thing he took his trip that summer.

After he returned he visited some churches in Odes County, Illinois, and they urged him very strongly to come and preach for them. We had been living in Crawford County a year, and he was anxious to move, so we went to my Uncle Nathaniel Parker’s in Charleston, Coles County, where we made a short visit, and then went to housekeeping in town. Here was another complete change from the deep woods to a flourishing town. We rented a cottage, found some very pleasant neighbors, and were very well contented, at least we children were. The church Father was pastor of was just across the street from our house, so it was handy to say the least.

Father had a cousin who lived in town; he was a prominent lawyer and had been a member of Congress from that District for two or three terms. His wife was Senator Colquitt’s daughter [Elizabeth H. Colquitt, 1836-1895], and sister to Alfred Colquitt who several years later was Governor of Georgia. Cousin’s name was O. B. [Orlando Bell] Ficklin. He had three little boys [Augustus, Walter, and Alfred], and he and Father asked me to teach the two families of children that winter, and I did. Our school was held in a small room in Mr. Ficklin’s house. His boys and my two brothers and little sister comprised the school. They learned fast and gave me little trouble. In the spring Father and Cousin presented me with a silk dress for my services, which I was very proud of. Mrs. Ficklin was a great reader, and always bought the new novels as soon as they came out; she insisted on loaning her books to me, and I lived in a seventh heaven amongst the books. I suppose I read more than I ought, but life was worth living then. Although I was young, I attended several parties during the winter. Mrs. Ficklin gave one and invited me. She was always very kind to me.

My Uncle Parker lived nearly a mile from town in a large red brick house. I liked to go out there, as there were several children, and we had grand times. The children were not my cousins, as Aunt Mirinda, my Mother’s sister, was Mr. Parker^’s second wife, and stepmother to the children [Lucy Mirinda Norton Dillworth had married Nathaniel Parker on May 20, 1852]. They had a large orchard of very fine apples and Uncle Parker gave Father all we could use. The two eldest boys were grown up and rather wild, and I did not like them very well, but there was always good times there. Jane Parker was about my age, we liked each other, but she had the advantage of me, as her father was wealthy and mine was poor. She had many more and richer dresses than I, and was the happy possessor of a diamond ring which I admired exceedingly.

There was a family named Jones who lived six miles from town, members of Father’s church, where I loved to go dearly. Mrs. Jones would have me come out and stay a week as often as Mother would spare me. While we lived at that place there was a man hung by a mob near our house. We lived on a hill and at the bottom of the hill he was hung on an oak tree. He had killed his father-in-law and was tried and found guilty, and sentenced to be hung, but got a few weeks reprieve from the Governor, which so exasperated the people that they took him out of jail and hung him. We were all very much horrified about it, and could hardly sleep a wink that night. There was much excitement in town and scarcely anything else talked about for several days.

During the summer and fall we had visitors from Crawford County; Mother’s two aunts came, and Grandfather spent some time with us and Aunt Mirinda. Also, Father’s brother’s widow, Mrs. Ann Piper from South Bend, Indiana, spent a few days with us. I never saw her but that one time, her husband had been dead some years, his name was Edward Piper.

1855.

Two-horse carriage

I don’t remember anything of importance that happened the first few months of this year. We had a great deal of company and went a great deal. When Father attended his two-day meetings in the country we often went with him, all six of us in the two-horse carriage, and we would spend Saturday night with some good Baptist family and come home Sunday evening.

The summer and fall of this year was very sickly indeed. In August cholera broke out in town, and in a panic Father loaded us all into the carriage, sent a driver with us and started us to Grandfather’s 80 miles away. We stayed there several weeks, and when the cholera scare was over, he sent for us. When we returned home there was sickness in nearly every family in town—chills and fever, or some kind of fever. Our family all fell sick and I came near dying. Father thought I was dying one night, and I have often thought how easy it would have been for me to go then, and I hope when my time comes I will be as reconciled to death as I was that night. But we all recovered when frost came. Uncle Parker’s family was sick and he died. His daughter and son-in-law came back from Texas, and Aunt Mirinda, not caring to live with her stepchildren, came and spent the winter with us. She was sick most of the winter.

Towards spring we had a visitor from Virginia, a gentleman who wanted to buy Father’s little farm near Grandpa’s. He had never seen the land, so Father took him in the carriage, and Aunt Mirinda and I went along to visit Grandpa. Fancy starting for an 80-mile drive in the dead of winter! But we were well wrapped and enjoyed the trip very, very much. We were two days on the road, stayed two days at Grandpa’s, and were two days coming home, and were back home inside of a week. The last day before we reached home was very cold, and it was not so funny. Uncle Louis Norton had moved to the town of Robinson and Uncle William’s family was keeping house for Grandpa. I went to two or three parties that winter and had a good time as I usually had.

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[i] Col. Alfred Lawrence Shotwell was born in Kentucky in 1809. He married Gabriella Breckenridge and had the following children: Stephen (1830), William (1835), unnamed daughter (1838) who married Robert Cannon, Alfred Annie (1843). Annie is the woman whose husband disappeared; there is an article about it that appeared in the Rogersville Herald (transcribed below). The next younger child was Frances T (1849) who died at age 19: “On the day preceding her death, she had been out to invite some lady friends to a social party to be given next day at her father’s house, and having walked much in the city that evening, on going to bed she inhaled chloroform to quiet her nerves, and was found dead in bed the next morning.” A.L. Shotwell’s youngest was John T (1853), who seems to have had a normal life (unusual in this family).

“GABE TATE’S ROMANCE: Married, Divorced, Given Up for Dead, and Again Married to the Same Woman. (From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.)

“The death of Gabe Tate at Henderson, Ky., brings to mind the romantic career of his life. Tate was born and raised in this country. His father was one of the prosperous planters of ante bellum days. The large tract of land he owned was in Walnut Bottom, in the most productive part of this section. He had a large number of slaves and, better still, a large bank account. Gabe had grown in an atmosphere of luxury until luxuries were common. He had been accustomed to having his own way and to have every want supplied. When his father died the estate was divided between him and his sister, Mrs. Dr. J. A. Harding, who had gone to the home of her husband in Jefferson county, now a part of Louisville, Ky. There he met Miss Annie Shotwell, the daughter of Col. A.L. Shotwell, a man who was rich in a dozen different ways. His steam interest was only second to his landed estate, and his commission merchants business but barely outstripping his mining rights. The vast coal fields of Union county, now owned by Brown & Jones, the Pittsburgh coal kings, were his individually. At that time, in 1862, there were only two coal mines operated on the Ohio River below Pittsburgh, Pa., the one at Cannelton, Ind., and the Shotwell mines in Union county. So exhaustless is the supply of coal and so superior the quality that a railroad has just been completed to the mines from this city. Fabulous fortunes have been made from the fleets of coal sent South from these mines. It is seen by this what Oriental grandeur was in the reach of Gabe Tate and Miss Shotwell, with their fortunes, when united in marriage at the residence of Col. Shotwell, in Louisville. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Tate went to the Shotwell mines, and all went well. Two or more children blessed their union. [One day] Mr. Tate left his home, and to this day the public do not know the cause. Surmises were plentiful, but no knowledge of the cause was ever had. It was known that his estate was gone, but that was of small importance for his wife was rich.

               “Some time after Mr. Tate left home Mrs. Tate procured a divorce, and shortly afterwards married Sam Churchill, a prosperous planter, who had lived near the mines, and with whom she was acquainted during her married life at the mines. In the meantime Andrew Tate, an old bachelor uncle, had died and left his vast estate to Gabe and his sister. Hugh Tate, another bachelor uncle, soon died, and added his fortune to that of his brother Andrew for the benefit of his nephew and niece. Not long after that Miss Nancy Tate died, and left her increased fortune from her own right and undivided interests in the estates of her two brothers, Andrew and Hugh, to Gabe Tate and his sister. These changes covered a period of nearly ten years. Notwithstanding the fact that considerable advertising had been done, nothing could be heard of Gabe Tate, and he was suspected to be dead. At last he was heard from at Cairo, Ill., and found. Arriving home, he found himself a rich man again. He wrote to his wife to send the children to him at Evansville, Ind., as he wanted to see them. She met him there with the children. Shortly afterwards a divorce was procured from Sam Churchill, the second husband, and speedily following that divorce was the marriage of Gabe Tate to the same woman who had procured a divorce from him years before.”


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More posts about Mirinda Piper:

One-Room Schools, a Romance, an Earthquake

Mirinda and Slavery

The Further Adventures of Mirinda Piper (part 1)

Mirinda Piper's Adventures as a Young Lady of the 1850s

Memoirs of Mirinda Piper Andrews: Married Life 1858 - 1872

Grammy and the Hand-Painted Quilts

Grammy Read (Lillie Belle Munroe Read, 1892–1992), like most of the women of her generation, did a lot of handiwork, crafting, sewing, knitting and crocheting, painting, and creating all kinds of things of beauty for her home.

There is no telling how many quilts she produced in her 99½ years of activity. (I suppose we should subtract the first five years, but I’m sure she probably started young! And of course she loved to knit and crochet, and she made many of those kinds of things over the years.) She loved quilt-making. It was something she was able to continue to do after she lost most of her eyesight in her 90s.

She gave me this baby quilt after my son was born and when it looked like he would actually live (he was very premature). She told my mother to tell me that the baby would be all right after all and that I was not to worry. I believed her and worried anyway, because that’s what I do in spite of everything. Anyway, it’s a treasured memento of my Grammy, with the Beatrix Potter figures on the front and the kittens on the back. Grammy knew that when I had studied in England one summer I had gone to the Lake District home of Beatrix Potter. Later on I studied Miss Potter’s life and works—the little books, the paintings, the incredible depth of scientific knowledge amassed by this home-trained girl and woman; her passion for the traditional farms, furniture, sheep, and stonework of the Lake District; and her far-seeing actions in bequeathing over 4,000 acres of pristine farms to the National Trust to keep them in perpetuity. I bought all the Beatrix Potter books with her original illustrations and read them to my son many times.

Grammy, Linda, and Barb

Grammy loved flowers of all kinds, and she began hand-painting flowers for quilt tops in the 1980s, I think. She may have started earlier, but I think it was not too much earlier. Somebody might know more exactly.

Her three youngest granddaughters were grown up and she began to worry just a little bit about when they would decide to get married. They seemed to be taking a long time about it. She told us, “The first one of you three that gets married gets a hand-painted flower quilt.” The contest was on, and Linda won pretty soon.

As a consolation prize, I got a single-sized hand-painted flower quilt. This one really shows off Grammy’s lovely handiwork. The flower colors are rich and varied; the surrounding border sets off the colors as if they are in a garden, and Grammy’s favorite yellow ties are like little sunspots dotting the garden ground. It is most fun to spot the duplicate flowers and then to examine them to see the differences she made in color and design.

At long last I decided to marry. (I wasn’t averse to the idea of marriage—but I had to find the right person!) Grammy got busy and made another hand-painted flower quilt for us. My mom said that she was having a harder time seeing to do the paintings, and one of my aunts usually sewed the pieces together for the tops. When Grammy tied the quilts, the ties no longer stayed in straight rows, but who was looking for that? Hers were beautiful quilts.

When my sister got married a few years later, Grammy made her last hand-painted flower quilt. My mother says that Grammy tried to do the sewing herself, and then because she had lost her central vision and had only peripheral vision left, the pieces weren’t quite together in all places. Grammy just tied them together when she tied the quilt. That would fix those stubborn seams and hold the danged thing together.

 But because Grammy was above all things Scotch in her frugality, she watered down the paint to make it go further, and we think that is why my sister’s and my big quilts have faded almost to white. My mother says her quilt has faded away too, and she had rarely used it before putting it away. I am glad to have the one with the bright colors that shows what Grammy meant to do all along.

Do any of you have one of Grammy’s quilts? What does yours look like?

Morning Glory

Petunia

Daffodil

Rose

Tulip

Nasturtium

Hydrangea

Pansy

Daffodils

Thingummy--Grammy would have known
the name of this--she knew all the names
of all flowers--but I don't!

For further stories about my grandmother and her adventures, see the lists on my Munro and Read genealogy pages.

Read Reunions

The Read family has a long history of reunions. My grandpa, Lloyd Read (1890–1989) told me the Reads and Porters had started holding family reunions before 1900. He said they were more like work parties or harvest parties at first. Here’s a picture taken at one of these in Aumsville, Oregon, around 1890.

One hundred years ago, in 1914, the Reads gathered their large family in Aumsville to celebrate the 50^th wedding anniversary of Clifton Kittridge Read and Elizabeth Nancy Porter Read. They had all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren there, along with a number of the Porters. Here is a photograph of the Reads. I wish I had access to the original, because when this copy was made in the 1980s, it was done using a camera and traditional film and only when the film was developed the poor quality became apparent.

Here is who is in this picture:

Front row:  Winnona and Lola (daughters of John F. & Jessie Read); Ruth and Echo (daughters of Silas & Millie Read); Grandpa CK Read, Grandma EN Read holding Viola (daughter of Lloyd & Lillie Read); Alice, Clarice, and Earl (standing behind Clarice—children of Nettie Read & Everett Downing); Kenneth Porter (son of Jessie Read & Roy Porter).

Women’s row: Millie Rodgers Read holding son Mark; May Robertson Read; Sarah Isabelle Read; Jessie Read Porter; Jessie West Read; Lillie Munroe Read; Leatha Williams (daughter of Virgil & May Read); Mabel Foland; Eva Read Foland; Ethel Read MacCulloch holding daughter Flora; Nettie Read Downing.

Men’s row: George Sidney Read; Virgil Henry Read; Allan Foland; Lloyd and Ross (sons of Virgil & May Read); John Read holding daughter Grace; Guy (mostly hidden—son of Virgil & May); Roy Porter holding son Harold; Silas Read; Everett Downing (half cut off).

The Read-Porter annual picnic continued for a number of years, but during the Great Depression it discontinued as families spread out and children grew up and moved away. I got the bright idea with a cousin, Daraleen Wade (a granddaughter of Alice Read who is sitting next to Grandma Read in the photo above), that we should revive the Read-Porter picnic, so we did it for three more years in the 1970s. We had a good time, but there wasn’t sufficient interest to continue it. (Those of you who know, name us all!)

The interest in our family was in celebrating Grammy and Grandpa’s wedding anniversaries. They had a big, formal reunion in 1960 for their 50^th anniversary. Here is their family at that time:

Front row: Clarence, Grandpa, Grammy, Carl.

Back row: Retta, Barbara, Viola, Alice, Charlotte, Marj, Herb.

Ten years later my parents took me, my sister, and my closest older brother out of school to go to Oregon that October weekend. I remember the great-aunts coming up to me and saying, “How you’ve grown!” until I wanted to shout, “Did you expect me to shrink?” I was not one of your more understanding, patient children. I went somewhere to sulk. 

But here is a picture of Grammy and Grandpa with their fancy cake.

The next summer in July there was another reunion. I think it was to celebrate Uncle Ross and Aunt LaVerne’s 50^th wedding anniversary. Here’re the pictures from it. I always laugh at the one that was intended to reproduce the 1960 portrait, because there’s Uncle Carl yelling at his granddaughter to get out of the picture, and everybody else looks happy, and somehow the back row got mixed up compared to where they stood in 1960: here we have Barb, Alice, Charlotte, Retta, Vi, Marj, and Herb.

The one with the spouses in it make me laugh too, because there’s Auntie Retta making wisecracks to Barb on the end—love that! Left to right: Clarence and Myra; Fred and Marj; Claude and Alice; Charlotte; Dorothy and Carl; Thelma and Herb; Vi and John; George and Retta; Barb. I don’t know why Arnold Hattan is missing, but Walt McGinnis would not have appeared in any photograph for love or money! I’m going to make a style critique here and pronounce Auntie Retta’s dress the best one there—does she look great or what?—color, cut, and fit are all perfect on her. Ok, a close second-place three-way tie go to Auntie Myra and Grammy for their suits, and Barb for her gorgeous A-line—classy! Special mention to my mom for being the hands-down prettiest there (I am not biased).

The 1980 reunion photo for Grammy and Grandpa’s 70^th anniversary is a paste-up job, pre-Photoshop era. This time it was Auntie Retta who wasn’t going to have her photograph taken for love or money. As soon as I found that out, I felt that the gauntlet had been thrown down—I took the challenge to get a photograph of her anyhow. Under the guise of taking pictures of anybody and everybody else, I stalked her and got her. Ha!

She wouldn’t be in this picture of “Grammy’s Girls”—here are Alice, Vi, Grammy, Marj, and Charlotte. Isn’t this a wonderful photograph?

And here is the cake.

When you reach 70 years of marriage, your relatives will gather to celebrate rather more often than every ten years. 

So here is the 1985 reunion, when Grammy and Grandpa had been married 75 years. I wish I had been able to get a better photograph, but there were more professional photographers who got the center position. In any case, it made me laugh at the time because there was no getting them all to pay attention and look anything like unified! Left to right in back of Grammy and Grandpa are Barb, Retta, Charlotte, Clarence, Alice, Carl, Marj, Vi, and Herb.

Grandpa was tired of having pictures taken, so I almost didn’t get them with their cake. One of the uncles arranged to have a television station send a cameraman, and so they were on television news that evening. I never got to see it! I wonder where that videotape went?

[Later note: Barb got hold of it and sent a dvd copy to me, and I know many others got one too.]

Someone suggested that we gather and celebrate every six months from that time, but that suggestion went no where.

This picture is my very favorite of all the pictures I have seen of Grammy and Grandpa. And I took it! It was at Christmas 1981, and when I asked if I could do a picture of them, Grandpa suggested they use a pose like the one a newspaper cameraman had done the year before. But our photograph turned out much better—maybe not technically, but in warmth.

I can hardly wait to see my Read relatives at our upcoming reunion!

Grammy Read and the Houseplants

My son is rereading The Chronicles of Narnia and that inspired me to get ready for our upcoming family reunion by writing some Chronicles of Grammy.

Grammy is Lillie Belle Munroe Read, born in September 1892 and died in March 1992, at the age of 99 years and six months.

I’m sure my cousins could write a ton more about her than I know. First of all, I’m one of the youngest of the 36 grandchildren, and second, I grew up one state away from Grammy while lots of my cousins were much closer geographically. But Grammy had a way of pulling you close no matter what your circumstances were.

One thing about her that delights my son is my account of Grammy and Houseplants.

After I graduated from high school, my parents moved away to a piece of property about six miles from Grammy and Grandpa. They built a house on it (with Grandpa’s help) and settled in. I visited when I had breaks from college and enjoyed going over to Grammy and Grandpa’s a lot.

My mother had a bunch of houseplants, but she always complained that she could never get them to grow as well as Grammy did. She’d take her houseplants over to Grammy’s house and let Grammy have them for a few weeks. They’d come home looking incredible, and if they were supposed to blossom, they’d have blossoms all over.

Grammy’s Christmas cactus always bloomed exactly at Christmas. She also had an Easter cactus and a Thanksgiving cactus, and they always bloomed exactly on the right holiday—even those moving holidays. My mother said Grammy’s secret was to use cheerful threats.

“Bloom, or I’ll throw you out!” she’d say to her plants. And they obeyed.

My plants don’t obey me. Grammy gave me a Christmas cactus that bloomed the first Christmas I had it. Then it went dormant and didn’t bloom for six years. It bloomed once more and then died.

I have adopted my sister-in-law’s plan: take care of them until they look pretty bad and then buy new ones. I combine that with the cheerful threat: “Recover, or I’ll replace you!” and they ignore me and die anyway.

Here are a few of my houseplants in various stages of looking great and looking like they need to be threatened . . .

Now that I look at them, they don't look too bad right now. Do you think they might be paying attention to my Grammy’s methods?

For further stories about my grandmother and her adventures, see the lists on my Munro and Read genealogy pages.

Ben-Hur IS a Tale of the Christ

I read the novel Ben-Hur, a Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace about 1970 and felt inspired by its strong testamentary power of Jesus and His mission. I can’t remember when I first saw the 1959 epic movie, but it was probably before I read the book. I watched it again yesterday, because I always think it has a strong Easter season “flavor” about it. Afterward I was reading the message boards on imdb.com and saw a suggestion that the movie was great until the final twenty minutes, when the Christian elements intruded on an otherwise fine film.

I both agree and disagree. First, I disagree because the movie retains the core fact that Judah Ben-Hur’s life parallels that of Jesus of Nazareth to some degree, and at the intersections of their lives, the encounters change Judah Ben-Hur in profound ways that align themselves with the original novel’s conversion story. I’ll explain these ways a little later on, together with the overarching Christian symbolism throughout the movie.

Now, how can I agree? Well, the world had changed enough by 1958 that when the script for that movie was developed, it downplayed the Christian events in the novel to a great degree. The movie uses Christian elements arguably so subtly that the average viewer misses the point, especially now, some 55–56 years after it was made.

There are three early scenes that involve Jesus Christ before the final twenty minutes when Ben-Hur’s life joins that of Jesus at His crucifixion.

The movie opens with a nativity scene in which the three wise men come to visit the baby in the stable in Bethlehem, under the light of a strange, large star. This scene is meant to frame the tale of Judah Ben-Hur’s life, whose tale then takes up most of the next three hours, with only two more overt scenes that show Christ, until the end.

The second Christian scene is very short, set in a carpenter’s shop as the Roman legion passes through Nazareth. An elderly man standing with the carpenter asks Joseph why a table he ordered isn’t done yet and where his son is—why isn’t he working on the table? At the answer that the son is out in the hills, the man tells Joseph that his son neglects his work, but Joseph replies cryptically that his son is about His Father’s business. As a Christian in-joke it works on a superficial level, but not really. The suggestion that Jesus would have neglected the carpentry work that He had apparently promised to complete is out of character for the One who was perfectly sinless. The scene leaves the viewer feeling that the Son is selfish for leaving his elderly father to do all the work while he is shown (from the back) out wandering in the hills.

The third Christian scene is again in Nazareth, as Ben-Hur and the string of slaves are dragged through the village, and the Romans stop to water themselves and their horses at a well outside the carpentry shop. This is the most effective Christian scene in the movie, with a brilliant performance of the Roman officer reacting to Jesus, who has given Ben-Hur water. The officer had ordered everyone not to give any water to Ben-Hur, and Ben-Hur had collapsed into the dirt, praying God to help him. Hands with water appear, bathing his face and parched lips, and tilting his head to give him a drink. The scene cuts to a long shot of the Roman officer, who, turning and seeing what is happening, yells out, “I said, no water for him!” and starts  menacingly toward the pair. Jesus stands, the back of His head filling the right of the wide screen, the Roman officer approaching on the left, and the ensuing exchange is wordless and brilliant. The officer is suddenly impelled by the gaze we cannot see to stop, to reconsider, to be fearful, wondering, doubtful, trying in vain to say anything, and at length he must turn away to recover himself, and then his bluster is not so brave as before. It is the one scene in the movie that completely suggests the character and truth of Jesus Christ. It is underscored by a close-up of the face of Ben-Hur, looking up into the face of his benefactor, registering astonishment, awe, and reverence all at once. Without ever showing the face of Jesus, showing these two reactions to Him suggests His divinity in a particularly effective way.

© MCMLIX by Loew's Incorporated. All rights in this motion picture reserved under international conventions (on print). © Renewed 1987 Turner Entertainment Co.

However, it is a very short piece in a very long movie. The next time we encounter Jesus in this film is almost two hours later, after many, many adventures for Judah Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur has seemingly completed a story arc—he had been unjustly sentenced to death in the galleys, but he survives, saves a Roman officer’s life in a sea battle, is adopted by the officer and takes up Roman life, dress, and chariot-racing, culminating in the great chariot race in Jerusalem against his enemy, Messala, who dies from his injuries after the race, but not before Ben-Hur has forgiven him, only to be given another agonizing pain as Messala reveals to Ben-Hur that the mother and sister he was told were dead are actually lepers, due to the punishment Messala had meted to them.

Some think this is enough—that the end of Ben-Hur’s story should be acceptance and a return to the prosperity of Rome, with the assurance that time will diminish his mourning, and that Esther, his love interest, will help him forget the past. However, that would be to leave out the essence of Ben-Hur’s original story, so the movie presses on to the scenes that bring Ben-Hur and Jesus Christ into conjunction.

Jesus is depicted at a great distance in the background on a hillside, with Ben-Hur, Esther, and Malluch in the foreground, on their way from the Valley of the Lepers back into the city. A huge crowd is gathering on the hill below Jesus, suggesting that the Sermon on the Mount is about to take place. (That it takes place outside of Jerusalem instead of in Galilee, and immediately before Jesus is arrested, is beside the point.) Ben-Hur and Esther encounter Balthazar, one of the wise men who has popped up before this in the film to tell Ben-Hur that he has been searching for the Man he had last seen as a baby, and now he has found Him, and he recommends His teachings to Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur rejects the opportunity, but Esther hurries to join the crowd on the hill, intrigued, as Balthazar and Ben-Hur finish their conversation. Ben-Hur recalls the incident when he was given water and tells Balthazar he should have rejected it then so he could have died and avoided all the heartache since then. He leaves, and for a few seconds we see Esther seating herself and preparing to listen. We do not hear the Sermon.

The effect though is that Esther takes courage to get Miriam and Tirzah, Ben-Hur’s mother and sister, to go in search of Jesus. They find Him outside the Fortress of Antonia, as Pilate washes his hands and the soldiers lade Him with the cross to carry to Golgotha. Ben-Hur has joined them, and as Jesus passes them, Ben-Hur recognizes Jesus as the Man who gave him water and immediately seeks to relieve the suffering Christ. When Jesus falls and while the soldiers are busy forcing Simon the Cyrenian to carry the cross, Ben-Hur grabs a water cup from a street-side well and gives some to Jesus. Again Ben-Hur’s face tells the story of their wordless encounter, as he registers awe and love, concern and compassion all at once. His conversion is implied by subsequent events.

Ben-Hur follows the crowd toward the place of crucifixion while Esther takes Miriam and Tirzah back to the caves. We do not see what happens to Ben-Hur, but he returns to find his mother and sister miraculously healed of their leprosy, and he reports the peace and forgiveness at the close of the Savior’s life. There the movie ends.

I can see why some think it an unsatisfying ending. For those who don’t pick up on the symbolism and who have no experience with conversion or even with forgiveness, I can see arguing that the few scenes with Jesus in them could easily be cut from the movie, leaving alone the story of Ben-Hur’s life and final triumph over his enemy with the restoration to him of his loved ones.

This is the cover of the edition I have . . . 1887.

However, the original book was very much a conversion story that was much more closely integrated with New Testament scenes. In the book, Judah Ben-Hur is present at the Sermon on the Mount, and he becomes a converted Christian after winning the chariot race (in which Messala does not die but is broken in body and fortune by Ben-Hur). He participates in events of Christ’s life. His mother and sister are healed from their leprosy personally by Jesus and are found by Ben-Hur afterwards, as Ben-Hur is one of Jesus’s followers. Ben-Hur gathers together a band of disciples who are willing to fight for Jesus to become King of the Jews; they wait only for Him to declare Himself. When Jesus is arrested, Ben-Hur’s hopes are dashed as he realizes he has been mistaken in his interpretations of Jesus’s words about Himself. Judah Ben-Hur is the young man who leaves his linen cloth behind him and escapes naked from the Roman soldiers in Mark 14:51–52. He reevaluates all he knows about Jesus and comes to the correct conclusion about Him. He attends the crucifixion and rejoices in the Resurrection. He marries Esther and lives in a Roman villa until Nero begins his persecutions, and then the story closes with Esther and Ben-Hur deciding to give all their wealth to creating the catacombs in which the Christians can continue to spread the Word they have received.

The 1959 movie reduced most of the overt religious scenes to the very short scenes mentioned, until the final section when Ben-Hur’s life joins that of Jesus. But the movie incorporated Christian symbols to show that all of Ben-Hur’s life was a quest for spiritual rebirth and healing. There is a scripture in the New Testament that expresses what the movie symbolism does:

“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” [John 4:14]

Water is used throughout the movie as the symbol for the life Ben-Hur needs. Early in the movie after Ben-Hur has rejected Messala’s request that he betray certain Jewish people to the Romans, Ben-Hur is shown washing his hands, a ritual for beginning a meal in his household. It is also symbolic—he is washing away his old life that included Messala, who has become corrupt and would corrupt Ben-Hur.

The water that Jesus gives Ben-Hur in Nazareth restores his life, and more than that, as Ben-Hur later tells Balthazar, it gives him the will to live. Symbolically, it is “living water”—part of the Savior Himself. Gazing into the eyes of his benefactor, Ben-Hur is changed, and his expression reflects that change.

After three years as a Roman galley slave, Ben-Hur is given the chance to escape, and he uses the chance to save the life of the Roman officer who freed him—significantly, it is a water scene. The officer is knocked overboard in the battle, and Ben-Hur dives into the sea and saves him from drowning. Later, on a raft, he again saves the officer from committing suicide. They are rescued, and the Roman consul adopts Ben-Hur in gratitude. This is a symbolic baptism scene, with a rebirth to a new life.

Ben-Hur thinks he lives for revenge upon Messala, but when he faces the dying Messala, he forgives him, only to be given a new reason to hate Messala anew: that his mother and sister are not dead, but are instead lepers, worse than dead in a way. There is plenty of water in this scene—it is on the skins of the exhausted men in the form of heavy sweat. It washes the poison of revenge out of Ben-Hur’s system for a moment, but on Messala, it releases further evil.

Ben-Hur tells Balthazar as they stand by a brook of running water that he wishes he had poured out the water given him by the stranger long ago, and he says, “I am thirsty still.” He has found his mother and sister, but they are not restored to him. They are segregated from the living, waiting in the Valley of Lepers for death. His quest has brought him to a desert place in his mind. It is ironic that he stands next to a brook, for if he crossed that running stream, he would have joined the masses on the hillside listening to Him who had the message of hope that Ben-Hur did not even know he was thirsting for. Esther crosses the brook; Balthazar invites Ben-Hur to do so, but he declines and hurries away.

His complete conversion is coming though. As he stands on the side of the Via Dolorosa, watching the suffering Jesus fall under the weight of the cross, he rushes to His aid, only to be knocked aside by a soldier, and he falls against a roadside well. He snatches up the cup and fills it, bringing it to the suffering Christ. In this act of mercy, mirroring what had been done for him, he fulfills one of Jesus’s admonitions:  “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). He receives a blessing in the look from the Man to whom he has given water, as can plainly be seen by the reaction on Judah Ben-Hur’s face.

When Christ is nailed to the cross, Ben-Hur is in attendance and stays through the hours of the crucifixion. As He dies, Ben-Hur hears Him forgive his enemies and speak peace, and Ben-Hur feels deep within a conviction that these are the words he must henceforth follow. A storm breaks and drenches the landscape. In the drenching rain, the leprous women are healed of their malady. It is not directly from Jesus, but it is symbolically His cleansing water, washing everything.

You see it much more plainly as the camera scene shifts to the foot of the cross, focusing on the puddles of blood thinning out in the rain, joining other puddles and rivulets and streamlets, washing the earth with the Blood of Christ, healing everything, spreading and spreading as the ending music builds to its climax.

The novel, plainly titled Ben-Hur: a Tale of the Christ is indeed a Christian redemption story. And so is the 1959 movie, although the Christian elements are subdued to a level that made the film not only acceptable to a much wider audience than it would otherwise have garnered, but made it acclaimed in a way a more overt film would never have achieved. If the story were to be made into a movie today, I’m sure all religious elements would doubtless be removed, along with most of its greatness. I’m very happy to have the film as it stands (and I haven’t yet mentioned the incredible, spiritually enriching musical score). But I’m happiest with the book, containing all the delicious details of drama, romance, pathos, sentimentality, and above all, inspiration.

The Civil War News and More: Letters to Julia Barnes

Civil War Era Letters to Julia Esalina Palmer Barnes

During the Civil War, Julia and her husband, Silas Truman Barnes, had a farm in Dover, Olmsted County, Minnesota, in the southeast corner of the state. Julia and Truman had been married about ten years. Julia saved many letters that had been written to her throughout her life, and these are the letters from the Civil War years. This is a fascinating glimpse into how people lived at that time and how the War affected those who were not in its actual path, with the exception of Julia’s nephew, who writes from a battlefield in Tennessee.

[A note about transcriptions: I have attempted to reproduce all original spelling and punctuation or lack thereof, but I did not include evidence of corrections the writers made; instead I copied their final versions.]

Letter 1: 

Silas Barnes to Truman and Julia Barnes

Silas Barnes was the father of Julia’s husband. At this time he and his wife, Mary, lived on their farm in Orwell, Ohio, in the northeast corner of the state. He was 73 and Mary was 71 at this time.

Orwell July 22 ’62

                        My Long Absent Children

            Your Letter Dated one month to day was duly Recieved and I intended to have Written to you Before this but I have not much News to write

            Wee are all as Well as usual My health is poor I do not do much and Cannot But I am Comfortable So that I Can get a bout and do a Little Every day, Mrs Peck died the 16^th of June — it is healthy a Bout here

            Wee jest got news that the 6^th Ohio Cavalry had had a battle of Which Esqr Bingham is major and Delop northway is Capt of one Co and Charles Bowe of Bloomfield Capt of another Co they killed Some of the Rebbls and took Some prisoners and none of their men killed

[next page] it has Ben Verry Wet here for a Bout 5 or 6 Week So that people Could not hoe their Corn— there is a good mony that have not hoed at all and Some pieces are not worth hoeing Grass is a bout 2 thirds Crop Wheat is the Best it has ben for Some years Oats are good Potatoes are good Where they was planted on dry ground

Wm Henry Runyan is in the army he has got Wounded Shot in the Rist another Ball Went through his Cap Just grased the top his head now in the hospital— Mr Chaffees Boys all Enlisted Averil got killed

Nathaniel owes So much that I fear he Will Loose his farm—though he has Sold Wool and Sheep Enough to Come to $360 odd dollars and if Wool Should hold up a few years he may get a long

[next page] Wee have ben Looking for you this Some time—as to fruit there is Considerable through the Country but my orchard is not Verry full but Wee Shall have Enough of Apples to make us Comfortable but not many Peaches not as many Currents as Common but your mother Says She Shall keep Drying and will Divide With you—yesterday the people of the town Carried in three Bushels of Currents and Cherries to the Soldiers aid Society Besides Dried Apples Cheeses and Clothing &c  Next Soturday the Little Girls have a Society Called the Lint Society to Scrape Lint—and on Wednesday of Every Week the Woomen have  a Sewing Cociety to make Shirts Drawers &c

            The People are Engaged for the Comfort of the Soldiers

            There has over 40 Enlisted in this town

[next page] Henry has Sent home to his Wife Some 50 or 60 Dollars and She Says She has not Spent a Cent of it and Says She Wont till he Comes home

Rulipaugh that married Loisa Chaffee has Sent her Some 50 or 60 Dollars and She has Spent it as fast as he has Sent it

            Henry Clute has Sold his farm

            Elys family is as well as they have ben Hiram is a Cripple and always will be

            Naths Martha has got married to a man by the Name of Hatch

I think I Said Enough about matters and things I do not think of any more only I have Lost all of my Bees

I must Bid you Good by

Write as often as you Can

Your father     Silas Barns

***************

Some of the people he wrote about are neighbors, but he also mentioned his sons, Truman’s brothers Nathaniel and Ely. Nathaniel did not lose his farm after all. William Henry Runyan was a son-in-law, married to Esther, the one who saved all her husband’s military salary. Mrs. Peck, whose death is mentioned at the beginning of the letter, was the mother of another son-in-law, Charles Peck.

*****************

Letter 2:

Betsy DeKalb to Her Cousin Julia Barnes

Betsy was Julia’s cousin through her grandfather, Zephaniah Palmer. Betsy’s mother was Zephaniah’s sister. The DeKalb family lived in Jay, New York. Betsy never married and lived with her parents until their deaths. She wrote fairly often to Julia.

Jay Dec the 6 1862

Dear Cousn

I received your welcome letter in time I had been thinking of you through the day (I was fearful that the Indians had killed you) at night John Flanders came in and handed your letter I assure you it was read in a hurry, I have felt so anxious to hear from you  I wrote to you & received no answer  Mr Hall took your adds when he went to Minasota but did not see you he has moved away from Jay to Bloomingdale beyong St Arme  Mother is with me yet she sits a knitting at the table while I am a writing she is quite smart heares as well as most of young People she cannot walk as well as last summer she is almost 92 we have built a small house & live in it we rent the farm John lives with us or stays with us nights he has a Shop at the Villag he is not married yet nor not any of the family but Euretta & she lives in Illinois her husbands name is Basset he is a Doctor has gone into the army she thinks coming home this winter -----

Ermina DeKalb married Wallace Purmont went to Missourie had to leave in this war and come home but has gone back Betsey Ann lives near her Fathers she has buried two little girls from 19 monts to two years old it was very hard for her to give them up She has one little boy the youngest

Your Uncle Winter Palmer came from New York citty this last fall sick with the consumption he has been sick for two years he was at Mr Sheffields at the Forks the most of the time he was with us some he was reduced to a skillaton and very pittutent  he has gone or rather started for Washington we have not heard a word from him since he left about four weeks a go we expect him back I wrote to your Aunt Ellen Likewis your Uncle John but I get no answer I wish you would let them know he thinks that It will not be best for him to go to Ohio he is a man of testting but O how changed

I should like to hear more perticular your history in Minasota Doctor Fuller has moved back to Jay you never saw a happyer man than when he got hear he would lay on his lounge and say O I am so glad to get back now my horses hoofs will go clink clink up Peck Street Jay at this time is very lonely all the young men have gone to this unnatural war and of corse many families are left to mourn thear absent ones now my dear cousin I wish you to send me some of your writings I have a cousn in Panama Chetauqua Co that sends me some of hurs Uncle Zackeus daughter. Mother sends her love & best wishes do write

B DeKalb

[Side of last page] Mother said when I recvd your letter that her blood chilled in her veins

***************

Most of the people Betsy mentions are her DeKalb nieces and nephews, and some neighbors. Betsy’s description of Julia’s uncle Winter Palmer is interesting. The last news of Winter was that his father, Julia’s grandfather, warned his family to have nothing to do with Winter. What had Winter done to incur his father’s wrath? And now here we find Betsy describing Winter as penitent (“pittutent”). The only documentary evidence I have been able to find suggests that maybe Winter left his wife for another woman, but that is not certain. So far, I have been unable to find Winter’s fate.

**************

Letter 3:

Silas Truman Barnes to Julia Palmer Barnes

This letter is from her husband to her. Silas Truman Barnes had been drafted to serve in the Union Army, but in a common practice of the time, he paid another man to take his place and continued farming their land. Julia had taken their 7-year-old daughter, Mary, and their year-old son, Freddie, to visit their Barnes and Palmer relatives in Ohio and then on to New York to see the rest of her Palmer relatives.

Dover Sunday Dec 21^st, ‘62

Dear Wife

            I have been thinking for some days of writing but have waited to see if I was sick or well I have been holding the bed & lounge down the most of the past week but am now quite well again I have had the worst kind of a cold but got well Rested by the same Friday I thought I was pretty well & started for Winona but was glad to go to bed when I got to Stockton by the by the cars are Runing to Stockton since Dec the 9^th—I got home to day well as ever -- -- the weather is splendid what snow there has been is all gone ground as bare as June prarie fires show in all directions the ground is frozen only Just enough to prevent plowing since Nov 13 people sit about the doors in shirt-sleeves & go about the neighbor-hood without coat or mittens –we have not had an hour stormy weather since you left except in the evening of the 13^th of this month when it Rained all the evening then cleared off pleasant -- --I have not been a lone any yet but expect I shall after this Mr Hall is going to Butcher the hogs tomorrow then he talks of going to Wisconsing the family are at Humphrys he dont go there much I let him the hogs after frank found he couldnt drive them off as he intended after feeding them till Nov 15^th

            Dr Sackett lives in Henry Johnsons house they have a young son I hear she is quite sick Henry Hatfield has moved his house henry Laflesh has got back from the army -- -- frank sheeks has deserted now supposed to be in the Southern army so I hear

I hear John Evans has got his discharge coming home I met Mr Nevel on the street in Winona a short time since as soon as he knew me the first thing he said ( was you look tough – tough as a Bear your Brothers dont look so tough ) -- -- I havnt shaved since you left expect I do look tuff.) -- -- Ω  I have got as large a stove as I could find in Winona got it in the South Room with Elbows so as to put it Back against the north wall which makes plenty of Room & you dont know how warm nor how handy the house is nor what a good cook I am but that aint the worst of it—it is the best winter & the best weather that ever was & I cant do a Dam thing for as I always thought a man cant do any thing out doors if he has the work to do in the house == one can hear wagons 40 miles it is so pleasant & still thrashing machines are still Running there has been one in hearing all the week the roads were never so good -- -- Divel I forgot. Frank Hall went to Winona this fall and somewhere he come accross Fanny Lovekin they come back as far as Gordons and put up as Man & Wife Lovekin swears he will shoot frank it has leaked out you see

            if Marcelous comes around again alive make him come home with you for what I am to do is more than I know I shall have to let the farm go to weeds if he dont come is there any prospect let me know I should like well to have lucy come to so you see you must fetch them both else find a buyer for the farm there is no help here now

I will send you five Dollars in this letter & if it gets through safe then I will send you five more next time which will have to be your portion for you cant guess how awful spring poor I am coming out

I expect you will have to give up buying those twenty lbs feathers I wrote about before & perhaps one oil cloth will have to answer

I have written all I think of now oh no

I believe it is generaly thought that we shall have a hard indian war next Season

probaly the cars will Run to Rochester about harvest

Mary Be a good girl & learn your Book

Then sometime you & Ma and Freddy

Will come to Minnesota and see Pa

And see old Frank & Charley

I am going to write to Pratt in a few days I have got the promise of some money for him but shant send it without orders

I get all your papers and letters got a paper a day or two ago as I suppose from Pratt

                                                                                    write often

Your friend &

            husband,

Silas T Barnes

Mr Andersons children have all had the measles the school up west is nearly Broken up with them irvin Wetmore has lost both of his children with the putrid sore throat I have heard his wife is down with it there is in the country about Measles Small Pox Chicken Pox & Scarlet fever but I dont know as there is many deaths

I send one five dollar bill to show what kind of change we have here this winter there has been several thousand dollars of it struck off

**********

There was a $3 bill inside the envelope with this letter in 2012 when I went through my father’s papers. The bill was drawn on the Bank of St. Clair, which probably was the St. Clair that is in southeast Michigan (the town there was begun in the 1820s). Around the time that this bill was probably printed, the Barnes family and the Palmer family (the families from which Truman and Julia came) lived in northeastern Ohio, in Ashtabula County, pretty much a straight southeast line across Lake Erie from St. Clair. It is interesting to speculate what farming business transaction brought this bill into one of their families. It would have been wonderful to see the $5 bill that must have been printed in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area during the Civil War! Alas, that bill was probably spent.

Aside from the neighbors in this letter, Marcellus and Lucy Alderman are mentioned, the children of Julia’s only sibling, Jane, who had died ten years before this. Marcellus at this time was serving in the Union Army. Lucy Alderman’s whereabouts in late 1862 are unknown, but she was probably either with the Palmer relatives Julia was visiting near Peru, New York (near Lake Champlain), or with her father and stepmother in Ohio.

Young Mary Barnes, addressed in this letter by her father, died about 18 months later. Fred Barnes, the baby, grew up and became a railroad machinist, first in Minnesota, then in Montana, then Denver, ending his long career in New Mexico. Truman & Julia’s farm survived.

*************

Letter 4:

Julia to Truman

Orwell Feb’ 1^st 1863

            I wish I could fly to your cabin to day & see what you are about and if you are as lonely as I am, I dont believe you feel any more so, although you are entirely alone. It has been the worst weather & the worst going that ever was sent upon Earth, the whole winter so far, There has not been a day of good going, since the 12^th of Nov’ and not more than 4 days that were half decent.

            I have held up good courage and spirits untill within a few days & now I am quite homesick or sick of the mud & dull cloudy weather, There has been a great deal of snow here, but it has all come so as to do no good, for the right kind of weather, there has been snow enough to make good sleighing from the first of Dec’ to the first of Apr’ I hope you have had a better time there, why dont you write more I want to hear from you oftener, I have been to Mr Pratts visiting since I wrote, Jane Pratt is bad with consumption, Charles is anxious that she should go home with me and try the climate of Minnesota

            Feb 9^th I wrote so far a week ago & have been waiting to hear from you, but Ely is here and I am going home with him in the morning & thought I would fill up the sheet send it along, I have been to meeting to day, which makes twice since I have been here, Old Mrs Chapman, Mrs Goodrich’s mother was buried to day, she was 91 years old. There has been a foot of snow fallen the past week & it is pretty good sleighing now, I saw a good many familiar faces, & a great many strange ones, I cant write all the changes there has been, but will try and remember them, so as to tell you

            I wish you would get some Cotton cloth before it gets any higher, for I dont see how we can keep house without it, they talk here that it will be 50 cts in the spring get as much as possible, I had rather have a good pounding board & pounder, than any washing machine you can buy, try & get us one wont you, Mary is learning some but slow I think I am afraid she will be a dull scholar, Freddy says a good many words, Every one notices him, a great deal, he trots from morning till night,

            I want to say a few words on a certain subject, & I hope you will read with candor & reflect seriously. I allude to the sinful course & life we have hitherto led, I feel as tho it was time that our course was changed & that we attend to the things that pertain to our eternal welfare, for my own part I have determined that it shall be so, I know how light you always treat the subject of religion, but I beg you will do so no longer, but reflect that it is not all of life to live, nor all of death to die, We must all die, we know that, & we read, that after death there is a judgment, I hope you will think of these things, when we are united again, you will endeavor to help me along, & let us try henceforth to perform our duty.

[Top of fourth page, upside down]

Do write oftener, I have only had two letters since I have been here Father & mother [Barnes] are both quite miserable in health.

**************

This is the only letter we have that Julia herself wrote. In it she mentions Truman’s parents and his brother Ely, as well as her and Truman’s children Mary and Freddie. 

**************

Letter 5:

Cassius Marcellus Alderman to his aunt, Julia E. Barnes

Chattanooga, Tenn.

Dec 25^th—63

Dear Aunt.

I have neglected answering your kind letter for a long time. It being Christmas to day I was thinking of friends that I had left behind in coming to serve my Country. the thought came to my mind that a long time ago I received a letter from you that I had never answered & I must neglect answering it no longer. I hope you will forgive me in being so negligent. I should like to hear from you again and I will try and be more prompt in answering it. I am well and have enjoyed good health most of the time since I came to the Regt. We are now camped at Chattanooga where we have been since the Battle of Chickamauga in which our Regt took an active part. The loss of our Regt was quite heavy, especially in wounded. one Company lost 16 in killed and wounded. We were also engaged in the assault and capture of Mission Ridge on the 25^th of last month. In the capture of that ridge we gained as brilliant a victory as has been achieved during the War. There was taken from the enemy on the whole length of the ridge 45 pieces of artillery. A piece of shell struck my bayonet as I wore it in the scabbard on my belt breaking it. but thus far I have been spared, for which I am thankfull. The last letter I recd from home the folks were all well. Lucy is going to school at the Academy in Orwell. The Small Pox has been in Windsor, there was 14 or 15 cases of it the last I heard. they were all getting along well. Our folks were vaccinated and Ma had Veryolyd [an older type of inoculation using actual matter from smallpox itself instead of the cowpox matter from which the vaccine was made—Ed.]. It is pretty cold weather here but we have had no snow yet. It is quiet times here in camp for Christmas.

I hope you and Uncle are enjoying yourselves with a good Supper to night. but I must close for this time. give my best wishes to Uncle and write soon. Yours Truly, from your Nephew C.M. Alderman

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Marcellus mentions the Battle of Chickamauga, which was fought September 18 – 20, 1863 and resulted in a Confederate victory, but there were triumphant Union actions that allowed the troops to retreat without being annihilated, and the Confederates had more casualties than the Union. An excellent description of the battle is on the Civil War website, here: http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/chickamauga.html.

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Letter 6:

Betsy DeKalb to her cousin, Julia E. Barnes

Jay, Jan th 25^th 1864

My Dear Cousin

It is a long since I received your letter but I know that you will excuse me when I tell you that my Mother my dear Mother is nomore she fell the 27^th of last August she was taken sick the night before was much better in the Morning was much better she left her room cam into kitchen I was in the pantry I heard a noise stepted to the door saw she was a falling sprang caught her by the arms but to late to save her she fell to the floor said she was hurt bad we put her on the bed sent for the Doctor he found that her hip was hurt but could not be any use to her she lived untill the 23^d of Dec a wednesday about two Oclock PM she fell asslep in Christ as we trust her last plain words that she spoke was praise praise praise her funeral was on Christmas the text you may find recorded in Luke 24 Ch 32 verse It was a solem day to me I have lived with her so long and for many of the past years she has required very kind care to keep her able to be about she told me above five weeks before she fell that she should not live long she wished me to send for Abba a girl that had lived with me I did send that day although I had a good girl at that time & Mother was as well as usal but but she never changed her mind respecting the short time she had to stay with us & said she should never get well nor did she wish to, you may well Judg how lonesom I am left I have no one with me at present but John I keep Abba Jaquis this winter we live in a house I built since Fathers death & when I look through the house how lonesome to me each door on its hinges doth mourn while searching I find not my love nor will she to me return dear Cousn will you in some of your spare moments write me a some of the production of your own pen in verse on my Mother’s death I would prise it so much It apeares that this year has been a year of afflictions as well as sorrews Ermina DeKalb that went to Missourie to teach & married Wallace Purmont came home last summer sick with the Consumption her husband came with her left her under the Doctors care he flattered him that she would get better she staid in Keesville a while then came home and died in a few weeks very suden they wrote to her husband in Missourie he left his business (he was County clerk) & came to Jay almost beside himself he went to her grave fell down on the grave she left two little boys the oldest five the youngest 3 she wrote to her husband the day before she died her last words were tell Wallice I sleep in Jesus so you see we have had to pass through many afflicting ceans but the Lord doeth all things well your Uncle William Palmer was at our house last week he said that he had been to Mr Georges staid over night they were well. Mrs G said your Father was a live please write in your next if you know about him he said that your Uncle Juba was alive that he had been to Pikes peak we thought he was dead

Please write your friend B DeKalb

[Side of last page and across the top] My love to your husband kiss the babies for me I think some of going Ohio next summer

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This letter has nothing to do with the Civil War, but it deserves a place here nevertheless, and it is poignant in the extreme emotion of its writer in describing the deaths of her mother and niece. Betsy’s mention of Julia’s father was nothing but a rumor. Henry Palmer had been missing since Julia’s mother died, when Julia was about 5 years old. Julia at that time had gone to live with her aunt Ellen Palmer Pease in Orwell, Ohio, and her older sister had been sent to New York to live with her grandparents, Zephaniah Platt Palmer and Judith Manley Palmer. Henry Palmer was never heard from by their family again. In the 1980s a descendant finally found a record of his death during the U.S. war with Mexico, in June 1848 aboard a ship in the Gulf of Mexico. As for uncle Juba Palmer, nothing has been found about him so far whatever.

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Letter 7:

Silas and Mary Barnes to Truman and Julia Barnes

Orwell jany 23, 65

My dear Children a far a Way

I can Say to you as before I have no news to Write my family are all well but my Self I am Lame can barely get a bout—I have thought Ever Since I Recieved your Letter that I Would write to you but I have put it off from day to day but I have no more news to Write today than I had When I Recieved your Letter only the Death of Capt Gordan he died 3 Weeks a go Mr Peck has got an heir 2 days old a young Prince you Wrote me the a mount of Grain you had I had 16 Bushels of Wheat from 5 Acres and a bout 60 Bushels of Oats Wheat is Worth now $2.12½ Cents oats 75 Cents hay 20 $ pr ton We have had Winter two months Steady Snow is as deep as Ever Seen it in the Ohio and it has been Steady Cold (Dre feed pork Worth 20 pr pound potatoes 62 Cents pr Bushel Apples about 62 I Wish you had some of ours though Wee have not many

You Wrote that you had a notion of Selling (if you Ever move Go South or Come back in to the Ohio

Our Rail Road is as yet a dead Set though I think there is Something more favorable a bout it

There is a going in to opperation a Cheese factory the man has Bought J B Phillips Big hall paid $800 for it Expect the milk of 700 Cows, J B Phillips has been verry Sick Better,  Col Howard has Sold the most of his Land Mr Lacky has Sold and Bought the Richard farm By the Congrational meeting house Col A Bingham has Bought the Chandler farm and Bought the Ball farm there has Ben Considerable Changeing farms Mart Bedell has Bought the frisby farm first a bove Joseph Chandlers                Skyler Crippin has got married to one of Mrs Fullers girls two of Mrs fullers girls married men from Cherry Valley the names I do not know oliver Russel married one of Mr Goodrichs girls

Willis Woolcot married one of Benjamin Binghams girls, Thomas Adiruts married one of Mr Whites Girl

Amos Morgan Married for his 2 Wife Mrs Earley (Col Pratt and Wife have gone to York State

Elys health is Better than it has ben—  Wee expect Mary Down in a few days and Will Spend the Rest of the Winter With us)  if you Should Still try to Get a place that has Some fruit on it Land is Verry high a bout here I think I could take $40 pr acre Col Howard Sold the Weed farm for 40 Dollars pr acre

I think I Will Close I have Wrote more than you Will find out

            Get a Bottle of Roe Barks Bitters for Mary I think it Will Be Good for her German Bitters

I Remain as ever your Father and friend

Silas Barns

[Between the 2^nd and 3^rd pages, sideways]

it Snows a bout all of the time the deepest I Ever See it in Ohio and Verry cold Write often    Jany 27^th fodder is a getting Scarce

[Fourth page, from Mary Barnes]

From your Mother

Farther has left alitle space for me to fill I have been to meeting to day and feel some tried as I have not been this winter before I dont think of much to write my health is better this winter than it has been for six years but I cant endure much and I dont think I ever Shall again your Farther has given you alist of Mariages but slited Mrs hillyard and Mrs Covert a number Maried and a good many died a great deal of changes I hardly no any body when I go to Church which is not verry often Cyrus lives with us this winter or I dont no how we Could get along the friends are all well as far as I no of I would be very glad to see you all would be very glad to see you all once more if I could but I am afraid I never shall take good care of your own health and that of your Children I am sorry Mary is so so sickly

I have filled my space and must close wishing you all well

Eliza is smart

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The family members mentioned in this letter include Mr. Peck, a son-in-law, whose wife Eliza (Truman’s sister) has just had a son two days before; Ely, their son and Truman’s brother; and Mary, Truman and Julia’s eldest child, who was sick. Sadly, little Mary died a year later.

The Civil War had the effect of raising prices for everything, a concern evident in this letter.

Silas lived four more years; Mary Rawson Barnes lived ten more years.
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Here I have attached scans of all of these letters so that my interested relatives can have copies of the originals. The are in the same order as the transcriptions, but you will notice that people often wrote on a folded sheet of paper in booklet form, so pages 4 and 1 are followed by pages 2 and 3.

Silas Barnes to Julia & Truman, July 22, 1862
Isn't that topical stationery fun?

Betsy DeKalb to Julia; December 6, 1862

Truman Barnes to Julia; December 21, 1862

Julia to Truman Barnes; February 1, 1863

Marcellus Alderman to Julia; December 25, 1863

The envelope from Marcellus

Betsy DeKalb to Julia; January 25, 1864

Silas Barnes to Julia & Truman; January 25, 1865