May 23.
My Dear Husband
{1} So you complain of me, - well ,
before this time you must have received my two letters, &
been suitably delighted & so you might have been had you
appreciated the bustle & turmoil & confusion of mind in
which I wrote -- The fact is that I do not feel that our ardent
& amiable friend Mrs B -- realised what she undertook in
taking this house, my family, & other boarders
{2} She is ardent & executive, but
not consecutive & systematic - - has not the talent alone to
arrange and regulate a large establishment as ours will
necessarily be. This has thrown a large part of the labour of
arranging upon me, & gives me still a larger share of
anxiety . . . . Still on the whole she is extremely capable in
particular things and very amiable & willing to receive
advice & suggestions. She has also a very amiable good girl
tho not a very smart one - - Mr Boardman is always gentle
disinterested & obliging -- takes excellent care of Fritz
& of all out of door business. We had to day the offer of
two more boarders, ladies, in one entry chamber which with Mr
& Mrs McG. nurse & child increases our family to the
account of six - We sit in the morning a long table which goes
quite across the dining room for then children & all come -
- at other times they sit at the second table We are expecting
Henry Eunice & their children at anniversary also Sarah
Beecher & little George --
{3} May 25 Received a letter yesterday
from Charles
at Ft Wayne -- a [illegible] revival has commenced & he is
almost beside himself with joy & can scarcely believe his
own eyes but feels as the seventy did when they found that they
could work miracles "Lord even the devils are subject unto us" -
- You can see the letter if you go to Hartford. Aunt Esther has
a copy of it sent her -- Father rejoices you can guess how much
-- To day have been busy most of the day, helping about family
matters -- do hope we shall get done sometime, & when we
are, every bed room in the house will be carpeted finished &
occupied you will scarcely find room for yourself if you want to
come back -- How strange this mode of life seems to me! -- I
scarce know myself & in the bewilderment scarce mis you
since I feel as if I was somebody else -- Whether after all we
shall make any thing with all our trouble may be doubted If we
get thro a little cheaper it is the most I hope
{4} -- Bye the bye I think the Evangelist
owes me something will you enquire about it for me -- They sent
me Feb 7 [1833?] -- , [strikeout: Those pieces were worth, I
think. 17. $25 -- [strikeout: after] after receiving the two
dancing school pieces - - Those pieces were worth about 17 --
then there was a short piece worth about $7 Then the Dickens
piece was about 12 or thirteen & the last Missionary piece
$25 making what they owe me about Thirty one or two dollars -- I
have some more pieces partly written which I shall send on soon
-- Those dancing pieces with which the account begins
[strikeout: conn] are [strikeout: in] sometime after Feby 11 --
1833 -- Now if you can go to the Evan office & look over a
volume you can soon find how the account stands - $25 being paid
-- The pieces are The dancing school 2 no. The pilgrim (or some
such name) -- Dickens -- The Western Missionary -- I have not
got the titles right but the subject matter is so -- I am
obliged to let Mr Boardman have some money he wants it for
current expenses - & I shall want the command of that money
-- I intend to write more soon & have three pieces now
already planned & shall write more I sent my preface to
Dodd. I think it is a pretty good one considering - - & if
he will send me a ten dollar bill for it just as a fee I'l say
"thank ye sir" & take it -- [strikeout: The g]
{5} Now if you want to see a sketch of
my manner of life it is thus & so -- Rise at 1/2 past 5 - -
breakfast 6. Morning prayer meeting till 7. Work in garden till
eight -- then come in the house review knives spoons castors
& all the table paraphanalia count & see that every
thing is in proper order -- 1/2 past [paper torn: nine?] call
the children into school sing a hymn pray with them and give
them a bible lesson half an hour long -- the Life of Christ
freely described in the style of Charles' lectures -- they are
very much interested -- They then spend a half an hour on their
texts & bible lessons for sunday -- Then read in a class
& then sew till dinner time -- They are pretty good children
-- nothing very smart has been said by any of them tho' lately
-- To day little Miss
Eliza by dint of frisking & figuring about, instead of
learning her lesson contrived to lose her dinner privileges
& to have only bread & water in her own apartment --
After dinner I noticed Hatty
gliding very quietly up stars with her own saucer full of
custard which she had saved up for Eliza -- The child is always
doing such things & yet strangers suppose she is not nearly
so affectionate as Eliza
{6} -- Our affairs proceed prosperously
on the whole -- I think Mr & Mrs McG -- will really be quite
an addition to our circle -- I am very tired to night & must
go to bed farewell
{7} By the way Kate must wants me to say
to you, be sure & get Johnny Ross' Experience down in
writing - & I do hope you will not lose the opportunity.
{8} Monday no letter for a week - I
hasten to send this lest you should have missed some of my
others - - - -
{9} Give me love to all dear N England
friends wherever you meet them & do not fail to attend to
the business part of my letter - - I long for the time when you
will retrn & we shall be once more a united family together.
Yours afftly
H B Stowe
Revd C E Stowe
S Natick
Mass
Harriet Beecher Stowe, letter to Calvin
Stowe, 9 July 1844
Transcription by Clinton Bly (HC 2016), Nicole Hoene (HC 2016),
and Amanda Hopkins (HC 2016) from an online image.
My Dear Husband,
{10} This is the first day since I have
been here at Indianapolis
that I have felt any thing like well - - having been tormented
with a cold, rheumatic pain & a violent cough & to day
is one of those insufferably close, damp, disagreeable days that
make one feel as if in a steam bath - - Henry
& Eunice & Talbot & I have been since dinner
lounging & gaping about like fish in a pail of water,
scarcely knowing whether we are alive or dead - - in this
miserable half & half condition I bethink me of writing to
you. All hope of keeping up much of a correspondence seems to
fade from before my eyes, as I am at Indianapolis, & you,
any where & every where & letters before they reach
either point must necessarily grow pretty old - - I have been
here a week & four or five days and find here just the calm
placid quiet retreat I have been longing for - - You have no
idea of the commotion that I have lived in ever since you left -
- The moving in of Mr & Mrs B __ the cleaning the whole
house the shifting & rearranging of rooms, the preparing for
boarders, & then the company anniversary week & after
Henry Eunice little Hattie & Henry, Sarah & her nurse
& little George - - with Mr & Mrs McGuffie & Master
Charley - - In all we had ten children in the family - - - -
& when I came away I felt completely worn out - - &
perhaps my ill feelings here are but the running down after such
an excitement. Sister Sarah, appears increasingly noble &
lovely - that fool of a Boy was [sneaking?] around enquiring of
Kate! Whether she was [strikeout: shur] sure there was no hope!
only think! - - Sarah seems to become very much like her mother
who was one of the noblest and loveliest of living women. Mrs
McG __ does not prove as agreeable on all points as I expected -
- She is too selfish & exigiante - - [strikeout: How] yet
she is a fine sensible woman, & possessed of many generous
and estimable qualities - - I don't like the term selfish, it
covers too much ground - - Elisabeth does not seem to me to be
naturally selfish, but only to have streaks of it - - one thing
I know that I wont take my friends as boarders, for one sees too
much of them! - - poor human nature. During my absence Boardman
writes that they have taken Mr & Mrs Chase, [strikeout: wife
&] child & nurse - - I am weary at the thoughts of such
a housefull - - is it necessary! - - It depends on me whether
they remain after my return - - I don't know what to say - - I
wish the summer were through & this boarding business
closed, I am heartily sick of it - - It is too noisy &
disquieting & harassing - - When I come home Anna
will take Hatty
& Elisa
to Charlestown & I wish I could go off with Henry
& Freddy
till you return & so be out of the scrape - - Had a letter
from Anna tonight - little Georgy
& all the children are well - & Georgy really says
"Mamma" & has a tooth & the promise of three or four
more - - By the bye you must manage to see Georgianna May &
tell her that her little name sake will do her credit one of
these days. Give my love to her also & tell her that had it
not been for that same little Georgy I would have come up with
you this summer
{11} I cant tell you how much such a
housefull as we have worries & annoys me, but if you think
it necessary why I must try to bear with it till you return
& then I should be glad to go back to our own family circle
- - but you can decide what is best on your return - - I have
often regretted that there was no definite agreement between Mr
B. & you as to rent terms &c for I do not know now
exactly how we do stand - - I have let Mr B have about $25 &
he keeps his accounts quite exact, or seems to - - & as he
was a merchant probably knows how better than I do - -
nevertheless I do the best I am able - - I will let this
boarding matter go on the whole & let them have as many as
they want only reserving one room for self & children &
I hope it will lessen our expenses - - I am glad you are
learning trust in Christ - - Be sure that if we make it our
first object to do his work[strikeout: s] he will provide for us
- - & tho as you once remarks he will not keep our accounts
for us, yet he can in a thousand ways help us to steer through -
-
{12} July 9th. I am not well yet - - to
day am reduced to calomel & gruel - - very sick all day
yesterday vomiting & what not- Pretty miserable at letter
writing. Now my dear, as you will want to bring home a little
matter for your wife will you go to [several lines cut out]
{13} Also see if you can get for me
there either some guano or poudrette sufficient tell the man for
about twenty plants I want to pot for my window this winter - -
I read with some interest as Bro Goodman might say, your remarks
in Cleveland - - I hope that you really feel in your heart a new
impulse of spiritual life, while you seek to impart it - - Broth
Goodman's reports are some thing the sleepiest, tho Anna writes
me that Proff Allen came home much Elated - - Do you know I am
seriously thinking of breaking up our "connection" & coming
here to I - - to take a class of young ladies & so influence
the state - - Such pretty girls as they have here & so
uncultivated - - I really long to do something for them - -
teach them to be women - - & not - - men corruptors &
destroyers - - Female education is at a low ebb in this state
[several lines cut out]
{14} refined - - strong mind &
winning manners who would come to Indianapolis, with a view not
merely of teaching a school but of forming the centre of female
influence in the state. - - Henry says he wants only the woman
& he can move the whole state for her. [cross-written on
last page:] - I can think only of F Strong and H Brown [words
cut out] they are permanently located. M Hudson [words cut out]]
would & if she & Sarah Day would undertake the [torn
paper] they could - - Suppose you think the matter [words cut
out] what can be done
[marginalia on first page:] I must send this letter off to day
__ Farewell Yours H
Revd C. E. Stowe
South Natick
Mass
[In a later hand:] Visiting at Indianapolis, Mr Stowe at Natick
Harriet Beecher Stowe, letter to Calvin Stowe, 27 May 1846
Transcription by Emalee Moore (HC 2016) and Sarah McNair
Vosmeier from an online image.
Brattleboro' May 27 1846
To Dr Stowe from his wife H. B. S.
My Dear Husband
{15} The account of your health in
your letter gave me serious uneasiness - - & I think
it very important that you should, as soon as possible, take the
course most favorable to your restoration - - & that
course Kate &
Dr Wesselhoeft & I all think
will be for you to come here for
water treatment & stay till
October.
{16} Yesterday Kate wrote an account of
your care as I stated it to her, for the Doctor -- at the
close she stated our limited means & that we could not
command over
three hundred dollars for our
expenses, over & above the other family expenses. He advised
you & me to stay till Oct. here, with the assurance
that this [diem?] should avail to meet all the expenses of a
residence of both of us here that time. So Providence has
opened the way -- as this will be as cheap as your
staying at home. & even cheaper if you hire out the
house.
[marginalia:] By this I understood that he would make no charge
for attendance
{17} The Dr wishes you to come
as
soon as possible as the moderate weather is better
than the hot. You can, if you come immediately probably secure a
room in our boarding house -- which as the best & most
reasonable one, is in great demand
{18} It seems far better for you to take
efficient means before you are more reduced - - & thus
you may be saved from a year of more of expense &
interruption of labors. The more I read (we have Water
Cure books in plenty) & the more I talk with Dr W. the
more I am convinced of the efficiency of this course for
every
sort of disease - - For in reality it is only a
strict & rigid enforcement of
all the laws of health
- with the tonic use of
cold & of water for
the the [sic] whole nervous system - - on which you know every
organ & operation depends.
{19} The Dr treats us with great kindness
- - seems interested for us - - told Hastings I should not be
shortened in time by expence - - & as board &
incidentals are [$9.50?] a week I suppose you & I will have
no other charges to meet here. The Dr is an honourable &
liberal man & after what he said to kate there is no risk in
trusting him to get us thro' for as long a time as he thinks it
best for us to stay. He has in many other cases shown
great liberality to other patients with limited means.
{20} I think it will be the best way to
put Henry with Mrs Fowler - - if she can take him - - if not Mrs
Blackwell perhaps will do it. My anxiety about your
leaving the children will not be so great as what I should feel
if you remain & run the risk of hot weather & other
liabilities
{21} So far Sister Katy has written in my
name - - a word now from myself. - - I do not feel at all
disposed to trifle with symptoms like yours - - Mr Bates case is
a solemn lesson in point - - you must do something
efficient
this vacation or you will certainly break down for good at
the beginning of next term - - you can in no way [conduce?] with
three months so many healthful influences as by taking the Drs
offer here - - if not cured you may at least be put in such a
track that with care you will be getting better & not worse
all winter - - Not for years, have I enjoyed life as I have
[strikeout: had] here - - real keen enjoyment - - - - every
thing agrees with me - - - - & tho might right hand has not
yet found [recurring?] I think it cannot but come right when
[strikeout: all] health rises in ever other respect - - I could
tell you worlds of Gods nearness & goodness to me - - of
heaven begun on earth as I walk among these beautiful mountains
wreathed with foliage & sparkling with cascacades - - God
has been inexpressibly near & dear - - - - This whole affair
I now commit to him - - This [strikeout: summer] season has been
the deepest trial of my life - - death has been every hour
present to me -- or worse than death a helpless life - - but
still I have thro all had a heart of joy - - You & I have
offered prayers that God perhaps can only answer by fire - - be
it so - - I hope to hear immediately whatever result comes will
be God's will & best
{22} Love to Father & Mother
Yours
H
{23} PS Harriet wants you to get Miss
Goodman to select three of the poorest comfortors -- two cotton
sheets -- One of the comfortors must be the largest size you
have. These bring [strikeout: On] & you will save five
or six dollars.
{24} Also bring two wollen blankets - -
they will have to be cut probably. & Miss G. must
select such as will do best. Bring all the crash towels
there are.
{25} I walk habitually five miles a day -
- at intervals between my baths - - never in my poorest days
less than three - - in some good days I have walked 7 - - &
not suffered for it - - Nothing but the local disease remains -
- but it is always so here - - the general health first improves
& then the specific symptoms yield.
{26} Engage Mrs Boardman to see that we
hear from home regularly once a fortnight thro some of our
friends
Revd C E Stowe
Walnut Hills
Ohio
[in a later hand:]
From me in Brattleboro May 27, 1846
To Mr S at W Hills
Harriet Beecher Stowe, letter to Calvin
Stowe, 20 Feb. 1847
Transcription by Sarah McNair Vosmeier, Claire Harvey (HC 2017),
Rebecca Drake (HC 2016), Kendra Johnson (HC 2016), Keeli Stewart
(HC 2018), and Jordan McHenry (HC 2018) from an online image.
Brattleboro Feby 20
My dear Husband
{27} I have been thinking very much of
you last night & to day & am therefore moved to write
again. In reflecting on all your excellent traits, your
kindness of heart & capability of feeling & appreciating
all that is tender & generous -- the earnestness &
sincerity with which on our first marriage you told me of your
intention to make me happy & the kindness with which you
then treated me - - how for many of the first years of married
life you shared with me the care of our helpless sickly little
ones watching with them daily & nightly with unwearied
tenderness - - I have been led to ask myself how could you ever
have become so altered as to say & to feel some things such
as you have since then expressed - - I am satisfied after review
that it is a morbid disease - - I am certain when &
under what influence it arose & now see by what causes it
has been increased & to what results it has grown & what
faults in me have increased it - - It first arose when your
mother was in the family. Before that time in all our
sorrows we had at least a united heart & I never heard any
thing from you but kindness except in moments of excitement you
well know the state of mother's mind at that time - - with no
unkindness to her but simply because I think it a fact I will
say that I think at that time she succeeded without meaning it
in producing an alienated state of feeling in your part. She
constantly pointed out my faults and kept up that perpetual
state of complaint and irritation which in your nervous and
suffering state laid a foundation for a morbid
[closeness?] & since that time you have been predisposed
to view me in a wrong light It was never till after
(this) that I heard any thing from you as if you had been too
complying or I too exacting. - - you had shared my cares &
borne with me any sorrows - - & had you not then been
in a morbid & nervous state a state predisposing to
dark & misanthropic views the ungenerous idea of
thinking whether I get more than my share of attention never
could have made a lodgement in your mind. You know as much as I
when both parties begin to stand for their rights &
to suspect the other of selfish exaction that there is an end of
every delicate & refined affection & a beginning
of coarse and brutal selfishness. Christ says If I your
Lord & master have washed your feet you ought to wash
one anothers feet." - - is not this the true
way? Since that time - - of Mothers stay in the family I have
plainly seen two [currents?] in your mind - - one of morbid
brooding almost vindictive blame looking with a brooding and
jealous eye on my faults - - exaggerating them &
predisposing to impatience - - There were certain ideas
that mother dwelt very much on that you were often repeating in
moments of hasty impatience. & they were these that I
was extravagant in expenses - - that I needed much waiting on -
- that I inclined to keep too much help &c &c.
{28} This last idea you expressed so
often that at last I sat down & drew out on paper an account
of the years we had been married the sicknesses I had had and
the help I had had & you confessed that "where one woman
[would?] have less ten would have had more" & I
believe that idea was finally removed - - -- But when you have
not been in this morbid current of thought your views of me are
exactly in many prints the reverse - - Your letters
contain contain full admissions of my laborious conscientious
self denying life as a wife & mother. You are at
times fully sensible of all that I have done & suffered --
of the difficulties I have had to meet and the undaunted
firmness with which I have met them - - If I should lay
the things in your last letter side by side with many others you
have written one would see how exactly contradictory they are.
{29} Now with regard to my self I freely
confess that I am constitutionally careless & too impetuous
& impulsive easily to maintain that consistency & order
which is so necessary in a family - - that I often
undertake more that I can well perform & so come to
mortifying failures. I also see now plainer than I
ever did before that I have felt too little the necessity of
conceding to such of your peculiarities as seemed to me
unreasonable - - & have too often pursued my own purposes
without reference to them - - I could not realise then
as I do now - - But these faults seem in connection with my
whole character & with the sincere efforts I have made to
overcome them how different are they from the morbid pictures
that you draw when brooding in hypochondriac gloom over
everything - - How different from your own admission in
better hours - - [illegible strikeout].
{30} I hope you rightly take the spirit
& intention with which I say these things - - I cannot blame
so much as pity you who have been so long & so severely
tried - - You have always struggled to do right
& you forbid that I should have a harsh and unkind feeling
where you have failed when so sorely pressed - - Not a
shade of any such feeling remains on my mind or agitates my
feelings I feel nothing but love & the deepest desire
for your happiness & comfort & am only impatient with
the circumstances in which Providence has placed me when I
feel the strong impulse to go to you & love & comfort
you - - You have evidently been making progress in self
government & gaining the victory over yourself & I doubt
not that we shall yet see many good days together - -
{31} As regards my leaving - - I am
somewhat uncertain - - There are such signs of an approaching
crisis that the Doctor does not think it would be prudent for me
to leave for some three weeks, instead of going next week -
- There is an evident effort of [motive?] now to throw of
those chronic nervous affections of the arms & right side
which are such a drag upon me& as usual it makes me feel
more [weak?] than common Over the spine where the seat of
this weakness in my arms has been & when I have suffered so
much pain & soreness small clusters of little blisters are
occasionally thrown out. they are intensely sore but - -
As yet they are but imperfectly developed - - Come out and
disappear again but whenever [strikeout: may be] the nurse
rubs the spine it feels precisely as if she were rubbing in
nettles - - When fully developed the Dr says they will be
deep sores & will form the crisis of the disease. All his
doubt is whether the system is strong enough to throw them out
but in two or three weeks he can tell this. Meanwhile my whole
system seems affected & agitated with nameless commotions..
It is some risk to leave in such a state - - I might be rather
sick on the road far from my doctor & from help - - A
lady who left Monday on the verge of a crisis was was brought
back last night in her husband's arms. She had gone as far as
Norwich & spent one day there & was so sick that she had
to be brought back with all speed - - This two or three
weeks however will only take up the time I want to
spend in Hartford N Haven & Philadelphia so that after all I
shall not come home much later only I shall have less time on
the road - - but you may still direct to me here till farther
warning & if you will pay postage it will some lessen my
expenses & enable my money to hold out.
{32} I do not think I needed the cautions
on this subject of [saving?] in your last letter - - all my
matters here have been arranged with rigid economy - -
necessarily so - - indeed if I stay much longer [illegible] some
of my clothes will stand in need of the Providence bestowed on
the Isrealites in the wilderness - - I pray daily that God would
direct me in all things & I strive to follow his Providence
- - pray also for me that if it be his will I may now cast off
this lingering disease & be fully restored.
{33} What seems to me curious with regard
to their eruption is that it is exactly over the place where so
much tartar emetic ointment has been rubbed in & that it
feels precisely like that well remembered sensation I have
noticed for a month past that whenever the nurse was rubbing my
back with her bare hands that it prickled as if she were rubbing
with tartar emetic or nettles long before any external eruptions
began to appear.
Tuesday afternoon
{34} We have had a week of extremely
gloomy weather raw leaden grey chilling with falls of snow
alternating with thaws. I can assure you that to pursue
our cold regimen in such weather requires no small fortitude. I
had felt so glad that my apprenticeship was almost over &
now the thought of spending three weeks longer seems intolerable
and now suppose that at the end of those three weeks I should be
in the middle of eruptive crisis do you tell me what I ought
to do - - for I dont want the worry of deciding - - The
eruption begins to be more permanent & discharges a little -
- I feel exactly as if I had on [Hartman's?] emetic -- Well it
does seem as if I could not wait any longer but must
come home however I suppose that it will be three weeks at least
before the Penn canal opens -- perhaps four or five
{35} I have spent the morning reading
& singing hymns to a poor sick woman whom I was telling Anna
about - - & it was greatly comforting for me to tell her all
the comforting things out of the Bible & to sing "Begone
unbelief" & now I wish you would read would that hymn - -
one of John Newtons best.
{36} If I dont write often for the next
two weeks dont be alarmed - - I may be much more numb
& it may be very inconvenient & difficult for me to
write.
{37} Still keep up hoping in God -
- & assuredly we should yet praise him.
Yours in love
H
To be sure of having this reach me here you must write
immediately.
Rev C E Stowe
Walnut Hills
Near Cincinnati Ohio
[in a later hand:]
Brattleboro
Feb 20 to Mr
Stowe W Hills
Harriet Beecher Stowe, letter to Calvin
Stowe, 16 Sept. 1849
Transcription by Sarah McNair Vosmeier and Sydney Hornsby
(HC 2018) from an online image.
[smeared: August] September
My dear Husband
{38} I was no less
disappointed than you to get your letter some two days since
with all its particulars yet am satisfied that the Dr is right
& that you ought to stay - -
{39} I have really felt too
unwell to write for a week past - - nor am I better now -
- Not that I am sick, only overtasked wearied & dragged out
- - [strikeout: I tried to] After having been without
[Americas?] help during most of the hottest weather, she at last
staid with me only two weeks & went away. Emmeline is
a young girl only 14 - - Charley
has been cutting teeth & had influenza - - I have had all
the fall purchases to make - - the fall sewing to plan cut fix
&c if not to do - - & for six children that is not a
trifle - - & in short my mind has been strained so that I
have now scarce any feeling but one of incipant weariness.
{40} I began to feed
Charley, but as he was sick unluckily I had to take him to the
breast again - - I suppose it is nursing such a great fellow
that weakens me - - Besides when I take care of him he wont
feed - - He wont hear of milk from me - - unless it is of one
particular sort & he acts roystering & boyish like a
great fellow who thinks women made for his especial convenience
-- Then our cooking stove smokes -- & I can't get any body
to help me move it & can't move it upstairs yet either &
it draws so poorly that we can't bake in it at all - - and both
pumps till last week have been so that it cost ones hearts blood
to get a drop of water out of them - - Last week I was desperate
-- went to town got a man up who took up the rain water pump
& mended it so that now goes well enough the other squeaks
on as usual -- the water smells like despair just as it did last
summer & we have to send to Mrs. Parkhursts for all our
water.
{41} Well -- is that enough
--The fact is my dear you must excuse my writing much -- I am
going to make a serious business of getting better next week --
If I can hire a woman to do my work for two or three [strikeout:
months] weeks I shall get Emmaline to take Charley and keep him
out of my sight till he has got well learned to eat & then
after that I shall get along -- Annas
time is all taken up in teaching -- she cannot help about the
matter at all.
{42} - - Don't let us
despair - - you nor I - - God is good to us - - I pity you
from the bottom of my heart - - for there is no abyss like the
homesickness of water cure - - I became quite conscious
that one might die of it as the Swiss did.
{43} It is now time for me
to go to bed - - Il write you again soon.
Your affectionate wife
Revd CE Stowe
Care of Robert Wesselhoep [Wesselhoeft]
Brattleboro
[in a later hand:] To Mr Stowe at Brattleboro
Cholera not yet developed
Harriet Beecher Stowe, letter to Lydia
Jackson Beecher, 29 Oct. 1850
Transcription by James Bignotti (HC 2016), Brianna Burns (HC
2016), and Allison Wolfe (2016)
Brunswick, Oct. 29
Dear
Mother,
{44} I was sorry to not have seen you
& Father again before I left Boston - - I assure you that as
the time of in gathering comes when we are all drawing around
our firesides I miss the old study fire with the sofa in
front of it &. you & Father cozily seated in
either corner - - our Thanksgiving & Christmas will be
lonely without you & I am quite inclined to join in the
homesick regrets of the children - - -
{45} It is true that God has given me
many warm friends in this distant land - - friends who are
willing to do all they can for me but still how can I help these
regrets - - I commend my husband to your motherly care
& hope that you & Father will look after him a
little, & uphold his heart for I think he feels quite
lonesome. - - Mr. Stowe needs three new shirts - - and as
there are no women that I know of here who do that kind of work
as well as those we used to employ on the hill I have concluded
to have them made there Mrs Ford cut & made four for him
just before he came away. -- If you will be kind enough to
choose some cotton & linen for the purpose at Ayers where we
have an account she can cut & make them by one of those
which she has already done. Should it be that she have moved
away [strikeout: I
wil]
Mrs Sutton could do the thing almost equally well - -
[strikeout: We have]
{46} We have been very anxious about
Sarah, who has been very dangerously sick with an abscess in her
side - - It has been a dreadful thing but she is now
recovering we hope that in this way the western miasma may drain
off. Charles appears delightfully - - He is growing solid
in mind & is under the influence of a most excellent &
deeply christian spirit - - He appears to give great
satisfaction as a preacher & may I think obtain one of the
best places in this part of the country when he chooses -
-
{47} If God would give me such a set of
sons as you have raised Father, I would not ask him for silver
or gold - - & would be willing to go thro
all the racket & tear of the old Litchfield days for their
sake - -
{48} My
little
boy grows so exactly like
him
I have lost that I feel almost sad when I look at him He
is now not four months but he weighs 17 pounds & is very
strong & active - - yet I look still with
fond regrets back to him whom I have lost tho God knows I would
not recal him. I do not see that the present takes the
place of the past - - & tho I call both Charles still I feel
for all the likeness that there is that this is another &
not the same
{49} -- Well I hold to my heart the text
we have here no continuing city but we seek one to come
{50} We had a very pleasant visit from
old Dr Woods -- He looks quite young & vigorous & writes
yet as firm a hand as any young clerk of thirty -- He sent
me half a bushel of quinces off his own trees with a note saying
that he wanted to express his affectionate remembrance of my
Father by showing me some little kindness - - I hope next year
Father will settle down & get out his sermons as the old
Doctor has done
{51} I cant write much now but you will
hear from me thro my husband often Give my love to Mrs Allen
& Mrs Bates -- & -- but I cant begin to say all that I
would send love to [strikeout: all] ---
[strikeout: Affectionate [illegible]]
Afftly yours,
H. Stowe
(I am almost crazy as you see)
Mrs Dr Beecher
Walnut Hills
Ohio
Harriet Beecher Stowe, letter to "dearest
brother," 18 Apr. [c.1860]
Transcription by Jessica Reed (HC 2018), Peyton Spaugh (HC
2018), and Audrey Furnish (2016).
April 18
My Dearest Brother,
{52} Last night on going to
bed I had an experience so singular that I must relate it to
you. I had had a letter about the temptations which [envisioned
ofred?] which deprived me of sleep & sent me to prayer.
{53} I called Georgie to my
bedside and begun to talk with her. Suddenly [my] mind seemed to
be taken up [torn: and?] carried beyond itself with the
wonderful power & greatness of Christs atonement and I
said to Georgie "Why have we given up prayer for poor
Annie? Did not Christ cast seven devils out [torn:
of] Mary Magdalene? Is not Christ able to save those souls whose
bodies have become so defiled and [wreched?] that deliverence
from sin is impossible while they [sic]
{54} Then came a strong
impression on my mind that some soul was to depart that
night - - I asked Georgie to read from the prayer
book the prayers for the dying & the commendation of the
departing soul While she was reading them I
was intensely moved & thought within myself let me remember
this is the 27 & consider what I shall hear.
{55} When Georgie left me
again my thoughts reverted to Anna - - I thought Why
have I not had faith to pray for her. When Christs atonement is
such an infinite proof of love Did God so suffer for
us - - is any thing too much to ask of him for us
Does not Christ hold the keys of[Hell?] &
of Death & then again by an irresistable impulse I
seemed to raise her up in my arms [torn: send?] her to
Jesus I seemed to stand with her before the cross
& give her up to him.
{56} To day when the telegram came
I felt an awful peace a fullness of trust in Christ's
infinite mercy of him & thro him & to him are all
things. I feel that Georgie [torn]
I prayed besides Annie's dying bed last night & that our
prayers were heard & your many prayers [torn:
illegible] dear brother -- Christ [torn: Jesus?] said to
the Evil Spirit 'I charge [Torn: illegible] come out of her
& vex her no more & I see her sitting at his feet
clothed & in her right mind.
Your loving sister
Hatty
