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A Native of Winby
Jim's Little Woman
Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields in St.
Augustine, Florida
1888-1896
According to their biographers, Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields stayed at the Ponce de Leon hotel in St. Augustine, Florida at least three times, in the springs of 1888, 1890, and 1896. After their second stay, Jewett published two pieces set in St. Augustine: "Jim's Little Woman" (December 1890) and "A Lonely Worker" (April 1893). Furthermore, the 1888 trip, which included a visit with Laura Towne and Ellen Murray at the Penn School on St. Helena Island, near Beaufort, SC, led directly to another story, "The Mistress of Sydenham Plantation" (1888). The 1896 stay was to rest after an arduous six-week Caribbean cruise, during which Fields kept a journal. The Caribbean cruise also provided source material for Jewett's "The Foreigner" (1900). The repeated visits and the quantity of resulting writing suggest that travel in the South, especially the stays in St. Augustine, became important stimulation for the two women. This is a collection of documents, notes and commentary on these three sojourns, focusing mainly on St. Augustine.
[ ] : Editorial comments and descriptions.
{ } : Editorial insertions in pursuit of clarity.
It is possible that some punctuation and other marks have been
entered into the texts by other hands. Where I suspect
this, I so indicate.
To read more formal transcriptions, more fully annotated and in
their chronological contexts, see the Diaries and Letters section of the Sarah
Orne Jewett Text Project.
From Rita K. Gollin, Annie Adams Fields: Woman of
Letters. Boston: University of Massachusetts
Press, 2002, p. 239.
The roles of patient and caregiver were
reversed in the winter of 1888, when Annie was so prostrated by
pneumonia and convalesced so slowly that (under doctor's orders)
she and Sarah traveled south. When they reached St.
Augustine, Florida, they took rooms at the Ponce de Leon, the
palatial new Spanish Renaissance hotel that Henry Flagler had
built to accommodate passengers on his new Florida East Coast
Railway, a hotel whose many splendors included companiles,
domes, arcades, fountains, Roman baths, lush gardens, stained
glass windows, and interiors designed by Louis Comfort
Tiffany. "A singular fortune has befallen this little half
decayed Spanish town," Annie told one of her Boston
friends. "One of the richest oil kings of this wonderful
country of ours has taken a fancy to the place and has built a
palace here for a hotel as huge and glorious as the Spanish
palaces of old." One of her pleasures was conversing with
the oil king.
From Paula Blanchard, Sarah Orne Jewett: Her World and her
Work. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1994.
Blanchard reports that in January 1888, Annie
Fields fell seriously ill with pneumonia and Sarah Orne Jewett
assisted with nursing her. When she was recovered enough
near the end of February, her doctor recommended that she spend
the rest of the winter in the south, and Jewett decided to
accompany her. Presumably, St. Augustine was chosen
because of the heavily advertized newly opened tourist hotels,
particularly Henry Flagler's Hotel Ponce de Leon, where the pair
eventually determined to stay.
Blanchard says that during their leisurely
journey southward, they made stops at Aiken, SC and at St.
Helena in the Sea Islands. However, this order is
contradicted and complicated by the documents, as shown in the
following chronology.
Their visit to Beaufort was motivated by a
wish to see Fields's old friend, Laura Towne, a noted
abolitionist and, for many years, a leader with Ellen Murray of
the Penn School establishment, which provided education, medical
and other services to freed slaves, to whom the island farms had
been given after Union forces occupied St. Helena early in the
Civil War.
Of Towne, Blanchard says: "By 1888, her work
was largely done and the community served as a model for others
throughout the islands.... 'The result of her work lay like a
map before us,' Annie wrote .... 'Every step spoke to us of the
sacrifice and suffering of humanity and of its endurance in the
present time'" (193-4).
An Approximate Chronology of the 1888 Trip
In Jewett's first letter to Mary from St. Augustine, she says, "I am so sorry to miss a letter to you but I was out gadding all the early part of the day until the last mail was gone." This and other passages in these letters imply that, during this period, they wrote to each other virtually every day. It also is clear from this sequence that there were letters that were not saved or have not yet been accessed. As such materials emerge and as I am able, I will add them.
February 23 -- Jewett writes to Willis Boyd Allen at The
Cottage Hearth from 148 Charles St., Boston, indicating
that she has not yet departed. See Scott Frederick
Stoddart, Selected Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett: A Critical
Edition with Commentary. University of Illinois
Dissertation. Dissertation Abstracts International 49.9 (Mar.
1989): p2661A.
March 1 -- Jewett writes to Houghton Mifflin & Co. from the
Laurel House in Lakewood, NJ, near the beginning of the
trip south. She also writes to Mary Rice Jewett, suggesting that
Fields and Jewett had previously stayed at Longacres, which may
have been a New York City hotel.
March 3 -- Jewett writes several letters from Lakewood.
March 4 (Monday) -- Jewett writes to Mary, having just arrived
with Annie Fields in St. Augustine. FL.
Jewett reports a short stay in Jacksonville
before coming on to St. Augustine. Note that this casts some
doubt upon the chronology to this point; it may need correction,
but current information seems to support the dates above.
March 11 (Monday) -- Jewett writes to Mary, having just changed
hotels to the Ponce de Leon.
March 11-14 (Sunday - Wednesday). The Great Blizzard of
1888 buries New England, including New York City, in snow.
March 22 (Thursday). Jewett writes to Mary from Aiken, SC,
complaining about the slowness of the mail since the storm.
It is possible this letter was written on
March 15.
March 23 (Friday). Jewett writes to Mary from Aiken, SC.
She is happy with how quickly letters now are
traveling, reporting that a letter mailed on Wednesday arrived
today.
March 29 (Thursday). Jewett writes to Louisa Dresel from Aiken,
SC.
She reports that Fields is much recovered,
but still somewhat weak. She finds the local landscape
picturesque and says they plan to visit Laura Towne.
March 31 (Saturday). Jewett writes to Mary from the Sea
Island Hotel in Beaufort, SC.
She dates this letter Saturday 31 April, an
impossible date that also does not fit the rest of the
chronology.
She reports that she has just been to
Charleston, SC.
April 1 (Easter Sunday). Jewett writes a letter to Mary
dated Sunday from St. Helena, SC.
It is likely that during the next ten days,
Jewett and Fields sailed with Katharine Loring and her father
through the Georgia Sea Islands and back to St. Augustine.
April 10 (Tuesday). Jewett writes to Mr.
Garrison at Houghton Mifflin from Florida. She announces
an intention to arrive in Washington, DC by April 16.
April 18 (Wednesday). Jewett writes a letter to Lilian
Aldrich from the Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine
April 20 ( Friday). Fields writes to Anna Dresel.
Fields says her doctor recommends that she
remain a few more days. She is finding St. Augustine very
interesting, it history, architecture and gardens.
On the same day, she writes, in a journal
entry or letter draft, a sketch of Henry Flagler, builder and
owner of Hotel Ponce de Leon.
SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett
St. Augustine
Monday
[ 4
March 1888 ]
Dear O. P.*
Well,
I didn't know there was such a place as this in
America! All the way down through the north of Florida and
from Jacksonville here I had a sense of disappointment because
the country seemed hardly more southern than North Carolina,
except for the little palmettos on the ground, for it was flat
and covered with pine woods.* But when you get into this
old town there are all the queer things you see in Southern
Italy or Spain it seems to me – strange flowers and loads of
roses and kinds of palm trees leaning over walls and the people
are so many of them of Spanish descent that it keeps up the
outlandish feeling.* And somebody very rich of the
Standard Oil Company has fallen in love with the place and built
the shops and other buildings in old Spanish style and – as for
the Ponce de Leon it is simply beautiful.* You must
come next year and stay there. Mother would have such a
time! There is so much to see and the sea wind is cool though
the sun is so hot. They have picked all the sweet oranges
long ago but the bitter ones are left on the trees and look just
as well! Tomorrow this hotel is going to shut up so we are
going to move over to the Ponce de Leon.* They say that this is
much better kept in some ways, but I should like to be there to
look about at my leisure. The Lorings had friends the
here. You don't know what good times we had
together. Katherine Loring* is such a nice girl and has
lived abroad a good deal and got so much out of it and is a born
traveller so that we have been much the gainers. She has
made the plans and we have taken the good of them. They
live up at Pride's Crossing near Mrs Cabots* and I knew her but
it was before she went off the last time about two or three
years ago. You wouldn't care much about
Jacksonville – it might be a town anywhere except for the orange
trees. We were in a first rate hotel the little time
we stayed, but here there is really something to see and
enjoy. The streets are as narrow as can be for driving and
the Spanish balconies poke out overhead so you can walk along in
the shade of them.* I have been
dreadfully afraid of having Mrs. Fields go up the rivers or
indeed to stay long here for it is really wilting hot now and
too hot to have come for any length of time, but we are going to
take one day's journey to where we can see the pink birds fly
about.* Florence Cushing* is here & knows K. L. also,
and we have pleasing times. I am so sorry to miss a letter
to you but I was out gadding all the early part of the day until
the last mail was gone. I sigh and sigh for Caddy.
Oh Caddy such joys and even [grimed ? ] hens a squawking
is no more from Sister. We haven't been to the old Spanish fort*
yet but are going tomorrow or perhaps early this evening.
NOTES
Peg: Peg and O.P. were Jewett family nicknames for
Mary Rice Jewett, as Seddie and Sadie were for Sarah Orne
Jewett, and as Caddy and Carrie were for their youngest sister,
Caroline Jewett Eastman.
through the north of Florida...: Though Henry
Flagler quickly developed his hotels in St. Augustine and the
railways that would bring northerners to them, the work was not
quite completed in the spring of 1888, when Jewett and Fields
first visited. For that visit, Jewett and Fields could
travel by sleeper car from New York to Jacksonville. There
they would ferry across the St. John's River, and then take
another quite uncomfortable train to St. Augustine. See
Thomas Graham, Mr. Flagler's St. Augustine. Gainesville:
University Press of Florida, 2014.
of Spanish descent: While the Minorcan community of
St. Augustine was significant in 1888, they did not form a
majority of the local population. At this early point in
Jewett's acquaintance with St. Augustine, she had not yet
absorbed the knowledge of the town she would gather before
publishing her main story set there, "Jim's Little Woman."
See The Diverse People of "Jim's Little Woman" by
Sarah Orne Jewett.
the Ponce de Leon: As she writes this letter,
Jewett has not yet stayed at the Ponce de Leon hotel, and she
has not yet learned very much about Henry Flagler, a partner in Standard Oil,
who was investing so heavily in the transformation of St.
Augustine.
Drawing
of the Ponce de Leon Hotel from .
This view is from the southeast corner of the hotel.
The main entrance to the courtyard is at the center of the
loggia on the left/south side.
Katherine Loring: Katharine Peabody Loring (1849-1943) of Beverly, Massachusetts, was the older sister of Louisa Putnam Loring (1854-1923). They were daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Loring. Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett says Katharine Loring was one of the founders of the Radcliffe College precursor, the Society to Encourage Studies at Home in 1873, where she was head of the history program (109). Katharine Loring probably is best known as the domestic partner of Alice James (1873-92), sister of Henry and William James. Henry James, according to Leon Edel, loosely based his characters Olive Chancellor and Verena Tarrant (The Bostonians, 1885-6) upon Katharine and his sister (Henry James: A Life, pp. 308-314; see also Edel's introduction to The Diary of Alice James).
Katharine Loring in front, Alice James behind.
This image is from Serendip Studio, where it is presented
without attribution.
Attempts to locate the holder for reprinting permission failed
to gain results.
Link to John Singer Sargent painting of
Katharine and Louisa Loring.
Mrs. Cabot: According to Richard Cary, Susan
Burley Cabot (1822-1907) was a close friend of Jewett. Jewett
often spent part of the winter at the older woman's home. Cabot
was married to the former mayor of Salem, MA, Joseph S. Cabot
(1796-1874) (Sarah Orne Jewett Letters, p. 87). In
the 1907 codicil to her will, Jewett mentions a legacy from
Susan B. Cabot. Mrs. Cabot and the Lorings lived in
Massachusetts, northeast of Boston and not far from many of
Jewett's and Fields's friends, such as Henry L. Pierce and
Lilian and Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and near Fields's summer home
at Manchester-by-the-Sea. Note that there is some
confusion about the identity of Mrs. Cabot's husband, reflected
in the Joseph S. Cabot Wikipedia entry which
gives him a different wife, and in her Boston Evening Transcript obituary of 23
March 1907, which gives her husband as Joseph G. Cabot, former
mayor of Salem.
the pink birds fly about: While one might assume
these pink birds would be flamingos,
in fact flamingos rarely are seen in Florida, especially in
north Florida. More likely, Jewett and Fields are
expecting to see Roseate
Spoonbills.
the Spanish balconies: Bronsontours.com provides an architectural
history of St. Augustine. Spanish home architecture in the
city featured second-story balconies to provide shade and to
shelter lower windows and doors from rain and wind.
Charlotte Street. St. Augustine,
with protruding balconies.
Reynolds, The Standard Guide, St. Augustine, (1890) p.
11.
Florence Cushing: Florence Cushing
(1853-1927). This biographical note appears with the
description of her papers at the Vassar College libraries:
Born in 1853 outside Boston, MA, Florence Cushing was the daughter of an esteemed family known as “The family of judges” for their participation in legal affairs. Florence Cushing was the valedictorian of her Vassar class of 1874 and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She was among the founders of the Girls’ Latin School of Boston as well as the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, which became the American Association of University Women, an organization of which she was the second president (1883-1885). She was the first alumna to sit on the Board of Trustees, and served between 1887-1894 and 1906-1912. In 1913, she was elected to life membership on the Board, a position which she held until 1923, when she became 'trustee emerita.' For her exemplary work and devotion to Vassar, Cushing Hall [now Cushing House], built in 1923, was named after her. She died at home in Norwell, MA on 20 September 1927.
Spanish fort: Fort Marion at the north end of Bay Street, now a national monument, the Castillo San Marcos.
SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett
Ponce de Leon,
St. Augustine -- Monday
Dear O. P.
Here we are I am thankful to say, so comfortable in this beautiful place with a big room and a little room out of it, looking out into the great Spanish court of the hotel with a big fountain and gardens and palmetto trees, and through the big arched and cloistered walk into the street. Really it is a perfect palace of a place and though we were told again that its beauty was all it had and the table was n't good we never half believed it, and had as good a dinner and breakfast as "Youngs"* could give and who need ask more? It costs but when you feel as if you had your money's worth it gives you quite a different feeling!* Mrs. Fields got here pretty well on the whole though she is very weak poor thing and I know she longs to be at home. I feel as if this were the right place for her for a few days at any rate since she isn't able to start on the home journey, and being so amused and pleased with the hotel that it helps along a good deal. You feel as if you were living in a brand new palace and every way you look you see something really artist-like and charming. For instance the china is real china of the most lovely pattern of gold on white in little figures and such pretty shapes – so refined, as if a lady had picked it out, and the carpets are so full and handsome*– You will perfectly delight in it and if I don't have some of my family spending their little all in St. Augustine the latter part of next winter it will be because I can't prod 'em!!! Mrs. Fields has said over and over that Mother must come, and how it would please Mary. We will start Caddy with Pretty Peggy and "her folks" and come as a whole.
-- I was afraid after I wrote yesterday that I spoke as if I
thought you had been impatient about my being gone so long, but
I didn't mean it that way. I feel the worse because you
have been so good about it when I know you want me. I
would have been home long ago if I had started for mere
pleasure. And it has seemed to me some days as if I were
pulled almost in two! I think it all depends upon the next
few weeks or months whether Mrs. Fields ever gets strong
again. She seems to pull up a certain distance and then
something pulls her back, and if she got a bad cold it would go
very hard with her. There is said to be a very good
doctor* here and I am going to get her to have him come today
and be sure she is on the right track about after this
upset. There goes the band -- oh how I hope this same one
will be here next winter!*
Ever so much love from
Sarah.
NOTES
"Youngs": Young's Hotel (1860–1927) in Boston, MA
would have been familiar to the Jewett sisters. Wikipedia
says:
A travel guidebook described Young's in 1895: "The main entrance to this hotel is on Court Avenue, and the hotel extends to Court Square and Court Street. It is one of the largest and best of the hotels on the European plan. One of the features of this hotel is the ladies' dining-room, the entrance to which is on the Court Street side. This is a handsomely decorated room 100 feet long and 31 feet wide. It connects with other large dining-rooms, and a cafe for gentlemen on the ground floor. This hotel is a favorite place with New Yorkers. ... Recognized as among the best [hotel restaurants in the city] are those connected with Young's Hotel, the Parker House, and the Adams House. That of Young's Hotel is very extensive, occupying a large part of the ground floor of that establishment. It has dining-rooms for ladies and gentlemen, lunch rooms, and convenient lunch and oyster counters."
It costs: Thomas Graham in Mr. Flagler's St.
Augustine reports that charges, including meals, at the
Ponce de Leon ranged from $5 to $25 / person / day, which
compared well with other first-class hotels. In 1894, the
nearby, less luxurious Cordova Hotel, also owned by Flagler,
charged $3-$4 / person / day for a room and 3 meals.
real china ... carpets are so full and handsome:
Thomas Graham in Mr. Flagler's St. Augustine says that
Clarence B. Knott was in charge of supplying the Flagler hotels
in St. Augustine. He managed large warehouses in St.
Augustine, ordered materials in bulk and distributed them to
hotels as needed. These included everything from
electrical parts to china, silver, linen and
carpets. "Knott would obtain samples of goods from
several companies to make sure they met Mr. Flagler's high
quality standards, and then he would negotiate the lowest
possible price with one supplier. For example, in 1903
Wanamakers of Philadelphia received the contract for all fabric
materials, from table and bed linen to carpets and window
draperies" (Chapter 17).
very good doctor: This is likely Dr. Frank F.
Smith, whom Jewett later recommends to Lilian Aldrich (see
below).
the band: Thomas Graham says that the Ponce de Leon
was one of the hotels that employed bands during the winter
seasons of 1888 through 1890. During January - April
period of 1888, Jewett could have heard two performances per
day, morning and afternoon, of Maurice J. Joyce's Military Band,
including a program of sacred music on Sunday morning
(175). These performances took place in the loggia.
Joyce's band was well known, especially in New York, where he
and Thomas H. Joyce were prominent entertainers at Saratoga
Springs and in New York City.
The room Jewett describes occupying during this stay apparently faces the loggia on the right, so she can see out through it into the street on the left. The main entrance to the courtyard is just beyond the band; in the drawing of the hotel above, this loggia and entrance are on the left (south) side of the hotel.
SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett
[ 22 March 1888 ]
Aiken, Thursday
Dear O. P.
Such
a howling windy day and everybody groaning over the cold but the
thermometer is at 42 above which isnt so very bad. I
suppose it is the effect of all the storms about us.* We
had a good walk this morning but didnt try to drive as we were
out all day yesterday and today you would feel the wind so much
in a gig! Yesterday afternoon we went over westward about
half a dozen miles to a big cotton mill and went all over
it. I havent been in one since I was small and it carried
me back to the days of Joanna Buckley.* The people
interested me very much. They were all "poor whites" as
they call them here – and or would have been without
this steady work. I saw the "doffers and spoolers"* poor
little snips and a slow little boy about as big as Theodore up
in a kind of big cage on the wall making bands – or big twisted
cotton cords on a machine.* He looked as if he ought to be
out playing instead of making bands at twenty cents a day.
And they work twelve long hours. It was a beautiful bright
day and we had pleasant hours of it and there are lots of
flowers in bloom.* I would
like to know what has become of my letters. I didn't have
half I ought after the big storm, and now I didn't get one
today. The Southern trains take their time it seems to
me. Next week Thursday we mean to start from here and go
to Charleston and perhaps to Beaufort but it all depends upon
our getting north. The trains north are crammed full now
and we hardly know what plans to make as we want to stop here
and there and the cars are all taken up by through passengers
from Florida.* The Edmunds* want us to make them a little
visit in Washington but that will depend upon our being longer
on the train than we had planned for they dont leave until after
we do, and of course dont want us until they have been at home a
day or two. The snow storms make us shy about going North
too soon, but we both want to stop in Washington for a couple
nights or so. I send you two or
three photographs* of the people here and be sure to show them
to John and Hannah and Annie.* John will laugh at the
stylish team. In one cotton field picture you can see just
how the cotton looks growing, and in the other an occasion of
pickers. Mrs. Fields sends particular love and affection
and wishes you could share our pleasure. I wish I had more
interesting facts, but there isnt much a-happening!
Love to all from Sister.
storms all about us: The Great Blizzard of March 11-14, 1888 dropped up to 5 feet of snow in New England, leaving drifts as high as 50 feet, causing many deaths, halting trains and confining people to their homes, in some cases for as long as a week.
cotton mill ... Joanna Buckley: It is likely that Jewett
visited William Gregg's Graniteville cotton mill, about 6 miles
west of Aiken. Jewett was familiar with textile mills as a
result of living in South Berwick, within easy walking distance
of the mills across the Salmon Falls River in Rollinsford, NH.
No certain information about Joanna Buckley
has been located. United States census records identify a
Joanna Buckley working in a cotton mill in Lewiston, ME in
1880. It is possible that a Joanna Buckley worked for the
Jewett family at an earlier date.
"doffers and spoolers": A doffer removes full spindles of thread from a spinning machine, replacing them with empty ones. A spooler is responsible for a machine that winds spun thread onto the spindles.
Image of a doffer from the Library of
Congress
in a kind of big cage on the wall making bands: Twisting bands often was done by young boys in 19th-century cotton mills, either by hand or by machine. I have not been able through internet research to understand exactly how this task fits into the process of producing threads and yarns. Assistance is welcome.
Theodore, son of Carrie and Edwin (Ned) Eastman, was born August 4, 1879. At the writing of this letter, he would be 8 years old.
Image of a band boy from Wikimedia Commons
flowers in bloom: In this letter, Jewett appears
to divide some paragraphs with long spaces between
sentences. I have rendered these spaces to approximate
hers, though it is not easy to be sure when she intends this.
through passengers from Florida: It appears that
as early as March of 1888, the number of people wintering
in Florida was large enough to fill the returning trains for
several weeks.
the Edmunds: George Franklin Edmunds (1828 - 1919) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Vermont. In 1852 he married Susan Marsh (1831-1916); they had two daughters, Mary (1854-1936) and Julia (1861-1882).
two or three photographs: Below are images of the photos Jewett sent to Mary. The steer cart may be of special interest, because Jewett includes such a cart, with some comic effect, in "The Mistress of Sydenham Plantation."
John and Hannah and Annie: These are Jewett family employees in South Berwick. John Tucker, who appears often in Jewett's nonfiction, was in charge of their stable and grounds (see Blanchard, pp. 37-8). Annie probably is Annie Collins. See note below.
Images
Jewett
included in this letter
SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett
Aiken Friday 23 March
1888
Dear Peg,
Then Olive moved nothing with her but the worktable!*
Perhaps there was a picking up after her, but we can set down
six good chairs to her account and feel she did well by us on
the balance – How that old furniture went from one house
to another in old times when there wasn't so much buying of
new! Please don’t let Siddie's* little chair in the pantry
be used for standing upon by Philander, Mary!* it wouldn't
bear him perhaps. I try to picture to myself the roof a
'histing and I am that pleasured about Caddy's* mule that I wish
I could see it this minute driving by down this red and yellow
road. – Yesterday was as crisp as October and the pea vines were
nipped to the sorrow and astonishment of beholders – I have just
got your Wednesday letter which skipped here amazing
lively! A. Warren didn't send the jars herself but told me
that an old gentleman was going to send them whom I saw
there last year + that some big ones were coming by the next
Fayal packet.* She had an outburst of fear because she
thought she had told him North Berwick, but very likely Mr.
Morgan didn't get what he wanted and waited – I grieve to have
stirred you up for nothing, but it was an innycent Sister to
begin with.
We mean to do the next best thing to Florida and step as far as
Savannah. What do you think of that? We mean to
break the journey North and to be free of the Vestibule train,*
and we are going to stay a day or two just to see Savannah where
we can get pretty easily from here, and then come up to Beaufort
and we have promised to make a little two days visit to Miss
Laura Towne (Mr. Darrah's sister-in-law) just out of Beaufort on
one of the Sea Islands.* Then we are coming up to
Charleston for a day and night and then up to Petersburg to
spend a day with Mr. Lassiter,* his mother being dead and he
having gone home to stay with his father and imploring us – Then
we can go up to Washington and make our little visit. I
think after Tuesday Morning you had better send one letter
Wednesday to Sea Island Hotel, Beaufort, S.C. and also Thursday
and Friday: and then Saturday to Charleston Hotel
Charleston and after that I will tell you, but probably to
Washington. Yes, next year you and Mother and I must come
down and dally along home seeing the places. I should love
it! Really it takes hardly longer to go right through in
the vestibule train to Jacksonville than from New York
than it does to go in ordinary trains from here. -----
Yesterday we had a nice day going to walk in the morning, and
just as we came out of the woods we met Sally Norton from
Cambridge, who is here with Mrs. William James and the Lorings
whom we l I like so much especially Miss Katherine
Loring* and we loitered round a while together, and in the
afternoon we took a long drive with Mary Edmunds* out into the
country to a little pottery, and it was such a picture to see
the old coloured man at his potter's wheel and a great fire
blazing in the end of a long cabin and all the pots and jugs set
about to dry. I must now close this letter with much love
to all. I am glad to hear such good news about Will
Collins tell Annie.* I know it will make her feel happier
to think he is at work again, and trying to do well.
--------- -------
& gals. These violets are enclosed by Mrs. Fields with love to you and Mother. I wish that the little pink ones would get there without mizzling all up. We got them in the woods yesterday and they were so pretty. I will answer your sister Eastman's letter when I get blowed up to begin again like the minister, but she shall not want for peanuts.
Yours
Seddie
NOTES
Olive: This may be Olive Raynes, operator of and
teacher in the popular South Berwick private elementary school
that Jewett attended. Or, more likely, Olive Grant, the
Jewett sisters' dressmaker. See Blanchard, Sarah Orne
Jewett, pp. 20-21, 37, 55.
Philander: Given that a roof seems to need repair,
it is possible that Jewett is speaking of Philander Hartwell
Fall (1833-1915).
This note appears in an entry on "Capt. Isaac
P. Fall (1830-1909), Civil War veteran, mason," at the Old Berwick Historical Society:
"Historian Marie Donahue wrote in The Old Academy on the Hill, her history of Berwick Academy, that the academy schoolhouse preceding Fogg Memorial was built in 1853 by a contractor named Ebenezer Fall. Another member of the family, Philander H. Fall (1833-1915), is listed as a building contractor in the Maine Register business directory of 1880."
Caddy: Caddy is a family nick-name for the
youngest Jewett sister, Caroline Eastman, referred to at the end
of the letter as "your sister Eastman."
A. Warren … Mr. Morgan: Warren is an old family
name in the South Berwick area, but whether this person is
connected with that family is not yet known. See Gladys
Hasty Carroll's Dunnybrook (1943) for an account of the
family. Mr. Morgan also has not been identified.
Fayal packet: Though this is not clear, it is
possible Jewett refers to a packet boat that makes regular trips
to a local port, such as Portsmouth or, more likely, Boston from
the Portuguese Island of Faial.
vestibule train: The
development in the 1880s of technology to allow rail passengers
to move between cars by connecting and enclosing the vestibules
or ends of the cars made it practical to have a dining car and
Pullman sleeper cars as part of a train, allowing easier long
runs with fewer stops for overnight, intercity travel, such as
from New York to Jacksonville, FL. In the earlier Thursday
letter from Aiken, Jewett complains about how crowded the
north-bound trains are. Changing their travel plans frees
them from the difficulty of making stops on their journey north
and being unable to board a later train in the same direction.
Aiken and locations Jewett plans to visit:
It appears that Jewett and Fields did not
follow the itinerary she gives here, interposing a return trip
to St. Augustine by boat.
Aiken, SC, near Augusta, GA, was a popular winter resort for New Englanders in the 19th century. It is remembered as the Aiken Winter Colony.
Savannah, GA is a coastal town on the Savannah river near the South Carolina border. The historically significant city was a popular tourist destination in the 19th century. Savannah is about 120 miles from Aiken.
Beaufort, SC is a coastal town near the Sea Islands, where Jewett sets her story, "The Mistress of Sydenham Plantation." With the notes to that story is extensive information about the town, the islands, and Laura Towne. Beaufort is about 40 miles northeast of Savannah.
Charleston, SC holds considerable historical interest because of its age, its centrality as a port in the antebellum South, and as the site of the opening battle of the American Civil War in 1860. It is about 70 miles northeast of Beaufort.
Petersburg, VA, near Richmond, could have held particular interest for Annie Fields, apart from Mr. Lassiter's invitation, because in the 1880s, while Republicans continued to dominate the Virginia legislature, institutions benefiting freedmen, such as Virginia State University, in Petersburg, were flourishing. The university's first president, John Mercer Langston, became the first African-American to represent Virginia in the United States Congress; elected in 1888, he served 1890-91. This would seem a natural stop after their visit with Laura Towne. Petersburg is about 400 miles north of Charleston. From Petersburg to the final stop Jewett mentions, Washington, DC, is about 130 miles north.
Mr. Lassiter: This is quite likely to be Francis
Rives Lassiter (1866 - 1909). Born in Petersburg, he
studied law at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville and
practiced briefly in Boston, before returning home in
1888. His parents were Dr. Daniel William Lassiter and Anna Rives Heath (5 June 1835 - 6 February
1888). He later served as a Democrat in the U.S. Congress.
Miss Laura Towne (Mr. Darrah's sister-in-law):
Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett says that Jewett and
Fields visited "Annie's old friend Laura Towne (1825-1901), a
homeopathic physician and educator who, many years earlier, had
established a clinic and school on the island for its large
population of freed slaves" (193-4).
Laura Towne's sister, Ann Sophia (1819-1881), married Robert
Kendall Darrah of Boston. She became a noted American
painter. Robert K. Darrah (1818-1885), according to Memorial Biographies of the New
England Historical Society, was a Boston
merchant who became appraiser at the Custom House in 1861 (p.
211). Annie Fields wrote an obituary piece on Mr. Darrah in 1886.
Sally Norton from Cambridge: Sara (Sally) Norton
(1864-1922) was a niece of James Russell Lowell, and the
daughter of Charles Eliot Norton, (1827-1908), who was
co-editor of the North American Review (1863-1868) and
then professor of literature and art at Harvard University.
Jewett and Sally Norton became close friends and frequent
correspondents.
Mrs. William James: The American philosopher and
psychologist, William James (1842 - 1910), married
Alice Howe Gibbens (1849 - 1922) in 1878. For
information about the impressive Mrs. James, see Alice in
Jamesland: The Story of Alice Howe Gibbens James by Susan
E. Gunter (Nebraska 2009).
the Lorings … Miss Katherine Loring: Katharine
Peabody Loring (1849 - 1943) of Beverly, Massachusetts.
See note above.
Mary Edmunds: Daughter of Senator George F.
Edmunds. See note above.
the old coloured man at his potter's wheel: The
Aiken area was part of what became known as the Edgefield
district for making pottery. An important local enslaved
African-American potter, Dave Drake (ca. 1800-1860s) predates
Jewett's visit.
Will Collins tell Annie: Annie Collins appears to be a
Jewett family employee. It is possible also that Will
Collins has worked for the family. It is reasonably likely
that Annie and Will Collins are brother and sister. FamilyTreeNow.com provides this census
information.
Annie Collins (1860 until after 1930), of
Irish parents, resident of South Berwick, Maine in 1930.
William Collins (1864 until after 1930),
brother to Annie, born in Maine, resident of South Berwick,
Maine in 1930.
Neither was married in 1930.
SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel
[1888 in upper left corner, in another hand]
My Dear Loulie,
I have begun on the wrong side of my little sheet of paper which is quite discouraging, but I am going to send you a note in a hurry at last since it has been so long in starting! Our coming to Aiken has been most successful for we have found old and new friends, and the weather has been almost always delightful so that we have played out of doors to our heart's content It is lilac time now! -- . Mrs. Fields* has gained very fast, but she does not get her whole strength back yet: I can see that she is tired more easily than usual and being so long in bed has taken her usual fleetness of foot away from her for the time being, so that she is much provoked at not taking such long walks as she likes -- But I think that time is doing wonders, and she has lost the terribly pale look that worried me so when we came away. The storms and the late spring will keep us south longer than we like but I am very anxious not to leave this region too soon. I hope indeed that we shall see you and dear Mrs. Dresel before you sail. How pleasant all the plans sound for the summer and what good wishes I send your for their carrying out! I am as interested about the [duck ?] as possible: you must tell me all about his share of the journeys -- -- Somehow I find it hard to write in Aiken but there are so many things I should like to tell you -- There ought to be a second Millet* for this Southern country -- to paint the coloured people at work in the cotton fields and their cabins and the peach bloom that was like little pink clouds everywhere when we first came. You would like the great Southern pines so much with "spills" nearly two feet long !!! We have driven a great deal and seen the country about here pretty thoroughly.
Tomorrow we go to Charleston for the night on our way to Beaufort where we are going to spend the next week and make a little visit to Miss Laura Towne* in the course of it. Here are some wild violets which I delight in -- crowfoots they call them. If it were not so wet you should have some other flowers -- I am so sorry about not seeing your sketches, but "some other ship -- some other day" -- to quote the Kate Greenaway* booksy{.} A. F. sends much love and so do I to you and "Martina." *
Yours faithfully
S. O. J.
Notes
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields; See Correspondents.
a second Millet: Jean-François Millet (1814 -1875) "was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France."
Miss Laura Towne: Laura Matilda Towne (1825-1901) was one of the first northern women to move to the South to serve freedmen during the American Civil War.
Kate Greenaway: Catherine "Kate" Greenaway (1846-1901), British children's verse writer and illustrator. Her first books of illustrated poems was Under the Window (1878), in which appeared, "I Saw a Ship."
"Martina": Jewett may have written "Martine." This person's identity remains unknown.
SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett
Sea Island Hotel* Beaufort, Saturday 31 April [Probably March 31, 1888 ]*
Dear O. P.
Sister has come to the prettiest place now that ever was!
The hotel is a great big old-fashioned Planter's house looking
out on the lovely bay and Sea Islands beyond – all the land very
low like the tropics, but fig trees and magnolias and live oaks
and all the trees as green as grass and yesterday we picked
great boughs of Cherokee roses* and in the Charleston gardens
roses were all blooming in full bloom on arbors and seemed to be
as big as grapevines or else stood up tall like lilacs and
things. I was delighted with Charleston – you have no idea
what a foreign sort of place it is – The French
Huguenots came there didn't they?* and you are always seeing
lovely iron work gates as you do abroad and so many touches of
French taste. You take in for the first time how rich and
splendid things were before the war and now you can not conceive
the piteous desolation, for some of the best houses on the
Battery (a sort of bank on the harbor side) are so shattered by
the earthquake* that the owners have gone away and left them to
drop to pieces{.} The walls are cracked and crumbling –
the chimneys are gone and the cornices all awry and ready to
fall where they have not fallen already.* I've done for
honors and saw everything we could think of or that the nice
colored driver could think of. Of course one might spend a
great deal of time in such a place and I look forward to seeing
it again. As Sunday was coming and the best train for
Beaufort was a morning one we started off and here we are.
Mrs. Fields doesn't seem nearly so tired as she did
yesterday. The sea air is lovely and so
soft. I am not sure now just what we shall do or where we
shall do it! we must wait to hear from Miss Towne before
we go over to the Island. You see we have just got here
and it is but a little after one o'clock. Katharine Loring
and her father who are perfectly charming people to go anywhere
with are going to Florida from Savannah next week – not by rail
but by sea, down an "inside" channel to Jacksonville
among the Georgia Sea Islands, if they can arrange it, and if
they do we have half a mind to go too, in which case we perhaps
can go to Savannah from here by boat which would save
cars. We should only stay a few days for it is getting hot
but it would give us a lovely summer like look at St.
Augustine. Don’t be too sure, for I am not, whether it
will come right to do it, but I thought I would tell the
plan.* I keep thinking how you and Mother will enjoy
Charleston. Love to all from Sarah. Tell Caddy not
to let yellow onions grow on her pelter.*
[ Margin notes]
There is a monkey show* under the window!
Sister is now seen how rice grows!*
NOTES
Sea Island Hotel: The Sea Island Hotel in
Beaufort, SC, was a plantation house before the Civil War
(1861-65). It was for a number of years the home of John
Allan Stuart, editor of the Charleston Mercury.
Link to an image of the Sea Island Hotel in Beaufort, March 1911,
from the Penn School Papers.
31 April: This is an impossible date. Given
Jewett's location, she almost certainly meant 31 March, which
fell on a Saturday in 1888.
monkey show: Possibly Jewett refers to an example of the fairly common small "dog and pony shows" that typically included monkeys. Henry B. McKay offers this description in Do You Remember When?;
This was during the years from 1900 to 1906. They seemed like huge affairs to me then, but when I look at the lots today, they must have been comparatively small shows. The ponies were all small, of the Shetland or Indian type ponies. They were well trained and could race in singles or in groups hitched to small chariots. They were made to jump and dance and perform in every way except talk, and perhaps a little of that.
The dogs were many and varied. They were very intelligent and also well trained. Each would come out when called by name and would go back to his little stool when his act was finished. They would jump over hurdles, through hoops onto a pony, or on each other's backs. They would walk a ladder, a tight rope, a pole at the command of the trainer. The act that always caused the most excitement was to see a little fox terrier climb a ladder into the top of the tent and jump off into a net only a few feet above the ground. The oh's and ah's as it was climbing, the stillness when it got ready to jump, and the sighs of relief when it safely landed in the net are real today!
In addition, to add the necessary spice to the show there were always a few monkeys. They were dressed in clothes, some as old men and women and some as babies. They pushed wheelbarrows, baby carriages, jumped on and off dogs and ponies, and did the many things that always amuse grown folks, as well as the children. The climax of the monkey show was when a paper house was placed in middle of the arena and set afire. Bells rang, horns tooted, and firemen came out, who were monkeys pulling a little red fire engine.
There was a hand pump of the old-fashion fire engine variety and they pumped water and actually put the fire out.
The show was held in a tent and there was another smaller tent behind for the animals. They usually stayed there for a week. The charge was only twenty-five cents. It could easily be walked to, from our part of town.
how rice grows: Wikipedia says of St. Helena Island: "The area was noted to
be similar to the rice growing region of West Africa and soon
captured slaves were brought to the Sea Islands, mostly from
what is today Sierra Leone. Rice, indigo, cotton and spices were
grown by these slaves, as well as Native Americans, and
indentured servants from Europe. The mix of cultures, somewhat
isolated from the mainland, produced the Gullah culture."
tell the plan: Though documentation so far is
sparse, it appears that Jewett and Fields accepted the Lorings's
invitation, for Jewett writes to Lilian Aldrich from St.
Augustine on 18 April (see below).
Cherokee roses: Of the genus rosa, this is
the species laevigata. This climbing evergreen rose
produces long, thorny, vine-like canes that sprawl across
adjacent shrubs and other supports. The pure white single
flowers appear in spring and are densely arranged along the
length of the canes. The plant can reach 10 to 12 feet in height
and 15 or more feet wide. (Wikipedia)
Charleston .. Huguenots: Wikipedia
confirms that among the earliest settlers in Charleston were
Huguenots: "The French Huguenot Church of Charleston,
which remains independent, is the oldest continuously active
Huguenot congregation in the United States."
the war ... the earthquake: Jewett refers to the
American Civil War, 1861-1865. The effects of this war on
southern landscapes receives attention in two Jewett stories, "The Mistress of Sydenham Plantation"
(August 1888) and "A War Debt" (January 1895).
Wikipedia says: "The Charleston Earthquake ... occurred at
9:50 p.m. on August 31, 1886, and lasted just under a minute.
The earthquake caused severe damage in Charleston, South
Carolina, damaging 2,000 buildings and causing $6 million worth
in damages, while in the whole city the buildings were only
valued at approximately $24 million. Between 60 and 110 lives
were lost. Some of the damage is still seen today.
"Major damage occurred as far away as Tybee
Island, Georgia (over 60 miles away) and structural damage was
reported several hundred miles from Charleston (including
central Alabama, central Ohio, eastern Kentucky, southern
Virginia, and western West Virginia). It was felt as far away as
Boston to the North, Chicago and Milwaukee to the Northwest, as
far West as New Orleans, as far South as Cuba, and as far East
as Bermuda."
not to let yellow onions grow on her pelter: This
passage is so obscure that I doubt that I have correctly read
Jewett's handwriting. A pelter is a pelt, a cleaned animal
skin, with the fur remaining.
SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett
St. Helena's Island Sunday [ April 1, 1888 ]
Dear O. P.
I
feel as if I were at the end of the earth, but I only hope that
all the other ends are as pleasant! We came across the
long ferry in a rowboat this morning and then drove across
Lady's Island and three miles, and across St. Helena's
seven miles* before we came to the great clump of live oaks and
the old plantation house* where Miss Towne and Miss Murray have
lived for over twenty years.* They have done everything
for the colored people in teaching them other things besides
book learning or rather they have taught to find the application
of book learning to every day life. You would be surprised
to see how neat and nice their houses are – and they were all
out working on the land this morning as we drove along and were
so respectable looking and polite* – Miss Towne has a fortune
which has helped her in many ways but nobody can tell how many
sacrifices must be made when anybody starts out to do a thing
like this and sticks to it – Miss Murray is an
Englishwoman and they are such an interesting pair – and way off
here they keep account of what is going on in the world and read
and think about things as if they were in the middle of them,
and perhaps more than we do. All the way along we have
been seeing palms and palmettos and strange trees and flowers –
and you have no idea what a difference there is in the size of
the Sea Island cotton plants from those in Aiken. On some
of these islands the cotton was worth $200 a pound (to put with
silk) when the common cotton was only five cents.* I don't
know where to tell you to write next until we settle about
Florida but I think to Washington unless you hear the
contrary. Just Care Senator Edmunds.*
Love
to all from Sarah
NOTES
seven miles: This map from Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne
(1895). indicates the route from Beaufort to Penn School.
The road from the ferry landing across from
the town of Beaufort to Penn School (center of map near the
final A in HELENA) is drawn in.
old plantation house: The original building of the
Penn Center was the Oaks Plantation house.
Live oak grove at Penn Center, 2014
Miss Towne and Miss Murray: Laura Matilda Towne (1825-1901) was
one of the first northern women to move to the South to serve
freedmen during the American Civil War. According to the
PBS web page, "Only a Teacher," "The teachers who went south
sought not only to teach the freedmen how to read and write, but
hoped to help them develop socially and morally. They saw
themselves as missionaries who would 'bring the light of God's
truth' to people they assumed were in need of such
enlightenment." Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Towne and her
family became interested in abolitionism when her father moved
to Boston to superintend the city gas works. Their
commitment deepened after her father retired to Philadelphia,
where they joined First Unitarian Church, then under the
leadership of the pacifist and abolitionist, William Henry Furness (1802-1896). Towne
eventually trained as a physician and was in practice when she
felt the call to St. Helena in 1862. She remained at Penn
School until her death.
Ellen Murray (1834-1908), Towne's close
friend, shared the work at Penn School from 1862 until her
death, primarily as teacher and school administrator. In South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times
v. 2, Ronald E. Butchart's "Laura Towne and Ellen Murray"
(pp. 12-30) says that Murray was born in St. John, New
Brunswick, Canada, and though her father died when she was 2,
she and her two sisters were educated in Europe and eventually
came to live in a substantial home in Newport, RI. There
she became a teacher. Invited by Towne to help with the
Penn School, Murray became an ardent abolitionist and advocate
for African Americans. Scholarly Editing presents one of
her poems from The Anti-Slavery Standard of 1864 and
provides useful biographical notes on her.
Though both Towne and Murray came from
privileged backgrounds and were well-educated, Butchart does not
confirm that either was independently wealthy, as Jewett
suggests here. He says how the partners became acquainted
is unclear, though Towne at least once spoke before a Quaker
meeting in Newport, RI. Though Murray was a Quaker, her family
were prominent members of the Anglican Trinity Church, Saint
John, New Bunswick, founded by Loyalists after the American
Revolution; see History
of
Trinity
Church, Saint John, New Brunswick, 1791-1891
by Frederick Hervey John Brigstocke, pp. 123-4.
working on the land: Jewett elaborates this
description of freedmen farming on St. Helena in "The Mistress of Sydenham Plantation."
Sea Island cotton plants: Sea Island cotton was of a special
long-stranded variety, making it particularly valuable.
After the Union gained control of the islands, it was eager to
continue cotton production during the American Civil War.
Senator Edmunds: Of the stop in Aiken, Blanchard
says, "… they ran into the distinguished abolitionist Senator George Edmunds of Vermont, who was
vacationing there with his family, and the two parties joined
forces for a few days." Jewett's letter indicates that their
meeting was planned rather than fortuitous, as Blanchard
suggests. See note above for more on this family.
SOJ to Francis Jackson Garrison
10 April -- Florida
Dear Mr. Garrison
I have extended my journey but I expect to be
in Washington on Monday next and if the proofs are ready I will
look them over there. I shall be in Charles Street the end
of the week and I will see you then. As soon as I get
nearer to Boston I will send you the rest of the copy, but I do
not want to run the risk of its being lost by trusting it to the
uncertainties of small expresses -- as I have only one copy of
the story.
Mr. Alden offered to waive the usual six months delay with another story lately printed in Harper's, so if our matter runs short I should like to put Mére Pochette* in. It was not printed right by a mistake & some pages were left out, but I have the manuscript and I think it is worth printing in its right order --
Thank you for the picture of Mr. Whittier which seemed to give Miss Schofield great pleasure --
In haste
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett.
Please direct to me care of Senator Edmunds *
Washington, D.C.
but there will only be time to send proof until Saturday afternoon the 14th ------
NOTES
Mr. Garrison: Francis Jackson Garrison
(1848-1916), son of the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison,
served as "confidential clerk" to H. O. Houghton and, after his
death in 1895, continued in the same capacity to George H.
Mifflin. Garrison's main responsibility was the import-export
business, but he also set rates to be paid authors and
supervised manufacturing orders. He became secretary of the firm
when it was incorporated in 1908. (Richard Cary)
Mére Pochette: This story appeared in Harper's
in March 1888 and was collected in The King of Folly Island the
same year.
Mr. Alden: Henry Mills Alden (1836 - 1919) was editor
of Harper's Magazine for fifty years—from 1869 until
1919.
Mr. Whittier ... Miss Schofield: John
Greenleaf Whittier (1807 - 1892). Miss Schofield has not
been identified. Assistance is welcome.
Senator Edmunds: see notes above.
Caleb William Loring to Louisa Putnam Loring*
April 17, 1888
Dearest Louisa,
Thank you for your pleasant notes. I suppose Katharine has written to you much that I shall say: how different Florida is from So. Carolina; --* here all the fields are green with grass; the green here [unrecognized word: lasting?] keep that growing, though underneath it is as sandy as around Aiken. The Pride of China trees* are in in full blossom, a very pretty blue blossom with quite a delicious scent.
This is a curious old Spanish town* with its large fort & the Old City gate & its narrow streets; though on those streets the Yankee wooden houses crowd the old coquina stone ones & take the place of the old gardens. And the great sight is the Ponce de Leon hotel & the Alcazar & the Squares & gardens & fountains; & in the evening the colored lights. There is no hotel approaching it that I ever saw & I saunter around day & evening in admiration.
Josh Blake & his [ Cara? Cass? ]* & her family have been very attentive; she has a nice house right on the sea wall: just rebuilt after the old fire.* There are quite a number of little attractions, views & scenes. I saw some stuffed rattle-snakes,* killed close by, that perfectly astonished me by their size: much bigger than any black snake I ever saw north.
Our excursion to Silver Springs* was most delightful: think of a ditch never beginning at once some fifty feet or more wide & very deep right out of the ground: the water so clear you could see the smallest fish, fifty-feet down, swimming about. Then we saw an old orange grove with palms seventy feet high & all so shady & cool & regularly over-grown with wild oranges & grape fruit &c.--
The blacks too are much more flourishing than around Aiken, better dressed with glass in their houses & not those old shuttered cabins.
Orange groves everywhere in the interior on the way to Silver Springs, most of them recently set out. but I shall have a good deal to tell when I get back. The case comes on this week or not at all.* I hope to get off Friday but don't know.
With my very best love
Ever your affectionate father
Notes
Caleb William Loring to Louisa Putnam Loring: See Correspondents. where Louisa's sister, Katharine also is identified.
So. Carolina: As indicated in Jewett's letter of 22 March, she and Fields enjoyed the company of the Caleb and Katharine Loring in Aiken, SC in late March. This letter indicates that Caleb and Katharine have returned to St. Augustine from Aiken at the same time that Jewett and Fields have done so, apparently during the first week in April. This suggests that they did indeed take the coastal cruise they had been thinking about in late March.
The Pride of China trees: It is not clear to which tree Loring refers. "Pride of China" apparently is the common name for several species. That he sees it in St. Augustine and specifies that it has blue blossoms in April makes it unlikely that he refers to trees commonly called Pride of China, such as Chinaberry.
old Spanish town ... large fort & the Old City gate ... old coquina stone ones ... the Ponce de Leon hotel & the Alcazar: For details about and images of these aspects of St. Augustine, see the notes on Jewett's story set in St. Augustine, "Jim's Little Woman."
Josh Blake & his [ Cara? Cass?]: These people have not been identified.
the old fire: Fires were relatively frequent in St. Augustine in the 19th century, and it is not clear, therefore, which fire is the "old" one. Recently in 1887, a fire had devastated much of the center of the town, leaving the cathedral, for example, as a shell.
some stuffed rattle-snakes: It is likely that Loring saw the snakes at the Vedder Museum. "Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions: The Vedder Museum" says of Mr. Vedder (1819-1899): "Dr. John Vedder, his title as 'Doctor' stemming not from a University but the remnant of a short stint practicing as a self-taught dentist, was born in Schenectady, New York, on July 22, 1819. He seems to have been a bit of an adventurer, traveling and working at various times and places as a soldier, blacksmith, machinist, locomotive engineer, inventor, dentist, taxidermist, and, in his final occupation, museum and zoo curator.
"In his travels he had gathered a large collection of natural oddities and curiosities, including many animal specimens he stuffed and mounted himself. He turned them into a traveling display for a time and then, in the 1880's, opened a permanent museum in an old colonial era house on the corner of Bay and Treasury Streets in St. Augustine. A major part of his attraction was also an exhibit of live animals, including collections of snakes, birds, alligators, and some other native and exotic wildlife."
Silver Springs: Wikipedia says "Silver Springs is a U.S. unincorporated community and the site of aquatic springs in Marion County, Florida. The springs are one of the largest artesian spring formations in the world, producing nearly 550 million gallons of crystal-clear water daily. Silver Springs forms the headwaters of the Silver River, the largest tributary on the Ocklawaha River, a part of the St. Johns River system."
The case comes on this week or not at all: Caleb Loring as a trustee under the will of Mary Wadsworth, filed a suit in June 1887 (Loring v. Carnes) that was not heard until November 1888. While Loring may be referring to another case altogether, this is a likely possibility.
SOJ to Lilian Aldrich
Hotel Ponce de Leon St. Augustine
18 April 1888
Dear Lilian
When you and Mr. T.B.A. and Mr. Pierce* take another journey together don't go to Europe but start a little earlier than this and come down to a most beautiful hotel in as quaint a Minorcan town* as any in Minorca or Spain! As for the hotel, it is the most luxurious and refined and really charming place that I ever saw -- I sighed when I heard about it in the winter, but when I saw it for myself I sighed no more! I am looking down on a moorish courtyard with a fountain if you please and palm trees and roses and balconies with gardens of flowers hanging over their edges, and a tower that might belong to Venice showing over the tiled roof -- You see I ought not to say Venice, but I have never been to Spain and don't know whether such a tower ought to grow there or not -- But you put a mark in at St. Augustine in your guidebook and open it there next time.
You are wanting to hear about dear A.F. I know, and I am glad to say that she is better, for she had another illness lately which pulled her back a good deal and made me very anxious.* I can see now that she gains every day but she will have to be very careful this summer -- By the morning paper Mrs. J.T.F. and Miss Sarah Jewett the actress are reported! and they are having as good a time together as they can – Sadie is playing the player, you see and wonders if people who identify her think she is a likely looking star !!!! –*
We were so saddened yesterday by the news of Mr. Arnold's death* which seemed terribly sudden though I knew when I saw him a summer ago in Stockbridge* that he had angina pectoris – and I was
sure that I never should see him again. Poor Mrs. Arnold and Nelly! I have an aching heart whenever I think of their sorrow – But it will be a great comfort to have the world acknowledge Mr. Arnold's genius. It is a thankless task for any man to be ahead of his time and people resent anybodys suggestion that they might think otherwise than they do, or that they might behave better, or live their lives for higher ends – I grew very fond of Mr. Arnold in those delightful weeks he gave us in Charles Street. I learned so much from him, and I can hear his voice now reading the Scholar Gypsy by the fire in the library. I was wondering just now if Miss Harriet Preston* still had the enthusiasm for him that she had years ago and was the first to teach me. I think then almost no one could have written about him as appreciatively as she could. I remember a review of his poems that she wrote once for the Atlantic that I must read again someday or other.
I can only say that his "Literature and Dogma{"} taught me as much or more than any book I ever read of what one should know of spiritual truth and right living and right mindedness.
I am so eager to see this new paper of his
about America. I don't doubt that there is a great deal of
needed truth in that it, but in the Shelley paper he
gave a sign of illness and weakness in the way he spoke - - - -
Now I am writing to you at last after thinking about you both many times, and I have so many things to say that I find it hard to stop.
About our Southern journeyings, I dont dare to begin, but I must take a long summer day and try to tell you some of the charming things that have happened. Our visit on one of the Sea Islands off Beaufort and some of the Aiken experiences.*
A. F. sends much love with mine to you and kindest remembrance of the grandmothers & the boys for I cant stop calling Tal and Charley by that name yet a while – Yours affectionately S. O. J.
We have planned our going home so many times that I am afraid to set another date for fear of another delay, but I think you will see us within a fortnight now{.} Of course we have to stop by the way.
The Brownell poem* did not get to us in very good season but we read it with a wish to say how much we cared for it. If St. Augustine were a day nearer Boston it would be perfect.
Mr. Pierce: Henry Lillie Pierce (August 23, 1825 –
December 17, 1896) became wealthy in the chocolate business and
went on to become mayor of Boston and a congressman from
Massachusetts. He became a very close friend of the
Aldrich family, who often were guests aboard his yacht, the
Hermione. Among their cruises together was an 8-week trip
among Caribbean islands in early 1896, which included Jewett and
Annie Fields.
Minorcan town: St. Augustine numbered a
significant population of Minorcan ancestry at the end of the
19th century, but Jewett seems to refer more directly to Henry
Flagler's decision to build the Hotel Ponce de Leon in a Spanish
style. See Marty & Jim in St. Augustine and The Diverse People of "Jim's Little Woman."
very anxious: The 1888 southern trip, on
which Jewett accompanied Annie Fields was to seek rest and
warmth to help Mrs. James T. Fields recover from a serious
attack of pneumonia.
likely looking star: According to Richard Cary in
Sarah Orne Jewett Letters, "Sara Jewett (1847-1899) was the leading
lady of Augustin Daly's Union Square Theatre company. Miss
Jewett of South Berwick recounts drolly that upon several
occasions during her travels she was mistaken for Miss Jewett of
New York, then considered one of the most beautiful women in
America. In an ironic extension of the parallel, illness and
enforced retirement became the lot of both thespian and literary
Jewett. Sara Jewett's last appearance as an actress took place
in the spring of 1883." See her obituary in Boston Evening Transcript.
Mr. Arnold's death: British poet and cultural
critic, Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15
April 1888). Arnold visited America for the last time in
1886. His wife was Frances, his daughters were Eleanore
and Lucy. He is the author of the poem, "The Scholar
Gypsy" (1853) and of numerous prose works, including Literature
and Dogma (1873). His essay on Shelley appears in Essays
in Criticism, Second Series (1888). His Civilization in the United States
appeared in 1888.
Stockbridge: Stockbridge, MA. In a 1932 Yale dissertation, Chilson H. Leonard
presents chronologies of Arnold's visits to the United
States. Of Arnold's 1886 American trip, Leonard writes:
"He
spent
most
of
this
visit
in
Stockbridge,
Massachusetts,
where
he
botanized
, fished,
swam,
and
played
with
his
infant
granddaughter.
"
Arnold's daughter, Lucy, and her family, friends of Annie
Fields, had a summer home in Stockbridge. See note below
on Mr. Whitridge.
Harriet Preston: Harriet Waters Preston (1836-1911) was a Massachusetts author and translator and a mutual acquaintance of Jewett and Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc (1840-1907). Jewett may refer to Preston's essay, "Matthew Arnold as a Poet," Atlantic 53 (May 1884) pp. 640-650.
Aiken experiences: See letters above for some
account of Jewett's stays in Aiken, SC and St. Helena.
This letter, dated 18 April, indicates that
Jewett and Fields traveled to Aiken after their first
stay in St. Augustine and then accepted the offer to return to
St. Augustine by boat with the Lorings. This letter was
written during their second stay at the Ponce de Leon in the
spring of 1888.
Tal and Charley: The Aldriches' twin sons, Talbot
and Charles were born in 1868.
Brownell poem: It seems likely that one of the
Aldriches has shared with Jewett and Fields Thomas Bailey
Aldrich's sonnet, "Henry Howard Brownell," (1820-1872), which appeared in Atlantic
31 (May 1873) p. 609, not long after Civil War poet's death.
HENRY
HOWARD BROWNELL.
THEY never crowned him, never knew his worth,
But let him go unlaureled to the grave.
Hereafter -- yes! -- are guerdons for the brave,
Roses for martyrs who wear thorns on earth,
Balms for bruised hearts that languish in the dearth
Of human love. So let the lilies wave
Above him, nameless. Little did he crave
Men's praises. Modestly, with kindly mirth,
Not sad nor bitter, he accepted fate,
Drank deep of life, knew books and hearts of men,
Cities and camps, and War's immortal woe;
Yet bore through all (such virtue in him sate
His spirit is not whiter now than then!)
A simple, loyal nature, pure as snow.
Annie Adams Fields to Anna Loring Dresel?*
April 20th 1888.
St. Augustine, Florida
Dear friend:
The days are slipping away with sorrowful rapidity, when I remember that it means I am not to see you before you sail. But I have been kept back by lack of strength to take the journey northward with safety and my physician here still prescribes a day or two of delay. Nevertheless I must add that in this beautiful place I am at last rapidly improving. Indeed I have reason to think I may return perfectly well. But meanwhile I think of you and your going! and comfort myself with the memory that change places as we may the same love waits for us and hearts we lean upon are unchanged. St. Augustine is a new experience indeed. How I wish you could see it in these months of April and May when Florida is true to its lovely name and redolent with flowers of every kind. The Magnolia Grandiflora easily leads in the train.* I have never seen anything so truly queenly, so exquisite as this flower is in this its home. The odor is so delicate too that you hardly observe it in the room, and its pure beauty is something I have scarcely been able to look upon with dry eyes.
Meanwhile, dear friend, you will rejoice with me that our absence has been softened in this way -- Sarah is quite well and sends her dear love with mine to you all. Come back dear Anna to yours affectionately, Annie Fields.
Anna Loring Dresel: This letter's recipient has not been determined with certainty. Friends of Fields who might be addressed as Dear Anna, include Anna Dawes, Anna Loring Dresel, Anna Johnson, Anna Eliot Ticknor, and Anna Clarke (wife of James Freeman Clarke). A later letter of June 18 with a similar salutation -- "My dear friend" -- is believed to be addressed to a member of the Loring-Dresel family, since it is included among the Ellis Gray Loring Family papers at Harvard's Schlesinger Library. This suggests that Fields is addressing Anna Loring Dresel.
Magnolia grandiflora: Wikipedia says "Magnolia grandiflora, commonly known as the southern magnolia or bull bay, is a tree of the family Magnoliaceae native to the southeastern United States, from southern Virginia to central Florida, and west to East Texas and Oklahoma. Reaching 27.5 m (90 ft) in height, it is a large, striking evergreen tree with large, dark green leaves up to 20 cm (7.9 in) long and 12 cm (4.7 in) wide, and large, white, fragrant flowers up to 30 cm (12 in) in diameter."
richest oil kings: "Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 -- May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder of what became the Florida East Coast Railway." Fields and Jewett are staying at his newly opened Ponce de León Hotel in St. Augustine.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Milne Special Collections, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, N.H.: Fields, Annie, Correspondence, 1882-1911, Special Collections MS 58. Transcription and Annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
From "Loose Letters" in the Papers of Annie Adams Fields
by Annie Adams Fields
Mr. Flagler* said it was a disappointment to find people leaving the hotel in April because this month and May are incomparably beautiful in Florida. Winter is all very well, but it is still winter here as every where. There is however a lovely sea breeze the moment the weather becomes warm which makes this coast comfortable{.}
He said the memory of his boyhood in the country with his torn hat and bare feet which he warmed on autumn mornings in the places where the cattle had been lying all night, or of the times when he sat on the door step with his piece of pumpkin pie in his hand, was the remembrance of a part of his life for which he was most grateful{.}
He said in building this hotel he was reminded of the story of a deacon of the congregational church in the country who had lived to old age and was always a model to the community{,} who was seen by the minister returning from market one day, whither he had gone to sell his small produce, as drunk as a lord. The friends pretended not to see each other but the following day the minister knew it was incumbent upon him to call upon the deacon. As he approached the place he saw the deacon was at work in his garden and far from pretending not to see him he rose from among his cabbages and advanced towards the minister. When they came within speaking distance the deacon spoke at once.
"Now don't say one word, here I'd been serving the Lord stiddy for fifty-five years and I thought I'd take a day off for myself" --- Said Mr. Flagler, {"}so I took a day off and built this hotel!!"
A friend of his told him that he was reminded in seeing what he was doing of his own little son at school. He asked Eddy what they had been doing. O{,} said Eddy{,} each boy was told to bring five cents for the poor and drop it in the box reciting a text at the same time. So each boy in turn said "It is more blessed to give than to receive" and other passages like that until they came to a bright eyed little Irish boy who when his went in said "A fool and his money are soon parted."
It is quite likely that Mr. Flagler is not yet fifty years old. He has a clear cut intelligent face but he is evidently laden with many cares and his wealth has not been an unmixed blessing. Altogether it was very interesting to see him in view of what he has done and is doing to make this spot of earth beautiful.
Mr. Flagler: Henry Flagler, a partner in Standard Oil, who, at this time, was investing heavily in the transformation of St. Augustine, FL, building hotels and a railroad to make the town accessible to tourists.
Annie Fields to a member of the Loring Family
148
Charles St. June 18th '88
Boston.
My dear friend,
The first thing to greet me on my toilet
table when I returned from the South, was your beautiful parting
gift. It has lain where I found it, ever since suggesting many a
thought of you and yours; but I have avoided writing more than
is necessary because (you know!) paper interviews take something
of one's strength also. But it is a pure pleasure to find a
moment when I can say not only "thank you" but when we can talk
as it were. Today is a holiday here. Yesterday Sunday being the
17th of June,* so I am free for a time! In the early afternoon I
am going to Craigie House where Miss Longfellow* has asked some
Working Girls* to pass a day. You will be interested to know
that she is doing all a daughter can to make Craigie House
hospitable to all who are interested to go there. On Wednesday
again the Annex girls* are to go and I shall be interested to
see the contrast between the two. I hope it will be very great
because I always suffer for girls who work with their hands and
yet are longing for something else.
You will see by this that I am much better, indeed, quite well if not so strong as before my illness. I hope you too are much better!
Yesterday I mailed you the Christian Register containing some things that have been said and done --- (but alas! how poor it all seems in contrast to what we feel) in memory of our dear friend Mr. Clarke.* I thought of you on that day when his dead form was brought and laid down before the spot where his spirit had shown out so brightly for mankind year after year, and I know that you were there in thought. One of the most perfect tributes --- to me, the most perfect was made by Phillips Brooks* and by strange good fortune I read the sermon aloud from his manuscript to Mary Lodge* who has been very ill. (She is convalescing now but you know what a hard period the time of convalescence is.) His text is "Ye are our Epistle".* He portrays Paul striving to say in simple phrase so that men might understand the truth he had himself learned and at last build up the Tiring Man to whom he wrote to grave the significance of it on his heart so that other men might read. He said Mr. Clarke had done this. He had carried the living truth written on his own heart to men. --- This is only a hint of the scheme of the sermon but you will fill it out and see what he could make of it. At present it will not be finished.
It is very pretty just now here in Charles St. Our bit of ground has grown far more green and leafy and flowery since you saw it last. Mr. Millet and his little family, consisting of his picturesque wife, their baby girl and the dog* pass the entire day there when the weather is as warm as it is today under the trees. The baby tumbles about in the grass or swings in her small hammock and makes a lovely picture what ever she does. I shall stay here until July when I go to make Sarah a visit at South Berwick -- afterward we mean to wander off along the coast of Maine for a few weeks and about the 1st of Sept. I go to Manchester. So you have the story of our plans.
Meanwhile she has kindly lent me Loulie 's nice long letter* to read telling us a great many things I wanted to know though I was sorry to know you had such a bad voyage. O what a pond that is! The depths of its villainy will never be known however we may measure the depths of its waters.
Sarah and I were delighted to have Loulie 's letter and she will have an answer I know by and by. At present the dear child has been over tired with moving back into the old house where she was born – not so bad as going to a new house but there is a great deal of work attendant upon such changes.*
I can't remember what I told you of our Southern trip. The days at St. Helena with Laura Towne were intensely interesting because the result of her work lay like a map before us. Florida too was delightful in quite another way, with its semi-tropical vegetation, its beautiful buildings and lovely sea.
St. Helena however was full of our dark history and every step spoke to us of the sacrifice and sufferings of humanity and of its advance in the present time. But it is good to be here again, in the old familiar places where I can see the chair in which Mr. Clarke last sat and listen to his voice in the silence.
Good bye
Yours most lovingly
Annie Fields
My affectionate remembrance to you all.
NOTES
17 June: June 17 is Bunker Hill Day in Suffolk County, MA,
memorializing the American Revolution's Battle of Bunker Hill in
1775.
Craigie House ... Miss Longfellow ... Working Girls:
Craigie House was the home of American poet, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow (1807 - 1882). After his death, his daughter Alice Mary Longfellow continued at Craigie
House. A traveler, preservationist and philanthropist,
Longfellow, along with Fields, joined in the work of providing
social occasions for working women of the Boston area.
Annex girls: The Annex girls were students at the Harvard Annex, a precursor to Radcliffe
College, that offered women access to Harvard faculty and
resources. The "Annex girls" were generally the daughters
of the wealthy and/or privileged, in contrast to the "working
girls" Alice Longfellow also hosted.
Mr. Clarke: James Freeman Clarke (April 4, 1810 - June
8, 1888) was an American theologian and author, and a prominent
abolitionist.
Phillips Brooks: Phillips Brooks (1835 - 1893), according
to Wikipedia, "was an American Episcopal clergyman and
author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly
Bishop of Massachusetts, and particularly remembered as lyricist
of the Christmas hymn, 'O Little Town of Bethlehem.'" His
sermon on "Living Epistles" was reprinted -- minus reference to
Mr. Clarke -- in Seeking Life and Other Sermons
(1904).
Mary Lodge: Richard Cary in "Jewett to Dresel: 33 Letters." Colby
Library Quarterly 11 (1975): 20n, says "Mrs. James (Mary
Greenwood) Lodge was fulsomely eulogized in the Boston Evening
Transcript on January 3, 1890 as 'the Queen Vashti of
Persia, as she was, too, the Priscilla of the Puritans.'
She was in fact a woman of considerable presence, wit and
learning, who compiled A Week Away from Time (Boston
1887), new stories, translations, and verses, to which Mrs.
Fields and Owen Wister contributed. She had a keen
sympathy for the poor and outcast and was active with Fields in
founding and operating the Associated Charities of Boston.
Jewett nicknamed her 'Marigold' and dedicated Betty Leicester (1890) "With love
to M. G. L., one of the first of Betty's friends."
Mr. Millet and his little family, consisting of his
picturesque wife, their baby girl and the dog: It is
unlikely that this is the artist Francis [Frank] Davis Millet, as his
daughter would have been 8 years old in 1888, and he would have
had at least two other children at that time. Information
about the identity of this Mr. Millet is welcome.
the old house where she was born: After the death
of the daughters' uncle, William Jewett, in 1887, Sarah and her
sister, Mary, and their mother moved from their home next door into the Jewett House, at the corner of Portland
and Main in South Berwick, where Sarah was born. At the
same time, the youngest sister, Caroline, with her husband Edwin
Eastman and their son, Theodore, moved into the vacated house,
which had been the daughters' childhood home.
That this change was under way in June 1888
probably explains some topics of Jewett's letters to Mary during
the weeks Jewett and Fields were in the South. Jewett's
Friday 23 March letter to Mary opens with reference to Olive
taking furniture and to a contractor working on a roof.
Presumably, these activities are part of the complex process of
moving two families into two houses.
And in the letter from the Ponce de Leon, St.
Augustine -- Monday, Jewett includes a long post-script about
feeling torn in two by her concern for Annie Fields's health and
being needed at home in South Berwick. It seems likely the
South Berwick issue was the quantity of labor and decisions to
be made in preparing the two houses and organizing the moves.
Loulie: Louisa Loring Dresel (1864 - 1958),
according to Richard Cary in "Jewett to Dresel: 33 Letters." Colby
Library Quarterly 11 (1975): 13, "was one of the great
breed of literate, talented, austerely sophisticated women of
genteel upbringing that proliferated around Boston" near the end
of the nineteenth century." As shown in the collection of
33 letters Cary collects, Jewett and Dresel were kindred spirits
and intimate friends, who shared interests in several of the
arts.
Laura Towne: See notes for letters above.
SOJ to Lilian Aldrich
Saturday 29 December
[1888, from 148 Charles St., Boston]
My Dear Lilian,
When I saw in the Transcript* that you and Tal* had gone to St. Augustine I thought that you were only thinking about it, but when I met Mr. T.B.A. yesterday I found that you had really flown. I shall miss you and I wish that you hadn't had to go, but I envy you all the same for I know how you must feel as if you were let out of jail in this weather. I hope that I shall see St. Augustine again myself for I did have such a good time there and thought it such a charming, enchanting sort of place. I can imagine you going all about – and do go to old Mr. Vedders curiosity shop and view his beasts and birds and big snakes and see how the nephew Vedder came honestly by his strange fancies!* And be sure to go to Anacosta [meaning Anastasia] Island to play on the beach and if you want a friend go to see Dr. Smith who did so well for A. F.* and was such a kind friend to us. Whether you need him as a doctor or not. And give him our best regards. How I wish that I were there with you! but we must talk it all over when you come home. Was my pretty turtle (bestuck with useful pins) a symbol of the land to which you fled? I didn't take it so, and I was on my way to see you yesterday all unconscious of your being so far away.
We heard of a delightful new hotel on the Gulf side way down farther south in Florida.* I wonder if you will find it out? but I forget its name. Dont linger in places like Palatka along the river,* I think the river air pulls one down but the longer you stay in St. Augustine the better you feel. Goodbye and love to both of you. I hope that you are in the Ponce de Leon where we were so comfortable and happy, but perhaps it isn't open yet.* A. F. sends love and I mean to write you often{.}
Yours
affectionately "Sadie"
NOTES
Transcript: The Boston Evening Transcript for 27 December 1888, p. 2, carried this "Personal" announcement: "Mrs. T. B. Aldrich has gone to St. Augustine with one of her sons, whose physician has advised a milder climate for a while." Link to Transcript for December 26 and 27, 1888.
Tal: The Aldriches' twin sons, Talbot and Charles
were born in 1868.
Mr. Vedders curiosity shop: "Florida's
Lost Tourist Attractions: The Vedder Museum" says
of Mr. Vedder (1819-1899): "Dr. John Vedder, his
title as 'Doctor' stemming not from a University but the remnant
of a short stint practicing as a self-taught dentist, was born
in Schenectady, New York, on July 22, 1819. He seems to have
been a bit of an adventurer, traveling and working at various
times and places as a soldier, blacksmith, machinist, locomotive
engineer, inventor, dentist, taxidermist, and, in his final
occupation, museum and zoo curator.
"In his travels he had gathered a large
collection of natural oddities and curiosities, including many
animal specimens he stuffed and mounted himself. He turned them
into a traveling display for a time and then, in the 1880's,
opened a permanent museum in an old colonial era house on the
corner of Bay and Treasury Streets in St. Augustine. A major
part of his attraction was also an exhibit of live animals,
including collections of snakes, birds, alligators, and some
other native and exotic wildlife."
The
Vedder Museum
The Vedder illustrations are available courtesy of "Vedder
Museum & Menagerie" at Rootsweb.
This web page provides links to a number of documents and
illustrations related to John Vedder.
After Vedder's death, the museum was purchased by the St. Augustine Historical Society, but the building and the collection were lost in a fire in 1914.
Dr. Vedder standing in front of his museum
Courtesy of Vedder Museum Web Page
Vedder's Curiosity Store ad from Reynolds's Standard Guide to St. Augustine, 1896 edition.
nephew Vedder came honestly by his strange fancies:
It is probable Jewett refers to Elihu Vedder, 1836-1893, a prominent
contemporary painter, illustrator and author, known for his use
of fantasy. Elihu was a member of the Vedder family of
Schenectady. Jewett was familiar with Elihu Vedder's work,
mentioning him in an 1886 book review. Andrew
Waber, author of the Vedder Rootsweb page cited above and a
Vedder descendant, points out that Elihu was not a nephew, but a
first cousin of Dr. Vedder.
Waber adds: "Dr. Elihu Vedder, Sr., the
artist's father, also was a resident of St. Augustine during the
last twenty years of his life. Elihu Sr. was a longtime dentist
in Matanzas, Cuba and he had another son, Alexander Vedder, who
was the personal physician to the emperor of Japan. The
Elihu Vedder Collection in the Smithsonian Art Archives is
available online."
Dr. Smith who did so well for A. F. : Probably, Jewett refers to the prominent St. Augustine physician, Frank F. Smith, who practiced in the Post Office block, near the major hotels. Born in Hillsboro, NH, in 1854, Smith studied at Dartmouth College and the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, completing his work in 1883. After a year at the Kellog Sanitarium at Battle Creek, MI, he took up practice in St. Augustine, where by 1888, though young, he was well-established both as a physician on the medical staff of the new Alicia Hospital and as a promoter of St. Augustine's healthy winter climate.
new hotel on the Gulf side way down farther south in Florida: According to Thomas Graham, Henry Plant opened the palatial Tampa Bay Hotel in 1888, hoping to compete successfully with Flagler's new east coast Florida hotels. See Chapter 14 of Mr. Flagler's St. Augustine. It is likely Jewett refers to this hotel.
Palatka along the river: Palatka, FL, on the St. Johns River, about 30 miles southwest of St. Augustine, became a winter health resort before the Civil War. Through the 1880s, the town continued to attract tourists with several large hotels.
perhaps it isn't open yet: In Chapter 12 of Mr. Flagler's St. Augustine, Thomas Graham reports that the Ponce de Leon did not open for this season until January 10, 1889. Flagler's Alcazar Hotel opened on Christmas Day in 1888, not long after a yellow fever quarantine had been lifted. Mrs. Aldrich and Tal could have stayed at any of a number of hotels upon arriving in St. Augustine, but not at the Ponce de Leon.
From Rita K. Gollin, Annie Adams Fields: Woman of
Letters. Boston: University of Massachusetts
Press, 2002, p. 239.
When they returned to Florida in the winter
of 1890, a writer for a New York weekly devoted to literature and
the arts breezily informed his readers that "Mrs. James T.
Fields and Miss Sarah O. Jewett are, I was about to say,
summering at Saint Augustine, Fla., not simply because the
weather there suggests the butterfly season, but because
wherever those close literary friends are they diffuse a genial
social warmth." As he then explained, "Miss Jewett, whose
home is in South Berwick, Me,. amid the scenes which she has
invested with such picturesque interest, is in the habit of
visiting Mrs. Fields during the winter in Boston, and they enjoy
taking trips together wherever their fancy leads them."
But it was Sarah's arthritic pains rather than fancy that had
again brought them to the Ponce de Leon.
SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel
[ 28 January 1890 ]*
Loulie
I am sorry to say I must give up the pleasure of the luncheon and of seeing you and the sketches, (the luncheon should not have been mentioned first!) Mrs. Fields has had another cold and now we are ordered South ignominiously by the doctor to go tomorrow night -- There is a very {great} deal for her to stay at home for, but it is no use to go on as she has been doing lately, and we hope that we need not stay very long as it is far safer to come North in February than in April. We both like St Augustine ever so much so it is not so bad as it might be. Do send a line some day and will not Mrs. Dresel too? it would be such a joy to A. F.
S.O.J.
The Ponce de Leon*
St. Augustine Florida
Notes
28 January 1890: This date does not appear on the manuscript, but on the cataloging cover page. As 28 January fell on a Tuesday and because it is known that Jewett and Fields were in St. Augustine, FL in February and early March of 1890, this date seems probable.
Hotel Ponce de Leon*
I thank you so much and so does Mrs. Fields for the lovely violets you brought the day we came away. I wish that I could have seen you before I left (and indeed we did not mean to start until Thursday night, which would have kept me from missing the luncheon with you.) but I found that we could not get the stateroom we needed in the "through car" unless we grabbed it next day, which we did! You can imagine what a scurry it gave us to get ready!
-- I am now sitting, as writers from Southern hotels always say, "by an open window, with a bouquet of roses"! I wish indeed that you could see this lovely place, an ancient Spanish palace in good repair is what I call it. My window looks out into the great courtyard with its fountain and palms and magnolia and all their kindred, mixed with the familiar nasturtiums and bright red geraniums. Yesterday I saw a tall white hollyhock in one of the gardens which gave me a Rip van Winkle* feeling as if I had slept over into August.
Dear A. F. already feels better and looks better and hardly coughs at all -- I think the change has done her a great deal of good if it were only to make her forget the crowd of duties and engagements and so little strength to meet them with. It is quite impossible to be energetic here in the same way as at the North, and yet you never forget that it is sea air and there is a delicious freshness in it that cannot be described. I feel like writing here just as I did before, and so I hope to get my work well along.
The stories I promised long ago for "winter numbers" are one and all dreadfully behind hand. I begin to think that coming away was a great thing on my part --
I have been thinking what a good sketch you would make and how much material you would find here. It is a wonderful place for artists -- more foreign than a great many towns abroad and so full of color. Mrs. Fields sends love and is going to answer a from Mrs. Dresel very soon -- I am always affectionately
You might kindly write a little letter someday !!!
1890 ... Ponce de Leon: Jewett and Fields had enjoyed their stay in this newly constructed winter tourist hotel in St. Augustine during their winter trip in 1888. The year 1890 is added by another hand to the upper left corner of page 1. Because Jewett and Fields are known to have spent about 6 weeks in Florida during February and March of 1890, this date probably is correct.
Rip Van Winkle: From the 1819 short story, by the American writer Washington Irving (1783-1859), about the American who magically sleeps in the mountains for 20 years and then returns home to find his village transformed in the passage of time.
SOJ to Charles Edgar Lewis Wingate
Hotel Ponce de Leon
St. Augustine, Florida
February 3, 1890
Dear Mr. Wingate:
I am afraid that the necessary delay
in my receiving your note of the 28th January will make the
enclosed opinion of no use to you but I take pleasure in sending
it. I should be glad to send fresh readers to Mr. Lowell's fine
essay,* at any rate, and I think in this case he has the final
word.
I hope that what I have written will
serve your purpose. If I have written too much, I think you had
better begin with the second paragraph, but I hope that you can
find space for the whole question.* I should like very much to
see the result of your work when it comes in print. Mrs. Fields
and I are not having the paper sent regularly.
Yours very truly,
S. O. Jewett
This transcription is from Richard Cary, Sarah Orne Jewett Letters (1967), Letter 37.
Cary's Notes
fine essay: A check of morning and evening editions of
the Boston Journal and of the Critic for this
period reveals no word about Lowell by Miss Jewett, so her
communication probably did arrive too late to be utilized.
Reference may be to Lowell's address to the Modern Language
Association, published in PMLA, V (January 1890), 5-22,
and collected in his Latest Literary Essays and Addresses
(Boston, 1892), 131-159, as "The Study of Modern Languages."
Here Lowell applauds the growth of modern language teaching and
refutes the attitude that masterpieces could only be written in
the classical languages.
question: An item from the Critic, n.s. XIII
(February 22, 1890), 96, conveys the flavor of the Jewett-Fields
relationship: "Mrs. James T. Fields and Miss Sarah O. Jewett
are, I was about to say, summering at Saint Augustine, Fla., not
simply because the weather there suggests the butterfly season,
but because wherever these close literary friends are they
diffuse a genial social warmth. Miss Jewett, whose home is in
South Berwick, Me., amid the scenes which she has invested with
such picturesque interest, is in the habit of visiting Mrs.
Fields during the winter in Boston, and they enjoy taking trips
together wherever their fancy leads them."
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Feb 14 1890
My dear friend,
The breath of roses and the warm Gulf winds seemed to come with thy letter. I am glad to think of you among the flowers and under the sunshine of Florida. I fancy Sarah* at her [ palace ? ] window open to the air of summer and perfumed with rose and orange bloom "tending her soul," as Omar Khayam* would say, to the bleak sea-side New England pastures blown over by the bitter East, with their stunted cedars, and straggling stone fences, -- and a Poor House with the poverty-stricken landscape for its setting.* I am glad she has this dual power of seeing New England and Florida at the same time, and that she never loses sight of the scene she has depicted as no
I am still in Amesbury, and, as I can read but little I know hardly anything of the world's doings. It is rather hard to be compelled to be idle. I can't pity anybody who can work and sleep.
Excuse this poor apology for a letter and read between its lines the love and gratitude of
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett.
Omar Khayam: Persian scientist and poet, Omar Khayyam (1048-1131). His ideas about the human soul are a matter of controversy. He would have been known to Whittier mainly through the translation of Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859).
setting: Whittier's elaborate description of winter New England suggests Jewett's forthcoming story, "The Town Poor," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly in July 1890. One may wonder if she showed him this story before its publication.
May day: May 1.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 72-4835. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
February 22d
Dear Lilian:
It really seems too bad to be leaving just as you are coming to this lovely place! but I have been waiting for the Dr. to give me leave of absence which I must own he does rather reluctantly, in order to get away, and having got it, we fly -- I should like to think you were to have rooms like ours on the courtyard! Perhaps you have. A happy stay to you!
Tell dear T.B. to find the Reynolds Rose-garden and see a trellis with yellow bessies on it (near sunset) with a "chinaberry" tree in the background. Mifs Reynolds will show it to him. How we should like to show him things ourselves! Dear Lily and T.B. -- Edwina* and her family are here -- Do speak to her and make life easier by "letting bygones be bygones".
It will be unpleasant for you on both sides otherwise.
Do it for Mr. Booth's sake and for everybody's sake. She is so much younger that she has had time to think over many things and has doubtless changed more or less since her marriage. The match has been a good one for her. She seems very happy and she is the person to be suited!!
Good bye ----- from yours very affectionately
1890: While this is not certain, the content of the letter suggests that it was written in St. Augustine, FL, at the end of fields and Jewett's second stay there, at the Hotel Ponce de Leon.
The rose garden of Mrs. Reynolds on Bronson street is mentioned in the guidebook, Chapin's Hand-book of St. Augustine, p. 21.
Edwina: Edwina Booth (1861-1938), daughter of the American actor, Edwin Booth (1833-1893) and niece of the presidential assassin, John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865). Edwina Booth married Ignatius Grossman, a ward of Celia Thaxter, in May 1885. Details of the apparent bad feeling are not yet known. Fields's sentence about Edwina's youth seems confusing; perhaps she meant to write, "She was so much younger ...."
1896
On January 7, 1896, Annie Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett departed
from Boston, traveling by train to Brunswick, GA, where they
made a brief stay before boarding the steam yacht, Hermione.
Along with its owner Henry L. Pierce (1825-1896), Thomas Bailey
(1836-1911) and Lilian Aldrich, their servant, Bridget, and the
crew, they attempted an itinerary that would take them to the
Windward Islands. However, the winter seas were so rough
that sailing between islands was nearly always harrowing, and
everyone became seasick. Though Annie and Sarah were game
despite their suffering, Lilian Aldrich was less hardy, and they
had to give up much of their plan. Weather and other
circumstances also delayed their return to the continent.
Still, they enjoyed the nearer tropical islands, for them a
novel experience of climate, flora, and what they saw as exotic
peoples. Blanchard reports that by the time they returned
to Florida at the beginning of March, Jewett had lost nearly ten
pounds, and an extended recuperation was essential. The
pair remained in St. Augustine for some time. Fields's
last journal entry is dated March 10; Jewett's last letter home
is dated March 16 from the departing train.
Henry L. Pierce
from the Library of Congress
From Annie Fields, "Diary of a Caribbean Trip, 1896."*
Tuesday morning {March 3}.
Wednesday morning March 4th
Reached St. Augustine in the evening after a long dusty ride of eight hours in the train.* It was not excessively warm because on one side was the sea nearly the whole time with sometimes acres of pineapple bushes and sometimes palmettos and sometimes only the white beach with its rolling waves between us and the deep sea.
It was cool when we came into the station and the air fragrant
with blossoms. The little place was very quiet but
beautiful under that stars with a fine architecture dimly seen
in the half light. We found a few letters and [unreadable
line part of which may read: went to bed in comfortable
beds not over our picturesque ____{.}
Up early -- The air being cool and inspiring.
Thursday, March 5th
In the afternoon a carriage was put at our disposal and
we drove across the new bridge where we used to take the
little ferry.* Roads have been made over on Anastasia
Island and the whole place is being tamed. When I think of
the dead wild-cat just shot that we found in the path once
over there less than ten years ago I feel as if everything
except the vast wild sea would soon be brought into
subjection. It is still beautiful but has surely lost
something of the old picturesqueness. There was a fire in
the old part of the town a few years ago which has swept away
some of the old coquina houses.* But birds are in the
hotel gardens now and the architecture has grown rather than
lost in beauty ---------- and it is quiet. We like it very
much.
Friday March 6th
Left with our friends for Jacksonville. Drove at once to
the yacht packed up such clothing as we were likely to need,
took a last luncheon together, "Sadie" wrote up and signed "the
Log" -- then bidding our companions farewell we were rowed
ashore. Kind Mr. Pierce went with us, bought our return
tickets to St. Augustine where we are to rest a few days, and
said goodbye only after seeing us safely into the train.
It was very warm but he returned again just before we started to
see if he could get better places for us -- From first to
last{.} Here ends the journal of our voyage to the
westmost Indies{.}
March 7th & to 9th 10th
at the Ponce de Leon. In the afternoon of the 10th we
drove into the woods and through Moccasin Swamp with Mr. Pell,
Mrs. Smith and a Miss [ Sampson? ] found Princulas*
in bloom –
NOTES
Link to a full transcription of Diary
of a West Indian Island Tour.
in the train: By 1896, Henry Flagler had completed
a direct rail line from New York to St. Augustine and further
south.
the new bridge where we used to take the little ferry:
In America's First City: St. Augustine's Historical
Neighborhoods, Karen Harvey reports that the first
bridge to Anastasia Island was built in 1895, replacing the
earlier ferry service.
a fire in the old part of the town ... has swept away some
of the old coquina houses: In 1895, a major fire in
the area north of the Plaza de la Constitucion destroyed many
dwellings and businesses. Coquina is a form of limestone
containing broken fragments of fossil
shellfish. Many major projects in St.
Augustine through the nineteenth century were built of coquina,
including the sea wall, the "old gates" and Fort Marion.
Sadie: Sadie is one of Jewett's nicknames.
Apparently she wrote some account of at least part of their
journey in the yacht's log. This text has not been located.
Princula: Though Fields's handwriting at this
point in the diary is quite difficult to make out, she does
appear to have written "Princula." However, she may have
written Primula. I have found no clear evidence of the
existence of a Princula flower, but the genus primula includes a number of common
flowers that Fields might have observed, such as the
primrose.
Sarah Orne Jewett fragment
Monday morning
[ Probably hotel
stationary ]
Hotel Ponce de Leon
Gillis and Murray,
Managers
St. Augustine, Fla.
……………….…Mr. Whitridge* made us a long visitation yesterday
afternoon and it is always very pleasant. He was so funny
and dispairing about Kate Foot* -- always
complaining of something -- cant tell much by
what she says ….. he speaks sometimes just like Mr. C. Hobbs* so
you would think them same – it gives me such a funny
home like feeling you must tell Mr. Hobbs that he is
here and so interested to hear all about him and the old
place. I promised him one of my snow pictures of the house
taken there by the Methodist church and if it isnt too much
trouble I wish you would look for it in the box and send it to
me. I have had to go all over the Hayes and the Ferguson
girls and Jourdin Ferguson and that golden time. You would
like Mr. Whitridge. Your sister is so much distracted by
the band playing without and beaucoup des personnes passing up
the middle of the court past the fountain and some of them
getting the particulars with marked interest* that she cant
compose her thoughts to this letty.* Fifteen rooms of
Vanderbilts have created a great excitement but they are going
to Tampa or some where to-day. There were terrapin for
dinner last night. I suppose in the Vanderbilts honor.*
This is all the news of today.
Sarah
NOTES
The original of this transcription is at the University of New
England, Maine Women Writers Collection #75 Letters
from SOJ, Undated, unidentified sources. The
location of the letter is unknown at present; we have only the
transcription of a fragment. The likely addressee is Mary
Rice Jewett.
Mr. Whitridge: This is likely to be Frederick Wallingford Whitridge
(1852-1916), the New York City businessman who married Matthew
Arnold's daughter, Lucy. The biographical sketch
below, from Encyclopedia of Biography of New York Volume 5,
indicates the Whitridge's grandmother's family lived in South
Berwick. This makes it understandable that he would
remember visiting Cushing relatives in South Berwick in his
youth and would be familiar with local families such as "the
Hayes and the Ferguson girls and Jourdin Ferguson." Such
visits would have taken place during the childhoods of Sarah and
Mary Jewett, but it sounds as if Mary has not met Whitridge, or
at least, that she has not met him as an adult.
WHITRIDGE, Frederick Wallingford,
Lawyer, Railroad President.
Frederick W. Whitridge springs from New England ancestors, and partakes of the qualities of thrift and enterprise which have distinguished the people of that section for three centuries. The founder of the family in this country was William Whitridge, born 1599, died December 9, 1688, came to America in the ship "Elizabeth" in 1625, with his wife, Elizabeth, born 1605, and son, Thomas, from Beninden, County Kent, England....
Thomas Whitridge, son of William and Elizabeth Whitridge, born 1625, was living in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1648, and had a wife, Florence, who died in 1672.
Their son, William Whitridge, born 1659, resided in Rochester, Massachusetts, and was the father of Thomas Whitridge, born there November 12, 1710, died March 7, 1795. His intention of marriage to Hannah Haskell was entered September i, 1733.
Their third son. Dr. William Whitridge, was born February 13, 1748, in Rochester; settled at Tiverton, Rhode Island, in 1780, dying there April 5, 1831. In 1791 he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Yale College, and in 1823 received the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine from Harvard University. He married Mary Cushing, born July 21, 1759, in Scituate, Massachusetts, died in Tiverton, March 17. 1846.
They had a large family of children born in Tiverton. Of these, the second son, William Cushing Whitridge, was born November 25, 1784, in Tiverton, and became a physician, practicing many years with great success in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He married his cousin, Olive Cushing, born February 20, 1783, in Boston, eldest daughter and fifth child of John and Olive (Wallingford) Cushing, of South Berwick, Maine, died September 9, 1876.
John Cushing Whitridge, son of William G. and Olive (Cushing) Whitridge, was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he died in 1908. He married Lucia Shaw Bailey, daughter of John G. Bailey, of Newport, Rhode Island, and they were the parents of Frederick Wallingford Whitridge.
Frederick Wallingford Whitridge was born August 5, 1852, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he grew up, and received his primary education in the public schools. Entering Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, he was graduated A. B. in 1874, following which he entered Columbia Law School in New York City, from which he received the degree of LL. B. in 1877. In that year he was admitted to the New York bar, but did not engage in active practice. For some years he was lecturer in the school of political science attached to Columbia University, and is one of the founders of the Civil Service Reform Association. Mr. Whitridge has given his talents and energies to the development and progress of many business enterprises, and is now a director of the Niagara Development Company and the Cataract Construction Company. He is and has been for several years receiver and president of the Third Avenue Railroad Company of New York City. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and in politics independent of party dictation. On the occasion of the marriage of King Alfonso of Spain to Princess Victoria Eugenie of England, Mr. Whitridge was appointed by the President as special ambassador to attend the ceremonies as representative of the United States. He has been an occasional contributor to magazines on various subjects, and has demonstrated a large amount of business ability and versatility in other directions. He is a member of several clubs, including the University, Knickerbocker, Metropolitan, City, Downtown Players, Century and Westchester County clubs.
He married, in 1884, Lucy Arnold, daughter of Matthew and Lucy (Wightman) Arnold, and they have children: Arnold, Eleanor, Joan. For a quarter of a century the family has resided in the same house on East Eleventh street, New York City, and the summers are spent in the Scottish Highlands, where Mr. Whitridge is the owner of a beautiful estate.
|
Teachers at the Mission House in Beaufort Miner, Harris, Armstrong, Cahoun,
Colburn, H.C. Bullard, Mitchell, Jenners, King |
Photo courtesy of "Find a Grave" Foote is the co-author, with Maria Huntingon, of: |
C. Hobbs: This may be Charles C. Hobbs (1835-1917), local historian in South Berwick. He
is a grandson of Olive Wallingford Cushing of South Berwick, as
is Frederick Wallingford Whitridge.
It is possible however, that Jewett refers to
South Berwick grocer, Charles E. Hobbs (1844-1941). See Business Block, the Old Berwick Historical
Society
the Hayes and the Ferguson girls and Jourdin Ferguson and
that golden time: The Hayes and Ferguson families
were old and prominent South Berwick families. As
indicated above, "the golden time" is likely to include time
Frederick Whitridge spent with family in South Berwick during
his childhood.
Your sister is so much distracted The Ponce de Leon was
one of the hotels that regularly employed bands to entertain
guests during the winter season. See note and photograph
above. It appears Jewett writes in the loggia or in a room
that faces the courtyard and fountain, with windows open,
allowing her to hear the band, and people passing and gossiping.
Fifteen rooms of Vanderbilts: Thomas Graham reports
in Chapter 17 of Mr. Flagler's St. Augustine, that in
March of 1896, Cornelius Vanderbilt reserved nearly 20 rooms for
"a huge retinue of friends." He quotes a contemporary:
"Mr. Vanderbilt is very unassuming, the ladies and gentlemen
going about in the most democratic fashion while here."
But he notes that "the Vanderbilts usually dined upstairs in a
private room set up for them, with their own headwaiter to bring
up dishes from the main kitchen below."
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[Hotel stationary]
HOTEL PONCE DE LEON
GILLIS & MURRAY, MANAGERS
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA.
[ Not in Jewett's hand ] 16 March 1896?
Monday morning in the train
Dear Mary,
Here we are all started out so pleased to be going home -- though it is so very pleasant to stay at our palace of the Ponce de Leon. Who do you think saw us to the train, but Mr. & Mrs. Edmunds!* who came up from the south where he had been fishing -- with such a sunburnt nose and great friendliness. They came Saturday night but we didnt see them until yesterday morning since when we have played together pretty steadily. They were so sorry we were coming away for they mean to stay until Saturday {.} and your sister is decked with violets presented by old Mr. Whitridge* who was delightful to the last & hopes to come to S. Berwick -- some time -- He had seen the Berwick paper in the New England* & couldn't say enough about it -- I really enjoyed him very much -- I dare say we shall find it cold on getting home but we dont much care & mean to be careful. We shall not stay long in New York. I am afraid from what you say that I am not likely to find you there but we can "play something self" -- A. F. interpolates a grateful message about the bonnet which she appreciates all over again it having been laid aside in the warm season for Madame Howard's hat --
--- As we go along all the pear trees and cherry trees look so
pretty in full bloom. I wonder how far the Hermione has
got through the big seas.
I am going to post this at Jacksonville. We hope to reach the Albemarle tomorrow afternoon{.}* The train gets in between three & four.
With ever so much loveSarah
Mr. Whitridge was so pleased with the picture you sent -- of the
house. Perhaps you could come up to 148 to meet us.
A. F. just came out with the same wish. It would give you
a little change. "prepared to stay a few days" A. F.
says!!
NOTES
Mr. & Mrs. Edmunds: George Franklin Edmunds
(1828 - 1919) and his wife, Susan (1831-1916). See notes
above.
Mr. Whitridge: See notes above for the "Monday
Morning" letter. Presumably his interest in Jewett's
"Berwick paper" stems from his own family roots in South
Berwick.
Berwick paper: Jewett's "The Old Town of Berwick" appeared in New
England Magazine (16 [new series 10]: 585-609) in July
1894.
Albemarle: One of the grand New York hotels, on
Washington Square, at the end of the 19th century.
Compiled, manuscripts edited, and annotated by Terry Heller,
Coe College, 2015, updated 2021.