Transcription
CATALOG NUMBER HF 3043 J
OBJECT NAME Letter
DATE September 15, 1836
AUTHOR Eliza Storrs (Hartford)
RECIPIENT Emma Nicholas (NYC)
MEDIUM Paper, ink
PEOPLE Aunt Eliza, Mr. Davis (Baptist minister in Hartford recently died),
Ann Nicholas, Matilda Whitman, “cousinhood”
PLACES Hartford, New York, Belvidere
EVENTS “cousinhood of last winter (1835-36)”, anniversary of the foreign
missionary society just celebrated in Hartford, Nicholas move to Belvidere
50th
Addressed to Miss Emma Nicholas
Care of Judge Hoffman
New York
Hartford Sept 15th 1836
As it is quite out of the question / to think of getting in an Omnibus and paying you a visit / my dear Emma, I will avail myself of the privilege of writing / the only substitute that can be found. Unsatisfactory as it / is, it will be our dependance probably for a long time, and / I hope we shall never be so situated that this pleasure, this / more than pleasure to me will be denied. As we shall have / no other means of expressing our thoughts to each other, I do / with my dear Emma and I ask as a favour [sic] that you will / not shew [sic] my letters to any one not even your mother, / although I would not insist upon excluding her or Matilda / always, leaving it to your judgment to decide when these / exceptions shall be necessary. I dislike, and you know it / the foolish practice of saying, “do burn this letter”, and “don’t / shew [sic] this” and would not say so, but you will excuse me / whenI tell you that the idea that you do let others read my / letters prevents freedom in writing, and besides although my /
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Letters never contain secrets or any thing that is of any / consequence but to you and I, I should feel much easier / if you will promise not to let any one read them. What / disposition prompts this feeling I don’t exactly know, but / whatever it is it can’t be overcome. This is most uninteresting / and should have been communicated verbally instead of / occupying so much space here, and you will think it / quite unnecessary, but don’t scold and consider that very / likely had any thing else taken its place it might have / been something quite as dull, and i feel quite relieved. / But when you are in Belvidere there will be no one to shew / letters toIf you have ever sighed “for a lodge in some / vast wilderness” you will have your wish, when you / are in your western home you will feel quite away / from the world and almost forget that there is such / a noisy place as New York. But no, you can never forget / New York, and you will often think of it I know, and / how often your friends there will think of Illinois and / think of it but to imagine your family in their home / will not be seldom. I can assure you. As for me, Emma / I will not write about my feelings upon the subject. You / know what a loss you will be to me. To you will / memory often turn, and you will imagination [sic] often / present to my “mind’s eye”, when I am alone, and when / the cousinhood are assembled, one who was a member / of that little circle last winter will be gone, but when a
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Letter come then I shall feel that although separated we / are still unified, and change of place will change / my affection for you. We have been together in years that / to me have passed as a pleasant dream, and those whom / we have loved in youth occupy a place in our affections that / no others can occupy.
I commenced this yesterday and was / called away to dress for dinner and have been engaged / ever since that time, so that there has been no time to / finish my letter. I hope you are enjoying a morning as / lovely as this which has [?dawned] upon us in this part of / the world, if the sun shines as beautifully we shall not [page torn] / “the melancholy days have come, the saddest of the year” / and shall find it difficult to imagine that winter is so / near.
The anniversary of the foreign missionary society was / celebrated here on Wednesday and the town is full of / ministers. The Baptist minister in this place Mr Davis / has been buried/ since I came. Did you know him? He is much regretted, and is considered a great loss to / his congregation and indeed to the denomination, he / was very much respected.
I shall not return back to N. Y. / quite as soon as I said in my note to you. Aunt / Eliza will not listen to me when I talk of going on / Monday and I shall remain until the last of the weel / The only objection I have is that your time in NY is / so short, and you must prepare every thing, so that /
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You will have no sewing to keep you at home after / I return. I t does seem as if there was a spell upon / my finishing this, again I have been interrupted [^but] it is / time to close and I will do so after telling you that /
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I hope soon to receive a letter from you and that I / am ever your sincerely
Attached friend
Eliza StorrsTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
