Transcription
CATALOG NUMBER VC 1186
OBJECT NAME Letter
DATE March 20, 1843
AUTHOR Rev. Stephen Henry Battin (son-in-law)
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L7NW-NCS
Marriage to Catharine Van Wyck: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/50015/records/377793?tid=&pid=&queryId=c66a7056-41b7-42b6-9714-8624649ddcac&_phsrc=SQj197&_phstart=successSource
Will: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8796/records/245026
RECIPIENT Phillip G[ilbert]. Van Wyck
MEDIUM Paper, ink
PEOPLE Catherine Van Wyck, aunt of Catharine, physician in Sing Sing,
Mary Smith Gardiner VW, Mr ?? Ruggles, Kitty, “Pa and Ma and family” (John Battin, Eliza Battin, others), “Mr. P” (re: “malicious story”)
PLACES Rome NY, Albany, Schenectady, Jersey, Staten Island, “old
fashioned house at Greenwich Street” (Battin family?), “malicious
story” about the (Van Wyck) family needs to be discussed/cleared up,
John Battin, father of Stephen Henry Battin
Can be found in Old Merchants of New York, pages 196+ https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/16901/images/dvm_LocHist004655-00102-1?usePUB=true&pId=193
Bio: https://redcoat76.blogspot.com/2014/07/john-battin-17th-light-dragoons-is.html
Will: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8800/records/694700 (276 Greenwich “store” held by son Joseph Battin -
see The Evening Post 20 July, 1846 for advertisement of “Extra Size gauze merino shirts, JOS. Battin” at 631 1/2 Broadway and 276 Greenwich St https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=evpo18460720-01.1.1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN----------
Note: wife is Eliza, others say “Maragaret Amelia Francis” (two wives, two John Battins?)
Greenwich Street: https://alaskawanted.com/stockphotosdags.html Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait, by Henry E. Insley, of Revolutionary War soldier John Battin who was born in 1752. This Daguerreotype was probably taken on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The drawing at right was taken from this very Daguerreotype (Lossing Vol 2, page 621 or 827 depending on edition). From Benson J. Lossing's Pictorial Field Book Of The Revolution, volume 2, chapter 23: "Of all the gallant men who battled there on that day [the Battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776], not one is known among the living [published in 1859]. Probably the last survivor of them all, and the last living relic of the British army in America, was the venerable JOHN BATTIN, who died at his residence in Greenwich Street, in the city of New York, on the twenty-ninth of June, 1852, at the age of one hundred years and four months. His body is entombed in Trinity Cemetery, upon the very ground where he fought for his king seventy-six years before.... Mr. Battin came to America with the British army in 1776
John Battin appears several times in “Ward 3” on NY census records
KEYWORDS Catharine pregnant, plans for her to return to Sing Sing for later
stages and birth, lack of nurses in Rome, air in Rome induces “scrofulas complaints”, “real” reason for delay of sending money ?, money for Mr Ruggles, travel, locomotives, snow plough on train, large snow storm, efforts to clear roads of snow, Millerismk, popular in Albany, processions, summer “jaunt” with Kitty,
Rome March 20, 1843.
Dear Father,
Your letter inclosing draft on Manhattan / Co. for $50 was received this morning and I have receipted / it on the bond as before. The other little matter I have / sent to Catherine at Albany where she went with me, / on Thursday last. You will receive it in a few days, / according to Mother’s request, yet with extreme reluctance / on my part, I have consented to accompany my dear / Wife down to Sing Sing, about the middle of April after / her visit at her Aunts, and consent to her remaining at home / until the month of July. I feel lost without her, though / this arrangement relieves us both of great anxiety since it / is very difficult to find good nurses in this region, She / can have her old and well known Physician, and the / air is so much purer. The atmosphere of Rome is apt to / induce Scrofulas complaints. I have very much re- / greeted since Mother’s letter reached us having again / mentioned our want of the money, / greatly fearing we / have put you to some inconvenience and trouble, /
The [^ real] cause of the delay did not enter my head, I concluded / your other business + engagements had prevented your / attending to it, and led you to forget it, so I thought / to remind you, and state our peculiar circumstances, and / immediate need, It may be that I shall spend /
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A couple of weeks at home in April, and again come / down for my dear Kate in July. You will still further / oblige us if you will retain the other $50 and the / amount of Mr Ruggles’ $15.[6]8 until we arrive.
I believe I have already said to you that we both / wish and intend to hold on to the principle of the Bond / in this as in all other cases, and simply use annually / the interest accruing having, as all should have, regard / to those who may come after, Ministry especially should / do this, since they are cut off from the means of / acquiring for themselves and children any fortunes.
If you can conveniently in July, give me not / only the interest of $35 but the whole sum of $70 / which would be due [^ on the $1000] in December following, thus aiding / us in the matter of housekeeping 4 or 5 months in advance, / it would be most gratefully received /
The storm extended the whole length of the state. I left / Albany on friday 17 in the midst of it, reached Schenectady / at 11 ½ with the mail + passengers, The cars had gone on / having waited long after their usual time, and did not / again get in from the West until Saturday 6 P. M. We / then left Schenectady at nine Saturday P.M. with 4 / powerful Locomotives and snow plough having previously / sent men to dig away 4, 5, + 6 feet drifts of snow. / on one part of the Road near Rome they were about 36 hours. Clearing the way for two miles of heavy drift. / with 4 engines , shovels, +c +c. Of course there was no /
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preaching in my church , all the raids are impassable / north of this, it is far worse.
The people in Albany have a large number of them / gone quite crazy about Millerism, Processions of men / + women in their ascension robes are occurring +c. / We may well exclaim “O tempora. O [mores?] “ —- /
I hope to spend about a month jaunting a little with / Kitty during the summer, to see my friends in Jersey. / Staten Island +c, and then to return to Rome pretty well / prepared for housekeeping, some of the arrangements I / shall be making from day to day till then, One thing / I shall not leave one situation till I am sure of another / and a more comfortable one. I wish you would write / me oftener, at all times I think you will find me a / docile Pupil, your counsel will be always acceptable /
Pa and Ma + family will be always happy / to see you and family at the old fashioned house in / Greenwich Street, when you find it convenient to call.
There is one subject my dear Sir that must be / very near both our hearts, and in which, or the truth / of which both, all, are deeply interested. Report reached / me at least two years since, and it has also gone / as far as New Hartford. If I can be of any service / in New York City, or elsewhere in clearing up the matter / ascertaining its truth of falsehood, I beg you to inform me. It went to New Hartford by way of Long Island, / Catherine indeed knows much less than I do. Or have / heard: it seems to me it is possible, and if possible /
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It ought at once to be rectified, In all such things, the / mildest measures are the best though prompt + energetic / It appears to me my dear Sir if you would go to Mr P. and / ask him, as a father, what information he can give, to give / you, as an honorable man, you would satisfy the minds / of us all, and enable us to deny the malicious story when we
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[CROSSED ON PAGE 1]
My heart, your Our Dear Kate’s heart would leap for Jay. Can any thing / be done? Can I do any thing?
Most sincerely / and affectionately / your son
Stephen / H. / BattinTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
