Name/Title
Letter from Ebenezer Irving to Katrina IrvingEntry/Object ID
HHV 003.582Description
Letter from Ebenezer Irving to Katrina IrvingSubject
Theodore’s bad health, restorative trip to Europe, Theodore’s daughters Fannie and Lizze married last year and each had a daughter, [?Lillie’s?] wedding deferred, Mr. Routh to Europe, Storrows return and settled in Lawrence MA, but then moved 1 mile from Sunnyside to Irvington, see each other all the time, story of Robert (gardner) and Maria (cook) marriage and birth of 7 children, they were baptized on Ebenezer’s 86th birthday by Pierre Paris Irving, the neighboring Grinnells expand their home, billiard room, lodgings, library, Willie might not return to StockbridgeSubject Person/Organization
Ebenezer Irving (1776-1868), Katrina Van Tassel Irving Williams (1845-1915), Edgar Irving (1808-1873), Pierre Paris Irving (1806-1878), Sanders Irving (1813-1884), Julia Granger Irving (1822-1897), Theodore Irving (1809-1880), Washington Irving (1783-1859), Elizabeth Kip Irving Reese (1842-1876), William Irving (1847-1893), Fanny Irving Clark/Major(1839-?)Subject Place
* Untyped Subject Place
Sunnyside, England, Southampton, UK, Birmingham, UK, London, UK, India, China, Lawrence, MA, Irvington, NY, Stockbridge, NYContinent
EuropeCollection
Irving Manuscript CollectionTranscription
Transcription
Sunny Side, Irvington, Westch’r Co. N.Y.
Thursday April 4 1861.
Miss Katrina Irving
Academy of the Visitation
Georgetown D.C.
My dear Katrina
Your kind letter of March 31. Reached / me 2’d. Instant and the previous one to which you allude / and which you fear had failed, came also in due / course of mail. I have thought repeatedly of replying / to the latter, and can scarcely offer the shadow of an / excuse for my remissness, but I beg of you not to attribute / it to any lack of kind feeling
Several months have elapsed since my last was / written, and in that time several changes have taken / place among relatives and friends. Your Uncle Theodore / Irving’s health has been indifferent for some time past, / and he was persuaded to try the effect of a voyage to / Europe. He sailed in the Steamer Adriatic about four / weeks since for Southampton, and I see by the morning’s / papers that the vessel arrived at [Lancaster] on the 23’d ulto. / He intended on arriving in England to proceed immediately / to your Uncle Van Wart’s in Birmingham and pass some time / [??-smudged ink] his family; he expected to be absent from his family / and parish some three months or so. I trust that he will / return with reestablished health. You are aware that his / daughters, your cousins Fannie and Lizzie were married / some twelve or fifteen months since; both of the have made / him a Grandfather by each bringing into the world recently / a little daughter Your Uncle Pierre P. I’s daughter / [Lillie’s] wedding is deferred for a while; the business of Mr / [La-??] firm requiring a visit to Europe, it is concluded to be /
[END OF PAGE 2]
Best to put off the wedding until his return; and his / daughter (Mrs. Routh) is nearly in as ill luck for the house / in which Mr Routh is a partner have found it necessary to / dispatch one of the partners abroad. Mr Routh sailed for / Liverpool and London a short time since and may proceed / to India and China +c so that your cousin Anna has / become what in slang parlance is called “a widow bewitched”.
I mentioned in my last that your cousins the / Storrows, had returned from France and settled [themselves] / in the manufacturing town, or City, of Lawrence, [Mass’ts?] / They changed their quarters after I wrote; they left / Lawrence and [hired] a neat snug house opposite the / Post Office in Irvington, within less than a mile of / Sunny Side, where they are snugly and comfortably / situated; and what makes it still more satisfactory to / all is that the interchanges between them and the / Sunny Siders are incessant.
The late anniversary of my birth day, Jan’y 27. / was attended with rather more of interest than was / the case with those that thave preceded it; I that day / completed my eighty fifth and commenced the eighty sixth year. Your Uncle Sanders and his wife and your Uncles / Pierre P. and Theodore I came with us; and what added / much interest to the occasion was the performance / of the baptismal [rite?/act?] by your Uncle Pierre P. I. /
Robert Mc [Lalland?] our gardener and his wife Maria / you know well, he came as gardener, and she as / cook nearly about the same time _ the two soon /
[END OF PAGE 3]
Took a fancy for each other and agreed to be married / asking your Uncle Washington if he had any objection, he / told them none whatever, provided that it did not interfere / with their respective duties, so they were married, and / seven children have followed the ceremony, I was / not aware whether any of the children were baptized or / not until my late birth day was close at hand, when / the circumstance was mentioned to me and that Robert / and his wife had concluded to have the rite performed / [^ on all] at that time and by your Uncle Pierre P.I.; it took / place accordingly and passed of the the satisfaction of / all; the little ones behaved admirably; they are [^ a ] fine / lot of little ones, and well they might be, for the parents / are a most worth couple.
Your cousins the Grinnells have enlarged their establishment / adjoining Sunnyside this winter. Mr G. has added a con= / =siderable piece on the North side , or [fave?]; it will embrace / a library, billiard room, lodging rooms [closets?] +c. It is not yet / entirely finished but very soon will be when I shall / indulge myself with a good look at it.
From what you say respecting your brother Willie’s affairs / it would seem that his return to Stockbridge is in doubt . tell / him that he must not forget us, and say that he would / be able to pass some days pleasantly between the “Old Roost” / and the Storrow quarters.
Thine my dear Katrina affectionately
Eben’r Irving
(You see that I sink the Kate)Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
EnglishOther Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
Former NumberOther Number
W 3241Condition
Notes
Remarks: Small holes along center fold on both pages; vertical tear at bottom of center fold; staining.Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Katrina Van Tassel Irving Williams (1845-1915)Notes
RecipientGeneral Notes
Note Type
StorageNoteNote
Home Location: Historic Hudson Valley, Union Church, Storage, Shelf 31CNote Type
DepartmentNote
Library
