Transcription
Sunny Side, Westch’r Co’y, N.Y. Dec’r 6th. 1854
My dear Sarah
Your letter of 17th [ulto?] came duly to hand / and I was glad to find by it that you had found the papers / relating to William’s claim for pay for extra service. If you have / not yet sent them to Col. Morgan, it would be well to / forward them at once, and write, as you purpose doing, / to [Doct’r] Blake, requesting him to see the Col. and to / take an interest in prosecuting the claim, from what / I have heard of the Doctor I believe he will cheerfully lend / all the aid in his power.
When Edgar returned from Washington, I told him / that it was my wish that Willie’s remains should rest / near those of his mother’s and his little sister’s in the family / plot that we had secured in the Tarrytown Cemetery, and / he wrote to Doct’r Blake to have them sent on, the Doctor / replied that it would be hest to defer sending them / until the latter part of the Autumn. Early in last month / Edgar reminded him of our wishes and that they should / be sent on as soon as he should judge it prudent to do / so. On Monday evening of last week Edgar received a / telegraphic dispatch from Doct’r B. informing that the remains / had that day been forwarded by “Adams + Co. Express”; he / immediately dropped me a note by mail which I got / by 9 o’clock the next (tuesday) morning informing that they / were on the way and that he thought it would be best / to send them on as soon as received, by the Hudson River / rail road to tarrytown. I lost no time in making / the necessary arrangements at that place and at the Cemetery.
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I went to the City the next morning (wednesday) / and found that the remains had just reached the City / and Edgar got the Express to deliver them at the Chambers / Street Station for the train that would leave at 1. PM -
I could not conveniently leave until 3. P.M. and then / found that they had hot been sent on, the baggage / Master being under the impression that a permit for / the removal from our City Inspector was requisite; I said / that if the death had occurred in the City, or it was a a [disinternment] / from any of its burial grounds, a permit would be necessary / but not for a mere passage through _ appeal was made / to Mr Lee the Superintendent of the [road?/wad?], but he could not / be found: after considerable discussion among the officials, / I observed that I had no objections to apply for a permit tho’ / I felt sure that I would be told at the Office that no permit / was necessary, besides, that the weather was stormy, I had / no umbrella, and it was so near 3 PM that the Cars / would start before I could get to the Inspector’s office _ at / length one of the elder hands who knew me, settled the / matter by saying that he would take upon himself to send / the remains on. The case had my name on it directed to / “Tarrytown”. I told the man who had charge of the baggage car that / it was to be left there, and that I had arranged with the / person in charge of that station to take charge of it. On leaving / the cars at Irvington, I was not a little surprised and [amazed] / on observing that they had delivered the case there _ the mistake / no doubt arose from our frequent receipt of articles by the cars. /
Upon mentioning it to our obliging little Capt. [Horan] who /
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Has charge of the station . he told me that it should be sent on / by the next train, which would pass about an hour later.
As all the funeral rites had been [observed?] at the internment / in Washington, I thought it best to proceed as quietly in the reinternment / as when we removed the remains from the family vault near the / Beekman St B-[??] church; so the next morning (thursday) after breakfast, I / drove to Tarrytown in a light waggon, took in the case, proceeded to the / Cemetery and placed them [^ it] in the receiving vault, until the grave / should be ready, which I directed to be prepared nest to the little sister’s. /
There is a fine young oak growing on the upper end of the spot which I did / not wish removed, but that they should excavate under it without / doing any unjust. All was to be ready by the next day, friday (Nov 30) / when I repaired to the Cemetary and saw the remains removed / from the vault and quietly lowered into the grave _ this was filled / and dressed, and the young oak will flourish just above his head.
I have fiven you the preceding much in detail, perhaps / unnecessarily so, but you say that you “wish to know all about / it.”
I presume that the cold weather and / the snow storms will make you hesitate to send little / Willie on a journey to New York, and your unwillingness / to interrupt his school affairs will probably increase / the hesitation. It is hardly worth while for him to take the trip unless he is anxious to do so and your wish to gratify him. Little Kate continues in fine / spirits and excellent health and cheerfully pursues her / course of studies, and her Aunts tell me that she gets on / well in them, they have appropriated the little room / over the porch to her use _ she goes to bed regularly between / 8 + 9 and the Aunts on retiring to their rooms, first pay a / visit to Kate’s to see that she is comfortable stowed away.
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