The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Reuben Farwell to Walt Whitman, 16 August 1875
Date: August 16, 1875
Whitman Archive ID: duk.00539
Source: Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University . Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: The annotation, "sent 2 papers Aug 20, 1875," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Elizabeth Lorang, Kevin McMullen, Ashley Lawson, John Schwaninger, Caterina Bernardini, Marie Ernster, Amanda J. Axley, and Stephanie Blalock
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Aug 16th 1875
Dear Uncle Walt
I received your Postal Card.1 but I was away to work when my wife2 received it.
I have been 75 to 100 miles West of here working in the Harvest fields
She ought to have answered it before this
I am sorry that you do keep so miserable and feabel
I do hope by the time this reaches you that you are better
I hardly know what to write to you But I will say that we are well as common
I am going to California in November if the Lord will permit that my life may be spared
Walt I wish that I was abel to come and take care of you how happy I would be to see your Dear face once more
God bless you
Ruben Farwell
Nankin Po
Wayne Co
Mich
Wright soon Dear Uncle Walt
address
Nankin
Wayne Co
Michigan
Correspondent:
Reuben Farwell (1843–1926), also
called "Little Mitch," was a Union soldier who served with the Michigan Cavalry during the
American Civil War. Farwell met Walt Whitman in Armory
Square Hospital early in 1864; upon his release from the hospital he
corresponded with Whitman. After Farwell received his discharge on August 24,
1864, he returned to his home in Plymouth, Michigan. Evidently the correspondence
was renewed when Whitman sent a post card (now lost) on February 5, 1875.
On March 5, 1875, Farwell, who owned a farm in
Michigan, wrote: "Walt my dear old Friend how I would like to grasp your hand
and give you a kiss as I did in the days of yore. what a satisfaction it would
be to me." In Farwell's last letter, on August 16,
1875, he said that he was planning to leave shortly for California.
Eleven letters from Farwell are in the Trent Collection, Duke University. He is
mentioned in "Memoranda During the War"; see The Complete
Writings of Walt Whitman (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1902), 10 vols., 4:134.
Notes:
1. This may be a reference to Whitman's note to Farwell of April 21, 1875. [back]
2. Reuben Farwell was married to Ann Eliza Kickerbocker Farwell (1844–1932). [back]