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Benton H. Wilson to Walt Whitman, 7 April 1867

About This Item

  • Title: Benton H. Wilson to Walt Whitman, 7 April 1867
  • Date: April 7, 1867
  • Creator(s): Benton H. Wilson
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.01989
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 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.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman Elizabeth Lorang Kathryn Kruger John Schwaninger Nima Najafi Kianfar Caterina Bernardini Amanda J. Axley Cristin Noonan Kassie Jo Baron Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Wilson, Benton H.. "Benton H. Wilson to Walt Whitman, 7 April 1867." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 May 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.01989.xml (TEI)
 loc_vm.01465_large.jpg Syracuse April 7th/671 Dear Friend & Comrade2

I can not make any other excuse for my delay in answering your welcome letter of March 15th3 than negligence, for I have had time for it but I have kept putting it off from day to day because I have not had much news that I thought would interest you, and I do not know as it will now for I have not much to write of except my family affairs. My Wife4 started for New York City last friday night to be gone several  loc_vm.01466_large.jpg weeks. she is to be with her Sister during her confinement5, who is now having her fourth child and has not been married quite four years yet, she must be such a woman as you would sing a song to

I spoke of going to South America6 but I have given that idea up for I do not believe a man can do as well any where else as he can in the United States the greatest country in the world, but I will tell you why I thought of going there. I am poor and am proud of it but I hope to rise by honesty and industry. I am a married man but I am not happy for my disposition is not right. I have got a good  loc_vm.01467_large.jpg Woman and I love her dearly but I seem to lack patience or something. I think I had ought to live alone but I had not ought to feel so.

I would like very much to see you for I have so much to tell you, and to talk about, but I fear I shall weary you with such a letter as this so I will close it with my Love to you.

I don't know but I shall scold you if you delay answering this as long as you did my last for anything from you will interest me.

Father7 sends good wishes to you

B. H. Wilson.  loc_vm.01468_large.jpg  loc_vm.01469_large.jpg Benton H. Wilson April 8— Answered April 13-67  loc_vm.01470_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Benton H. Wilson (1843–1914?) was the son of Henry Wilson (1805–1870)—a harness and trunk maker—and Ann S. Williams Wilson (1809–1887). Benton Wilson was a U. S. Civil War soldier recovering in Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C., when he met Whitman. Later, Wilson was employed selling melodeons and sewing machines. He also sold life insurance and may have worked as a pawnbroker. He married Nellie Gage Morrell Wilson (ca. 1841–1892). Nellie had two children, Lewis and Eva Morrell, from a previous marriage, and she and Benton were the parents of five children. Wilson named his first child "Walter Whitman Wilson," after the poet; their other children were Austin, Irene, Georgie, and Kathleen Wilson. Benton Wilson's correspondence with Whitman spanned a decade, lasting from 1865 to 1875.

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt. Whitman. Esq. | Atty. Gens. Offic. | Washington | D.C. It is postmarked: SYRACUSE | APR | 8; CARRIER | APR | 10 | 1 Del. [back]
  • 2. The friendship between Whitman and Wilson, a former U. S. Civil War soldier, can be reconstructed from Wilson's letters (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). On July 18, 1869, Wilson recalled his confinement in Armory Square Hospital (as mentioned in Whitman's November 8–9, 1863, letter to Lewis K. Brown), "when your kind face & pleasant words cheered the soldier Boys & won their hearts. I never shall forget the first time you came in after David & I got there. We Loved you from the first time we spoke to you." In Wilson's first letter, written on November 11, 1865, he began: "I suppose you will think that I have forgotten you long before this time but I have not, your kindness to me while in the hospital will never be forgotten by me." After a lapse in the correspondence, he wrote on December 16, 1866: "I wish if aggreeable to yourself to keep up a regular correspondence between us ... I think it will be of benefit to me morally, and perhaps will not be of any detriment to you." In this letter he admitted that he had just discovered that Whitman was a poet. On January 27, 1867, he informed Whitman that he had been reading Leaves of Grass, but complained: "I wrote to you a year and more ago that I was married but did not receive any reply, so I did not know but you was displeased with it"; he concluded the letter: "I remain as ever your 
      Boy Friend 
      with Love 
      Benton H. Wilson." Walt Whitman replied (lost), and sent The Good Gray Poet, which Wilson acknowledged on February 3, 1867. On April 7, 1867, after he informed Whitman that his wife had gone to the hospital for her first confinement (the child was to be named Walt Whitman), Wilson complained: "I am poor and am proud of it but I hope to rise by honesty and industry. I am a married man but I am not happy for my disposition is not right. I have got a good Woman and I love her dearly but I seem to lack patience or something. I think I had ought to live alone, but I had not ought to feel so." On April 21, 1867, Wilson acknowledged Whitman's reply of April 12, 1867: "I do not want you to misunderstand my motives in writing to you of my Situation & feelings as I did in my last letter or else I shall have to be more guarded in my letters to you. I wrote so because you wanted me to write how I was situated, and give you my mind without reserve, and all that I want is your advice and Love, and I do not consider it cold lecture or dry advice. I wish you to write to me just as you feel & express yourself and advise as freely as you wish and will be satisfied." On September 15, 1867, Wilson wondered why Whitman had not replied. In his letter of December 19, 1869, Wilson reported that he had moved to Greene, N. Y., but was still selling melodeons and sewing machines. On May 15, 1870, Wilson informed Whitman of his father's death two weeks earlier and related that his son "Little Walt . . . is quite a boy now . . . and gets into all kinds of Mischief." Evidently Wilson wrote to the poet for the last time on June 23, 1875, when he wanted to know "what I can do to contribute to your comfort and happiness."     [back]
  • 3. This letter has not been located. [back]
  • 4. Nellie E. Gage (1841–1892), daughter of Ichabod Lewis Gage, married Benton H. Wilson in 1865 or 1866. She had two children from a previous marriage: Lewis and Eva Morrell, and she and Benton were the parents of five children. Wilson named his first child "Walter Whitman Wilson," after the poet; their other children were Austin, Irene, Georgie, and Kathleen Wilson. [back]
  • 5. "Confinement" or "lying-in" is a traditional postpartum practice during which the mother and baby bond, and the mother heals from childbirth. [back]
  • 6. In the final paragraphs of his letter to Whitman of February 3, 1867, Wilson expressed his desire to travel to South America: "I have been talking and thinking very strongly of going to South America next spring to be gone a year or two and see if I could not get into something there that would be of benefit to me financially." [back]
  • 7. Henry Wilson (1805–1870) was the father of Benton H. Wilson—a former U. S. Civil War soldier and one of Whitman's correspondents (for Benton Wilson, see Whitman's letters of April 12, 1867, and April 15, 1870). On May 15, 1870, Wilson informed Whitman of his father's death two weeks earlier; Benton's father, who "was insane at times," had written to Whitman on January 17, 1867, and on March 30, 1868. [back]
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