I feel as though I cannot begin the new year without wishing you all possible health and happiness. I hope you will appreciate these greetings of a stranger when he tells you that to him you are no stranger but an ever present comrade.
Besides telling you of the great good you have done me I want to assure you of the hearty love you are winning, among the students and teachers here. To me you have been—a guiding star—a light in the wilderness. I trace my highest and best thoughts loc.02249.002.jpg loc.02249.003.jpg and feelings to your poems. I wish I could give you some idea of how I feel towards the author of "Leaves of Grass."
I hope you will not think this a bait for an autograph, I am above that – I merely want to thank you for the good you have done me.
Your humble admirer & wellwisher, O. F. Hershey. loc.02249.004.jpg loc.02249.005.jpg see notes Jan 5 1889 loc.02249.006.jpgCorrespondent:
Omer Fenimore Hershey
(1867–?) was the son of Menno Frick and Malinda Reed (Matter) Hershey. He
was a graduate of Harvard Law School and later practiced for many years as an
attorney in Baltimore, Maryland. He married Sylvia Rhodora Shaffer in 1892, and
the couple had two daughters, Helen (1894) and Louise (1895). See "Omer Fenimore
Hershey ('91)," Record of the Class of 1892. Secretary's
Report No. V. For the Twentieth Anniversary (Boston: The Fort Hill
Press, 1912), 206. In 1895, Hershey described himself as "Practising law on a
little oatmeal . . . Have done nothing to be proud of. Am taking life easy, and
going in for happiness and contentment. Married life, 'a grand sweet song,' even
though there aren't three babies" (Harvard College Class of
1891 Secretary's Report, No. 2 [Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son,
Printers, 1895], 41).