Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Jessie Louisa Whitman, 26 January 1888

Date: January 26, 1888

Whitman Archive ID: mhs.00001

Source: Missouri Historical Society. The transcription presented here is derived from Thomas Jefferson Whitman, Dear Brother Walt: The Letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman, ed. Dennis Berthold and Kenneth M. Price (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1984), 186-187. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang, Kathryn Kruger, and April Lambert




St. Louis, Mo.,
Jan. 26th, 1888

My dear Jessie

My darling girl, I enclose you a check for $50, hoping it will reach you before you leave Burlington1

I got home from Ark yesterday, after a pretty hard time—I had to abandon my Texas trip for the reason that I had some bids here to be opened on Monday  I did not get here till Wednesday—but that was owing to the weather and the Rail Roads  I shall go out to the cemetery on Sunday and leave Sunday night for Texas. I suppose I shall be gone about a week  Mr Smith2 of Leavenworth was at my office on Monday last and came for the express purpose of carrying me off to New York all expenses paid—but of course I could not go—much as I wanted to—No I must make the best of what is wanted now—I presume I shall have lots of time after awhile—

Well my dear girl I wish you would go and do just what gives you the most fun—and I do hope you will make fast friends of the New York and Hartford people—they are good folk to know

I shall write Horace3 that you are at Worthens4 after the 1st for ten days—I think he will call and ask you to go to his place—and if he does I would like to have you go

Nothing new with me—I am feeling fairly well—except I have my old terrible cough—it is pulling me down some—but I shall get out all right when the spring comes

Wish you would go and see Walt as often as you can

Love to all


affectionately Papa


Notes:

1. Jessie had probably been visiting George and Louisa Whitman at their farmhouse in Burlington, New Jersey. [back]

2. Unidentified. [back]

3. Horace Tarr (see Thomas Jefferson Whitman's letters to Walt Whitman from May 9, 1863, and September 11, 1885). [back]

4. See Thomas Jefferson Whitman's letters to Walt Whitman from December 15, 1863[back]


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