Walt Whitman to Mrs. Colquitt [sic], 18 July 1890

Correspondent:
Mary Louisa (Holmes) Colkitt (1868–1953) had been married only three years to Frederick V. Colkitt (1862–1890), a brakeman working for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, when he was crushed and killed by a freight car on July 14, 1890. His death was reported in The Morning Post the following day in Camden, and he was buried in Philadelphia's Evergreen Cemetery on July 17th, the day before Whitman wrote this letter. While Whitman here spells the family name "Colquitt," he records his gift of $5 using the spelling from the newspaper, "Colkitt" (Daybooks and Notebooks, ed. William White [New York: New York University Press, 1978], 2:608). Whitman later records that Mary and her daughter, Ethel May (b. 1888), visited him on Mickle Street on August 5, 1891 (Daybooks and Notebooks, 2:564). Four days after this visit, Mary married George E. Willitts (1867–1960), an engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.