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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.
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Benton H. Wilson
April 8—
Answered April 13-67
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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]