I recid your kind note of the 13th: with papers &c, & welcome they was.2
I was surprised & greived to hear of my old friend Jeffs3
death. He was a grand good boy, & I well remember the many long walks he & I
had together.— loc_gt.00078_large.jpg
loc_gt.00079_large.jpgHe was a good
true friend & often at my own fireside I speak of him of one of the lads I knew
who had true Sterling qualities of manhood in him. Peace to his memory. I did hope
to meet him again & talk of old times I shall meet him on the "Other Shore" I
trust.
With a heart full of love to you my dear friend,
I am Yours truly Sam. G. Stanley. 323 Macon St.Correspondent:
Samuel Goodman Stanley
(1830–1909) was raised in Brooklyn before heading to California during the
1849 Gold Rush. Upon returning from California in the early 1850s, Stanley
established a sash and blind building company, with two branches in Brooklyn and
Washington D.C. According to Stanley's letter to Whitman of July 13, 1886, he was an old friend of the poet's
from Brooklyn. During the Civil War years, Stanley seems to have been in
Washington, and he recalled standing near Secretary Chase's residence when
Abraham Lincoln passed by.