Here's the latest gossip from Zack, Virginia from Jan 28, 1899!
Here's the latest gossip from Zack, Virginia from Jan 28, 1899!
The handwriting is wonderful - almost textbook Spencerian and some Copperplate uppercase letters.
Page 3 -- ". . . the old place where Bob Wiseman used to live, and all the land between the road and Jim Reeces down to Manda Clarks. He paid $700. for it and has enough sprouts to last him his lifetime. Old Manda Clark is still holding forth yet. Bill Clark married Emma Jarvis, Pete Moneymakers widow, and they pull wool right along. John Reece got married a short time ago, married a Miss Whiteside from about the Baths. Old man Jim Reece is getting right feeble doesn't work much. Press Benson is looking right old, not able to do much and Sallie runs him off from home every now and then. Sam Lotts is still bowlegged yet, but can talk as much as ever. Jim Gordon is allright [sic] yet, . . ."
Page 6 is cute -- "Henry McCray has cleared off all of Purgatory hill. He is going to set out 500 apple trees and 400 peach trees right on the top of the hill this spring. If he ever has any apples he will have fun getting them down off there."
Page 5 -- "Jake Swisher lost his mind last spring, and was in the Lunatic Assylum [sic] for sometime, but got all right again. He is going to build a new barn this spring it will be 44 by 70 feet, and Bill Zimmerman is going to build one the same size, and Bob Hull is going to build one 70 by 125 feet."
The handwriting is wonderful - almost textbook Spencerian and some Copperplate uppercase letters.
Page 3 -- ". . . the old place where Bob Wiseman used to live, and all the land between the road and Jim Reeces down to Manda Clarks. He paid $700. for it and has enough sprouts to last him his lifetime. Old Manda Clark is still holding forth yet. Bill Clark married Emma Jarvis, Pete Moneymakers widow, and they pull wool right along. John Reece got married a short time ago, married a Miss Whiteside from about the Baths. Old man Jim Reece is getting right feeble doesn't work much. Press Benson is looking right old, not able to do much and Sallie runs him off from home every now and then. Sam Lotts is still bowlegged yet, but can talk as much as ever. Jim Gordon is allright [sic] yet, . . ."
Page 6 is cute -- "Henry McCray has cleared off all of Purgatory hill. He is going to set out 500 apple trees and 400 peach trees right on the top of the hill this spring. If he ever has any apples he will have fun getting them down off there."
Page 5 -- "Jake Swisher lost his mind last spring, and was in the Lunatic Assylum [sic] for sometime, but got all right again. He is going to build a new barn this spring it will be 44 by 70 feet, and Bill Zimmerman is going to build one the same size, and Bob Hull is going to build one 70 by 125 feet."
This is better than a television soap opera. Old Mrs Swisher (I can't read her last name page 4) is dead and her farm is to be sold. I can't wait for the next instalment of this. Thanks Patsy Priebe.
ReplyDeleteOld Mrs Swisher, I had to enlarge it to see her name more clearly.
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful! I'd like to see Purgatory Hill now if those 900 trees were planted and survived! Marvelous letter.
ReplyDeletePatsy Priebe and Ann Kennedy: Two thoughts:
ReplyDelete1) Letter writing, on paper, is becoming a lost art and great penmanship really is a thing of the past.
2) Zack, VA ( https://goo.gl/w4EnGb ) - not much left of it - is in a really pretty area, up in the hills where the air is generally dry and there's a breeze. Looking at it on Google Maps, I don't see anything that looks like it might be or have been an orchard. Some great apples come from that part of the state to this day.
Mike Martin I appreciate that link enormously! These letters from D.H. East came to my g grandfather John W. Hite from 1888 - 1901. Sometimes they were marked Moffatts Creek and sometimes from Zack, VA. I had tried earlier to google these areas, but didn't have a whole lot of success. John W. had a sister Maggie in Brownsburg and I see (thanks to your link) there is a great historic district there. I see what was probably the mercantile - he mentions when it changed hands. He also makes note of different homes being built (often brick) and how much people paid for them.
ReplyDeleteIn one of his letters he mentions that the Presbyterians and the Brethren are both building churches - and I see on the Google maps Immanuel Presbyterian church and The Upper Room on Halleluia Ln which must be the Brethren.
Some of the family names often in his letters - Zimmermans, Sensabough, Fix, Hite, Smiley, McClay, Swisher, Strickland, Demasters, gosh - he talked about everyone.
Darran Hughes oh! and what about that "old Tom Gregory's wife died a year or two ago and he married one of Deniza Lucas' daughters. She was 22 and he was 70 years. I guess she was an old man's darling."
ReplyDeletehow shocking! ;)
Darran Hughes there are some great names there! I'd like to have known the Moneymaker family! hahaha
ReplyDeleteAnn Kennedy yes these are great letters! I set out to scan them quickly and end up all engrossed reading them!
ReplyDeletei was shopping in Hawes whilst on a ukulele retreat and digging about in this tiny bookshop with books stacked on shelves to the ceiling and found a book, hand lettered on the back DIARY 1929. It's a real diary this girl wrote, every single day of the year, in a ledger. The entries aren't terribly exciting, but quite revealing. She goes to the 'new underground station' which would have been Piccadilly, plays ping pong, goes to see her dad's play, watches the (silent) films in the cinema, one of them is likely a Buster Keaton. I had some people look her up and she never married. She went to USA and then Australia where she lived the rest of her life. Her mother joined her after her father died.
ReplyDeleteJazzy Lemon on a ukulele retreat? You're a very interesting person!!!
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned how the entries aren't terribly exciting and I also found that to be true. Maybe that's what I like about reading other people's (old) mail. They are so ordinary and so real. Every time some historic feature - like the Buster Keaton films and Piccadilly - touches their lives it just makes the whole thing come to life. Almost as good as time travel!