Document associated with: Allen, Mrs
Record 1 of 1
System Number: 06492
Date: 2 December [1857[1]]
Author: Anna Matilda Whistler[2]
Place: Bartram Hall
Recipient: James H. Gamble[3]
Place: [Staten Island, New York]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler W487
Document Type: ALS
Bartram Hall[4]
Dec 2nd
Wednes evening
My dear friends
For in directing a few lines to you dear Mr Gamble, the traits in each to awaken my grateful memories around your fireside unite[.] I had a most comfortable journey last friday, tell dear Mrs Maxwell[5], our sail across in comfort & pleasantness seems to me a token of the smoothing of my way, as ever ordered by the Lord.
Jackson[6] went with me to Jersey city & put me in the 11 oclock train & at 3½ I was hailed at Walnut St[7] landing by one of the Eastwick youths their carriage in waiting, nor was the welcome in this home, less hearty & sincere. I have been reconciling my pen to restraint [p. 2] until I could tell dear Mrs Wann[8] of the completion of the Shirts. The machine is a very superior one in this house & a nice English girl glad to be hired for a few days by Mrs E[9] & myself. I do not think she rivals Mrs Allen[10], who I hope may be prospered. My dear Willie[11] had quite too serious a sore throat to venture to meet me at the boat, but when he accompanied the young Eastwicks home Saturday eve he soon forgot his swelled tonsils & on Sunday was well & happy. he is much interested in his course of study & gets more & more fond of young Doctor Darrach[12].
[p. 3] I have written Mrs Winans[13] who invited Willie & his mother to her Christmas tree, of his regret that he is to have only that one day holiday so I shall of course wish to be with him. but I cannot be excused going to Balt, & conclude while this mild weather lasts will be best for my journey. I expect to take fridays train & to be welcomed at Alexandroffsky Villa[14] by five p.m. It will be a duty & comfort to see little Georgie Whistler[15] to report him to his father in my next. My prospect is by the divine blessing on my return friday 11th, to occupy a snug apartment in a christian family nearby Willie, from whence I may write in less haste than tonight. now it is almost eleven oclock. I enclose a note to Jackson in one to Mr King[16] with this. Adieu [p. 4] It is comfort to think we meet each day at the mercy seat,
Your gratefully attached friend[17]
A M W.
Your mother's prayers I crave.
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Notes:
1. 1857
Dated with reference to the Perpetual Calendar Whitaker's Almanack; 2 December was a Wednesday in 1857.
2. Anna Matilda Whistler
Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881), née McNeill, JW's mother [more].
3. James H. Gamble
James H. Gamble (b. 1820), clerk [more]; see AMW to JW, 15 December 1856, #06477.
4. Bartram Hall
Bartram Hall, the residence of Andrew McCalla Eastwick (1810-1879), partner in Eastwick and Harrison, locomotive manufacturers, and later in Harrison, Winans and Eastwick [more]; see AMW to JW, 15 and 16 January 1852, #06409.
5. Mrs Maxwell
Mrs Maxwell, probably the mother of J. S. Maxwell.
6. Jackson McNeill
Patrick T. Jackson ('Jacks') McNeill (1835-1898), accountant, JW's cousin [more].
7. Walnut St
1304 Walnut Street, was the home address of John Constable, a friend of AMW; see McElroy's Philadelphia City Directory, 1861, p. 182.
8. Mrs Wann
Jane Wann (1822-1875), née Gamble, wife of S. Wann [more]; she had offered to help AMW in the making of William McNeill Whistler's shirts; see AMW to James H. Gamble, 9 November 1857, #06491.
9. Mrs E
Lydia Anne Eastwick (1810-1890), née James, wife of A. M. Eastwick [more].
10. Mrs Allen
Mrs Allen, a seamstress.
11. Willie
William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900), physician, JW's brother [more].
12. Doctor Darrach
James Darrach (1828-1869), physician in Philadelphia [more]; William McNeill Whistler was studying medicine with him.
13. Mrs Winans
Celeste Winans (1823-1861), née Revillon, wife of Thomas De Kay Winans [more].
14. Alexandroffsky Villa
'Alexandroffsky' in Baltimore was the villa owned by Thomas De Kay Winans (1820-1878), locomotive engineer and collector [more]; see AMW to JW, 15, 16 and 18 September 1848, #06363.
15. Georgie Whistler
George ('Georgie') Worthen Whistler (b. 1851), JW's nephew [more]. His father, George William Whistler (1822-1869), engineer, JW's half-brother [more], was in Russia with his new wife; see AMW to James H. Gamble, 13 January 1857, #06479.
16. Mr King
Ralph King (1801-1878), broker, father-in-law of W. McN. Whistler [more].
17. friend
"friend ... crave" continues in the upper left margin of p. 1.