Anna Wales Abbot to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch, 26 March 1897

[From Anna Wales Abbot in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch. She talks about her age (88) and that of her sister Emily (98); reminisces a little about her childhood; says she remembers her father and Elizabeth's father looking at old records, trying to find a link between their families; mentions some of her correspondents; talks about the time she and Hannah Rantoul visited Europe; and mentions various old friends and family.

The letter is not signed, but from the information in it, it's clear that it was written to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch by Anna Wales Abbot,1 probably started on 26 March, since later sections are dated 27 and 28 March. Anna was born 19 April 1808 (Beverly Vital Records say, apparently mistakenly, 10 April), and her sister Emily was born 4 February 1799. The letter notes that: (1) Emily was "within two years of 100"; (2) that Anna was 88; and (3) that she "shall be ninety next birthday but one." These all indicate that the year was 1897, approaching Anna's 89th birthday. However, the last part of the letter has the date "Monday, March 28th," and 28 March was a Sunday in 1897 and Monday in 1898. It seems likely that 1897 is the correct year, and that Anna was wrong about either the day or date.]

23 Berkeley St, Cambridge

I am rather ashamed as I look at the date of your sweet and most joyfully received letter, my dear Elizabeth,2 and I wish you could see your old friend, sitting up in her bed, propped by pillows, with a shawl over her nightgown, & an afghan over the quilt (knit by her sister3), now within two years of 100 years old!

Well, don't I look comfortable! But do not imagine I abide here all day! My breakfast waiter will presently arrive.

Oh dear, here it comes. I write on while I munch a delicious apple cut in slices - gift of Dr. Wyman4 - coffee in Japanese bowl. "Anything wanting?" asks my devoted nurse. "Yes! Strawberries!" She laughs, & says "None picked yet!" Yesterday I saw a boy poking with the tip of his umbrella at the little snowdrops cheerfully blooming in my strawberry bed! I wished he could reach them, or that I could give him some. I like to see a boy loves flowers. I was brought up with boys & no sister near my age. My brother William5 & Andrew Peabody6 & I learned to read together, Andrew three years younger than I! I never went to school till I was twelve! Too feeble to grow up," said Dr. Fisher!7 And here I am at 88, and my sister3 ten years older! She also was to be indulged in every wish of her heart, being early to die! Oh! I wish you could see her, and hear her talk! When I can not remember I go to her to help my recollections of the dear old Beverly times!

I remember once seeing your father8 and mine9 sit down to look over old records, hoping to find the southern and the northern Abbots to be of the same original stock. I suppose I should remember if they had been successful.

March 27th. I see I did not date my letter. I seldom date. My letters have far to go. O what a fine big country we live in! It takes five days or more for a letter to reach my nephew, Dr. C. E. Vaughan,10 at Santa Barbara; his son11 is at San Fernando, almost a hundred miles farther. In Alabama I have three correspondents - casual, not at all relatives, with one slight exception. I have one at Tacoma, on the North West Coast - Fanny Larcom Abbot12 - teaches a big school of boys - Swedes among others! How Sweden sends her children (young & old) every where! Gets settlers herself, I happen to know, from America!

When Miss Rantoul13 and I were travelling in Europe, we came very near Cologne. Do you know why Cologne had special need of Cologne-water? Well do I remember how we laughed at the fine black dust on each other's faces, and exchanged smiles with the one lady in our car division. She was a very fair, lovely woman. I found she could talk French, and we had quite a chat. When she found out we were Americans, she expressed surprise. How could we come across that dreadful ocean! Oh! We hoped she would go across, if only to see Niagara! Nothing like that in Europe!

When we got to Cologne we found basins all round the depot, & I went no farther. I found it worth my while to stay a couple of days at least, to see the Cathedral, for one peculiarly interesting & beautiful thing! I felt like an insect, as I stood on the floor, and looked straight up into the sky! The number of feet I cannot remember or estimate! My old journals I shall never get hold of again. They are in the attic, & might as well be at the Cathedral top now, for all I shall see of them, I suppose.

I am awfully old, dear, shall be ninety next birthday but one! My writing does not look like that! My sister (Mrs. Emily Everett3) is within two years of 100 but writes her name when she has papers to sign, as well as ever she did!

Monday, March 28th. Not the ghost of a cloud in the superb blue of the sky. Too cool here to allow my windows to be open, but my nurse washes the frames clear. Grass getting green. But not yet so much as a leaf bud on the elms. Well, April will be here in four days!

My country's birthday and my own is the 19th of April.14 Nathan Dane15 who wrote and was the first signer of the "Constitution of the UNITED STATES" was the next neighbor of our family in Beverly. I well remember him, and his kind nod to me and my little companion5 two years younger, when, holding his cane by the middle, he took his regular walk at eleven o'clock. As I write I sit in a big old armchair his dear wife16 always sat in. I love to put my head where she used to put hers! Well I remember happy hours William5 & I had, playing with toys kept on her broad window seat, for us only. Can I be worthy to come near her in the future life!

You must be tired with reading all this, so closely written. I must send or tear it up. Visitors (from Dorchester) stopped my writing. My dear mother's17 home was in the old Wales house. Ah! A drover occupies it now; the stately old barn very convenient for him, and he don't care for the Railroad cutting off the fine front yard & entrance.

I hear nothing from dear Hannah Rantoul!13 I do not look for letters. I know of old her dislike of writing! I do not see the Peabody girls!18 I think they care little about me, old friend of his from his very childhood! I do not blame them! (I mean Andrew's.6 He and my brother William5 & I were a class, my father9 teacher. I was oldest by three years.

O I have arrived at the end of the sheet!

Oh! Pooh!

  1. Anna Wales Abbot (1808-1908)
  2. Elizabeth Blanchard Abbot (1821-1902)
  3. Emily Abbot (1799-1904), Anna's sister
  4. Morrill Wyman (1812-1903)
  5. William Ebenezer Abbot (1810-1888), Anna's brother
  6. Andrew Preston Peabody (1811-1893)
  7. Joshua Fisher (1748-1833)
  8. George Abbot (1791-1848), Elizabeth's father
  9. Abiel Abbot (1770-1828), Anna's father. He was pastor of the First Parish Church in Beverly, Massachusetts, from 1803-1828. See Abiel Abbot.
  10. Charles Everett Vaughan (1835-1904)
  11. George Wadsworth Vaughan (1869-1928)
  12. Fanny Larcom Abbot (1872-1964)
  13. Hannah Lovett Rantoul (1821-1898)
  14. This refers to the Battles of Lexington and Concord, on 19 April 1775. See Battles of Lexington and Concord.
  15. Nathan Dane (1752-1835). According to various sources, he was not an author or signer of the U. S. Constitution. He was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Congress of the Confederation from 1785-1789, where he was the pricipal author of the Northwest Ordinance, including an amendment banning slavery in the Northwest Territory. In February 1787 he did propose a resolution authorizing the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, which drafted the United States Constitution. See Nathan Dane.
  16. Mary Brown (abt 1750-1840)
  17. Eunice Wales (1772-1831), Anna's mother
  18. Mary Rantoul Peabody (1839-1912), Caroline Eustis Peabody (1848-1932), and Helen Townsend Peabody (1852-1912), daughters of Andrew Preston Peabody