Elizabeth (Woodberry) Story to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch, 20 March 1878

[From Elizabeth (Woodberry) Story in Baltimore, Maryland, to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch. She mentions the possibility of visiting Elizabeth in North Carolina; describes her visits to former students in Baltimore; and tells Elizabeth news of various family members and friends.]

Baltimore March 20, 78
107 N. Charles Street

My Dear Sister Lizzie,

I was very glad to get your letter of Feb 17 and would have answered it on your birthday. I remembered it, but I was then in Washington and your letter was not with me, so I thought it best to wait.

I should indeed like to visit you more than I can tell and this visit to Baltimore makes me feel that perhaps some time I may get yet further south. You say you have few attractions to offer me. Not so, indeed. I say but the simple truth, when I say that you and your family are the greatest attraction that could be set before me. I have the greatest desire to see you and talk with you, to see your surroundings and your home. I dreamed you came north to see me about a fortnight since, but it was only a dream. Yet I like to dream of you for you seem very real to me in them.

I suppose you will like to hear somewhat of the manner in which I am spending the winter. Since I wrote you last, I have been in Ann Arundel Co. visiting Maria Louisa Bowie,1 Mrs. Owens that is now. When I saw her last she was but five years old, but she is the oldest of her fathers2 family living. I had a most delightful time and talking and hearing of so much of those long since past away made me almost feel as if they were alive. Then too Mrs. Owens reminded me so much of her mother.3 She looked a little like her, but her size, her ways, her tones & her step seemed just her mother over again. It was quite a surprize to me, for I thought I recollected just how Maria Louisa looked and it was not at all like her mother. I did not think that she had had time to alter. I loved Mrs. Bowie3 very much and I have always enshrined her in my memory as about the best woman I ever knew. To have her brought back to me so vividly after so many years was both a surprize and a delight. She died the first year after I was married.

After coming back from Ann Arundel I went to Washington where I was nearly three weeks. I there visited Mrs. Clagett4 and Margaret,5 who perhaps you will remember. I taught Margaret after I left Mrs. Bowies and my post office there was "Queen Ann." Don't you remember it? They have lost through war and emancipation all their property and are now keeping a little common sort of a boarding house in W. and trying to make out a living by sewing and embroidering. It seems really cruel to see what work they do & what they get for it. A baby's flannel peticoat embroidered two or three inches deep for 50 cents - 2 days work although she works very fast & late. They thought me very little changed and called me Miss Woodberry all the time I was there. It seemed strange at first as it is almost a forgotten name with me, but I soon got used to it and answered as regularly as could be. They said my visit did them a "heap" of good and made them feel almost young again. When you read that they thought me but little changed, do not think it is so. I have grown old with the rest of the world, but it was my ways and conversation that was so familiar to them.

It made me feel sad to see them strugling to get along so, but God knows what is best for all and no doubt He has a good purpose to accomplish. We all have to go through trials some time in our lives. When He has tried us He will bring us forth as gold. When we reach the other side it will seem to us a very little thing that we had trials and sufferings here. The glory & brightness there will cause us to forget or rather to think lightly of all on this side.

Do not regret so much that your children have been deprived of privilages that some others have enjoyed. There are always two side to a question. Brought up in the retirement of home and far from the temptations of the world, their hearts are likely to be purer and more child like than others. My boys6,7,8 are good boys so far (as the world goes) but I know many parents who would change with you as regard this and now would gladly give up worldly advantages to have their sons sober and well behaved. Two of my sons are Christians and of them I can feel easy, but my oldest is not, would that he were. I pray that he may be. But he has no bad habits and is correct and proper in his deportment. He is a son to be proud of and I suppose I am. I hope not too much so.

You ask of James Boyden.9 He married twice, had two very good wives10 I believe, but he has not been as honest as he might have been & a stain of some kind is attached to his name. I have heard but have forgotten just what it was.11 He still lives.

I have worn specticles many years, cannot see to read letters a half inch long without them.

Mr. Charles Peabody12 has just lost his wife13 with consumption. He has four boys & one girl.

You ask why Fred7 is an Episcopalian. His lady love14 drew him over to her way of thinking. I send you his picture this time. It was taken when he graduated at 21. He is now 26.

I am boarding in the same house as my boys. I have not been able to before as there was no vacant room for me. We are having very warm weather for the season and so are we in Boston. If it continues I shall be able to go home sooner. It is just three months today since I came and I hoped only to stay four months. But Isaac15 says it will be a pity after being away so long to come back too soon and get cold. So I suppose I shall have to wait until he says I may come.

You must give a great deal of love to Georgianna16 from me. I too often remember her visit and all she told me about you & yours. Remember me to your husband17 and boys. If they come north be sure they come to see me.

Yours truly & lovingly,
Sister Elizabeth

Frances Woodberry18 is well, is teaching a public school in Somerville. Gets $675, six hundred and seventy five dollars a year. She is studying German this winter. She is quite a scholar, always picking up something, going to lectures &c. Her sisters19 have been teachers but have no school just now. Her mother20 is feeble but gets out to church. Mrs. Pyam Lovet21 & her sister Miss [____]22 died this winter within a week of each other.

  1. Maria Louisa Bowie (1839-1891)
  2. Robert Bowie (1804-1881)
  3. Margaret French (1807-1847)
  4. Mary A. Bowie (1802-1886)
  5. Margaret B. Claggett (abt 1835-1920)
  6. William Edward Story (1850-1930), Elizabeth (Woodberry) Story's son
  7. Frederick Washington Story (1852-1920), Elizabeth (Woodberry) Story's son
  8. Isaac Marion Story (1855-1918), Elizabeth (Woodberry) Story's son
  9. James Woodberry Boyden (1822-1892)
  10. Eliza Otis Turner Dickinson (1821-1857) and Frances Sophia Kingsbury (1828-)
  11. The "stain" might refer to a controversy over his appointment as a teacher at the Beverly Academy. His father and Robert Rantoul were charter members of the Academy, and a fight between the trustees and proprietors led to Rantoul's resignation. See Katz, Michael B., "The Irony of Urban School Reform, Ideology and Style in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts," 1966, p. 42.
  12. Charles Augustus Peabody (1814-1901), Elizabeth (Woodberry) Story's former fiance
  13. Julia Caroline Livingston (1816-1878)
  14. Possibly Mary Aline Keys (1852-aft 1920). However, they weren't married until 1885, so if she was "his lady love" in 1878 it was a long engagement.
  15. Isaac Story (1818-1901), Elizabeth (Woodberry) Story's husband
  16. Georgiana Abbot Bowditch (1848-1927), Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch's daughter
  17. Joseph Henry Bowditch (1818-1900), Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch's husband
  18. Rebecca Frances Ford Woodberry (1826-1887), Elizabeth (Woodberry) Story's cousin
  19. Lucy Glover Woodberry (1841-1884) and Sarah Lawrence Woodberry (1833-1915)
  20. Lucy Glover (1800-1882)
  21. Sally Wallis (1790-1878)
  22. Nancy Wallis (1793-1877)