While exploring a junk shop, Darwin and I found a letter in an envelope. Probably it fell out of a book. It was just lying on a table with a bunch of random stuff, including several books. The letter was (is) amazingly good condition, and I snagged it. The letter is postmarked several times. The first postmark is for April 8, 1887 in Shelby, Michigan. (Shelby still exists today. Its a small town a little ways inland smack in the center of the Lake Michigan coast. If you hold up your left hand as a map of Michigan, Shelby would be around your lowest pinky knuckle.) There are two largely illegible postmarks that start out like Auverv with a smudged date. I cant find an Auverville in Michigan or Indiana, so the place may not exist anymore. On the back are two postmarks. On one the city name is too faint to read, but it ends in ND, and its for April 9, 12 Midnight, 1887 and says Recd, or received. It seems likely its South Bend, which was laid out as the county seat in 1831 and is on the way between Shelby and Elkhart. The final postmark on the back is quite clear and says Elkhart, Ind. Apr 19 10 AM 1887. (Elkhart still exists, too, and its just a little ways south of the Michigan border.) So the letter took 11 days to travel from Shelby to Elkhart. It has a brown Washington two-cent stamp on it, cancelled with a big smudge. The stamp isnt worth much--theyre going for $5 on eBay, anyway. The envelope is addressed to: Mr. Alburt Long. Elkhart Elhart Co. Indiana in purple ink in fine copperplate handwriting. The name Michael Long is written in pencil and in different handwriting on the envelope. Michael Long was Alburts father, and a postal worker may have written Michaels name on it because Alburt was underage. Within the letter, Arthur, the author, addresses his friend as Alburt. All the records I found spelled the name as Albert, though his nickname was often given as Burt. Im not sure of the correct spelling, if there even was one, but considering how poorly Arthur spelled, it wouldnt surprise me to learn that he misspelled his friends name. The letter itself was written on heavy writing paper, embossed with a raised paper mark that says CONGRESS, with a picture of the capitol building. I couldnt find anything about a company called Congress Paper or similar on-line, so I dont know if the manufacturer went out of business (highly likely) or if the paper was a souvenir of Washington, D.C. The paper is in amazingly good condition and doesnt look even close to 120 years old. It looks more like five years old, which says the letter must have been protected for over a century, probably tucked in a book. The writing on the letter is in the same purple ink as the envelope, and was done with a fountain pen, a leaky one that spattered now and then and caused Arthur a certain amount of annoyance. The slant of the writing says that Arthur was right-handed. The letter consists of three sheets of paper. Two are normal-sized. The third sheet is double-wide and folded down the center like a book, though Arthur wrote all the way across the lines instead of making two columns. He also numbered all the pages except page 5. He folded it into thirds before slipping it into the envelope. I looked up Arthur S. Niver on-line and found his birth and death records. He was born in September of 1872, which put him at age 14 when he wrote this letter--a ninth grader! Like teenagers today, he complains that there isnt much to do for fun and figures that his friend lives in a more happening place than he does. Arthur also plays some kind of stringed musical instrument, but he doesnt say which one. The recipient of the letter, Albert Long, was born in October of 1869, which put him at 17 when Arthur wrote to him. I found Alberts obituary on-line. Apparently, Albert eventually moved back east to New York. (A bit of searching also turned up the fact that Alberts father Michael originally came from Batavia, New York, so he may have gone back to family there.) Alberts obit reads: Albert Long, 80, of Prairie Street road, Route 4,died Sunday night in the Coil convalescent home at Goshen. He had suffered a stroke last November. Mr. Long born october 4, 1869 near Millersburg, a son of John and Eliza (Horn) Long, retired as a New York Central section foreman in 1937, after more than 50 years of continuous service. He married Myrtle Hartung on November 22, 1890, at Edwardsburg, Mich. and they moved to Elkhart in 1892. Surviving besides the widow are a son, Forrest Long, of Chicago, two daughters, Mrs. Helen Van der Karr and Mrs. Gabriel (Imogene) Smole, both of Elkhart, six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. He was a member of the NYC Pensioners and the IOOF [the International Order of Odd Fellows]. The paper and the contents of the letter show that Arthur Niver came from a reasonably prosperous, middle-class farming family. The contents of the letter hint at regular correspondence between the two young men, and in the most previous letter, Albert apparently asked Arthur to send him some crayons to draw with. In this letter, Arthur refuses, not because of cost, but because crayons arent available in Shelby, and he offers to send Albert some tube paints instead. A boy from a poor family wouldnt make this offer. Additionally, Arthur doesnt follow a common letter-writing practice of the time--turning the finished letter 90 degrees and writing more cross-wise. This makes the letter difficult to read, but it lets the author write twice as much on the same paper. Arthur, who has access to tube paints and heavy stock writing paper, doesnt bother with such cost-saving measures. Theres no hint in the letter at how Albert and Arthur met each other or why they carried on their correspondence. Darwin and I went back to the junk shop and turned it upside down to look for more letters, but we found none. Ive become hesitant to keep taking the letter out of the envelope--Ive already torn the envelope a little--and Ive transcribed it for better reading. Ive taken photos, but theyre too big to post, so Ill try to shrink them later. Arthurs handwriting is beautiful, but his spelling, grammar, and punctuation are atrocious. A very few words Darwin and I couldnt puzzle out. Flowelle is one of them, and so is Solenteria. I think thundren is meant to be a variant of thundering and is a euphemism for damned. Arthur regularly uses no for know. Twice he uses h____ for the word hell, which I found very interesting--he couldnt bring himself to swear even in a letter to an intimate. Ive transcribed the letter below, letter for letter, word for word, complete with Arthurs capitalization, spelling, and punctuation--or lack thereof. He rarely uses periods, which sometimes makes his letter tricky to read. He shows a surprisingly deep philosophical and economical bent for a fourteen-year-old, though. As an historical note, in 1887, a bitter campaign was mounted to amend Michigans constitution to include Prohibition, which Arthur seems to support. He says everything went for Prohobishion, but the amendment was ultimately defeated, so Im not sure what he means. Perhaps the local vote came up supporting it, but Arthur didnt yet know it would die at the state level. Heres the letter: No. 1 Shelby April 2nd 1887 Dear Friend Alburt.. After this being Absent I will try and Answer your most Welcome letter I see by the Date it was March 12nd those Pictures you Drew me was Boss i tell you that is a comical One I take quite a Stock in comical Drawing.. Sorry i cant Grant your Request i have no crayons they do not keep them in this city i have tube Paints but i am not up to this Work Enough you Sed you Wish you had Work up here i do to we would have a Splendid time work is verry Scarce here this Spring i Say Scarce i mean Hiring .. Last Summer [spatters of ink] dam this Pen was a very Discouragin Seasson .. .. .. No. 2/No. 3 [fold-out page] Work is Allways Plenty here for us at home Soon as Spring comes we have our flowelle Work the first thing is to clear up the tops of the trees was cut During the Winter. Then Some of us has has Follows Slashings to Burn then Log up and fire a gain and do so untill they are all gon to Ashes then we have to Breake up the new Ground this is a Good Rezult of hard Work and sore shins Probably you no how this goes if you do come to Oceana [County] Michigan and in one Seasson you will no. the toil of a new county.. I am a going to give you a Little Breeze of this Country and it is a Solenteria fact this country is Equalized just about as where you Live we have 2 classes of People. One class is cumulating Vast Quantities of money. The Other is goin Back you no in the Old Highly cultivated States when Peaple People Begin to go Back they will go for Another newer Place. Selling their 40 or 50 Acres which Ever it may be and go some where and Invest in 100 or 200 Acres Pay all their money on it and Give a morggage on the Whole. Here is no Houce no Barn or Fences which is Realy Nessaceries.. The Interest is so high it is all we can meet say nothing aBout the Pinricpel soon the morgage is due and they must close on us Our Money is gon which we have Invested then Emagrant West where we come to a Days toiler to Live. on the Other hand we have men who is cumulating fast how is this Y. Because they no how to manage things they are Wise Enough to not go father then their means is not Get in this thundern morgage Business i dont [illegible] but we have a morgage on our Farm of a Little but the money is in the Bank to Swallow him soon as he comes out of Hillsdale No 4 College in June then we will be Square with this World. Once more this was on the Place when we Bought it and could not Pya it then. Morgage is all Rite if these Speckalators would let you cut the timber to Pay with but they wont do this they haf to work some one to get the money to pay - Land is going higher Every year they are a Peice here can be Bought I heerd father said he was a goin to gobble on to it the timber is Splendid and the land is excellent i think for a Laboring man this is a Good Place for Work is more Plenty i am Satasfied with this Country Still I am anywhere so I can have Plenty of Fun....... [p. 5] it has been a very dull here this winter in the way of Dances and Parties wal it has been hard times i have not been to a Dance in so long i guess i will be Oblige to commence over again. I Expect you go to all of those at Grange Hall. if they dont soon wake up i guess i will quit Playing when we can not make Enough to Pay for our Strings what in h____ is the use of Wearing our arms out for nothing.. i think next summer will be Better. We need a Big Crop to make up for Last Summer mostly of Poeple has to buy their Hay and feed hay is worth from $12.00 to 16.00 per ton No. 6 In Hart at Shelby it is $17.00/100 per ton. The Sugar Making i think will be very Short this Year for it is so Late we have Made some and Some Syrup it is Running Splendid now we will not Boil as fast as 7 or trees will Run unless we Boil Night and day the Sap is very Sweet this year John Frick make 20 Galons of Syrup from 2 1/2 Barrels of Water that is Good i wish you could be here to see the wax fly Bert i eate about a 1# of Sugar the Other Night you cant do that to Save you from h___ i honestly believe the girls will not get sour again for year no matter how they hate us. I guess i will No. 7 Tell you about my hunt and close for this time we was out 2 weeks ago Last Sunday and it Snowed to beat Old Harry we was about 3 or 4 miles from home in a White Ceder Swamp we shot all of our Ammunishion up and quite we killed 7 Big Jumping Jacks i wish you was there you i no would been so Excited you would Shot Buster for a Rabbit. I was so stiff I did not no how to shoot. They Run so fast we would Shoot a Rod behind them Frank killed the Bigest fox i Ever Seen we have Big times in that Swamp No. 8 we are having Beautiful Weather here now i Shall not say Spring for if i do it will Snow tomorrow i tell you it was hot Election day how did it go Down there the Amendment was the Order of the day Everything went for Prohibishion and i was Glad it did. Mother is Considerable Better the Rest Well and hope you are the Same Write soon very Sincerely Yours Arthur S. Niver (Box 15) 3 153 ______________ P.S.. See if you can Beat Long Letters if it is nonsense ______________ P..S.. tell Dick i congratulate him and Wife. wishing him a Long and happy Life with grand Success Excuse Poor Write and Mistakes Yours **** Ill probably clean it up and add commentary later, just to satisfy the historical geek in me!
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 01:20:33 +0000
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