Please do not read this…
It is only a letter.
This morning I was reading through the Tallow Lights from 1968, trying to decide what to feature in the entry for today. I have been absent from the site for a bit, enjoying a short vacation to the beach with Shelley and the 4th of July holiday. It is so good to be able to travel again. Of couse, with travel comes all the headaches of traffic, finding somewhere to stay, where to eat, etc. But if you go back and look at what folks went through to get here to Washington County in our early years, then we look like a bunch of whiners compared to what they went through.
In the April-June 1968 there is an intriguing introduction to an article about an letter from 1808 concerning a travel adventure from England to Marietta that caught my attention. Here how Ralph L. Schroeder opened his article:
In the April-June 1968 there is an intriguing introduction to an article about an letter from 1808 concerning a travel adventure from England to Marietta that caught my attention. Here how Ralph L. Schroeder opened his article:
“Please do not read this. It is only a letter. And as such is none of your business. It is none of mine. And yet, well, the person who wrote the letter is forgotten, and curiously so. A lady lumbers along our streets, day in day out, ruminating as she goes. Her cud is your business. Perhaps a century later she too will be forgotten. Who knows? We all move toward a realm of oblivion.”
“It is only a letter, dated from Marietta, 1808. Why read it after more than a century and a half?” The writer is forgotten, “Even descendants do not remember his name. But the author goes on to justify the reading of the letter.
“For some there is a certain justice in oblivion. It is one thing to calendar one’s sociality merely for the sake of self-pleasure. To say, however, that we have no interest in our family, is another. The shedding of identity, casting the ties, reduces the social creature into an egotist of the supreme order. There is after all, a certain justice.”
“Written in 1808, and directed to Cheshire, Old England, the letter is now foxed, broken at its folds and fragile. The historian may ask, “Why bother with such a letter? Does it say anything of import?” Let it be emphasized, it is only a letter. But now, go back in time. There was a day in Old England when the writer of this letter, together with his wife, made his farewell. Were they less callous than we? How do you say farewell when you may knowingly never see those you have loved again? It was not easy. Your are going on a voyage across the seas. While these waters may no longer be riddled with monsters, there may be storms to shatter you before your destination….”
Now, I bet you want to come down the the Archives and read this letter from David Ward. Why did they leave? What ship did they board? What happened along the way? Did they all arrive safely?
A membership to the Washington County Historical Society will bring you all the newest issues of the Tallow Lights, which are full of articles written by members and others in the community. The Archives has back issues of all the volumes from 1967 to today for you to read. We are working to get them all indexed. At this point they are not in electronic form.
The archives are now open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 346 Muskingum Drive in Marietta Ohio. The archives can be contacted at 740-373-1788 or by email at wchs.ohio@gmail.com.
We hope to welcome you to the Archives soon.