Sunday Afternoon May (TP 1865)
My Dear Sister Lizzy
We returned home yestersday noon?
safe & well after having a delightful trip to New York.
where we xx there were 23 in our party we had a gay
time I tell you, I never enjoyed myself more, I said it was
worth a trip to New York to go through the vessel on which
John Pardent and Sandy Carner sailed. It was one of
the Cunard line of steamers called the Scotia. (TP paddle steamer)
the first time I ever saw one start out, such an exciting
time as it was just at 12 oclock a cannon was fired
and off she went with defining cheers from those on the
wessel and on land. it was a beautiful sight.
I think brother Derick and I were xxxxly pleased
that we did not meet each other in New York for xxx
with such delightful company, and had we met I would
have felt compelled for the sake of appearance to give him
a little of my time, in which case I should have been
page 2 (635)
deprived of the pleasure of that such time from my very
dear friends, which I can assure you would have been
a great loss to me, and as to his uneasyness? and fear of my
xxponging on him for ammusement was altogether unnecessary
for I had invitation without number from highlky esteemed
gentlemen and did I wish such places should have been
proud to have honored them with my company.
I unexpected met Cousins Alarice? & Jerry Barnaxxas who
who were on their way to Boston they were very anxious
for me to accompany them and I should have done
so had not some of my friends objected to my leaving the
party. Mr Carnagre took the whole party in with a
pass. I had no idea before that it was so delightful to ride
on a pass, perfectly easy and no care in the world
had not the trouble to show tickets as when you pay.
The ferry passengers were about jolted to death where
as our party sat as easy as if in a rocking chair.
If brother Derick should insist on my going with him
in the same way to the falls of Niagra provided I
could not meet with other company might accept his
invitation, with prelty hard foristion?
page 3
Sister Sarah has written to you about the saeppre?
I do not like mine at all. They are very warm?
and fit very tightly. I think I will get something
of baige?, you can get the material and make it
when you come.
Benjamine will enclose the money in this letter and
hope you will soon let us know the day we may
expect you to arrive. We can scarely wait until you
get here. The country is looking so beautiful, I think
on mother’s account you had better remain at Altoona
all night and arrive here in day light, we think
you will be obliged to go onto town as the train does
not stop at Terrance station any more. We will send
the carrage in for you. Check your luggage to
Pittsburgh and let it come on just keep out night
cloths at Altoona your bagage will be perfectly
safe to let it come on.
I was very sad to hear of the death of Aunt Sally Elberman
Cousin Marian said she took cold the night President
Lincoln remains arrived in Lancaster. Did Aunt May
and sister lucinder go up to the funeral?
page 4
I believe Ellie knows Alice Cockran, tell her she
died on Friday last they used to live in Pittsburgh
but moved to New York about 2 years ago, Her
remains were brought to Pittsburgh today. I suppose she will be
barried tomorrow, they brought her and suppose as they
had a lot in the Pittsburgh cenetary and probably other
children burried here. It is strange that Harmish Fisker
took three would? interested? friends have died
in the last year. Marthia Gutheri, Miss Bouborhurst and
now Alice Cockran, she is about 20 years old
We have not heard what she died of.
We left Hattie in Philadelphia at Mrs Fines.
I can not say how long she will remain there probably
two or three weeks, she will then go to Lancaster and make
Cousin Martha a visit of about a week, then I suppose
she will go Baltimore, to make Sister Lucinder
a visit. She will write to her before she goes.
Has Aunt Gardian gone home? And don’t forget to bring me
her photographs.
Benjamine Sister Sarah writes with me her love to you
dear mother. Brother Derick, Sister Lucinda. Ella Farring
Allen & Nancy I remain your affectionate
Sister Mary
Writtem upside down in a space above the “Dear Sister Lizzy” is to following:
Dear sister Lizzie Please find the check for
thirty dollars hope you will soon
come on. Benjamin.
Benjamin will enclose 30 dollars which will pay your
fare and your bill at Altoona and a carriage to
take you to the depot.
End of the letter. Below is an article from a April 23, 1865 local paper describing the same events. The link below takes you to the article on its native web site.
Thousands watched Lincoln funeral train pass through Lancaster 150 years ago
At 2:19 p. m. the afternoon of April 22, 1865, a century and a half ago today, the train carrying the remains of President Abraham Lincoln on its round-about, 1,654-mile journey from Washington, D.C., to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois, arrived in Lancaster.
(See eye-witness account of assassination of Lincoln by Columbia teen.)
Lincoln, generally considered today to be America’s greatest president, had been felled by an assassin’s bullet eight days earlier in Washington, D.C. After firmly guiding the nation through the turmoil of a bloody Civil War and abolishing slavery, he did not live to see the end of all he had worked for and fretted over for four long years.
The funeral train was coming from Harrisburg, en route to Philadelphia, two of the 16 stops it would make before reaching Springfield on May 4.
Buchanan, Stevens join mourners
All along the route, mourners stood in solemn silence. As the train chugged through Elizabethtown, a man slowly waved a black flag.
Just outside the city, former President James Buchanan sat in a carriage along the tracks. As the locomotive rumbled passed, towing its sad load, the aging statesman, himself just three years away from his grave, removed his hat and placed it over his heart. His home, Wheatland, was decorated in black crepe.
Elsewhere along the line, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens stood upon a rock watching the train pass. An eyewitness reported that Stevens “seemed absorbed in silent meditation, unconscious that he was observed. When the hearse car approached he reverently uncovered his head, and replaced his hat as the train moved away.”
Reaching the center of the city, the train was greeted by 20,000 mourners, 3,000 more than the city’s entire population. So thick was the throng who had begun gathering at the station hours earlier, that “it was almost impossible to get the train through,” the Lancaster Intelligencer reported on April 26.
“And in all that mass of the people,” the newspaper said, “there was nothing but gloom and sadness depicted on their countenances.”
Train station ‘elegantly decorated’
The train consisted of the steam locomotive No. 313, dubbed “The Old Nashville,” followed by its coal tender and trailed by nine cars.
The black, somewhat ornately designed casket, with its silver-plated handles, that bore the president’s body rode in the second to last car, with the last being reserved for family and close friends. The first six cars were reserved for political and military dignitaries.
The local newspaper was incorrect when it wrote that “in the first car were the remains of the deceased President’s son, Willie Lincoln…” Willie, who had died in 1862 at age 11, most likely from typhoid fever, had been disinterred from his grave in Georgetown, and now rode in the elaborate car with his father. They were to be buried together in Illinois.
The funeral car itself was called “striking” by one witness. Riding on 16 wheels to ensure a smooth journey, the construction included fine woodwork, upholstered walls and etched glass windows.
The car was strung with black garlands and silver tassels. Painted on its sides were the U. S. Coat of Arms.
The train station at Queen and Chestnut streets was “most extensively and elegantly decorated with flags and drapery, and presented a beautifully solemn and impressive appearance,” the Intelligencer wrote.
‘Martyr of Liberty’
An American flag pulled back like a curtain hung from each pillar. Lengthy pieces of drapery also hung “in festoons above and across the flags.” Small flags hung over doors and in windows. A portrait of Lincoln “surrounded by a wreath of boxwood” and covered with black mourning crepe was displayed.
Below the portrait hung a banner proclaiming “Abraham Lincoln, the Illustrious Martyr of Liberty; the nation mourns his loss; though dead, he still lives.”
The train stopped briefly, and for a wisp of time, Abraham Lincoln was just yards away from the Caldwell House, where, exactly two months shy of four years earlier, he had spoken to the adoring masses while en route to take office at the nation’s 16th president.
During the brief stop on that sad day, the Intelligencer reported, “In the car immediately preceding the one in which the deceased President’s remains were, we noticed Capt. Robert Lincoln, his son, and his sad and sorrowful expression of countenance was pitiable to behold.”
Then the train moved on.