Two letter fragments: continuation of a letter on the plantation, and the opening of Aunt Ellen FitzSimons's letter to her mother, March 4th
Book 1, Page 43
Transcription
Two facing pages of handwritten letters in blue ink, in similar cursive hands (both are Aunt Ellen FitzSimons’s; the left is the end of an earlier letter and the right opens the March 4th letter).
Left page — end of one letter
way & came back another to see something of the city. Then we had an early dinner & came here to the plantation. Everybody is very nice to me & I hope to enjoy myself, it will be my own fault if I do not, but I find it very hard not to get into my shell when I get entirely amongst comparative strangers. I [am] feeling quite well. You must excuse this letter as everybody has been talking around me. Dear little Mother you must write me soon. This is a lovely place & house. Sally, Betty & Linda are such nice girls. Susy is a little stiff & full of style. Young Wm. Stiles seems as nice
A vertical closing runs up the right margin of the left page:
[Margin sign-off, written vertically up the right margin]: Boy — Love to all — Yr. daughter Ellen
[Letter continues elsewhere; the closing margin lines indicate this leaf is the final page of an earlier letter.]
Right page — new letter
A pencilled compiler annotation at the top identifies the writer and recipient:
[Pencilled annotation at top, in the compiler’s hand]: Aunt Ellen F.S. — to her mother — A.F.W.
The letter itself:
March 4th
Dear Mother,
I hope you have received my two postals, & they will have told you of my comfortable journey. I really enjoyed the trip. We got to Atlanta early Thursday morning, left our [uncertain] satchels in charge of the woman at the depot, & walked a square or so to Hotel Aragon, where we had a delightful breakfast in the cafe. After breakfast Wm. Stiles went off for about an hour & a half & Sarabel & I wrote postals, & went over the hotel which is new & small & very pretty, then talked in the
AI Notes
Two facing pages of handwritten blue-ink letters. The left page ends an earlier letter (apparently the same one continued from elsewhere) describing arrival at a plantation and the host family (Sally, Betty, Linda, Susy, young Wm. Stiles); vertical margin closing reads ‘Love to all - Yr. daughter Ellen’, confirming Aunt Ellen FitzSimons as the writer. The right page opens a new letter from Aunt Ellen FitzSimons to her mother, dated March 4th, recounting a comfortable journey to Atlanta and breakfast at Hotel Aragon. A pencilled compiler annotation at the top reads ‘Aunt Ellen F.S. - to her mother - A.F.W.’ (A.F.W. = Amy FitzSimons Walker, the compiler). Note: Aunt Ellen’s mother here is Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons (d. 14 Dec 1900) - a different ‘mother’ from the 1874 cluster (pp136-148) where the dying mother is Ellen Milliken Barker.
Letter continues on next scan.
The Hotel Aragon Aunt Ellen describes as “new & small & very pretty” opened in 1892 at the corner of Peachtree and Ellis Streets in Atlanta; her “new” remark places this letter in the mid-1890s, when she was in her early 30s and her mother Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons was still living (d. December 1900).