Handwritten letter (continuation): the last telegram, Mother's prayer book, the funeral hymn
Book 1, Page 152 ·1874
Transcription
A handwritten letter, continuing across two facing leaves of the same sheet from the previous page.
he told me he had sent the last telegram to Christie & told him to go to you. I knew it was that he felt as if his relationship to Mother was being repeated in Christie, to you — At any time, it would have been an expression of deep feeling ^(to express this association), but if you could have seen him as he faced the parting with Mother, & as he goes on patiently from day to day with the empty hearted weariness to hide, under a cheerful tone you would know entirely how he turned to you in his sorrow.
I dont know if I told you that I had told Wm just after she died, that she had used his old Prayer book every day, & that he would find it with Kate’s Bible on the mantle piece — He brought it to me showing me a leaf turned & a large pencil mark at the Evening Hymn “Softly now the light of day” — When Mr. Johnson sent to ask us if we wished a particular hymn Tody said, choose that one — By some accident Wm did not know that it had been chosen, till we were in church, & when we came home he asked me if I had done it as a special thing done for him. It was so beautifully sung & just as the sun was setting — Tody asked Louis Manigault, Richardson Miles, Mr. Simonton & Theo. Stoney, Frank Heyward & Phil Mazyck to bear the coffin — Sam & Harriett Stoney, Gen Conner, & Ella Simonton, Mr. Huger, Mrs. Willeman, Miss Susie, Mrs. Matheson, [were?]
AI Notes
A continuation page of the handwritten letter from the 1874 Barker family death cluster (dying Mother = Ellen Milliken Barker, writer = Susan Milliken Barker, Sis = Ellen Milliken Barker Porcher, Tody = Theodore Gaillard Barker). The writer recounts that Tody sent the last telegram to Christie, telling him to go to the recipient (‘he felt as if his relationship to Mother was being repeated in Christie, to you’); describes Tody’s discovery that Mother had been using William’s old prayer book daily, with a pencil mark at the Evening Hymn ‘Softly now the light of day’ that Tody chose ‘by accident’ (without knowing of the mark) as the funeral hymn; and lists pallbearers and others present at the funeral. An interlinear caret insertion ‘^(to express this association)’ appears in the long sentence about Tody facing the parting. ‘Phil Mazyck’ is a Charleston family surname. The M^r/M^rs abbreviation distinction (Mr. Simonton, Mrs. Willeman) is confirmed against neighbouring ‘Mr. Huger’ and ‘Mrs. Matheson’.
Letter continues on next page.