Letter from Mulberry, Thursday, to 'Dear Tho.' — page 1
Book 1, Page 197
Transcription
A single-page handwritten letter in brown ink on lined paper. The dateline at the top reads only Mulberry Thursday.
Mulberry Thursday
Dear Tho.! I wish I could get hold of your two gownies I would outlet them in a very few minutes. Your note was so good & brightened us up so much that I know you will write again & tell me if you have any thing to satisfy you business wise — how Mary is, & if she gets out sometimes to vary her patient routine of caring for the little ones in one room. When I think of it going on for near three years I wonder at her cheerfulness & freshness even with such a little charmer as Ellen always there, & the others in their developing lives to interest her. How does the napkin ring get on, & Tom’s lessons & dear Mannie with her wits & spirits always running over for want of full scope. I think all the time of how Kate would enjoy her, & how they would understand each other.
AI Notes
A single-page handwritten letter in brown ink on lined paper, headed ‘Mulberry Thursday’ and addressed ‘Dear Tho.!’ The writer wishes she could get hold of the recipient’s two underlined gownies and would outlet (let out) them in a few minutes. She thanks Tho. for a cheering note, asks for further news on his business, on Mary and her three-year routine of caring for the little ones in one room, on the ‘little charmer’ Ellen and the older children’s developing lives, on Tom’s lessons and the napkin ring, and on dear Mannie ‘with her wits & spirits always running over for want of full scope.’ She wishes Kate could be with Mannie, sure they would understand each other. Continues onto page 198.
Letter continues on next page.
Written from Mulberry Plantation, the Barker family seat in St. John’s Berkeley parish (Cooper River). “Dear Tho.” is almost certainly Theodore Gaillard Barker — the Mulberry dateline, the writer’s familiar tone, and the Mary–Tom–Ellen–Mannie household roster of small children all point to a letter from a Mulberry-resident relation (likely an aunt or sister-in-law) to TGB in Charleston during the years his nieces and nephews were small. Uncle Adam appears as an aging, grief-pitied figure on the verso (p. 198) — likely a Barker collateral.