Typed letter from White Hall, December 11, 1860 — 'Dear Mother'
Book 1, Page 260 ·1860
Transcription
White Hall, December 11, 1860.
Dear Mother:
I suppose you are as quiet at Bolton as we are here. Sam and Christie keep us amused all the time they are awake but they are fast asleep now. They are very good and obedient and have never seemed homesick although they are constantly talking of their mother. Thomas is ready to spoil them at every turn but I am afraid of spoiled children so I shall keep all their Mother’s little rules. They are really good though, and I scarcely ever have to say anything like a reproof to them. They told Thomas tonight that you spoiled them when they lived with you. If they keep well I will be only too glad to have them, and I am afraid I won’t want to give them up. Gaillard Fitzsimmons told me on the cars that he thought Sis managed them admirably.
I am very anxious to hear how you are getting on. Tell Kate I want to hear particularly all that she does. Thomas is picking and ginning and ginning and picking. In leisure moments he hunts birds and studies tactics out of a little book just like the one Tody is so devoted to. He killed fifteen woodcock and two partridges one morning. His dog is a great satisfaction to him.
I can’t realize that all our comforts and pleasures in life may so soon be destroyed by civil war so I continue to hope all will come straight without this horror.
Christie and Sam are much excited about a pig and sheep that they are to catch and saddle to ride. Thomas has persuaded
AI Notes
A typewritten letter (typescript transcription of an earlier handwritten letter) on white paper, headed ‘White Hall, December 11, 1860.’ and addressed ‘Dear Mother:’. A small hole-punch reinforcement is visible at top left. The letter discusses life with two children (Sam and Christie), their good behavior compared to when their grandmother spoiled them, Thomas hunting birds and studying tactics, the killing of fifteen woodcock and two partridges, anxieties about the coming Civil War (‘I can’t realize that all our comforts and pleasures in life may so soon be destroyed by civil war so I continue to hope all will come straight without this horror’), and the children’s enthusiasm for a pig and sheep they are trying to catch and saddle. The page ends with ‘- - - - -’ indicating the transcription continues on the next sheet. The children are Sam and Christie (Sam reappears throughout the related letters on pp 264-270); the cousin/relative on the cars is Gaillard FitzSimons (a recurrent given name in the family); Thomas was ‘picking and ginning’ (cotton work). Given the December 1860 dating, the children ‘Sam’ and ‘Christie’ may be young Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons Sr. (b. 28 Dec 1856) and Christopher ‘Kit’ FitzSimons Jr. — two of Dr. Christopher 3rd’s seven orphaned children, temporarily placed with Aunt ‘Ellen’ and Uncle Thomas at White Hall plantation while their widowed mother Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons (‘Sis’ in this letter set) was at her mother’s home (‘Bolton’). This identification is informed but unconfirmed; see also pp 264-270.
Letter continues on the next scan.
The 11 December 1860 dating places this letter nine days before South Carolina’s secession (20 Dec 1860); the writer’s line “I can’t realize that all our comforts and pleasures in life may so soon be destroyed by civil war” is one of the album’s sharpest real-time premonitions. The writer is Aunt Ellen Milliken Barker Porcher of White Hall plantation, hosting the FitzSimons orphan-boys for her widowed sister Susan; the letter cluster continues at pp. 264-270.