Close of T.G.B.'s obituary of Dr. Christopher FitzSimons; opening of a second letter ('poor Kit FitzSimons')
Book 1, Page 278 ·1866–1866
Transcription
Close of obituary (upper portion)
reflected back in sympathy upon their lives — T. G. B. —
Opening of a separate handwritten letter (lower portion)
"I cannot tell you how shocked and grieved I was to hear of the death of poor Kit FitzSimons. I was very fond of him and from the bottom of my heart I sympathize with his widow and his ^his^ orphans. God help — "Weep not the dead — 'tis they alone
AI Notes
Two pieces share this album page. At the top, the closing lines of the multi-page handwritten obituary/eulogy of Dr. Christopher FitzSimons (begun on page 276 and continued on 277 and 274), signed ‘T. G. B.’ (Theodore Gaillard Barker). Below, a separate handwritten letter begins, written by another correspondent (a friend of the deceased who calls him ‘poor Kit FitzSimons’), expressing shock and grief at the news of his death and offering sympathy to his widow and orphans, and quoting the consolation 'Weep not the dead — ‘tis they alone…’
The interlinear caret-inserted “his” above “orphans” appears in the original.
Letter continues on the next scan.
The “falling house” referenced in the eulogy’s close (page 277) is the Moss Grove plantation outbuilding where Dr. Christopher FitzSimons had taken shelter from a sudden tornado on the morning of 17 May 1866; the lameness left by his childhood polio cost him the seconds his companion needed to escape. Page 279 reproduces the Charleston Courier’s contemporaneous account.