Letter from Minnie at Adams Run, S.C. to her Aunt Louisa, October 12, 1905, opening (page 1 of 3)
Book 1, Page 492 ·1905
Transcription
Adams Run, S.C. October 12th, 1905.
My dear Aunt Louisa,
I have just read Uncle Theodore’s letter to Sam, and of course its contents is a grief and Shock; I have often told myself that she is old and not strong, and yet she kept such a brave front and was so much to us all that I could never bear to think of her going. She has been a Mother to me since I came among you, and my Most Sacred Sorrows and experiences are all
AI Notes
First leaf of the three-page letter (continued on 493 and 494) from Mary Anne Perry FitzSimons (“Minnie”, b. 1859, d. 1934 — wife of Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons Sr. and the compiler Amy FitzSimons Walker’s mother) to “My dear Aunt Louisa” — almost certainly Louisa Preston King, wife of Theodore Gaillard Barker. Written from Adams Run, S.C., October 12th 1905, in dark ink in a sloping cursive on a single sheet. Minnie has just read “Uncle Theodore’s letter to Sam” — i.e., a letter from her great-uncle Theodore Gaillard Barker to her husband Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons Sr. (“Sam”) — reporting that a beloved elderly woman is dying. The envelope (postmarked Adams Run Oct 12, transit Charleston Oct 13) is mounted on page 488 — addressed to Ellen M. FitzSimons in care of the Charleston Library, redirected to 131 Tradd Street where Aunt Louisa was living. “Shock;” is capitalised in the body as it follows the semicolon as a sentence opener. Continuation: see p493 for the middle sheet, p494 for the closing sheet with signature.
The letter continues on page 493. “Aunt Louisa” is Louisa Preston King (Mrs. Theodore Gaillard Barker); “Uncle Theodore” is Theodore Gaillard Barker (1832–1917), the Charleston attorney and family elder; “Sam” is the writer’s husband Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons Sr. Minnie became part of the Barker–FitzSimons circle by her 1880s marriage to Sam (“since I came among you”). The elderly woman whose dying is reported in Uncle Theodore’s letter — and whose death is confirmed on the right-hand leaf of p493 — is most likely a great-aunt of Minnie’s generation in the Barker / Milliken line, possibly Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons (Minnie’s mother-in-law, who died 14 Dec 1900 per p271 — though that earlier date does not fit a 1905 letter); the precise identity remains to be resolved in a future pass.