Anniversary letter from James Pickens Walker, Monticello, Fla., to his wife Amy, 16 Oct 1911 (page 1 of 2)
Book 3, Page 4 ·1911
Transcription
Monticello — 10 – 16 – 11
My little girl —
I want to write to you today so that you can get it on our anniversary. As a present I will give you a set of oyster forks to match the set my family gave us. The set has not been ordered because — I thought we could get it while in Charleston, or if you prefer — you can have Harry order it at once. —
Well, girl, I want to tell you a great many things —
First of all I want to tell you how happy you have made me during the last three years and look for what — which I thought was great when we were married — it was nothing more than a shadow to what it is now. When I had you & our little one to go home to at night I wanted nothing more.
How God who is supposed to be good is could take her away, I will never know. It must be to punish me, because each day when alone in the [woods] my longing[s] become more & more pronounced.
While her death brought us closer it could not have been for this reason that she was taken, because her coming increased my love for you — wonderfully. — If our next little one will only be like her, even in a few ways only, it will help — altho nothing can ever be just like our first.
Dear if for no other reason, you will go to…
AI Notes
First leaf of a two-page letter from James Pickens Walker to his wife Amy on the occasion of their wedding anniversary (the conclusion and signature ‘J.P.W.’ are on the next page, p005). Written in dark ink on Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company stationery (FORM 868 in upper right). The gift is a set of oyster forks to match the set Walker’s family gave the couple; the household member ‘Harry’ is asked to order the set if Amy prefers. The second-and-third paragraphs are a grief lament for the death of their first child — referred to only as ‘her’ and ‘our little one’ (the child is not named in this letter), which had occurred sometime in the three years since their marriage. Walker hopes their ‘next little one’ will resemble her. The companion envelope is on p003 of book-003.
The letter continues on page 005.
The letter is an elegy for a deceased first child (sex feminine — ‘she’, ‘her’), born during 1908–1911 and not previously noted in family genealogical records. Walker’s phrase ‘our first’ confirms the child as the eldest. No name is given in this leaf; the conclusion on p005 likewise does not name the child. This is a new genealogical finding for the Walker / FitzSimons line.