1930 - 1933

Card found in "Schoolday Memories" autograph book of Ella Stewart, Euston St. P.E.S.
"John C. Cunningham, ?? Bloomfield Ave., Belfast" ~ "Presented to Miss E. Stewart By the members of Canton St Mission Hall Choir on the occasion of her departure to America. With sincere wishes for her future happiness and prosperity. 1-1-30"

Letter, postmarked June 22, 1933 to Miss Ellen Stewart, 46 Canton St., Belfast Co. Down Ireland. Apparently she went home one more time I was unaware of. All letters verbatim

"Wawa, PA, June 21, 1933. P.S. Don't let anyone read this. (underlined 3 times)

My Dear Ella,
I received your letter that you sent from Boston Monday morning and was I glad to get it. Dear, I never knew that it would be so hard for me to see you leave on that boat. I never felt more like crying as I did in all my life. When that boat pulled out I was just sick. I just felt like taking you right off the boat and bring you back with me. Oh! dear did you get those papers that I had. I thought I would faint when I pulled them out of my pocket. I gave them to the man you showed you ticket to. He said, that he would try to get them on the boat. I saw him go on the boat so I guess you are half way across by now. I wish we had of taken that trip that I promise now. You know the one I mean (Elkton). I would of felt much better. All I ask is for you to come back to me. (This sentence underlined repeatedly). I'll be counting the hours and day until you do. Just think 6 or 8 more weeks before I will see you again. Sistor dear, don't forget to let me know when you are coming back as soon as you can. Find out the first thing and let me know. Dear, when I left you in New York I got the one oclock train to Phil. I got in Phil at 2.45 and did not get a thing to eat until I got home. I did not want anything after I left you. I felt sick as a dog. I met one of the ladys in the train that we rode up to New York with. So we talked most of the way from New York. That was a help. Well dear, I guess I will tell you what I have been doing sence you left. Sunday I got up at 10.30 went up to the diary and got back at 11.45. In the afternoon I went swimming. I hurt my head and have had the head and ear ack ever sence. Monday night I did not go anywhere. I went to bed at 9.30 and Tuesday night I went to the movies in Media by myself. and tonight I am home. How do you like that for telling where I was? I want you to do the same. I guess by the time you get done reading this you will be tired so I guess I will close. I'll write again Sunday. So be good and keep your promises and don't forget that I love you. (underlined repeatedly). Please come back to me for I don't know what I'll do if you don't. Dear I forgot to tell you you know Collins had a party Saturday and it was a hold barrel of bear left and a pint of gin. So you know we had a good time Monday. for he said we could have it. Excuse all the mistakes for there are a lot of them and write soon.
Don't let anyone read this for they will think I am crazy.
All my love, (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I.L.Y.W.A.M.H) Bill
PS Tell your big sister I was asking and will write to her if she wants me to. For I have lots of time. Your F______ Bill PLEASE COME BACK"

First two letters

These first three letters are related, so I thought I would share them first. They are not my mother's but rather my grandmother Wayland and Aunt Katherine Wayland's. I figured I would type them first, since there are no others that belong to them. Perhaps someone will enjoy:

Rev. Kensey Johns Hammond
Culepeper, Virginia Feby 11, 1924

My dear Katharine,
You have been especially in my thoughts this year, I must write to you. We who are pastors and parents feel a deep, earnest interest in girls & boys at an age when God: Holy Spirit is apt to give them serious thoughts about heart consecration to and loving service for the Lord Jesus. We so lead young people, & be glad when we see them trying to live for Jesus to please Him.

I am hoping this has been your experience, though you & I are not so well acquainted, as I am with the girls in our congregation here. One of these stopped me yesterday & said: "Mr. Hammond, I want to confess Jesus X & be confirmed when the Bishop comes." Of course I was delighted to encourage her & help her & she will come to our instructions with the other girls, Tuesday afternoons. I hope you have felt the desire in your heart to be a Christian girl, & are trying daily to live to please Jesus. He has given your parents, Christians, to sympathize with, encourage and help you. He could not give your precious gifts, except Himself. He has given you Himself.

In return He asks you to give Him yourself. As he bought you by His death. He has a right to ask you. He asks you to do so openly (Matthew 10:32,33, 38, 42) and He planned & started His church before He ascended to Heaven; that we might have a home here for our souls in which to confess Him & live for Him now - His Church.

When you wish to obey this command to confess Him & live for Him openly, you will have to decide (as I did) between a father's & a mother's Branch of His Church. Each will be glad to have you, & you will be at home in each.

As your Mother's pastor, & I like to think of myself as your pastor too, I am anxious to help you know about your Mother's Branch of Christs Church & mine, so you can choose wisely. So I am offering you a little book to read (by mail) explaining the customs & principles taught by our church & founded on Holy Scripture. We go to it to prove all our principles. I know it will interest you. Take your time in reading it: but when you finish mail it to me, that I may loan it to some other girl. Several girls here will be confirmed, May 11, when the Bishop comes to St. Stephens. You have been baptized in the Episcopal Church with a solemn Bible service, & do not need to be baptized ever again. But when you are ready to say openly I want to be a Christian by my own consent, the New Testament service (Acts 8:12-17, Acts 19:1-7 & Hebrews 6:1,2) of "Laying on of Hands" is ready for your use, of which I will be glad to tell you fully. Write to me if you wish to. If not, talk with your mother & father freely. I will pray our Lord Jesus show you His wish for you.

Sincerely your friend & pastor, Kensey J. Hammond

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Letter # 2 & 3, Addressed to Mrs. Clarence Wayland, Winston, RFD, Va, postmarked March 12, 2 P.M. 1924

St. Stephen's Rectory
Culpeper Virginia Mch 11, 1924

Dear Mrs. Wayland:
When talking with your husband when he brought word in February I told him I wanted to write to Katharine, as I could not talk to her & would do so.
I write in ignorance of her thoughts & desires; & yet I want to be a pastor to her & do not ask her to answer unless she chooses. If am right in my supposition in my letter, I ask her to talk freely with you & her father. I know she has your sympathies. If I am wrong, & she is not yet thinking of church membership, I can be patient.
But hoping God's Spirit was influencing her, I have written frankly in a pastor's privilege, & also offered her some information about our Church, that her choice, whatever it be, be made with intelligent knowledge of our church's privileges & advantages. All the denominations are in a struggle just now of truth against error: but our faith is in the Head of the Church in all Her Branches: & He can protect Her. Her privileges to individuals are unchanged. I hope you will read my letter to K. & the little book - read it with her if you can find time to be together on Sundays.
I am looking forward with pleasure to seeing you both April 6th about 250 P.M. & hope you will be well enough to go with me & K to Madison to Church. I will have 2 seats in the auto. I promised Miss Cave a Communion Service immediately after, if she is unable to go to our Church service. If she goes, I will have Communion & sermon instead of Evening Prayer. She hopes the Episcopal Chh will be in use then. Bishop Brown promised to visit Madison for Confirmation this summer. You shall know the date when fixed.
Sincerely yr friend & Pastor, K.J. Hammond.

~~~~~

Same date

Dear Mr. Wayland:
I have written to Mrs. Wayland enclosing my promised letter to Katharine - a Pastor's letter!
And in this stormy season my wood pile makes me feel so comfortable I am enclosing my check for $12.00 for the two loads of green & 1 of dry wood you promised me. The cellar looks so full that ??? I have not seen you make a 3rd trip. I suppose you did so March 4 when I was at a burial in Orange.
If I am mistaken you did not bring one then, you can bring it when the roads are fit & your credit remains good.
Sincerely your friend, Kensey John Hammond

~~~

As it turns out of my grandparents children, both boys were baptized at Bethel Baptist Church in Reva. Aunt Katherine was baptized at St. Stephens and was Episcopalian all her life, her funeral being held at her "home" church, St. Stephens. Keep in mind that the distance to Culpeper from my grandfather's home was a scant 7 miles. Nothing by today's standards, but a long ride in horse and buggy on dirt or barely paved roads. My grandfather still used a horse and buggy into the 1950s, or maybe even 1960s, from time to time, especially when picking up grain or other feed for the animals. My grandmother hated it when Poppie would pick her up in the horse & buggy from her sewing circle at Bethel Baptist! I was with him once and I remember grandma being furious to have to ride in it.

Airing out the Mothballs

Over the years, with every move, I pull out these old letters and other "stuff' that came to me when I turned 21. They were mostly either from my mother or to my mother along with diaries and other memorabilia. Each time I read them I can imagine mom either writing or reading them. This Christmas my youngest suggested that perhaps their content would be worth blogging. I had my doubts... Still do. But, it's one way of sharing a life that should have been longer.

Near as I know, my mother, Ellen (called Ellie) Stewart was born April 4, 1913 in Belfast, Ireland. Her parents were James and Ann Jane Keenan Stewart. She was the oldest of her many siblings, so came to this Ellis Island in the early part of 1929 or 1930. I've not quite got a handle on the actual month or year, but it was 1929 or '30 for sure. Sadly, mom went home three times after coming the the U.S. ~ 1938 to get permission to marry my father; 1946 to introduce my brother to his extended family and just before her death in 1968. My dad went with her only the last time, as we flew. I remember the trip well and how hard it was for her to come back here. I think part of mom's other problems were brought on from being homesick for her siblings. She attended neither of her parents funerals, which I cannot imagine. Mom's existence revolved around her husband's family and her children. Their early demise left me to do the same.

She came to live with her Aunt Martha Groves who lived in Philadelphia. Uncle Alex delivered milk for Wawa Dairy in Wawa, PA near Media. Mom worked for the CEO of the dairy there where she met my father, William Henry Wayland. Daddy and his family were living in PA because of the depression. Apparently the Waylands were quick to come up to PA from Virginia during difficult times, as that is where my grandfather, Clarence met his wife, Anna Kearney and married in 1905. (This was even though my grandfather and all his children were born in Culpeper County, VA.) As early as 1930 Mom was in sewing circles with my grandmother Wayland, as her name shows up in the register Mom kept. Mom and Dad were married in November of 1938. My brother (Bill, Jr) was born in Pennsylvania in 1942. However, shortly after they "migrated" back south to "the farm" in, what was then, Winston, Culpeper County, VA. The area is now known as Reva.

The letters I will be sharing on this blog are mostly sent or received in Pennsylvania, though there are a few that came to the home in Virginia.

Our farm was part of a larger tract that my grandfather and his brothers had. Great-Uncle Waverly sold the farm to Great-Uncle Jett and Uncle Jett gave it to Dad and Mom as long as he and Aunt Molly had a room when he came home from Miami in the summer. The other side of Rt. 29 belonged to my grandfather. All 350 acres, on which now sits "Reva Park", one of the first developments on this that end of the county.

Our old home place still stands. As I type this, it's owned by Ronnie Peters, who's father bought it in 1969 the summer after my mother died. My brother still lives on part of the place, just north of the farm house, on acreage given to him and his wife before Mom and Dad died. My father died in 1970.

This one thing I will say about my parents ~ in spite of all their "issues" they loved one another. I remember my father as being so enamored with Mom that I still smile when I think of it. Dad was kind hearted and her death left him an empty shell. He died, literally, of a broken heart.

So, readers, I hope you enjoy these letters. When spring comes, I might dig out some other old family correspondence of interest. But, it's too cold in the attic to do so now.

Janet Stewart Wayland Elsea
February 2011