24 January 2011

Hattie's Bible: Letter from Claude Glover Amanuensis Monday

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.  Amanuensis Monday is a theme hosted by John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch.



 Zast lake    1894

I will write a few lines
to you.  we are all well
I go to sundayschool
every sunday I have
made bobs with Harrys
sled I set with Rudolph
Donahue I am most
thru the second reader.
I go slideing on the
hill every night and I go
scateing every saturday
I want you to come
home dear mamma.
Your own dear boy Claudie
Glover

I found this letter in Hattie's Bible.  Claude Glover is the son of Hattie and Frank H. Glover.  Did he write this letter to his mother?  If so, I wonder where she was when he wrote it.  Claude would have been about 10 at the time he wrote this.  The two highlighted words were my best effort at transcribing the words. (I wondered if maybe the Z was a backwards E) 

Because he mentions skating and sledding the letter must have been written in the winter.  The Harry that is mentioned in this letter is his older brother.  Harry is my paternal grandfather.  Claude was two years younger than Harry. 

When I first read this letter, I was filled with emotion.  I never met Claude Glover, but from this letter he must have loved and missed his mother very much.  Religion must have been important in his house as he mentions going to Sunday school.  It must have been special to Hattie that she saved it for so many years.

6 comments:

  1. Wow, Brenda! What a treasure to have this letter in your possession. How wonderful that Hattie's decided to save it!

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  2. Yes, Lisa, it is a treasure and I am so thankful to have it.

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  3. If this was East Lake, not Zast Lake, what state or area would that have been? I thought it precious that a little 10 year old boy told his Mother about going to church. That had to have gotten him some brownie points.

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  4. Claude's family lived in Frankfort Michigan at one time. There is an East Lake in Manistee county, just south of Frankfort, in Michigan.

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  5. Wherever Hattie was when Claudie wrote this letter, she had been gone long enough that he had to tell her that he went to Sunday school every Sunday and skating every Saturday, plus that he was almost through the second reader. It seems like Hattie was gone for more than a short time.

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  6. I agree with your observations. I don't know for a fact that it was written to his mother, Hattie. I found it in Hattie's bible. I wonder if it could have been written to a grandmother. I would love to know for sure, though.

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