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 A Young Man Seeks News from Home

  • » Date: 1873-06-22
  • » Subject: A Young Man Seeks News from Home
  • » Written By: H. H. Martin
  • » Addressed To: Julia Kyle Benbow
  • » Transcriber: Dennis Glaves
  • » File # 185

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Lancaster C.H.S.C.
Sunday Evening June 22nd

Miss Julia K. Benbow
Kind Schoolmate

I cannot bear to think of home & schoolmates, it recalls so many sweet but sad recollections as to make me feel depressed above everything else. I feel I am rather bold in writing you, as I have never mentioned correspondence to you at all, but as I am so far from home & friends, & as hearing the news from the young Oak Ridgeites, would afford me such great pleasure, & as you always seemed a friend to me as I know I


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Am to you, & as we have spent so many pleasant hours together in the schoolroom & out of it, I have some hopes that you confer me the favor of answering.
I am going to stay at this place two or three weeks and I don't know that after I leave here I will have the chance of hearing from anyone & therefore if you will condescend to let me hear by you from the community please don't delay answering. I am really homesick. I can hardly get used to being away from those dear to me all the time & very little persuasion would induce me to come home. I am almost changing my color from white to black.


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The weather is so very warm. I have not seen but one or two young ladies since I left home, or at least have not spoken to but two.
I have not heard from home since I left. I am expecting to hear this week & even then I will only get news from home & not from the young population.
This is long for a letter of request, but we know each other & you have gotten over being afraid of me, so please do not consider etiquette in this. It will give me the greatest pleasure to hear from you immediately, Indeed! It would.

Your Schoolmate,
Martin H.H.

P.S.
If you decline answering, commit (this letter) to the flames & forget the writer.


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Address me at
Lancaster C. H.
Lancaster County,
S. C.

Transcriber Notes

Very little is known about the author of this letter, his location or the year he wrote it.  We do not know if Martin was his given or surname.

The letter is dated June 22nd, but there is no year.  The writer refers to Julia by her maiden name.  She grew up in Guilford County, North Carolina and that is probably where the letter was sent.  The envelope that would answer this question was not with this document.  She married Robert Harvey Gleaves in Guilford County and moved to Wythe County in 1876 so it most certainly was written before then.

Young men tended to leave home for school or work at a young age so it was likely well before her marriage.  If this was the case a date of around 1870 seems to be possible.  Julia would have been 18 at the time.

(Editor’s note: Checking a calendar, the only year that June 22nd occurred on a Sunday that would fit this time frame, occurring before Julia’s marriage and after she would have completed school, would be 1873.  Julia would have been 21 at this time.  In 1867, June 22nd was on a Saturday and in 1868, the date fell on a Monday.)

It is not clear if Julia responded to this young man but we do know she kept the letter as it was found with the Family papers in Wythe County.

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