"Oh! I Must Make Some Money!"

Throughout the 1880s, in the letters written by the Armstrong men, there is an undercurrent of anxiety as the young men in the family try to find positions that will not only support themselves but that will provide extra money necessary for the comfort of their extended families. Robert and Baker Armstrong, sons of Edward McCarty Armstrong Senior's second family, go from their half-brothers' grocery and drugstore  in Salem, Virginia, to various posts in Baltimore and Texas--looking for the best financial deal. In one letter in 1886, Baker evidently writes his father for advice about a partnership a man in Texas is offering him. At the time, Baker is working as a druggist in the drugstore owned by George W. Norrell, Bryan, Texas. In a letter dated January 12, 1886, Edward M. Armstrong writes his oldest son [I have regularized the punctuation.]:

In reply, are you at liberty to accept the 2nd proposition of Mr. Stuarts? When Mr. Norrell agreed to meet your demands for $1000 a year, did you not place yourself under obligation to continue with him? I merely ask the question, for I do not know all that passed between you. I want you to be very careful that in advancing your own interests that you do no injustice to others.

Father Edward advises his son to look closely into the character of the man offering Baker a partnership in his business. (The type of business is not identified though the word choice suggests some kind of mercantile business--maybe another drugstore.)

Are you to have any control in the business & who buys the goods? Will your name be in the business and will you become responsible for debts? Is Mr. Stuart a Christian? Is he strictly moral? Does he drink, or gamble? Is he a high flyer or extravagant?

In a later letter, dated January 26, 1886, Mother Louisa adds her advice:

My idea is that you had "set in" for the year with Mr. N. at $1000. I feel somehow that he is a safer man than the other; that he is rather close & the other a "fast liver." Of course I do not pretend to know; but judge so from your letters. Riches take to themselves wings and fly away sometimes.

The young Armstrong men's looking out not only for their own interests but for the comfort of their relatives was to be a characteristic of their behavior throughout their adult lives. Both Robert and Baker sent money home to help their mother purchase a medicine she deemed necessary for her health and to purchase clothing for their siblings. In 1886, Baker and Robert evidently helped pay for their sister Nettie's travels to visit various family members in Virginia, a trip that Mother Louisa writes about and that Nettie herself describes in a letter to her brothers, dated Jan. 6, 1886: "You can't know how much pleasure you are giving me, in this nice trip, and I certainly am grateful to you for it." I get the feeling, from reading several of the letters, that the trip was a way of getting Nettie away from the farm, with its sad reminders of sister Katie, who had died in January of 1885.

The boys were always looking out for those members of the family who needed their help, and letters first from their older half-brother William Dillon Armstrong and another from their nephew David Gibson Armstrong, Jr., illustrate how other relatives relied on Baker and Robert. By this time, William had sold his store house and was casting about for another business. He had spent quite some time in 1885 in quest of a place to open another business, but in January, 1886, he seems to be a little desperate:

Not being able to fall upon a suitable location for business during the Summer & Autumn & tired of running around & separation from my family, I concluded to replace them under the old roof for the Winter, hoping something would develop for me by the time Winter breaks......[Later in the letter, William's desperation comes through more clearly.] I am glad to hear you & Robt are both succeeding so well, in your adopted home & trust an ever faithful and kind Providence may be over you, to bless & protect--A dark & mysterious Providence has certainly been the portion of our family during the past five years & at times I am so humiliated, I feel desperate,--But I will not write about disagreeable things--

William continues the letter by asking his brothers to inquire about the whereabouts of certain Texas boys who had attended Roanoke College and who had neglected to pay their bills at his store in Salem: "...as I am at a dead outlay just now--everything going out and nothing coming in--every dollar collected helps very much--"  William's list of Texas college boys who did not pay their bills goes back to 1878.

William ends his letter by telling his younger half-brothers that he does not want to burden them with these matters, but that he thought that since they were in Bryan, they might be able to succeed in collecting some of the money and that although he was entitled to interest, he would settle for just the principal of whatever they could get.

Baker receives another desperate letter later in the year from his nephew David Armstrong, son of David Gibson ("Bro. Gib") and Hannah Armstrong. Brother Gib's drinking has wreaked havoc in the family. William's own troubles may have been connected to Gib's problems because the two might have been in business together in Salem. In February, Baker's sister Jane alludes to William's and Gibson's difficulties: "Brother Will expected to go last week or this to Kentucky & N. C. looking for a home and some-thing to do, but we have not heard of his going out. Last week we were at Sister Hannah's [wife of David Gibson Armstrong, Sr.]. She and Hannah both look badly, Little Hannah especially and I suppose it is owing to her Father's behavior. I suppose he has been doing all right for the last week or two--have heard nothing to the contrary."

By May, William has bought a store house in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and has begun buying goods to stock the store. Mother Louisia writes Baker that William "will get a boy & train in the business. It was hard for me to part with him, I tell you."

However, Brother Gibson's family is not doing so well, for Baker receives a letter from his nephew David, dated August 12, 1886, unfolding a sad tale of missed opportunities. Evidently, Baker's friend Gus Finley wrote a letter in David's behalf, to help secure David a position at a high school. Finley had written a letter to the principal and to David but got the letters mixed up. By the time the mix-up was rectified, the position had already been filled. Then David takes up another offer from a gentleman offering him a position at his college. However, David then discovers that the college has been in some difficulties and that "it would be next to a miracle" if he "received any pay at all," for "the college is just being re-opened after 3 yrs. suspension, & the prospects are that it will again prove a failure." David, however, feels obligated to follow through with his acceptance of the position: "Having given my word to labor there, I feel in duty bound to fulfill the engagement." However, in anticipation of being without a job soon, David adds:

So Bake, if you can get that $75.00 position for me, oh, do so, by all means.... My aim is now to make money! If I ever go to the Seminary, it will be obliged to be on the fruit of my own labor. Oh! I must make some money! After consultation with a trustworthy lawyer in town, I find that, if my mother & Bros. & sisters have a roof over them by the first of Jan., they might be exceedingly thankful. My father is still drinking--getting lower into the slough of infamy & disgrace, & what I do now, must be done quickly. Anything that pays is the only question I ask in connection with a position. So far as my personal comfort & ease is concerned, I care for them not at all. Crucify the flesh is now my shibboleth--so do not hesitate to write me about a position because it may be disagreeable or contrary to the mode of life which I have been brought up. So keep your eyes open for me, Bake, & do the best you can.

And that's what Baker and Robert did--the best they could for their extended family. As letters into the twentieth century indicate, they felt this obligation all of their lives, as they became very successful in Texas. But for now, in 1886, their meager earnings are multiplied, it seems, like the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

Note on the photograph above: The young man is not identified, but the photographer is one that took photos of many of the Armstrong family. It is in the style of other photos taken during the 1880s. And there is enough family resemblance for me to conclude, very tentatively, however, that this might be a photo of one of the Armstrongs, perhaps David Gibson Armstrong's son David, Jr. The look has that same sad, contemplative look of Brother Gibson's son Edward, whom I identify in this post: "Too Many Edwards, Too Many Unidentified Faces." But no one is now alive who really knows.

Enough of War: The Death of A Young Confederate Soldier

In one of her letters to her son Baker, Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong described her uneasiness at Baker's joining a rifle company in Texas in 1885. "I have had enough of war," she wrote. The war to which she had the most intimate knowledge would have been, of course, the Civil War. Louisa had married Edward McCarty Armstrong shortly before the Civil War, in 1856; in that marriage she also became the stepmother of Edward's children by Hannah Pancake, who had died two years previously. The oldest boys of that first marriage were young adults when the Civil War began in 1861. By that time, Louisa would have mothered those step-sons for five years.

At this point, I do not know how many of Edward McCarty Armstrong's sons fought in the Civil War, but I do know which of them died in that war. I found, tucked in the chaos of the family papers, a hand-written copy of Isaac's obituary. The description is written in fine, old, script; I have placed images of the handwritten notice at the bottom of this post.

A Young Christian Soldier.

Among the sad fruits of this horrible war, another excellent Christian youth has just been gathered in the grave.

Isaac P. Armstrong was born in Hampshire County the 6th day of April 1842. He was the son of Col. Edward M. Armstrong, recently a member of the Virginia Convention and now a refugee, with his large family, from his home at New Creek Station, in Hampshire.

This young man enlisted in the service of his country, and the defence of his desolated county, at an early period of the war; was in the battle of Manassas--and in Ewell's division, engaged in the series of hard marches and bravely contested fields, which have shed on that division since placed under Jackson, such imperishable glory. On Friday evening the 27th of June, he received a fatal wound in his knee in the battle of Gaines Mill. He was taken first to a hospital in Richmond, and then in a few days to the residence of Rev. B. M. Smith at Union Theol. Seminary, where he had spent his years of college life. Here he lingered, a great sufferer for seven weeks. All that the most eminent surgical skill could suggest, and Christian kindness could administer, was done for his healing and comfort, but the nature of his wound baffled every effort, and in the morning of the 22nd, he calmly rested from his labours and sufferings.

During his college and Military life his walk was that of one, who had sought and found the Saviour, and been led by the Spirit, as a son to the God of all grace. He bore his great sufferings with Christian firmness and patience, and resigned himself with childlike confidence and peace, to the will of his Father in Heaven. His Christian faith had been the basis of his courage as a soldier, and he met death relying on Him, from his love in Christ , he felt assured, that "neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature" should be able to separate him. Though far from his Mother's side by which he would have wished his body laid, he rests till the Resurrection morning, among honoured dead--and in the midst of a Christian community, who testified their regard for the young Soldier, while on his bed of pain, by ennumerable acts of kindness, and will cherish his memory, as that of one whom, God blessed them, in sending to die and be buried among them.

Click on each image to enlarge.

"Think Texas is the Place for Me"

At the end of 1884, Baker White Armstrong was in Texas, having left the employment of George Seals, Druggist, in Baltimore, Maryland for employment in Bryan, Texas, in the drugstore owned by George W. Norrell. There are hints in the letters from family that there were contacts in Bryan before Baker moved there. A letter from his sister Nettie suggests those connections: "I suppose you make a pet of Mrs. Cavitt's little girl. I saw her when she was in Salem and she was certainly an attractive child then. I am very glad you have met Miss Finley, Janie & Fannie seemed to like her very much. Is Clara Cavitt at home now? If you see her give her my love." I found online one early connection between the Armstrongs in Virginia and the Cavitts in Texas: Clara Cavitt had attended Hollins Institute, which all the Armstrong girls except Katie attended. (One of the Cavitt brothers attended Roanoke College, as had the Armstrong boys.) Robert Armstrong was to marry Clara's sister Cora Cavitt, but in 1884-1885, that marriage was in the future, Robert was still in Virginia, and Baker was making himself at home in Bryan, Texas, where he roomed with Gus Finley.

The photograph at top, left, is of Baker Armstrong (seated) and Gus Finley (standing), taken in 1886. Evidently, not long after moving to Bryan, Baker enlisted in a local rifle company. Baker's father Edward mentions the rifle company in a letter dated July 8, 1885: "Your delightful letter to us all, giving us description of your Military trip to Lampasas, was duly received and now that you are safely returned to Bryan, we are all glad you had the recreation and that you enjoyed it so much."

What rifle company was this? The letters do not reveal any specifics, but a quick search on the Internet offers clues. Various rifle companies or military batteries formed in cities or regions of Texas, and were rather loosely associated with one another and known more famously later as the Texas Rangers (See Texas Archival Resources Online.) In May 1885,  there was a State encampment in Lampasas where these military units met and competed (Google search: Year Book for Texas by C. W. Raines, 1903, p. 119). This was surely the "military trip"--or one similar--to which Edward M. Armstrong refers. These military units were called out to administer frontier law and order, breaking railroad strikes and quelling riots, and, previously, fighting Apaches.  There were several such military units associated with Bryan, Texas, including, during the years 1880-1886, the Bryan Rifles.

Mother Louisa was less sanguine about Baker's association with the rifle company. On July 1, 1885, a week earlier than her husband's writing, she had written Baker about her anxiety:

Received your postal from Lampassas and am anxiously awaiting a letter telling me of your trip and your safe arrival in Bryan. I felt quite anxious about you last week--thought much of you and prayed for you. Snakes--tarantulas, sickness & evils of different kinds presented themselves to my mind--but I do hope that you escaped all & by this time are safely at your place again. By the by, if there is the least danger of your being ordered off or have to engage in any fight of any kind, get out of that company. I have had enough of war in my day. I saw by the papers that companies from San Antonio had been ordered off to fight 'the Apaches.' Now be sure to keep out of such things.

Baker was still associated with the rifle company at the end of 1885, for in another letter, dated December 3, 1885, Louisa reveals her misgivings to her son again:

I hope you enjoyed your hunt Thanksgiving day. That rifle company bothers me. I am afraid something might happen that you would be ordered out. You must not get into any trouble of that kind. Resign first, if it does look cowardly. Your life is too precious. You are no Texan & not bound to protect Texas. I never want you to settle in Texas. Lay up your money and when you have enough, come back to Va & invest. There it too little godliness there.

But the "Left-for-Texas" bug had already bitten both Baker and Robert. Though Baker was to return to Virginia to visit and to get a wife, he was never to live there again. Robert was to go back and forth from Virginia to Texas for a few years before finally settling in Bryan and marrying a Texas girl. In a letter dated August 1, 1885, Robert tells his brother that he has abandoned law and had "already written to Uncle James to that effect." (However, he takes up law again and ends up practicing law in Texas.) "I must get a position somewhere," he tells his brother. "I think all my friends except Mother think Texas the place for me.

"Her Spirit Took Its Flight"

Photo of Katie White Armstrong
The new year of 1885 began as usual at Edgewood, the Edward McCarty Armstrong farm near Salem, Virginia. The year had ended with the usual flurry of activities. In his last letter of 1884, Edward had written his son Baker, who was now in Texas, that he, Fanny, Nettie, Kate, and Charles had enjoyed a Christmas dinner in town with "Bro. Gibson," David Gibson Armstrong, Edward's oldest son of his first marriage. Mother Louisa describes a Christmas day spent as usual: "presents distributed among ourselves. Sallie, Janie & I remained at home while all the others went to dine at Gibson's." And both parents thank Baker for the money which he had sent them, along with his instructions to purchase oysters and crackers for their Christmas meal.

By January 10th, Mother was complaining to Baker that they had not received a letter from him since Christmas day--the post cards he had sent didn't count, as Mother wished for all the details of Baker's new life in Texas. In a letter posted January 21, 1885, Louisa writes her son again, a letter filled with family news. Edward, the girls, and Charles had been attending extended church services: "Mr. Gordon has had services nearly every day twice a day since last Sunday week in his church....Mr. Gaines has been preaching such earnest sermons." Edward was also filling his ice house ("We began to fear our season for ice had passed"), and various grandchildren were sick or recovering from illness. And, of course, Louisa included her motherly advice: "Do not fall in love just yet and mind when you do, it must be with a good Christian Presbyterian girl."

And there, toward the end of the letter,  is an offhand remark about the health of folks at Edgewood: "All well as usual at home, but Katie who has been very bilious."

Imagine, then, Baker Armstrong's horror when he receives this telegram shortly after his mother's letter, on January 27, 1885 [Click on the image for a magnified view]:

And then the heart-breaking letter from Edward, dated January 27th, arrives [I have regularized most of the punctuation]:

My Dear Baker
O my dear Son, as the Telegraph has informed you, your dear Sister Katie has gone. Her spirit took its flight last night at 9 O'clock & 20 min.

We are crushed by this terrible blow, but thanks be to our ever blessed Saviour, we are enabled to trust Him even in this crushing affliction, she was God's Child given to him by her parents and then ratified by her in giving herself to Him years ago, and he has taken his own to his blessed arms to be in his presence forever more. He has called her to blessed work for Him in Heaven, whilst it is hard for us to give up entirely the blessed darling of our Household but the Master calls and we must obey. She was a dear child to us, so loving, so kind, so obedient, so helpful, about the House and every where, so conscientious, such sterling principles, so much character, so dear in every sense, but, God has taken her to himself and our duty is to cultivate assignation to His Divine & Holy Will.

You will no doubt want to know all about the event which called her away. Mr. Gordon was holding a protracted meeting in Salem & she & Janie went down to attend it on Tuesday the 13th day of the month & was to return on Thursday to let Fannie & Nettie go down, but the sleet prevented, & they did not go down, or got home, until Friday. Katie complained much of her headache & backache when she started to Town but was so anxious to attend the meetings, that she went. She attended all the meetings but two, and came home much complaining on Friday. William [William Dillon Armstrong, Katie's and Baker's older half-brother] saw her & gave her some med. & thought she would be well in a day or two, but she did not get better & William sent her more med, and came out to see her on Tuesday the 20th. He treated her but did not think her case serious. That night he got a Telegram calling him to see Mrs. Robert Glasgow, who was critically ill. He went, supposing Katie would be all right when he returned, but for fear he might be mistaken, he saw Dr. Bruffy, before leaving, and Dr. Bruffy came up in his stead (when we sent for William next day). William returned Thursday night & he & Bruffy were with her every day, but nothing they could do seemed to arrest the disease. Delirium came on, and blood poisoning commenced and continued to the end and no remedy seemed to prove efficacious and she quietly & peacefully passed away last night at the time before mentioned. Her dissolution was very rapid. At dark I had no idea she would pass away during the night, but her strength gave way, and she breathed her last, O so peacefully & calmly, her life seemed to ebb away, just like the going out of a candle. Her delirium continued to the end. She knew us up to yesterday mid day, but imagined all the time she was away from Home. She called for her Mother the day before yesterday morning & looked at her with such a look & said, O Mother why don't you take me home. Last night when she declined to take the stimulant from William, I said, Katie, take it for Father, and she immediately opened her mouth and took it.

O my Son the dear girl has gone, and we can hardly believe our eyes when we see her laid out in the Parlor. She looks just as if she was sleeping, but cold in death, so sudden, so overwhelming we can hardly realize it.

She called so often for you, her mind seemed to be that you were home & she called often for you, also for Robert.

Maggie came up & remained with us & is still here and will stay with your Mother until after the funeral tomorrow. Margie came up just now. William will return and spend the night here. The funeral will take place from the House tomorrow at 11 O'clock and from the Church at 1 O'clock.

Pall bearers are Joe & Jimmie Hannah, Robert Logan, and John Chalmers. Mr. Gordon will have a short service at the House, and then the main service at the Church. Your Ma wishes the Children to put on mourning, and her wishes will be complied with and you will wear a mourning badge on your hat or person as may be usual where you are. And now dear Son I cannot write more. O how we all will miss the dear dear Child, but God's will be done. The Lord gave & the Lord hath taken [a]way, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Your Ma is greatly crushed by this blow, but the Lord is with her, & He will I hope give her strength & help from the Sanctuary and support her even in this great trial and affliction.

My Son, take up God's work here, engage in it with your heart and mind. Life is but short for any of us, and we know not the day nor the hour when He will take us too, to give account to Him of our stewardship on Earth.

May we both, and all of us, be as ready to heed the summons as dear little Katie was. So goodbye my dear Son, and may the Lord comfort you.
Yours Affectionately
EM Armstrong Sr.

[At the end of the letter is a note from Baker's mother, written in pencil]
My Dear Boy
My heart feels for you knowing what a blow this is to you as to all of us. May God make it the means of drawing you nearer to Him. Oh live and labor for him & God grant we may be an undivided family with Jesus. Pray for us.
your loving
Mother

Baker was far from family in Texas when Katie died, but in an earlier letter, Louisa mentions Gus Finley, with whom Baker seems to be rooming in Bryan, Texas. Gus might have been a friend from Virginia who accompanied him to Texas. [Later note: Another letter from Baker's mother this year indicates that Louisa had not met Gus Finley, so perhaps Finley was an acquaintance Baker made after he had moved to Bryan, Texas, near the end of 1884.]

A few weeks after Katie's death, Louisa has gathered enough strength to write Baker of her loss, in a letter dated February 18, 1885:

My Dear Baker,
I must write a few lines to you this morning. Your Postal just received. Your letter to Robert came in due time and we all thank you for the $15. Your Father had no money to buy the girls nice dresses & Robert advanced him the money and he got Gibson to order them from Balt [Baltimore]. The $15 we just paid back to Robert. He has so little money left--is making nothing now but is preparing we hope to make some in the future. He is still here; but talks of leaving next week, says he cannot study as well here. [Robert was studying law at the time] We will miss him so much. He has been, oh! such a comfort to us. What would we have done without him in our loneliness.

Oh my boy--you do not know how we miss our loved one--every where and in everything. Our pleasures all have a drawback when we remember she is not here to share them. In the dining room & at the table in my room, all the preserves & catsup & everything in housekeeping; even to making a cup of tea--everything reminds us of the precious child and she is gone, never more to come in among us. It is hard indeed to give her up. It was so sudden and such a shock. When I go on the porch and see the chickens my heart aches. She took such interest in them, doctoring the sick ones & attending to all. We would laugh at her concern for them sometime (even crying once in her concern) & she would say, "Well I ought to put my whole heart in what I do." & she did. She was so conscientious in every thing.

My dear child, I feel sometimes if she could only come & put her head on my lap (as she used to do & I would say, "Now my baby wants to be petted"), I would hold her to my heart. But this is sinful to want her back to this world where she would have to battle with sin & sorrow & now she is free from all that. But our human hearts do yearn to see her & have her & we cannot but grieve.

Three weeks today since her body was taken from her earthly home to rest in the cold earth. When I feel like murmuring, I think I ought not to murmur; but thank my God over & over for the hope we have. Oh what would I do without that. "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift" through whom she was redeemed. Dear child, she had given herself to him some years ago, not hurriedly but after much thought & her life proved that she was indeed his. I have always felt that if one of my dear ones should die out of Christ, it would almost run me wild.

Dear little Charles was concerned upon the subject of religion before her death and that seemed to fix his mind. He called me in the little room before he went to communion last Sunday week & said, "Mother, it seems as if Katie's death was for some good. It has made me think." I told him just to think how she was rejoicing in Heaven that day over him. May God keep my precious child & consecrate him to his service. Tell me, Baker, are you in the Sabbath School. My dear boy, "live only for eternity."

Robert has gone to town today--will be back to-morrow. Your Father was not well last week--complained of pain in his side when he took a long breath. Although he did not feel sick. We became uneasy & sent for William who came up & spent Friday night. He said it was more neuralgia or cold in the muscle & dry cupped him. He is relieved now & seems well as usual. All the rest as usual. I sent a paper containing Katie's obituary written by Mr. Gordon.

Louisa adds a final paragraph in pencil of a few details about the family before closing this heart-rending letter. These powerfully written words of sorrow seem as fresh now as I read them as they must have been when Baker Armstrong first read them almost 125 years ago.  Louisa kept a talisman of her daughter's death in her Bible, the obituary she mentioned in her letter to Baker. There on the inside cover of her Bible were daily reminders of her sorrows: her youngest daughter's death and, in the record she kept on the opposite page, her oldest son's travels away from the family home.

Letter describing the death of Katie White Armstrong--
Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr., to his son Baker White Armstrong
January 27, 1885

 

 

 

 

1884: The Fun Back Home

At the beginning of 1884, Baker White Armstrong (later, Sr.) is still in Baltimore, Maryland, but family papers provide hints that change is in the air.  At the end of 1883, we learn that he was unable to return to Salem to be with his family for Christmas. But the family letters keep coming. Just after the New Year, Robert writes his brother a letter on January 4th (I have added paragraphs to make the letter easier to read):

Dear Old Bake,
It seems to me like a month of Sundays since I last wrote to you or heard from you. But, I have been kept very busy for the past two weeks, & really have not had time to write you. I wrote to Cousin Will a day or so ago. He sent me a copy of "Peck's Bad Boy" for Xmas & I was afraid that, if I did not write, he would think I did not appreciate it. So snatched enough time to write to him. I think the cravat you sent me is one of the prettiest I ever saw--it is such a beautiful, rich color & such handsome material-- & I assure you I appreciate it very highly. I have been wishing for a long time that I could step into some Balto house and buy a stylish cravat (since we cannot get the new styles out here) and the one you sent is just such an one as I wanted.

I believe you said you rec'd a "bid" to the "New H" entertainment on Xmas night. Well, Bake, I tell you it was a "Soxdologer"! I was there, you can rest assured & I don't think I ever enjoyed a thing of the kind more. Nearly all the young people in town were there--[unreadable] them a great many that I never saw at Longwood [the home of the Perry Nugent family] before--for instance, Pinky Broker, Mary Smead, [unreadable name] & her sister Jennie & others that I can't now think of. We staid there until nearly 3 O clock in the morning & then went home to sleep & suffer the next day for our dissipation. I certainly wish you could have been there. Don't forget--if you have not already done so--to write to Miss McN & thank her for your "bid." By the way, John C. [Chalmers] was not there, having gone on to "wait on [unreadable name] & Mrs Ferguson did something that night--which surprised me & made me feel sorry for her. You know that the whole Chalmers family seem to be helping John do his "courting." It so happened that night that I was in a good humor & got along splendidly with Miss Mary. Well, during the evening, Mrs. Ferguson called me to her & whispered to me that I "had better make time tonight";  for John is away, you know.' & proceeded to try to convince me that I was glad of it. I declined to state what I think of this remark of hers, but will say this much--if you don't think it was execrable taste on her part (considering how matters stand & what Madame Rumor says) then you differ very very widely with me.

On New Year's night they ("New H's") gave a Leap Year Reception at Longwood, & we boys had a regular picnic. The gentlemen & ladies exchanged places "for that night only"--the ladies bestowing all the attention upon us while we sat back in our chairs & languidly received them. The ladies wrote notes to the gentlemen requesting their company. Miss Annie Terrill wrote to me & I condescended (?) to grant her the pleasure (?) of escorting me there. I like her splendidly, & am glad I was so fortunate as to secure her for my escort. There was a large crowd present & you bet we boys enjoyed the novelty of having the girls "set up" to us. Bake, it would have tickled you half to death to have seen Joe Hannah & Bob Logan trying to personate modest, timid girls. I was so much amused by the expression on Bob Logan's face that I called Miss Mary N's [Mary Nugent--Baker marries her in 1892, but as of yet they are not courting] attention to it by pointing to him & asking the name of that "handsome modest young lady (we boys were all ladies that night you know) with the long tails & black coat & rather masculine voice" and as soon as she looked at him, she fairly howled. A crowd of boys came up from Roanoke to attend the party & seemed to enjoy it very much. Joe Hannah said he "couldn't be any lady--this doggoned thing was boring him nearly to death."

Well, Bake I won't attempt a description of these parties for I am writing hurriedly tonight--& am not in a descriptive mood. On last Thursday Bob Logan stopped at the store in his buggy & asked me if I didn't want to go down to Fincastle with him. I "rolled in" & we went. We came back to Salem the next evening (Friday) at about a quarter past seven O'clock. I enjoyed the trip no little. We stayed over night at Mr. Copeland's--about half a mile from Amsterdam--& were very kindly & pleasantly entertained. When we reached Amsterdam we found the whole Copeland family at a Church Fair which was in progress there and, of course, we had to stop & bestow our smiles & dimes upon them while waiting for the Copelands to go home. Bake, that Fair was one of the richest things of the kind I ever struck & Bob Logan & myself are enjoying it yet. The girls would tackle some poor fellow & show him some bit of fancy work, then ask him to buy, then insist upon his buying, then beg & entreat & finally would try to scare him into it. They resorted to every device they could think of, & generally came out successful, I believe. If one of them should tackle a fellow, he might as well take one long, lingering look at his "sinking funds" & hand them over. However, one girl there "ran against the snag," so to express it. She tackled some poor young fellow who was standing near her & commenced trying to sell him something. He endured it as long as he could and finally, when forbearance ceased to be a virtue, turned to her & told her that "if she didn't let him alone, she would make him curse directly!" She "let him alone."

The next morning Bob & myself drove over to Fincastle. Saw all the Glasgows except Will who is at Wash. & Lee University. Did I enjoy seeing Miss Bettie? For answer, I refer you to Bob Logan.

Bob & Frank are doing very well in their professions. Bob's wife presented him with a Xmas present in the way of a small daughter which was born on Xmas morning. He has now two children--a boy & a girl.

Bake, I suppose you enjoyed your trip to Martinsburg? You must have been most agreeably surprised at the sight of John A. Metcalf. He is still here though I do not know how soon he may leave. As I sit here writing of him, my thoughts are going back to the time when you, Clive & Fritz & the other boys used to have so much fun & it makes me feel "kind'er" sad to think of it.

I went into the Drug Store tonight & the same old crowd continues to loaf there. The checker board was in full blast. I think Sam Parrish & Phil Reed were playing while I was there. Wouldn't you like to tackle them again? But, I don't want to make you "homesick" so will stop this kind of talk. Hannah left here yesterday morning for Lynchburg to resume her school duties. You just bet your boots we all enjoyed her visit home. I expect I enjoyed her holiday as much as she did. I think she is one of the dearest little girls I ever saw & it would do you good to see into what a noble woman she bids fair to develop.

I am kept very busy now at the store with my January work--drawing off [accounts?]. Have been writing a great deal during the past few days & you can well imagine that I am ready to stop. Well, Bake, I don't feel as if I have said anything in this letter when I think of all I would like to tell you; but, it is getting late & I must close. The Dictionary & candy you sent home were about the most acceptable things you could have sent. Sister H. says she appreciates the Kiss you sent her more than anything else you could have selected. She is certainly a noble woman. When you can find time, write her a short letter--I know she would appreciate very highly. Well, good night.
Yr Aff Bro.
R. A.

As this letter suggests, Robert and Baker Armstrong were very close. Eventually, they would both move to Texas, but when this letter was written, Robert was evidently still in Salem, Virginia, working at the family drugstore. The other letters we have that Robert wrote his brother this year are just as familiar, descriptive, and breezy. Their mother, Louisa, realized just how close her two oldest boys were and encouraged that brotherly connection. Later that same month, on January 29th, she writes Baker that Robert visited the family often:

He is a noble boy, has such firm, decided principles, has his trials, too. I do wish so much you could be together. You must settle in life together.

She also provides news of family members: "Some of Hannah's children have the whooping cough" but William's children are well.

Your Father is well and sends his love. He sits in the dining room, by the side of his nice wood fire, during the winter weather, reading the papers (when he has them) and other things.

 Baker's sister Kate writes in March that she hopes that the rock someone found on "our big hill the other day" would turn out to be iron ore. Robert had taken the rock to town to Mr. Chapman to get him to examine it. "Don't you wish our hill could prove to be full of iron ore?" Katie exclaims "and then our fortunes would be made." Kate's comment is a reminder of how iron ore mining, as well as coal mining, became big business in the South just before and after the Civil War.

In March, Robert writes that the river had been so high that he couldn't get one of Baker's letters to the family outside Salem in time for Baker's request for advice from their father. Baker evidently had a plan for a move to improve his prospects. And then Robert adds details that provide insight into the family:

Am glad you did not allow Uncle to think you wanted any of his money to operate on. He has not treated father as a brother should and I would see his money rot before I would consent to borrow one cent from him, as matters now stand. Bro. G. has not recommenced drinking, but is still leading a perfectly sober life & I sincerely trust will continue to do so. If he continues himself to attend to his business, I think probably he can manage to extricate himself from the very awkward predicament into which I think he has allowed himself to be placed. But, should he again commence his drinking & keep it up, I fear he will "go under." Now, Bake, this is Sub Rosa of course & I hope you will immediately destroy this letter that no other eyes than yours may possibly see what I have written.

Obviously, Baker did not destroy this letter, and here I am, revealing online Robert Armstrong's confidences to his brother. It does make me a little queasy even though over a hundred years have passed since the Armstrongs put pen to paper to write their beloved brother and son of all he was missing in his absence from "Edgewood," the family home,  in 1884.

The day after Christmas, December 26, 1884, Edward McCarty Armstrong and his wife write Baker of the holiday activities he had missed since he was then in Bryan, Texas.  "The only regret," Edward muses, "was that you could not be present with us to enjoy Xmas. This is the first Xmas that you & Robt were both absent."

Little did the family know how the next year was going to present a much more sorrowful regret than the absence of two sons from the family home during a holiday.

The second page of Edward M. Armstrong's letter to his son Baker, December 26, 1884.

Armstrong Family Resemblances

The first three of these photographs have been identified as Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr., my husband's great-great grandfather. The resemblances between the photos are very strong, so strong that they seem indeed to be the same person.

Then who are these men who also seem to resemble Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr? Is the first one a younger Edward McCarty Armstrong. Sr?

I suspect this last one is that of one of Edward's oldest sons, perhaps David Gibson Armstrong or William Dillon Armstrong. However, it's impossible to tell for sure because people didn't write identifying marks on the backs of these photographs.

Too Many Edwards, Too Many Unidentified Faces

There are many problems associated with trying to organize and to make narrative sense of the boxes of family photos, letters, and other ephemera that my husband and his sister inherited after Mimi (great-aunt Mary Ophelia Nugent Armstrong) and, shortly thereafter, Mary (mother, Mary Nugent Robb Greene) and George (father, George Nystrom Greene) died. One is that all members except one of the older generations of this family are dead, and that one, an aunt recuperating from health issues in a Texas nursing home, was less interested in family history than her younger sister, Mary. So there is really no one to turn to for supporting information. Most of the people in the photos are not identified, and when they are, there are scattered duplicate photos with just one with identification. So I have to go through all the photographs looking for that one photo where someone is identified and then to match that photo with other photos in which that person's image might appear. I also look for other clues on the photographs, such as where the photograph was taken, if those clues are present. Photos taken in Bryan, Texas, are most likely people associated with Baker and Robert Armstrong after they moved to Texas. Photos taken in New Orleans are more than likely friends or extended family of the Nugents and etc. (However, since Perry Nugent's family also lived several years in Salem, VA, there are photos of Nugent family members taken by photographers of that city, too.)

Another problem is that family names occur over and over each generation, so if a photograph has, for example, the name "Edward McCarty Armstrong" on the back of it, the question remains: Which Edward? Dates and age of the photos offer clues, but, then one generation of Armstrongs had at least two Edwards. Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr., named one of his sons Edward McCarty Armstrong (Jr). Edward, Junior, married to Margaret Moore Logan, named one of HIS sons Edward McCarty. And ANOTHER one of Edward Senior's sons, David Gibson Armstrong, named one of HIS sons Edward McCarty. So there were two Edward McCarty Armstrongs in the same generation who were first cousins to one another and who were also nephews of Baker White Armstrong, Sr.. Confusing?

Before I began reading the family letters and became more familiar with the Armstrong family tree, I came across this obituary for an Edward McCarty Armstrong. Click on all images for a larger view.

Fortunately, the obituary names the parents of THIS Edward McCarty Armstrong: David Gibson Armstrong and his wife Hannah. When Baker and Robert moved to Texas, other Armstrong relatives followed, including this Edward McCarty Armstrong, Baker's nephew. The only dates on this obituary are handwritten and identify the days, not the year, the obituaries (there are several) were published, Oct. 8 in the Houston Post and October 10 in the Press. However, I did a little online searching and found the Texas Physicians Historical Biographical Database, which listed Dr. E. M. Armstrong's birth as 1870 and his death as 1940. Baker W. Armstrong was but twelve years older than his nephew, the son of his older half-brother, David Gibson. So now there are more clues for the photographs. I can compare photographs that seem to have been taken around the same time and compare the ages of folks in one photograph with ages of folks in photographs taken about the same time and in the same place or by the same photographer. I can look at photographs accompanying obituaries and try to find the younger visage of that person in the earlier family photographs.

I look at the old face of Dr. Edward McCarty Armstrong, a physician for 45 years in Houston, Texas, and wonder, is that his face, too, in this photograph of three young men? I think so. The young man standing must be he.

Then who are the other two young men? After retrieving this photograph from the boxes of unidentified persons, I found another of the young man sitting on the right. On the back of that photograph is written these words: "Uncle Chas. Armstrong, Papa's youngest brother." This must be Charles Magill Armstrong at about ten or eleven years of age. 

And does that face match the face of an older Charles Magill in this photograph with a friend? (Charles Magill is on the right. Handwriting on the back of the photograph identifies both Charles and his friend.)

And who is the third young man in the photograph of three boys?

This week, while going through Mary's old steamer trunk, I opened a small packet of photographs, on which these words were written: "Uncle Paul Nugent, Mother's brother." Inside were several small photographs of Paul Cook Nugent as a baby and as an older boy. Here is one. Does the face here not resemble the young man seated at left in the photograph of three young boys?

When I first saw the photograph of the three boys, I assumed that they must have been brothers. But the evidence suggests otherwise.  And if the three boys in the photograph are, indeed, Paul Nugent; Edward McCarty Armstrong, son of David Gibson Armstrong; and Charles Magill Armstrong, son of Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr.--what was the occasion for the photograph? See how the questions continue? Answer one and another one appears.

And, finally, who is this young man? Another photograph that I found in an album created by Baker Robb, my husband's uncle, identifies him as "Edward McCarty Armstrong." Which Edward? Well, I think he must be Dr. Edward McCarty Armstrong, son of David Gibson Armstrong and Hannah Gibson Armstrong, the younger version of the old man in the obituary.

Baker W. Armstrong: "You have a desire for roaming"

As brothers Baker and Robert Armstrong grew into young adulthood, they began casting about for lucrative jobs. For years they had evidently worked in the mercantile and druggist business, associated with the grocery store and pharmacy owned by their older half-brothers David Gibson Armstrong and William Dillon Armstrong. Their father's choices after the Civil War did not lead to the money-making enterprise Edward had hoped for, and the boys felt increasingly responsible for the family. Both boys had probably attended Roanoke College, for among the family papers are references to that college. (And if the amount of material here were not so overwhelming, I could put my finger on those references. I'll post more information later. ) But I am taking up the story here after Robert and Baker were finished with school and looking for employment. Various letters from druggist and mercantile businesses suggest that Baker was looking for opportunities elsewhere. The image above (click on it for a better view) is a reproduction of a note sent to William Dillon Armstrong from a wholesale druggist in Baltimore, Maryland. This was most likely a person with whom William Armstrong did some regular business, for he evidently had written Thomsen & Muth a letter of introduction for his younger half-brother, Baker.

Three months later, February 15, 1881, Baker received a letter from his Uncle James Dillon Armstrong (lawyer who served in the Virginia Senate before the Civil War and later became Judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit of West Virginia) which indicates that Baker had thought of pursuing medicine:

I am much pleased with your desire to be a physician but I doubt if your plan of becoming a commercial traveller for a Drug House in Baltimore is the best. You will lose time by it, and you have none to lose. Would it not be better to stay awhile longer with the Dr. and study all you can. How much will it cost for you to attend the lectures as long as you and the Dr. think necessary, and how much of that will you have. Let me know. I am anxious you should get to practicing as quick as possible. I wish you were ready to come here now. There is a fine opening.

Baker seems not to have followed his uncle's advice, according to all the clues in the family papers, for some time in 1883, he moved to Baltimore and found work there with George B. Seal, Druggist. That he continued to desire a position where he could make more money is apparent in the letters exchanged with his brother Robert.  What placed Baker on the course he was to take, as a druggist and as a traveling wholesaler? We can't know for sure, but perhaps there is a clue in a letter he received from a friend whose identity may forever remain a mystery, for the letter is signed simply: "your most sincere friend, B. R. A." The letter is dated January 29, 1881, and it's written on paper with this letterhead: Office of J. C. Russell & Co., Wholesale Grocers, Agents for Laflin & Rand Powder Co. and the Celebrated Kelley Plows, Clarksville, Texas.

My Dear Friend
I have just received your letter and being at leisure just at present I will give you an example of promptitude. Words can scarcely express the pleasure your letter afforded me. If you will send me yours I will see if I can find you a photo. I perceive from your letter, you have a desire for roaming, a feeling every young man has at our age. If you should chance to ever wander this way, you must be shure (sic) to stop in our little burg. I sometimes wish you were with me, in some of my trips on horseback across the state which is I believe about 500 miles square. I have crossed it east and west on different routes four times. Going on horseback is the only way to learn the true caracter (sic) and disposition of the people and it is said they are peculiar. I have almost quit hunting. While I was travling last summer I bought a one 1/2 and 1/2 blud (sic) and red bone hound that would run horse cow or man or anything else.

Before I left the farm I cought (sic) nineteen coons and about 52 opossums and other varmints. He is the best dog I ever saw, can trail a track 24 hours old.

Jack is well and doing well & sends his kindest greetings. I am the green clerk at present but have not entirely quit the cattle business. Yet I remain as ever
your most sincere friend

The letter writer and Baker were obviously acquainted. Were they related, too? Whatever the relationship between the two, it is tempting to conclude that perhaps this letter planted the seed for Baker's leaving Virginia for Texas, for by the end of 1884, Baker White Armstrong was in Bryan, Texas.

 

Photo of drugstore--may be the one in which Baker worked in Bryan, Texas

 

Click on images for larger view

Armstrong Letters: "If only you were here now..."

Baker White Armstrong, son of Edward McCarty and Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong, 1883

Search Google for "Eutaw Place, Baltimore, Maryland," and you will get responses that include information about the Victorian architecture of an historical area of the city. One website about Baltimore describes an area of the city that is "one of the most architecturally distinguished late nineteenth to early twentieth century neighborhoods in Baltimore City." In the future, I may research those streets as they appeared in 1883, when Baker White Armstrong (Sr.) lived there. He was twenty-four to twenty-five years old at the time, working for George B. Seal, Druggist, at the end of 1883, which we know because he received in December of that year a Christmas card from his niece Eliza, and that card was addressed to Baker's place of work. And we know the address of his place of abode because letters from family are addressed to Baker at 453 Eutaw Place, Baltimore, Maryland. Baker had family living there, his cousin William Armstrong (son of William and Susan White Armstrong). In previous years, Baker had worked at his half-brother's store, learning the trade of a druggist, and now, here he is, more or less on his own, working for a druggist in Baltimore, Maryland. And the family at "Edgewood" near Salem, Virginia, miss his presence.  We have the letters to prove it.

Here in the bulging manila folder is a letter with the heading: St. Valentine's Day, Edgewood, Feb. 14, 1883. "My Dear Sons (BW and Robt)," the letter begins, and so we know that Robert, too, is in Baltimore. It is a family letter, with an entry from each family member remaining at Edgewood, beginning with Father, Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr..  Mother writes next, then Sallie (who must be Sarah Elizabeth Armstrong, the youngest child of Edward's first marriage to Hannah Pancake--Sallie is often a nickname for Sarah, and in later letters, "Sallie" includes S. E. A. in her signature), then Fannie, then Janie, then Biddy (which must be a nickname for Nettie, though in later letters Nettie signs her name as "Nettie), then Katie, and finally, in huge, childish, cursive letters, Charlie.

Father says:

We all miss you much, we long for your letters, which we think are few, and far between. We have been pretty much isolated since the small pox scare, and our thoughts travel to you, do write often to us. The winter has broken, & we begin to look forward to the planting, trimming, pruning, and to long for the sight of the beautiful flowers and green fields. I must stop now, & give room to others, as this is to be the family letter.  Your Affectionate Father, EM Armstrong, Sr.

Here we get an initial impression of Father's voice, affectionate and focused on the changing of the seasons as those seasons affect the production of the farm. Then Mother, Louisa Tapscott Armstrong, writes:

My Dear Boys,
Kate received Robt's letter to-day & we were glad to hear from you. Think much of & wish often for you. Baker, as you have no business to attend to, you ought to write twice a week to us. Let us hear about the situation talked about with Canby, Gilpin & Co.. We are still quietly moving along at Edgewood, except the bustling about the cooking, house cleaning &c. If you were here now, we could give you nice bread, good butter & fresh eggs. The weather has been so mild and spring like, that my thoughts are beginning to turn towards my flower bed. None of us have been to town yet. No new cases of small pox in town. The Beemers have come home; but we steer clear of them. Will write again soon. Tell Sister I will write to her very soon. Take care of yourselves in every way. Your devoted Mother.

Again and again, as the years pass, Mother Louisa scolds Baker to write more often. She provides news of home as well as advice. In letters written later that year to Baker, Louisa asks Baker to gather flower seeds for her in a garden near where he lives.

Sister "Sallie," most likely Sarah Elizabeth Armstrong, the youngest child from Edward's first marriage to Hannah Pancake, writes next in the family letter. Sallie's writing has a breezy tone that shows up again in later letters, which are full of details of the household and the community. In this letter of Valentine's Day, 1883, she writes of Charles' taking her on a ride to "the top of the hill in front of the Tobacco House, from which he showed me Salem, and he entertained me far better than any of Salem's beaux (that I know)." Fannie, the oldest child of Edward and Louisa, describes the activities "going on inside the mansion today"--the ironing and butter churning, the short rides, the lessons (Charles "does not do full duty in that respect since his vaccination"), the dish-washing and bread-making.

Janie describes the dressing that she has to put on her injured arm (but no details as to how or why it is injured) and then provides a lively narrative  of her and "Sister's" attempt at plucking a chicken:

Well, I must tell you about Sister's & my experience in picking & dressing a chicken & Turkey. The day after Milly left (one of the servants) Ma wanted chicken so sister & I undertook the picking of it etc & you may imagine what a new thing it was to us but it was nice when it was finished. Week before last we undertook a Turkey & I wish you could have seen it. Pa killed it & in picking it we pulled about half of the skin off  & nearly pulled its legs off & tore it so badly that we had to take a needle and thread & sew it up before basting it but it tasted good too. Mrs. Goodwin was down the day we roasted it & she was very much amused when she saw it & offered to come down & help us in any way she could.

Nettie writes that she has just come from the ironing and is afraid her imagination will be heated. Then she tells this story:

Pa heard the other day that Mr. Lindsay had died of the small pox and we were all expressing our sorrow for Miss Lindsay when lo and behold! a letter came to Mr. Elliot from Mr. Lindsay himself, saying they all "had their health" mighty well--so much for small pox reports!

Katie and Charles, the two youngest, are the last to write. Katie tells Baker that he will be glad that she has been "using [his] Shakespeare" and that she has read Macbeth and will "commence Hamlet tomorrow." She also provides the first hint for us of bigger troubles in the family. In a letter to his father, James Armstrong, a son from Edward's first marriage, had described how he was not regaining his strength, that he could not stand any excitement, and that he might have to give up preaching for a while. If he doesn't get better, Katie tells Baker, James (and Agnes, his wife) will be staying with them during the summer. Later letters to Baker indicate that this is what occurred. "Jimmie" returns to Edgewood with Agnes and continues to worsen, with only a good day or two when he takes a short ride into town with brother William. By the end of that summer, he has died, leaving a pregnant widow. (His son, James, is born in October.)

Finally, the letter ends in the large handwriting of Charles, who is ten years old. (He celebrates his eleventh birthday that year on June 2nd). Charles tells Baker that he has been out riding; that after neglecting to check his traps for three or four days, he found  a dead rabbit in one; that small pox is going around town; and that his "vaccination took splendidly."

This family letter serves as a template for many of the letters that follow in the year 1883--and even beyond: descriptions of "the doings" at home for the benefit of the loved one living in a distant city; the details of illnesses, diseases, and deaths that seem to occur with great regularity; the gossip about local families; the descriptions of seasons and the crops that never seem to produce as much as expected; the nagging for more letters and the worry that the absence of those letters means the loved one may be ill, perhaps seriously; the advice of parents who are very religious and fear that their sons might be tempted by "worldliness."

And so, the year 1883: Baker White Armstrong is living in Baltimore, Maryland, working for a druggist but continuing to cast about for more lucrative business. Robert is there for a while but then returns home and works in Salem or Roanoke. Charles Magill Armstrong celebrates his 11th birthday with his nephew Glasgow (son of his much older half-brother William Dillon and Margaret Glasgow Armstrong). Edward McCarty Armstrong and Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary (October 23, 1883: "We have had our trials" she writes her son Baker, "but how many mercies."). Rains delay the wheat planting; drought prevents the seed from sprouting quickly. Scarlet fever rages through Salem, and "the people are much scared up about it." The family manages to get new servants: "Pokey Price, in the house, & Adeline Man a cook, milker & general maid of all work." Jimmie (James Armstrong, youngest son of Edward McCarty Armstrong and Hannah Pancake) dies.

Just before Christmas, Edward writes a letter to his son Baker strongly advising him not to drink. He asks Baker to take a pledge:

You ask me to state exactly what pledge I wish you to renew, To abstain from drinking wine or spirits or fermented Liquor for 5 years more. [Letters from  years beyond 1883 reveal that David Gibson Armstrong drank too much, and the family was distressed by his subsequent troubles.]

The family is disappointed that Baker does not come home for Christmas.

"I could not help thinking of you all day": The Beginning of the Armstrong letters

Here in a bulging manila folder on my desk are 95 or 96 letters written by various members of Edward McCarty Armstrong's family, from 1878-1889. Most of these letters are addressed to Baker White Armstrong, Sr., my husband's and sister-in-law's great-grandfather, although a few are addressed to Baker's brother Robert and a couple are addressed to both young men. For young men they were then. Baker was born in 1858, and his brother shortly thereafter, so these letters span their twenties and thirties when they were trying to find their way in the world. Baker and Robert were sons of Edward and his second wife Louisa Tapscott White, a marriage that produced seven children, three boys and four daughters: Fannie, Baker, Robert, Jane, Nettie, Kate, and Charles. And the letters reveal how much these family members depended upon one another as well as the great affection they all had for one another. The children from the first marriage are often mentioned as well, for when Louisa married the widowed Edward, the children of Edward and Hannah Pancake were all under twenty years of age, and the youngest daughter of that first marriage was still at home in 1878, at "Edgewood," the farm Edward had purchased after the Civil War.

One history of Romney, West Virginia, where Edward McCarty Armstrong had lived more prosperously before the Civil War, describes the life of Edward after the Civil War as one lived in "genteel poverty." The letters reveal the details of that poverty while the writers of the letters struggled to maintain the gentility of a more prosperous time. The family increasingly turned to Baker and Robert to help out monetarily. The two boys went out into the world seeking employment beyond their older half-brothers' mercantile and drug businesses, to Baltimore, Maryland; Roanoke and Salem, Virginia; and, finally, to Texas. During that time the Armstrong family was to suffer one sorrowful blow after another, all shared in letters from "Edgewood," from the "affectionate" father and the "loving" mother.

Edward generally closed his letters to his sons with Yours Affty [Affectionately], EM Armstrong, Sr, or Your Affectionate Father, EM Armstrong, Sr. Louisa always closed hers with your loving Mother. However, in the first letter Edward wrote Baker and Robert after their mother's death, Edward closed with Your loving Father, as if he had taken on something of his wife's spirit in her passing.  Here, however, we will begin with two letters that Louisa wrote on July 30th  and July 31st, 1878. Because the letters are separated from their mailing envelopes, I cannot tell where the letters originated, but Louisa is evidently not at home. The first letter is addressed to Baker and has what looks like "R. B. S. Springs" written at the top of the first page. It seems that Louisa is there, away from home, perhaps at a hot springs to recuperate from an illness. With her are at least two of her children, Fannie, the oldest, and Charles, the youngest.

My Dear Baker
We received your interesting letter by your Pa & were quite entertained. We look regularly every night for news from home & I find that we have used nearly all our papers & stamps. This certainly is no place for me to come for pleasure; but I feel better and stronger and I do sincerely hope I may be much more benefitted. I am so tired [of] moping about. We have made some acquaintances here; but the people you meet here are very different from those I admire. It has been raining here a good deal for several days; but I enjoy that kind of weather more than the bright hot suns (sic). We are looking for you and Jane on Thursday; but as you have to return that night, be sure to start very early. Get your Pa or the Dr. to let you off.

The letter continues with instructions about what clothes Jane is to wear on the trip and about what Louisa wants her son to bring with him for Fanny. In addition, she relays messages that Charles wants to give to his older brother. At the end of the letter she mentions that the ride takes three hours, so perhaps  someone who wanted to do the geographical research could make some educated guesses as to where Louisa was staying at the time. The letter also suggests that Baker was working at the time for "the Dr.," probably a druggist at his older, half- brother's store.


The letter that Louisa writes her husband the next day is a bit more worried, as these excerpts reveal:

My Dear Husband
I hope you reached home safely on yesterday and did not get wet. We missed you so, and especially after supper; we did not have you to chat with us, as we sat on the porch. I could not help thinking of you all day and troubled to see you so much depressed. It seems to me you are more so, than when I left home. Do throw off of your mind as much as possible those worrying matters and cheer up.

That there was something troubling the family is suggested in the following lines, where Louisa refers to "Jimmie," that is, James Armstrong, one of Edward's older sons by his first wife, Hannah:

I feel about as usual today. I think I will write to Jimmie this week. I am afraid I might say something I ought not.

Later we will learn much more about the sorrows and joys of the family of Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr., and Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong, who are represented in the photographs at the top of this post. Handwriting that is most likely their granddaughter's,  that of Baker's oldest daughter, Katharine Armstrong, appears on the back of these photographs, identifying the images as "Grandfather Armstrong" and "Grandmother Armstrong." A stamp and handwriting on Edward's photo indicates that it was taken on April 13, 1866. For a better view, click on the photos.