LEFT FOR TEXAS: "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.