Giving Thanks: "What Kind & Loving Hearts"

In previous posts, I have described how brothers Robert and Baker Armstrong felt obligated to help their parents and siblings who remained in Virginia. Over the family's letter-writing history, from the 1880s to the death of Baker in 1937, family members wrote notes of thanks to their benefactors. Among those early thank-yous is that of Fannie Armstrong's of October 16, 1886. That year, Robert and Baker evidently paid for sisters Fannie and Janie to take a trip to Lynchburg as well as to supply corrective lenses for Fannie's poor eyesight. ("Lynchburg's Centennial celebration was held October 12 - 15, 1886, in conjunction with the Agricultural Fair.") Fannie's letter follows:

My Dear Brothers,
Mother is writing to one of you and will give you the particulars of Janie's and my trip to Lynchburg but I want to write a few lines myself to thank you again for putting it in my power to take this trip.

We both enjoyed the trip & what we saw of the fair, but above all I was so very thankful to have something done for my eyes. I think I have hardly waked up yet to the fact that I have really had them examined and have [unreadable] to hope for their improvement.

Dr. Baker says he thinks these glasses will relieve me much but can't say that I will be entirely relieved because I have so much neuralgia. Says I must wear them constantly at least for some time. Won't I be interesting looking?

He was very pleasant & kind and only charged me $5.00 for glasses & all that seemed marvelously cheap to me and I thought perhaps for your sake he did not charge me quite as much as he would others but I do not know. He met us at the depot & had us driven to Mrs. Maree's in a nice carriage, paying expenses--would not hear to our doing it. I can hardly write at all with this ink but Mother has been using the other & I did not know either that it was much better--Would write over but for my eyes. Mother told you that Janie went with me & we came back with a little over six dollars. Don't you think that was doing well? I am going to put away $5.00 for fear that I may need more for my eyes--may find the glasses do not quite suit & may have to write to Dr. Baker about them again.  Mrs. Maree was very kind, too--so that we got along very well--

I must not write more but hope before long to be able to write you oftener & better letters--The Dr. says the glasses will try my eyes at first--& I had better not use them for teaching for a while. One of the girls will teach Charles. I must not write more--hope you can read. With much love for you both and many thanks again,
Yours lovingly
Fan

With this letter, we can probably conclude that in the photo above of Fannie and Nettie Armstrong, the two Armstrong sisters who never married, the one on the left, wearing glasses, is Fannie.

On September 18th, a month previous to Fannie's letter above, Mother (Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong) wrote a letter to Robert including extended thanks for Robert's and Baker's support of their father.:

Suppose before you receive this you will have received your Father's letter. It grieves me  that he has to call on you boys for so much money, but what can he do when he is so pressed? ....It is his hands that most of his bill have been made for, not his family except for groceries-- $25 would pay off Enoch, John, Miranda, & Adeline every month & I proposed he would get you to advance him that much so he would not have to make bills--but now this trouble comes on & you cannot do that.  If he could only sell his fruit well, he might make a little. He is more & more anxious to sell. Old Nell's neck had to be lanced on the other side, a week or so ago & he cannot use her for a long time. He has had Gibson's horse here for several weeks, but I do not know what he can do about keeping him. Poor old man. I do feel for him that he should be so worried in his old days. But we both have so much cause for thankfulness that we have such sons who are so willing to aid & comfort. May God indeed bless and keep you both.

Months later, in a letter dated April 26, 1887, Father Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr., again thanks his sons in a letter to Baker:

Dear Baker, Your letter enclosing P.O. [unreadable] for $55 came to hand on Sunday the 24th. [F]or your prompt response to my request, you will both accept my thanks, $45 of this I have placed to your credit, $8 for photo & $2 for Charles own use to be expended by him as he pleases.

I and the family thank you for the present of dear Katie's Photo, we have not yet received it, but suppose it will come in due time. I will heed your instructions as to the [unreadable] before taking it from [the] Express Office, will reject the Picture if not satisfactory when it comes.

You dear boys, what kind & loving hearts you have, and how much you do contribute to our happiness & support. I do not know what I would have done for the last two years, but for the assistance you have [rendered?] us all. We bless the Lord for all you are, to us all.

These examples of thanks are the few of many expressed to Robert and Baker Armstrong over the years. As I have been going through the family letters, so many of which remain to be read and organized, I have encountered many such letters of thanks. One of the most moving is one written from Salem, Virginia, in 1941, by Baker's nephew, Gordon Armstrong,four years after his uncle Baker's death. (Gordon was one of the sons of Baker's half-brother William Dillon Armstrong and Margaret Glasgow Armstrong.) The letter is addressed to Baker's widow, Mary Ophelia Nugent Armstrong.

Dear Aunt Mary,
I am enclosing you check for $60.00 which is the amount of my debt to Uncle Baker. I borrowed this amount from him about nine or ten years ago.

I should not have done this, as I had no reasonable prospect of repaying him at that time; and I have regretted so much that I was unable to make payment during his lifetime.

But I am now able to make this repayment, and it gives me a great deal of pleasure to pay you. It gives me real satisfaction to do this, as I have felt badly about this matter for a long time, and wish I could have done it earlier.

I trust you have been well, and that the blessings of Providence may be yours in abundant measure.

With much love to you and your loved ones,
Affectionately,
Gordon Armstrong

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