Letters To Home |
Letters to home.... All of us at one time or another, have left home. It may have been overnight, a week, month or a lifetime. In these modern time we have it made. If we miss mom, grandma or sis, we pick up the phone dial a number and if we're lucky and don't get an answering machine or a busy signal, we're almost instantly connected. But what if we didn't have that option? What would we do if we left home, knowing in our heart of hearts, that we would probably never see our family and friends, people we had known all our lives, grown up with, fought with, played with ever again? Would we be able to do it? Would we be able to climb up into a wagon, board a train, a ship or walk down that path and not look back? I don't honestly know. When I found the "Treasure Box" of postcards, letters and such that came from my grandmother's attic, I was really excited. I knew the potential I had, the leads I would be tracing for years, the information that would be given and the questions that would be answered. But I didn't expect to find remorse, sadness, loneliness and homesickness. Not that I'm not a compassionate person, I think I am, I try to be anyway. But until I found that box I never really put feelings to the people I'm researching. Never really gave them the appreciation and dimension... the humanity they deserved. When I found that box, and read the contents, that's when I started my quest. Not my genealogy guest, that started with my 8th grade history teacher the day he said, "We're going to do a project, we're going to do a family tree...." Not a history quest, I've always loved history, back before Little House on the Prairie, back before watching John Wayne fight at the Alamo. Sometimes I think I was born loving history. The quest I started with that box of treasures, was a quest for understanding. Getting to know the people, what they did, where they went, why they did things and why they didn't. I'll admit that some of the feelings and attitudes expressed in these letters are not how I feel. The prejudices of my ancestors are not mine. I thought hard about posting a few of these letters, but decided that I would go ahead because I strive for authenticity, not censorship. I don't generally believe in beating around the bush and I can not change the past. We all have people in our family we don't agree with and that isn't limited to the living. When I read the letters written so long ago, telling of lost husbands, mothers, sisters, teaching children, farming the land, canning fruit and just daily life, I felt it was something everyone should read. I felt we all needed a reminder that the names, dates and places we're researching were connected to living people, people with dreams, losses, loves and challenges not unlike the lives we lead today. After all what are we but the next generation of names, dates and places. |
Letter one - June 4, 1919 Written to - John Franklin and Amanda Stroud Bolar Rigney, their son and his wife William Henry and Mariah Underwood Rigney and their children Ella and Archie Joe Rigney, Sr., Hustonville, KY Written from - Viola Donelson, Hannibal, MO picture top: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 picture bottom: Viola and (I believe) Wm Henry Donelson, date unknown Letter two - Dec. 21, 1920 Written to - Ella Rigney Hampton, Hustonville, KY Written from - Lillian Heaberlin, Des Moines, Iowa Picture: Ella and Archie Joe Rigney, Sr. date abt 1911 Letter three - Sept. 13, 1923 Written to - Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Mrs. J. L. Sloan, Lucy Sloan, Mapleton, MN Picture: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 Letter four - Dec. 13, 1923 Written to - Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Nellie G. Young, Arkansas Picture: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 Letter five - Feb. 14, 1924 Written to - William Henry and Mariah Underwood Rigney and their children Ella and Archie Rigney, Sr., Hustonville, KY Written from - Josiah and Alyza Ann Rigney, Hannibal, MO Picture: Josiah and Alyza Ann Rigney and all their grandchildren date abt 1918 Letter six - Feb. 20, 1926 Written to - Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Susan Hammond, Indianapolis, IN Picture: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 Letter seven - Oct. 27, 1926 (written Sep 12, 1926) Written to - Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Susan Hammond, Indianapolis, IN Picture: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 Letter eight - Dec. 28, 1927 Written to - William Henry and Mariah Underwood Rigney and their children Ella and Archie Rigney, Sr., Hustonville, KY Written from - Josiah and Alyza Ann Rigney, Hannibal, MO Picture: Josiah and Alyza Ann Rigney and all their children date abt 1918 Letter nine - July 28, 1928 Written to - Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Sallie Gardner Shelton, New Florence, MO Picture: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 Letter ten - Aug. 21, 1929 Written to - Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Susan Hammond, Indianapolis, IN Picture: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 Letter eleven - Nov. 17, 1929 Written to - William Henry and Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Della Godbey, Holcomb, MO picture top: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 picture bottom: Della Godbey, date unknown Letter twelve - Dec. 30, 1928 Written to - Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Unknown, Danville, KY picture: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 Letter thirteen - No date given Written to - Ella Rigney Hampton, Hustonville, KY Written from - Polly Heaberlin, Iowa Picture: Ella and Archie Joe Rigney, Sr. date abt 1911 Letter fourteen - No date given Written to - Mariah Underwood Rigney, Hustonville, KY Written from - Catherine Bourne picture: William Henry, Mariah and Archie Joe Rigney, Jr. date abt 1928 Letter fifteen - No date given Written to - Ella Rigney Hampton, Hustonville, KY Written from - Author unknown Picture: Ella and Archie Joe Rigney, Sr. date abt 1911 Letter sixteen - May 23, 1882 Written to - Melissa Gabbert, Indiana Written from - William C. and Nancy Hatchett Russell picture top: headstone of Etta May Reynolds, daughter of William Jackson Reynolds picture bottom: headstone of Cora Belle Reynolds, daughter of John Reynolds Letter seventeen - July 19, 1885 Written to - Melissa Gabbert, Indiana Written from - William C. and Nancy Hatchett Russell picture top: headstone of Etta May Reynolds, daughter of William Jackson Reynolds picture bottom: headstone of Cora Belle Reynolds, daughter of John Reynolds Letter eighteen - Jan. 11, 1965 Written to - Alice Written from - Samuel H. Bottom picture top: Fort Harrodsburg, Mercer Co., KY picture bottom: Lincoln marriage cabin, Fort Harrodsburg, Mercer Co., KY Letter nineteen - Feb. 22 1915 Written to - Ephraim Jones Godbey, Casey Co., KY Written from - G.W. Godbey, Crawford Co., MO Picture top: Ephraim Jones Godbey Letter twenty - Feb. 29, 1932 Written to - Bertha Strickfaden Written from - Mary Lou Guinn |