Jackson Emery Papers, Ms 0397, Box 1, Folder 1
15 letters from Helen Hunt Jackson to “Mother” (her mother-in-law) and “Maggie” (her sister-in-law Margaret B. Jackson), 1880-1885, with a letter from William S. Jackson to his sister Hannah, August 5, 1885 describing HHJ’s illness and impending death.
Transcribed by Zoe Fried, 2017, and Jessy Randall, 2020.

New York
March 31st
Wed [1880]

Dear mother,

Maggie need not think I have forgotten that she reminded me it was civil to write when we left a place! But I have been waiting to give thee news of Will on his way home.

When we reached Phila. He found a telegram which decided him to come back here for a day or two instead of going right on as he had expected. So we came back here Tuesday – and he did not set out for Colorado until Friday night. Today I have a letter from him written at St. Louis & he says he is “all right,” which means, at any rate, that he is not ill – though I have no idea that he will be “all right” till he has been some time in our good bracing air at home.

I think the two days at Kennett did him great good – I am sure he has some malarial trouble hanging about him – and when he comes back I shall persuade him to stay in Brooklyn instead of here.

I wish thee & I could have the Astor library in Kennett! Then I would come and stay in that bright sunny chamber and work there for a month – if thee would have me so long.

With much love to Hannah & Maggie and all –

I am always –

Thy affectionate daughter –

Will’s wife –

“Peggy.”

New York
Oct 29 1880

Dear Maggie,

Will won’t write to you, I know, though he thinks every day he will, so as I think it is too bad you should not hear of his plans, I write myself. He now thinks he will not get away from N. York before the 18th of Nov. at the earliest! You were very kind to be willing to take Annie Banfield in. I do not believe it will be best to bring her – it is a long journey for a very short time – and what she needs is now variety and [stir?] than I could give her in Kennett in cold weather. If it had been in October instead of November I should have been strongly tempted to try it for her – the country and Kennett is so lovely then. But the last of November is a dreary time everywhere – and likely to be very cold. So you need not look for anybody but us - & not for us before the 18th & then, I think, for only a very short visit – for Will will be by that time I am afraid in a great hurry to get back to Colorado. I cannot go back at present – but must stay at the East till my book is out. I hope to be able to do still more for the Indians this winter.

Love to all,

Yours affly ever,

Helen

Brevoort House
Wed. Dec. 29
[1880]

Dear Maggie,

I got through all safe – left Will in Philadelphia, & pushed straight through myself, reaching N.Y. at 6 pm – coughed most of the way - much to my own discomfort & everybody’s else – but I took no new cold – and am today much better. Tonight comes a letter from Will – on the Pan Handle west of Pittsburgh. It had been so cold he slept in his ulster – so I think he won’t forget it & leave it in the cars somewhere, which was my greater anxiety – we are having an awful storm here – it seems as if it never meant to stop in this world.

I wish I could go where I never would see another flake of snow as long as I live.

I hope mother’s cold is better - & that I shall never visit you again when I am so troublesome a visitor.

The truth is, a person with such a mu-cuss membrane as mine never ought to go to friend’s houses in winter.

I hope you’re out getting signatures – get the basket sleight full!

Affly ever,

Helen

Love to mother & Hannah

[late 1880]

Dear Maggie,

“Lend a hand” to getting signatures in this petition – that’s a dear. The Phila women have been at it nearly a year & hope for 100,000. Many – but they come in slower than they will - & the time has been extended to the 15th Jan.

Tell Hannah to take one to the College - & get all she can – every name is a help –

Will has written you that we’ll come down for Christmas – he will come at any rate - & I will if it is decent weather – but since my last stint of bronchitis in Boston, I feel a sword hanging over my head all the time - & do not dare expose myself to severe cold or storms.

I hope it will be bright & clear, & not bitterly cold – so that I can come & take a look at you all.

I have been harder at work than ever every minute since I came home – my book is to come out Jan 25.

Love to all – in haste –

Yours affly

Helen

P.S. I count on Kennet Square for 200 names at least! Put one in the P.O. for everybody to sign – extra sheets can be added. Send the signatures on Jan 14 to: Mrs. A.S. Quinton, 1109 Girard St., Philadelphia.

[A.S. Quinton is Amelia Stone Quinton; the petition is in support of Indian land rights.]

Cambridge
March 11, 1881

Dear Maggie,

I have written out the Mammy Tittleback Story. It makes a capital narrative, and will be a far prettier book than the Cat’s Letters. I shall want it explained very carefully to Johnson & Mary & all the children, when they see it, that when people write stories for books they always alter things a little – to make the story better – etc. – I have kept all the first names of everybody – only altered the last names & the names of the towns.

Now I want that song they sing at Gregory 2d’s funeral, if it is in a book, set to music. Send me the name of the book & I will buy it. If not, will you copy it for me?

I hope it is set to music in a book for it would be a great addition to this book to have it.

The title is Mammy Tittleback, Her Family, a true story of sixteen cats!

Will expected home on Sat. p.m. – N. trans Ave. – slept in his ulster every night all the way out, so he did not love it. Pretty cold weather out there – though not so ever as he had at St. Louis.

He says nothing about coming back, but will be here early in Feb. I presume.

Love to mother – and all – and many thanks beforehand for the trouble you are going to take to get the funeral hymn for me.

I am spending a few days at Prof. Horsfords - & having a pleasant visit – though all with work. I was shut up in my room at the Parlor House Boston with just such a cold as I had at Kennett. I shall have to give up having a window. I go back to N. York on the 17th & from I shall take another cold thin. Address, care Roberts Bros., Boston. Wherever I am, this address will always find me.

Yours ever affly,

Helen

Col. Springs
Aug. 23rd
1882 [could be 1884]

Dear Maggie,

I have just read your nice long letter of Aug. 16 to Will & as I suppose he will never answer it I am going to send off a line at once.

I don’t wonder that are out of patience with him for never writing home. I am continually reprimanding him for it – but it does no good. There is nothing in the world he hates so much as writing letters – when I am away he does screw himself up to sending me a line every other day – but it is uphill work - & he never writes such a thing as a long letter. I do really believe it is next door to impossible to him. All the same I think he ought to write home at least once a month. – He tries to put it off on me - as I am the writer of the family. I own it does seem as if I might write to you oftener than I do – but nobody known who does not sit by my writing table, how many letters I am actually obliged to write – besides all my other writing. I have given up two thirds of my correspondents simply because I could not endure the mechanical part of the writing. I dislike the mere mechanical part of writing more & more each day I live.

Now for our journey – as you know, I went to California the last of Dec. – Will went with me as far as las Vegas in N. Mexico – when he told me goodbye – promising to join me the 1st of March & possibly the last of Feb – instead, he did not appear till May 10th! But as it turned out, it was better for us not to have made the journey in March & April, which we did in May & June. It was the first real [play spell?] Will has ever had since we were married - & it did me good to see him enjoy it. – We drove all the way from Santa Barbara to Monterey. Fifteen days on the way – a friend of mine from Los Angeles, Mr. Kinney, was with us; also Mr. Sandham, the artist who is to illustrate my articles in the Century.

From Monterey we went to San Francisco - & later up to Oregon & Puget Sound – It was on this earlier journey we were with Col. Lanborn - & he asked me to write & tell mrs. Lanborn about the trip – which as he had very kindly made us his guests of the North Pac. R.R. for the whole trip was no more than what I owed it to him to do. – We were a fortnight in Oregon & on the Sound - & I think on the whole, it was the best part of the journey.

I remained in San Francisco three weeks after Will left for home. I had work to do in the Bancroft Library there in looking up words of the old [Wiggins?].

I got home three weeks ago today – and have been trying ever since to get acclimated enough to get to work on my papers for the Century and Atlantic. But I have been a good deal upset by the altitude & have not succeeded yet in either eating or sleeping very well. This altitude always bothers me when I first return to it - & I think more and more each year.

The truth is this climate is a medicine – and no medicine is good to live on. I am very tired of being driven out of my home every year – by cold in the winter - & then by being [hay roasted?] in the summer – I shall be very glad if Will “sees his way,” as the saying is, to come East to live. – But I fear he is not likely to do it at present.

With much love from both Will & me to Mother – and to all the rest of the family – I must say goodbye –

Affectionately always

Helen

P.S. Will is very well, though he too has been going through a severe acclimating process. He wouldn’t admit it – but I know it is true. He was vastly delighted with the soft moist air of the Pacific Coast - & looked better there than I have seen him for a long time.

New York
Union Square Hotel
Jan 27, 1883

Dear Mag –

Will is here & pretty well – not first rate – we have

Of course he plans to go down to Kennett for a day or two – he could have come for tomorrow, but we had an engagement for Monday evening next – you can be quite sure he will not go back to Coe.

Will is coming to see his mother & you – if when something totally unforeseen should summon him home imperatively.

I wish I dared to come down with him but I have quite too much regard for you to expose you to the like of a bronchitis guest in your roof – I have escaped it this far by the quality care & avoiding all bade weather.

When Will returns to Col. I shall go to So. Cal. & be there till May 1st by which time I can safely return to Colorado, so far as snow is concerned: but how long I shall be able to stay is a question. The altitude upset me terribly last summer - & I shall not again endure it as long as I did then. I hope very much however, to be able to stay all summer.

With much love to Nathan and Hannah,

Your aff sister

Helen

Will sends love

Col. Springs
August 7
1884

Dear Maggie,

We were of course shocked to hear of Aunt Hannah’s death; and yet, on reflection, what feeling can we have but one of thankfulness for her, that she is released from a burden of weariness and suffering. – Life is not to be desired after the infirmities of such great age as hers have overtaken us. –

To Mother her death must have been a great blow. I fear she will not soon lose the sense of loneliness without her. I am very sorry to hear that Mother is not well. You must give her Will’s love & mine. I am afraid Will will not write. You know how incorrigible he is, at best, about writing: and now he is so overwhelmed with business he really has not time to write a letter except those which are necessary. He is at home very little – spends his Sundays here - & perhaps a night in the middle of the week. –

My leg is doing well – we hope! – there is no knowing certainly till it is taken out of the plaster cast – which will be next week ---

I am very well – spend most of my time in a rolling chair in which I can push myself about from room to room – I have borne the confinement & the nervous shock much better than I could have expected to – but I fear it will be a good while before I feel like myself again – or am able to do brain work of any kind. I am only up to dozing – reading novels, & writing letters. –

Before long however I hope to be able to begin on a careful reading of all my Quaker books. I have quite a library of them now – the two most desired treasures however still missing. I do hope you will yet succeed in finding them. Those in the last package you sent were all of value & interest. – Thank you very much for them. With much love to all –

Ever affly –

Helen 

The Berkeley
Tuesday
April 15
1884

Dear Maggie,

I send herewith a parcel, containing a brown silk gown for Mother - a brown cashmere for Aunt Hannah - & a black silk, & ecru serge for you - please accept them with Will’s love & mine.  

I hope you will not think the ecru too light for you - it is one of the most fashionable shades this spring - and if you wear a little knot of dark berry red at the throat with it will be exceedingly becoming to you: - a little straw bonnet of the same shade, with the brim lined with the dark red: - and two little ostrich tips of the ecru & one of the dark red will also make a lovely finish to the suit. - There is enough of the serge for a jacket to the dress.

I shall feel anxious till I hear that you like the color. - I hesitated a long time about buying it - but it was so pretty. I could not resist: - and it is a color that will look well on cool days all through the summer, as well as in spring & fall. -

I have been here all winter - steadily at work on my story - it is to come out first as a serial in the Christian Union – it begins the first of May. I shall have the paper sent to Mother.

I shall break up here next week & go to Boston & Cambridge - but will not venture out to Colorado, before the last of May.

With much love to all -

Ever affly –

Helen

The Berkeley
April 21
[1884]

Dear Maggie

On the 15th I sent you by Express a parcel containing a blk silk dress & a serge for you – a brown silk for mother - & a brown cashmere for aunt Hannah - I have the Express Co.’s receipt for it – so in case it has not turned up please let me know by return mail as I leave for Boston on Thursday. In great haste, Yrs ever –

Helen

Parkers
Boston
May 24, 1884

Dear Maggie,

Have you got – or do you know any old friends in Kennett, who have – a copy of a curious old book, New England Judged in the Spirit of the Lord – by Bishop - or Bowden’s History of the Friends – they are rare old books, written in the latter part of the 17th Cent. I think - & telling all about the persecution of the early Quakers in N. England.

I want much to get them – does thee think Uncle James would have had them?

I am going to write a story about these early Quakers – they have been frightfully misjudged.

Write to me at the Berkeley, corner 5th Av & 9th, New York.

I shall go on Sunday night ([?]) by boat.

I have had a miserable two weeks, first a cold and then a bad poisoning from fresh paint - it took the worst possible time to knock me down – delaying my start for home – I shall not be able now to get off before June 1st.

I will pay for these books whatever the owners ask for them, if they can hear of them – also any other curious old Quaker literature of that day. There must be no end of it in your region.

Love to all

Affly

Helen

p.s. no – you are not to like the Senora. She is detestable.

Notes written in margins:
The Quaker Invasion by Hallowell
770 Joseph Smith London no. 2 Oxford St. Whitechapel
New England Judged, 1881 & 1703
Bowden published in 1850 pub by Charles Gilpin cash forward

 
The Berkeley
June 1st
1884

Dear Maggie,

Yes - I should like that book very much. I am sure - & anything else relating the 17th Cent. quakers.  - I am sure there must be treasures of old books in some of the old Quaker houses in Chester Co - - Have not the Taylors a good many - & the Darlingtons? -

The two I named however are the ones I most want -.

The Bowdens History of the Quakers - & New England Judged -  If you will buy these for me - in case you find them - & send them by mail - no - they are too valuable to send by mail: so then by Express, to Colorado Springs, I will refund the money with many thanks -

I hope to get off on Tues. – but am not sure yet. -

Ever affly,

Helen

Colorado Springs
Aug 11 1884

Dear Maggie,

I enclose an account of the exercises at Shelter Island on the origins of the unveiling of a monument which Professor Horsford has recently erected there. I am sure the Quaker share in the honors will be very interesting to you & to Mother.

It was Prof. Horsford’s research & interest in the old Quaker history which first interested me in the subject last spring when I was visiting at his house.

I have now got another new source of interest which may make you smile. In some of the old 17th century books which I have bought, there is, pasted on the inside of the cover, so that it could never be torn out, a printed coat of arms with the name of the owner of the book, James Abercrombie. I have lost dozens of books by having them borrowed & not returned - & Will is always telling me it is my own fault for not having my name in them. I have an unreasonable but unconquerable dislike of seeing a name written on the fly leaf of a book. But as soon as I saw this device of this unknown James Abercrombie, I said “now there is something I should like.” – If I can get the Jackson coat of arms – or heraldic device – I’ll paste it in every one of our books - & it will be a good occupation for me in my enforced idleness now.

Can you help me in getting it? Have you got it? It is a hare & a tortoise I believe – is there a motto? If you can send me one in any shape – I will be much obliged.

Will was at home yesterday – looking & seeming much better & more like himself than he has at any time since he took this new load on his shoulders.

My love to all,

Ever affly,

Helen

 
Colorado Springs
Tues Sept 2 1884

Dear Maggie,

I am sorry it is not never definite about that Jackson & Will – what different people they must have been from the Jacksons of today – to be called “swift by land & sea!” – I would very much like a copy – photo – or whatever you can get of the device as drawn by that cousin – if it looks genuine I believe I will use it.

We have just had a charming visit from Paul Cravath. He is a fine manly fellow. He spent Sunday with us.

I have today been three times around my verandah & down to the front gate on crutches – a great exploit. If I can avoid further [?] I think by New Years I will walk as well as ever.

I do not want either of the books named on that slip.

The only other things I want are the New England Judged & the Bowdens Hist. I would also like Sewels History.

Will is very well – the work agrees with him – if he did not smoke he would be better than he has been for years.

Much love to Mother & all –

[square cut out of letter, removing signature]

Col. Springs
Oct 4th 1884

Dear Maggie,

Yes, the Sewels Hist. did come. If I knew it, I had forgotten it. Will says it came just about the time of my accident, so I doubt if I knew it.

I have all I want now – except Bowdens Hist. & that “New England Judged.” This last, I want enormously. Have you left word with those antiquarian book stores in Phila. To let me know if they can find it? I have a standing order but in Boston for it - & in N. York. It is very hard to get.

I would like very much to have that drawing of the coat of arms –also to know anything that is really known about it. I want to have it [?] off & put in the inside cover of all our books – with our name.

Will is off on a two days trip over the road (D & R.G.) with a party of foreigners – English, Scotch, Dutch – representatives of the foreign stock & bond holders. A telegram from him this morning says all well – interesting trip - & so far very successful. I do not look for him before Tues. next week.

I think I have not had twelve hours solid talk with him since July 1st. When we get to N. York together, next January (if we do!) I propose to him that we should take a little time to renew our acquaintance!

As soon as I can step I am going to take Effie & go to South California for two months outdoors & sunshine – to compensate for these fourteen weeks in the house. I do not dare to encounter the Eastern winter without a little fortifyingly open air. I can sit out of doors & drive in the open carriage all right, in So. Cal. – It is a greater trial than ever, to be driving out of my house, this fall. If I can safely stay on here till my leg is thoroughly healed, it would be a great comfort. Travelling as a cripple is a new role for me, & one I am not anxious to play! But I am in terror already, every day, for fear of snows - & shall fly as soon as I dare to travel – I hope by the last of this month.

With much love to all,

Yours always,

Helen

1600 Taylor St.
San Francisco
May 25, 1885

Dear Maggie,

You were one of the persons I was just going to write to when I was taken ill Fe 14 - & I have tried to write many a time since – but the notes that had to be written were all I could do –

I am very ill Maggie & do not think I can get well – the malarial poison found me in a bad case to resist it – the long strain on all the nerve centers from living at that high altitude - & the terrible shock of my broken leg – had weakened every nerve – the consequence now is entire nervous prostration from which it will take months to get up, at best.

I do not sit up at all – I can take nothing into the stomach but a few spoonfuls of ice cold gruel or broth – about a tumbler – in 24 hours! Of course this is simply slow starvation – a very hard way to die – but we are not [concerned? consulted?] – I hope my patience will hold out to the end.

I have one great mercy to be thankful for – a wonderfully comfortable place & the kindest people I ever saw in my life – no other boarders – we have the whole first floor – two large parlors – tiny bedroom for Effie – another small room with two closets - & a bathroom beyond. There could not be a better place. And Effie is a treasure – no sister could be more devoted – near a year now she has taken care of me like a baby –

Will was here for a week last month. He looked well. I fear he will have serious trouble with the strikers now & I was distressed when I found he had not written to his mother all winter. It is very wrong – the Jackson men were not trained Maggie to be considerate & tender about such things as they ought – it has always been to me a real sorrow that Will did not write to his mother oftener. I think the Quaker atmosphere of repression of all outward expressions was a mistaken one. It is against human nature. Does thee no think so?

If you would see [Cale?] or write to him I wish you would ask him if he has received a letter from me lately? I have written to him four times, at least, this winter about business matters of mine in his hands, & got no reply!

Goodbye dear Maggie – with much love to mother –

Always affectionately thy sister

Helen

Palace Hotel
San Francisco, Aug 5, 1885

Dear Hannah,

Helen is very, very sick, so sick it is very doubtful if she ever gets well. It was malaria that she contracted at Los Angeles that started the condition, but now the doctors fear there is some organic breaking down – she has no pain (in the ordinary sense of that word) but has a constant malignant & terrible nausea & loathing of food – one thing after another has gone against her until now she can take no nourishment at all, even water is thrown up & refused by the stomach. I have the gravest apprehensions –

It is so hard to hover & watch her life ebb away & not be able to do a thing to stay the waste – I have had physicians of all schools – but so for they have been unable to reliever her or reach the cause of the trouble. She is fully persuaded she will never get well, but is so clear & bright & brave, that I can hardly believe it only that reason tells me she cannot go on much longer without nourishment I would not think her in great danger & I see her growing weaker physically day by day –

For physicians cannot save her, can only counsel & aid & I have had the best that can be found – only to be more & more discouraged at the inability of medicine to cure. There is doubtless something that would meet her case but what is that something, I would give all I know. Do not be surprised to have word the beautiful soul has gone from our sight.

Lovingly your [Bro.?] W.S. Jackson

I have just written home of the great danger that threatens.

[Mrs. Philip L. Alger
1758 Wendell Avenue
Schenectady, New York 12308]

Oct. 10, 1968

Dear Helen:

Here are the previous letters - I am glad they are wanted & will have a good home - Later I’ll send some other odds & ends - pictures, clippings etc. If not wanted they may be destroyed - not returned to me.

Both Philip & I are busy - he with teaching, writing a book, & civic work & I with getting the house in order, working in the garden etc.

With love

Helen  

To A Mountain Climber
F.W.H. Myers

“Here let us leave him; for his shroud the snow,
For funeral lamps he has the planets seven
For a great sign the icy stairs shall go
Between the stars to heaven.

One moment stood he as the angels stand
High in the stainless eminence of air —
The next he was not; to his fatherland
Translated unaware.”

[quote from Bayard Taylor’s “Prince Deukalion,” first published 1878]

“For life whose source not here began,
Must fill the utmost sphere of man,
And, so expanding, lifted be
Along the line of God’s decree,
To find in endless growth all good,
In endless toil beatitude.”

[Unlabeled photograph of a young woman]

Small envelope, postmark New York March 4, addressed Mrs. Mary [?] Jackson, Kennett Square, Chester County, PA. Handwritten on envelope: “Old family letters. Important.”