1893 Camden Point Missouri Christian College Student Writes Home to Her Sister

I thank Dick Williams, KC MO, for his permission to publish his mother's (Helen Williams) letters written by her mother, Nellie Moore Lewis. This has been linked from the Platte County Historical Society's Facebook page as it wouldn't all fit on PCHS's wall.

Letter #1

Camden Point, MO

Jan. 20, 1893

Miss Jennie Moore,

Dear Sister,

I will write you a few lines this evening. We have been moving this eve   have just got settled down. We moved in No. 5, on the north side of the building so we can see you all now when you come down.  

[Note: The first term was completed around the end of January and some girls left while new ones enrolled for the next session.  Which explains why the girls were moving to a different room.]

Well Jennie how is the Hackle(?) by this time  I rec. a letter from Ella Isray this morning. She said Charlie Lewis was married we were surprised to hear that but we hear of a wedding every time any of us get a letter.

Laura Jeffers said you all were going to have an entertainment at the school house. How is it getting along.  I expect it will be grand.

How did Pa and Anna’s mother get home last Sunday night? Anna is well now has been able to be in chapel nearly all week. I was afraid her mother was going to be sick she had such a head-ache but Pa would not stay all night.

I liked my new dress ever so much   it fits very well. What did you think of my pictures I did not like them a bit they looked too mad and they were too black. Did you go to Mrs. Bells party -Ella said she was going to have one I didn’t know whether it was Mrs. Albert Bell or not-I thought if it was you would go sure.

The military boys had an entertainment last Friday night. We all went and of course it was grand.  I guess you know about how boys would do just by themselves they had two or three pieces and a song. They came over here Sat. night to our Society and of course ours was the best or at least we thought so.

[Note: The military boys were the students attending the new Camden Point Military School on a hill across town. This was one of the first years it was in session. According to a history of the military school the first years were rocky without an experienced military officer to take charge of it. Once an officer was teaching in the school, it prospered for several years.]

Well January will soon be gone and we have five more months to stay here. There has been about five girls went home since Christmas and three new ones come in  the School is not quite as full as it was before Christmas but they think there are more girls coming after a while. I had never heard those two pieces you sent in your last letter but thought they were real good  think I will send them to Charley I told you I was going to have it put in the paper but you didn’t believe it Jennie

The Mary Allen Society is going to have an entertainment in about a month  You and Maud can come then I do not know when the teachers will have their entertainment. The Mary Allen Society is the one Nellie and I belong so you know it will be good. But you must come whether  we have anything or not Lulu Wiff? has been looking for Addie down the last two or three days but has not come.

Nellie Isray said to tell you she would answer your letter soon. Well I have written about all I know so I will close hoping to see you soon.

                                                                                                                 

Your loving sister

                                                                                                                

Nell

Tell John and Ben to write to me.

Letter #2

Camden Point MO

Feb. 20, 1893

Miss Jennie Moore

Dear Sister:

I rec. your letter to-night  will now try and ans it. I was very sorry you did not get the letter in time to come. We looked for you all day to-day.

The play was just grand  I know it would just  have suited you for it was a regular novel.

I guess you all went to the Commencement at the Medical College to-day.  Nellie got a card, I wouldn’t have cared to have been there myself so long as you all did not come down.

The Mary Allen Society is going to have an open session but I do not know when it will be  you can come down then if you will, I will try and let you know in time.

Mrs. Bell seems to be getting quite prominent.  She must have about three Balls a week don’t she  I am afraid she will run herself down as she is so delicate anyway.  I would love to see he(r) dance with Mr. Fisher  I imagine she would be quite graceful on the floor.

I rec. a letter from Anna the other day  haven’t answered it yet  She said she was going to send me the Ladies Home Journal soon, and she said they had their mail brought up to the door  now I should think that would be right nice.  I guess Charley must be working hard he never does write anymore.  Anna said to tell her brother to ans her letter  she wants to go to Perrin next Sunday.

Well all my examinations are over but one that is Physiology  the teacher is waiting on one of the girls to get well  she has been very sick. They sent for her mother yesterday.

Tell Pa they would like to have the money for our books as soon as possible.

Well I have written all I know so I must close  I will send you one of the bills of the entertainment.

                                                                                                                 

Write soon

                                                                                                                 

Nell

Grandma's Quilt Block

Discovering Kyle Family Heritage

A local church was celebrating its150th anniversary in the summer of 2010. I stopped on my way home to visit with friends, see the Pony Express re-enactor, and look at the quilts on display. As I rounded the corner to see the quilt display, I stopped in my tracks. There directly in my line of sight was a quilt block with my grandmother's name embroidered on it.

What was the cause of my amazement? Grandma died a year before I was born and yet here was something she had made decades ago. Her hands had not held me but they had held and worked this quilt square in front of me. I stood staring and contemplated how much more enriched my life might have been with her in it. I slowly reached out and gently touched that physical link to Grandma.

The feeling of wonderment continued as I left the church and stopped to talk with friends. I mentioned how gobsmacked I was to find my grandmother's signature on a quilt. "I remember her," one woman told me when I finished my story. "She gave me piano lessons."

My grandmother graduated from the Maryville Music Conservatory in 1916. When she came home, she taught local students. My grandfather once told me she would have had her granddaughters playing 'Yakka Hula Hickadoola' if she had lived. (This was evidently one of his favorite songs.)

"She gave lessons around 1944-45 at the high school; I think because her sister was teaching there. She charged $1 for an hour or maybe 30 minutes," she continued.  "But I didn't like playing at recitals. So Mrs. Kyle would cut my recital piece until it was just the part that I knew." We laughed and I thought my grandmother must have been an understanding teacher to cut a little girl's recital piece to be just what she could play.

Serendipity
Driving home that afternoon I continued to marvel at how a scrap of fabric and a chance stop on a summer day made a grandmother I never knew come alive.