| Title: | James Wightman, Wilmington to Eliza Wightman, Lisburn. |
|---|---|
| ID | 3326 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Wightman, James/24 |
| Year | 1859 |
| Sender | Wightman, James |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | Protestant |
| Origin | Wilmington, Delaware or N.Carolina?, USA |
| Destination | Lisburn, Co. Antrim, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Wightman, Eliza |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | father-daughter |
| Source | Copyright Retained by Prof. J.A. Faris, 15 Coney Island, Ardglass, Co. Down. BT30 7UQ |
| Archive | Ulster American Folk Park |
| Doc. No. | 9802455 |
| Date | 16/09/1859 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 09:02:98. |
| Word Count | 1028 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Miss Eliza Wightman Lisburn Ireland Wilmington, 16 September, 1859 My Dear Eliza Although the occasion of your writing to me was a most melancholy and afflicting one I could not but feel gratified at your acquitting yourself so well in your first essay, and I regret that so small a space was allotted you, not that I wished to have had your Aunt's most excellent letter curtailed - but a larger sheet of paper would have embraced all my desire - By the time you receive this, the remembrance of your dear Mama will be nearly erased from your mind (so soon does time obliterate the most marked impressions of his course) and you and your little sisters well insensible of the loss you have sustained, will be persuing your wanted amusements with all the avidity of youthful ardour - although a few months only have rolled over since I parted with the dearest object of my existence, the scenes of my past days apear to me as a dream, [--?] sometimes I can scarcely persude myself of their reality - It has pleased the "Almighty" to deprive you of a kind and [torn][af--tionate?] parent, at [torn] time when a hard necessity separates me [from?] you. had she been permitted to have remained with you but a few years longer, you would have attained that age when the precepts and example would have been of less importance to you - this will I hope induce you to treasure up most carefully in your mind the good advice and instruction you have so often received from her, and to let pass no opportunity of imparting it to your sisters, and impressing on their minds the obligation they are under to attend to it - It is a source of great satisfaction and consolation to me that Miss Carson intends residing with you at the Green - I wish you to behave towards her with every mark of respect and attention - you cannot otherwise expect that she will feel for you That interest and solicitude her esteem for your dear Mama would prompt her to do - she is well qualified to give you good advice for the regulation of your conduct, and all the circumspection you can use will be insufficient to shield you from the envy and malice of a world in which the worst construction is too frequently put upon the best intentions - & recollect that it [torn] only by your correctness of conduct that you command the esteem of the world, and your affability of disposition that you can secure the affections of your friends - Be particularly careful with whom you form habits of intimacy - you may have occasionally to associate with persons whose [characters?] are compounded of pride, ignorance and frivolity. [torn] who have nothing to recommend them but their [external?] appearance - to such give your pity but let them never excite your envy - In religious matters I wish you to adhere to the principles of that church in which you have been brought up, unless conviction, not caprice or fashion induces to change, and be as punctual as possible in your attendance of divine worship, but do not (as is the case with too many) leave your religion in charge of the sexton but carry the spirit of it with you into the world, and let your intercourse with the world be regulated by it - although I do not wish to instil into your mind the least tincture of prejudice against any religious persuasion, I cannot avoid cautioning you to beware the Methodists, the [war---?] Jackalls of that sect [torn] ever on the alert to entrap into the pen of salvation the youthful and inexperienced - I was lately at a camp meeting of [torn] in the neighbourhood, I had often heard of and read of these camp meetings, but any idea [torn] of them fell far short of what they are in reality, - I [torn] think it [torn] that made the social [torn] of devotions [torn] beings, possessing any [torn] [-----ality?] could [torn] the sacred name of [torn] play such fantastic tricks before high [torn] Angels weep" With respect to your education [torn] easy, so long as you are in McNeelys care, you are [torn] age when you should give a good deal of [torn] very little time, but when you quit him, take a [torn] [---ing] does not quit you by not attending to [torn] [----ung?] persons forget the most important [br---?][torn] [---ation?] - it is only by [stain] steady and [app--?] they can possibly retain them - therefore when you [torn] not engaged in some profitable employment, or your body in some useful and necessary recreation, let your books and your pen occupy your mind - it used to be customary in schools to pass females over vulgar and Decimal fractions & put them into practice now, use practice will come of itself, I would much rather you would leave fractions - I have been employed these two days past, in cutting off the tops & plucking the leaves off the stems of my Indian corn (of which I have 8 acres) these are laid up as winter provender for the cattle, & the corn cobs are suffered to remain on the stalks, until they get sufficiently dry & hard for storing by - I have also made two barrels of excellent cyder from the windfalls - apples are very scarce this season - I have apple pie [each?] day, & the butter is so bad in summer [torn] stewed apples for (at) breakfast & supper - the potato crop has [torn] [torn] [---led?] here, but in the eastern states it has been most abundant I shd [should?] scarcely know how to eat a potato now - the mornings and evenings are getting very cool, but the days are remarkably [fair?], there has not been ten hours rain here these three months - give my love to all your cousins, uncle & aunt [Andrew?], & to Margaret, Mary, & Anna & to my [---son?] - & I am my dear Eliza, your ever affectionate Father James Wightman |
