A month ago, I decided to start tweeting out lines from my dissertation research, one for each day of the year. Many of the bits I’ve chosen were never referenced in the dissertation or any of my published work; they’re just evocative or amusing lines. Some are sentences that have stuck with me since I first read them.
Revisiting this material has been enjoyable and painful in equal measures. I could weave a brief historical narrative based on every sentence I’ve selected or tell a fascinating story about every person mentioned. I don’t know that I’ll ever publish the book I intended to write using this research, but even if I did, I wouldn’t get to write about every interesting life and event I discovered. That’s just the way historical research and writing work.
But all of these sentences, and the letters they’re from, were important in helping me understand who these people were and what their lives were like. I got to know all of these people really well, or at least as well as a historian ever can, and it has been nice to visit them again.
Here’s everything that happened in September, with a key to the people, archives, and books referenced.
"You must have much mistaken the tone of my letter." Bishop Patrick T. O'Reilly to Jane Minot Sedgwick II, 9/5/1877, SFP 33:1.
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 5, 2018
"John I am beginning to feel anxious about. He will be so irregular at his habits that it is out of the question to remonstrate with him." Herbert O'Sullivan to JMSII, 9/6/1844, SFP 32:24
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 6, 2018
"Of course our disaster at Manhattanville has sent the large Community of our dear convent in all directions." Ada Langtree to JMSII, 9/7/1888, SFP 33:17 #nuntastic
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 7, 2018
"The greatest domestic event that has occurred to our house lately has been the loss of 3 hams stolen from the smoke house." Jane Minot Sedgwick I to Louisa Sedgwick, nd [9/1839], SFP 85:30.
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 8, 2018
"The greatest domestic event that has occurred to our house lately has been the loss of 3 hams stolen from the smoke house." Jane Minot Sedgwick I to Louisa Sedgwick, nd [9/1839], SFP 85:30.
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 8, 2018
"I suppose you heard about the breaking of my nose, sometime ago. I hit it twice since, so that it doesn't get well very fast, and the shape of it is considerably altered." Henry Dwight Sedgwick II to Mary Speakman, 9/9/1837, SFP 86:20
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 9, 2018
"When we came to the place where the pilgrims used to go upon their knees to the shrine of St. Thomas, I almost cried, the difference came over me with such a shock." Henrietta Dana to Charlotte Dana, 9/10/1882, LDFP 39:11
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 10, 2018
"I received your letter last night by T.S.P., who arrived here at 8 o'clock, only thirteen hours from New York. This is an annihilation of space of which our forefathers never dreamed." Catharine Maria Sedgwick to Robert Sedgwick, 9/11/1832, LLCMS p. 227
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 11, 2018
"My dear Jeanie, I have not 'laughed at you' but feel certainly great respect for your inclination to lead a life which you consider one of usefulness and exertion." Mary O'Sullivan Langtree de Madan (Cheery) to JMSII, 9/12/1844, SFP 32:24
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 12, 2018
"What a paralizing blow! Alexander ws in a state of great agitation between his desire of going to the funeral & his reluctance to add to the anxiety of his wife & mother by any risk of infection from his most malignant disease." JMSI to HDSII, nd [9/1850], SFP 25:1
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 13, 2018
"Now he is trying to live on conscience and sense of duty…They answer for General Washington, who had, doubtless, heroic gastric juices, but they are death on digestion." William Minot II to Bessie Sedgwick Rackemann, 9/1880, PLWM p. 55
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 14, 2018
"We had just stepped down from the scaffolding when it fell in, with two or three hundred persons! It was the most awful sight I ever witnessed, for we did not doubt they were all killed." Sophia Ripley to Charlotte Dana, 9/15/1848, MDFP 10:25
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 15, 2018
"I believe it is pleasing to God to pray for 'a curate to cooperate' in all your pious designs." Mary Dallas to JMSII, 9/16/1882, SFP 33:6
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 16, 2018
"Father I am proud that you should be the founder of the Paulists, but I am not quite satisfied with your Pauline doctrines as to women." Eliza Cullen to Father Isaac T. Hecker, 9/17/1868, HP 31:8
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 17, 2018
"I think it delightful to have two daughters growing up together near of an age – & I believe myself peculiarly unfitted to bring up boys well." JMSI to Louisa Davis Minot, 9/1822, SFP 27:20
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 18, 2018
"P.S. I open my letter to ask some questions in behalf of a dear young friend of mine who is studying for the priesthood. Are you willing to receive 'old Catholics' into your congregation, or only converts?" Emma Forbes Cary to ITH, 9/19/1869, HP 32:4
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 19, 2018
"Jane’s mercury has risen and fallen with the Hungarian cause – she & Grace Ashburner have been chief mourners over the death of Hungarian freedom." JMSI to LDM, 9/20/1854, SFP 28:9
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 20, 2018
"Perhaps he is not quite so polished a man as the late Father Laughran, but I think his executive ability and financial ability much better." O'Reilly to JMSII, 9/21/1874, SFP 32:29
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 21, 2018
"If I could only find something for Jane to do this winter I should be easy but there is an endless train of difficulties for this object." JSMI to HDSII, nd [9/1845?], SFP 25:1
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 22, 2018
"[Fanny's] next apprehension is that the african cannibal with six tusks described in the newspapers as one of the african prisoners lately captured & carried into New haven will be freed & wander up here & perhaps seize one of the family…" JMSI to LS, nd [9/1839], SFP 85:30
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 23, 2018
"You have of course considered the trying position in which Jane will be placed as regards her religious opinions and her views on slavery – and you must prepare her to be willing to be silent on both these subjects." Lucy Channing Russel to JMSI, 9/24/1844, SFP 29:17
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 24, 2018
"Have you read Miss Wright's book, and do you not think some of our vulgar editors have abused her?" CMS to Mrs. Frank Channing, 9/25/1821, LLCMS, p. 143-4
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 25, 2018
"Miss Eliza Barker Ward came into this world at half past eleven am this 26th day of September 1847 a nice fat little girl weighing nine pounds & in every way quite perfect." AHBW Diary, 9/26/1847, WP
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 26, 2018
"The baby grows ugly & good – she suffers me to read & work with her very comfortably so that I never find her company the least irksome." JMSI to LDM, 9/27/2018, SFP 28:18
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 28, 2018
"I am glad that you had much glorious scenery along the road to rejoice in." Richard Henry Dana Sr. to Charlotte Dana, 9/28/1864, LDFP 34:29
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 28, 2018
"I should be extremely glad however that nothing painful or annoying should occur during your next visit to mar my pleasure connected with it." JMSII to HDSII, 9/29/1857, SFP 93:25
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 29, 2018
"The only mishap was his spilling a finger bowl over one of the council (Mr Lovening I think) who very happily turned it off (the accident, I mean, not the water, for that ran down his robes, alas, best black coat &c, like oil) LDM to Mary Minot, 9/30/1838, LM 1:4
— Jane's World (@janesworlddaily) September 30, 2018
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