by Cathy Gilmore | Feb 14, 2016 | Letters, Love Letters from the Archive
[Ellsworth to Dorothy 9 July 1932]
As I sit here all alone I wonder what you are doing now. Are you having a good time! I hope so because it would compensate in some measure for the wonderful time I’m having. Wonderful – like fun.
Tonight while near the Union Pacific line irrigating No. 18 (Fast Mail & Passenger) came tearing down the track. It was dark but the coaches were ablaze with light and I could see in through the windows. I imagined I could see happy travelers waiting to meet some special friend. I could see lovers as they planned. But soon the “creeper” is gone. With a shrill whistle and a last flash of red light I am left alone. I look up in the sky. There is a half moon there – a star falls – I do not have time to say, “Money! Money!” Hmm – a half moon – 28 more days before another one – two more after that then —— then snow, school, work. Snow. Snowflake – the place where Dot was born one & twenty years ago. Twenty one year [sic] ago. Twenty one years ago I was three years old. What did I know of love then – no more idea that Dot was a squealing red faced little baby then that there was any world outside of my door-yard. Hmmm mighty funny – darn funny. Now I know her but can’t see her for – OH such a long time. But then what matters time. Reward, reward, desire – reward? Desire? I desired a letter this Saturday night but will probably be rewarded with one when a few more days have passed. I thought she was foolin when she said a letter in a few weeks. Hope she was. I desire – hope wish for one Monday. If not Monday then I may get one Tuesday. Think I’ll keep this crazy epistle around until then. If I got one Tues then sent it off. You see I would not like to bore her with too much of this sort of stuff.
Midnight – soon the kids from town will be home from the dance in Bennington. Couldn’t go up because I had to work late. Have to look out or I’ll forget how to dance or dress up for a young lady – best not to anyway, I guess. […] The radio is now transmitting “Extraordinary Girl” a minute ago it (orchestra) played “I love you truly”. It might have gone on and played “I miss a little Miss” and then the later hit that says something about “summer coming on and not girl to be had” – can’t get it just right. AW Rats.
[…] That was a grand letter you wrote last. I received it yesterday afternoon and was tickled nearly pink. It’s funny how I begin to wonder about things and worry for fear you’ve forgotten me if I don’t hear from you for a few days. I wondered all sorts of things. I even wondered if I should not write so often, but after getting your letter I decided to keep on writing but that perhaps I’d better cut down on the salutations & endings. I really mean them but if you think they are not proper I’ll have to let you hold me down a bit. I guess it’s because I’ve never used them before and I really wanted to and though perhaps you wouldn’t care. I hope you don’t think it was flattery. I detest such stuff. It is merely the way I feel. Forgive me.
I take your letters too seriously? Sometimes I think that you do not mean some things at least, not the way I take them. […] This is what I felt more like saying. Goodbye to the sweetest girl I’ve ever known.
Love, Ellsworth
___________________________________
[Ellsworth to Dorothy 1 August 1932]
I can tell by the wild flowers you sent that you were quite high in the mountains, as only those grow there at this time of the year. They were still beautiful.
Who says you are not a poet? It sounds like you and is good enough so I wonder if I should even try any more myself. I wish I could believe that you even though of me slightly, when you wrote it. If I though that were true I’d be just about the happiest fellow in this little old universe.
Gee, if I could step into some summer league I’d be seeing you in about a jiffy. I’d just quit this old letter and tell it to you personally. Somehow it’s not apt to get twisted as it might on paper. I often get of into so world of fantasy while going about my work and when I do I think up some of the greatest and amusing situations. Sometimes I am a fellow with a sudden gift of $10,000.00 and I figure out what I’d do with it. Then I’m in SLC and talking with you. Then we’re going on a hike somewhere and I’m seeing your home after a perfect evening. Sometimes I’m a successful Dr. again I’m a School Teacher. Oh. I guess I’m somewhat of a dreamer. Anyway, most of my dreams cluster around a certain little Girl at 474 E 4th S. She is to me the sweetest girl I can imagine just sensible enough not to be too flippant and just romantic enough to be interesting and extremely desirable. Oh Dot, I think of you in all my work. You just seem to pop up wherever I am and whatever I’m doing. Even though I’m busy and not able to write quite so often as I did I think of us often and with more real appreciation. At first it was sort of a devoid feeling I felt mostly because of my many evenings and days with you. It was a direct change in my way of living. Now I’m somewhat over that. I still am lonely but I’m realizing what it means to be a pal to you and be in your company. A deeper appreciation I believe. It’s surely the foundation for a very close friendship. I realize now that it is not a common infatuation or a short romance. If it were ever that it has changed into something which I want to keep and what means everything to me.
___________________________________
[Ellsworth to Dorothy 7 September 1932]
We drove from home Monday morning to Twin Falls. There we stayed at the camp ground & then this morning we came to the present place. I hope this letter reached you so that you can get a letter of to Grant’s Pass Oregon. It would tickle me pink to get one while there. Sort of make me remember you and good times past. I’m the future Goodness only knows I think about you a lot anyway. Sometimes I wonder along funny lines of thought. Especially when I did not hear from you for so long a time. Believe me I was glad when I cam home from work last Friday and your letter was waiting for me. I surely thought you had forgotten me.
Dorothy (right) stands with friend Evelyn at the North Temple Wall in Salt Lake City, Utah.
by Cathy Gilmore | Jan 24, 2016 | Letters
“Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
How can we use letters to reshape our history? We may be surprised to learn how rich a source they can be. As an example, here is a transcription of single page of a letter—one that is part of a larger story of Ellsworth M. Clark hitchhiking his way through Southern Idaho and Wyoming in the summer of 1934. He was to be married to his fiancée Dorothy Smith that August, and was desperately seeking work as a school teacher in the height of the Great Depression:
This morning I came over to Montpelier with the County Sheriff. I was in Montpelier for almost one hour before I found out Wm Clark was not coming over here. From the garage where he worked. I walked up past Munks (Mildred is now home), but I believe they were yet in bed so no one came to the door. Not knowing how I would get over here, I walked towards the canyon until I got out of town. I waited for about an hour and caught a ride over with a big truck. As there are very few cars going on that road, I consider myself very lucky to get a ride so soon. I was back on top of mail sacks and boxes of groceries etc. The wind tangled my hair until I thought I’d never get it combed out. Arrived in Afton about 12:30 and just had time to shave & clean up for dinner. Aunt Louise & family have treated me very fine. You should see the swell bedroom I am to have tonight.
After dinner I called on Mr. Crook, the Superintendent of Schools. He was not home, but his wife said she to at a ballgame or church, she didn’t know. He will be back at home about 5:30, at which time I will interview the Gentleman.
June is leaving Paris for Salt Lake today. I think she left about noon. Suppose you will see her before I will.
The weather is somewhat cool up here
Aside from containing fun details about riding in the back of a truck, this letter is more than just a story: it contains people, places, and events. For example, this page contains six people, four places, a date, and a few subjects:
Names:
County Sheriff [Bear Lake County, Idaho]
Wm Clark [William O. Clark KWCZ-3G6]
Mildred Vilate Munk [KWCB-M92]
Aunt Louie [Louisa Mary Shepherd Call KWJZ-HL8]
Mr. Crook
Mrs. Crook
Places:
Montpelier, Idaho
Afton, Wyoming
Paris, Idaho
Salt Lake City, Utah
Date:
9 June, 1934
Subjects:
Great Depression
Hitchhiking
Job search
Each person tag represents an opportunity to share this source as on their family trees such FamilySearch Memories. The date provides a mark on a timeline for that individual, and the locations can help form a map that is also linked to that person. Finally, subject tags illustrate what is contained on this page that will enrich our view of history with this new perspective.
If this much information can be indexed from a single page, imagine what we could derive from an entire letter? An entire collection of letters? This is why transcribing and tagging is the key to unlocking our histories and the stories contained therein.
by Cathy Gilmore | Jan 11, 2016 | Love Letters from the Archive
Georgetown, Idaho
7:45 AM. Thursday,
6-9-32
Dear Dorothy,
Even though I sit here listening to the same radio program that you are able to hear in Salt Lake, it seems as though I am a very long distance aways away from you. After I left you about 3:40 a.m. I went back to the Apt. and found Heldon up and about half dressed. I spent a few minutes getting ready to leave and then was just going to rest for a few minutes when the party arrived. We left the “old home” at 4:25 a.m., traveled as far as Soda Spring Idaho by 10:30 a.m. Here we stopped and prepared a breakfast and then after eating traveled the remaining 18 miles to Georgetown. Here I left by things and we traveled on to Paris to see Weldon House. I say my Grandmother Shepherd at Paris also, and then Arvid & LaRue, Evelyn & Myself returned to Georgetown. I went Home and they started their visit with their folks.
It seems very good to see two sisters (Iris & June) and my brother (Gordon). However, one of my first surprises of my visit here was to find out that I was married. Nobody seems to know who to, but according to the Postmaster’s 13 year Old Girl they have seen letters addressed to a Mrs. E. Clark. News to Me! I wonder how many children I have and who the unfortunate woman is. OH! for the “dear old Town” and its interest in anything which is a little off the line of ; Price of Potatoes, School elections and the next public dance.
I am not so sure that I can get work at once., The whole town is now unemployed and I will have to do some real talking to get anykind of job, it seems. Well, I will try my best and hope for the best. I surely wish you were here to pass away a few of my dull hours. For it seems that many are going to be that way. My friend Teacher (Lewis Munk [sp]) from Snowflake Ariz. is here and I suppose I will be able to spend a few happy fishing hours with him.
So much for my own “crepe hanging” how is the Dearest Dorothy Smith who ever lived. How did you fare after I left you? Did LaRue & family get off for Canada? OH! there are a hundred questions I could ask most of them about yourself. I seems funny to have to Write what I feel. However, the best things come hard, and even I now wonder how hard it is going to be to get along without your company. I even noticed ^ (on the way home) that the best things are covered with a protective mechanism. The most beautiful rose has the largest thorns, the most delicate of cactus blooms have long stiff spires. Somehow, however, when we attain that which is hard we appreciate it more. If I have that friendship and intimate companionship with you that I hope I have, it is because I see that is worth so much for me that I must not do anything that will mar it in any way. I see that perhaps I have, in a sense done that, but if in any way I can recompense for it I certainly will. In true repentance we are certainly forgiven. I know you well enough to believe that you are the kind that will see it that way.
(now am I getting to serious)
It seems that my writing is getting slanted towards one corner. My artistic ability is simply abominable (? Spelling).
— Interrupted—
8:45 AM
6-10-32
The mail goes out in about one hour as I will try to finish this and get it as you will get the letter Saturday afternoon. I wish you could get before then and then I could get an answer sooner.
I had quite a talk with Evelyn last night. I see that she understands how I feel, and I’m very glad. She seems to know how I feel, but is not very sympathetic of course I’m glad about that too. She and her sister and brother and in-law are coming
Well, now if I were a poet I would write a beautiful poem but seeing I’m just a common scrub I guess I’ll just have to say good morning to you and hope it is near morning when you get the letter. Of it is afternoon just play it is morning. I wish I could broadcast a little of the music from outside the house. The birds are singing and everything seems clear and beautiful after the shower we had last night.
auf Weider Sehen
“Aufwieder sehn Mein Leib”
you know the song
Ich werde das der wer hein [sp]
Ellsworth
