by Cathy Gilmore | Feb 14, 2016 | Love Letters from the Archive
[Dorothy and Ellsworth become engaged in the Spring of 1933, yet the are still spending summers apart while Ellsworth works in Idaho, and then later when he serves a six-month mission in Colorado. -Cathy]
[Ellsworth to Dorothy, 29 July 1933]
It is evening. The earth is fresh and green from the summers first rain. The sun has set but it is still light so as to see better the soft dewy foliage. It is sweet. The air is so clean and pure it is as if everything was in a preparedness of some sort. I’ll bet it’s just waiting for a lovely Miss Smith who is going to come and visit me for awhile. Yes, I can see her coming. He hair is back over her shoulders and the wind is blowing through it. Her lips are parted and a smile is a welcome to me. She is on her tiptoes and her arms are partly reaching to me in welcome. Her eyes are as stars, yet they shine with no glaring light, rather it is a soft brown glow that speaks of love, acknowledgement, trust and unending spirit. Is she going to get here? It is growing dusk. I’ll go meet her and taking her into my arms, press her gently to me.
________________________
[Ellsworth to Dorothy, 15 December 1933]
Dearest—
Just a note at this late hour to tell you I have not forgotten you and that I’m still alive and happy. The stars seem so low and bright tonight that I yearn for your company. This is truly a beautiful country and the only thing to make it more perfect would be— (you know who).
________________________
[Ellsworth to Dorothy 29 December 1933]
Dearest Little Starlet,
I’m oozing with sentiment tonight. The moon is full and my thoughts run tenderly along such lines as boat rids on a lagoon, walks in the park when it’s just chilly enough for the arm of your loved one to warm you, and skating on crystal clear ice with a sweetheart on my arm as the cold blue white stars wink and fall in the frosty sky. Then thoughts go back to June nights when the air is burdened with sweet perfume of big copper colored roses and lilac. When grass and ground invites you to linger and muse and in silence wonder at the handiwork of God & his goodness to Man. Two lovers are in bliss as they feel more than they can say, and when the kiss of the betrothed is as a sacrament for themselves, to a greater power than Man. Dreaming of days to come when service and love shall know no bounds and two shall be as one. Blessed children and blessed old age; even death is then beautiful.
It is beautiful tonight. Old Pikes Peak in majestic stillness is in communion with the stars & trees. It is quiet. The noise of city life is not near and as I look out in the dark, it seems you are near. See— I’m talking to you now. I’ll tell you how I love you if you don’t leave. This may seem foolish but you are near. And I know of a surety of my love for you.
________________________
[Ellsworth to Dorothy, 22 February 1934]
“Did you ever see a dream walking? Well, I did” [sketch of musical notes] etc. I saw that a number of times while a good member of the Capitol Hill Ward. Remember the times when we went walking after church. Also, how I could walk home with you from Sunday School & make a date for the evening. I can’t do that now but I can see you walking in dreams. I see you often as I remember you the times we got up early and went up some canyon. Remember the morning we walk up towards Parleys Canyon, and I kissed you right out on the prairie (I mean your mouth). Excuse me I don’t know my anatomy. What I meant to say was: we were standing out on the prarie [sic] in plain view of everybody for miles around, and I kissed, you. You see it was so early the people around were not up yet.
________________________
by Cathy Gilmore | Feb 13, 2016 | Letters, Love Letters from the Archive
For Valentine’s Day Weekend, we’re posting our favorite excerpts from our archive of love letters between Dorothy Smith and Ellsworth M. Clark. It’s 1932, and their relationship is quite young and unsettled. Ellsworth, on summer break in his hometown of Idaho, emerges as the lovesick but hopeful partner, while the playful Dorothy doesn’t seem quite ready to settle down. —Cathy
Detail from Dorothy Smith Clark scrapbook. Dorothy’s dance card from a Capitol Hill Ward dance from February 1932.
[Ellsworth to Dorothy, 24 June 1932,]
[…] It’s funny how a fellow reads things into letters. When I sat down to write your letter seemed the best ever and the more I read it the more I read into it. I guess I had better put it away and read it again when in better humor.
I wish I could see you tonight and talk to you . I’ve so much to say that will seem funny on paper. I’m afraid I’m a pretty poor correspondent card You might read things into it also. Then let’s hope that I’ll get better in my writing, become I guess its improbable that I’ll see you soon. Oh, Dot. Now here I am getting ‘blue’ etc. I’ll cut this rotten letter short and hope that the next one is very much better. Auf wiedersehen to the sweetest girl in the whole world.
Repentantly
Ellsworth
__________________________________
[Ellsworth to Dorothy, 6 July 1932]
[…]There is still a wonderful Indian Summer and Fall coming. There are places to go when the snow is on the ground also. You see I haven’t known you when we could have gone skating, sleighing, skiing, etc. What fun we’ll have if we can get together often enough. Well now that’s figuring a long time ahead, but then I like to dream of anything with wish I may associate your presence. No foolin’.
[…]
I wonder if they can’t invent someway of delivering a kiss & hug? (By machinery by luck, not by messenger) I don’t believe that would be such a good idea strike that one out. I’ll try to be there in person for such favors. What is if I would be so lucky as to receive any from the desirable lady.
About your idea on love. It’s very good and very idealistic. I might say that the love you desire to attain some day will be a very wonderful thing for a man. I wonder how many women can keep such an unfailing love though. I’ve seen so many, seemingly perfect, love affairs and marriages go on the rocks after a few months or years. There are so many stumbling blocks. Surely you are entitled to a very good husband. You must be very sure he is, before you give him a love like that which you say you desire to give. – More later-
Later – same day 11:00 p.m. July 6, 1932
Darling, I just couldn’t resist writing a few more lines before going to bed. You see I think as much about you that I just have to sit down and scribe a few words to the sweetest girl in the world.
I shocked myself today when I went through a lot of my old letters. My! The change is rather terrific was really as bashful (and no win the ones I reasoned) that I wonder how I changed. I have some from as far back as 1921. Evelyn flirted writing when she left in 1923 & as I have some from her from that time or until March 1932 (since that none) quite a pile. Then I read the ‘mushy’ letters Maude Kramer wrote me last year. That goes to show how fickle girls are. She must have not meant a word she said or else she changed a powerful lot. I like the ones from Bina were raking funny in the odd sort of way guess I’ve known the whole ‘shebang’ this getting to be a nuisance. I have a nice little place for them where no one can get them, but it seemed a desecration to let the ones I receive from you to lie there by them. Yours are the only ones who seem to really mean anything to me the others are just so much paper and dried ink. Yours are you, your thoughts, and your soul. See! They mean a lot to me Dot. Don’t let anything stop one of them they are what I live upon up here in the sticks.
Good night, for a while old sweet. I’m going to bed & dream of hikes, tennis, shores and wonderful evenings with Dotty Smith in dear old Salt Lake City. Just this before I go. XXX
Ellsworth
Ellsworth and Dorothy on a tennis date at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City, Utah. Spring 1932.
___________________________________
[Dorothy to Ellsworth, 10 July 1932]
[…] Did you say you would skate with me next winter? Hot dog! You’re the 1st in a thousand I’ve asked that has been on ice before. (And I don’t mean in cold storage – I’m there right now.) […]
As I glance at you recent salutations and endings I corroborate your supposition that if you once wrote bashful letters you certainly have changed. Talk about flattering phrases, you letters are the most contaminated I’ve ever received from the make of the species. I’ve got correspondences dating back to 1921 lying around, I mean a few rare old specimens. From 1927 till the present I’ve had at least 5 male correspondents in more recent years as many as 8 at a time but do you think I ever allowed anything like you write? I held them down till they were afraid to take the chance of being so daring. Before we moved from 1st North I burned about 200 of those old letters but kept at least one sample of each of them to read over and smile at in my old age. Sometime I’ll get them out and let you see them – and if you haven’t destroyed those of yours keep a few to show me. We’ll stage a court scene and see who can get the most evidence against the other for breach of promise, pretending some of these letters are more recent than they really are. Now I don’t know – I’m afraid I’d lose, but then what have I promised? Still free, am I not?
by Cathy Gilmore | Jan 30, 2016 | RootsTech 2016, Software
RootsTech 2016 has selected Kindex™ LLC of Kaysville, Utah, from a field of nearly 50 candidates to present their family history software in the semifinal round of the Innovator Showdown on February 3, 2016. Part of the RootsTech Innovator Summit, the Innovator Showdown features the latest in family history technology and innovation. From the field of twelve semifinalists, a judges panel will select six finalists to demo live onstage for over 23,000 people. Winners take home a piece of the $100,000 prize in cash and in-kind services, not to mention the free publicity that comes with being a finalist.
Kindex owners and cousins Kimball Clark and Cathy Gilmore are thrilled about the prospects of their new company. “RootsTech has been fantastic at encouraging new technologies in the family history field,” said Kimball. “The Innovator Summit is a wonderful forum for us to present our ideas and learn from others. We are excited for the opportunity RootsTech provides startups like us.”
For Cathy and Kimball, what started as a project to scan and archive their grandmother’s diaries, letters, photos, and other documents evolved into developing a web software company that solved the problem of accessing and reading old documents through indexing. “We realized that scanning documents and throwing them on a website just wasn’t enough,” Cathy explained. “We had difficulty reading the handwritten letters and navigating through so many files. Why not apply the FamilySearch Indexing model to families?”
Kindex Beta debuts at RootsTech 2016
“Indexing has been immensely popular in fueling the find for millions of researchers,” Cathy continued. “Why not extend indexing to the millions of family records that are rich with people, places, and events. These records are at risk of being lost or discarded, and within them are the stories we all seek.”
“One of the most exciting parts of Kindex is the idea that not only will our family benefit, but that countless people mentioned within others’ indexed records will have new documents attached to them through our tagging and transcription tools,” Kimball said. “For them, we are rewriting their history.”
The RootsTech Innovator Summit is a one-day event for developers, entrepreneurs, and innovators from around the globe to explore, examine, and discover business and technological opportunities within the family history industry. The Innovator Summit is just one of the events offered at RootsTech, the largest family history even in the world. From Feb. 3-6 in Salt Lake City, Utah, RootsTech will offers speakers, entertainment, classes, and large Expo Hall of exhibitors.
Along with being an semifinalist, Kindex will be in the Expo Hall and “Innovator Alley” where the latest in family history tech will be on display. Kindex will debut their new family indexing web software Kindex Beta at RootsTech 2016.
For more information see:
Innovator Showdown Submission: http://devpost.com/software/kindex-index-your-history
Facebook
Twitter: @kindex
Instagram: @kindexyourhistory
Logos: kindex.org/identity
by Cathy Gilmore | Jan 25, 2016 | Letters, Love Letters from the Archive
[Today is Ellsworth’s birthday! Read the newsy letter his fiancé wrote to him, and why she turned down Torleif Knaphus’s invite to the Beaux Arts Ball. -Cathy Gilmore]
2368 Highland Dr
S.L.C Utah
Jan 245/34
Good Morning Merry Sunshine!
How do you feel today? A beautiful, coral-streaked opal sky heralds the dawn of your Birthday Anniversary. The cool, crisp air promises continued winter for us.
Yesterday morning we rose to see the world blanketed in the heaviest snow of the season. The trees—a varied collection of weeping willows bowed reluctantly under their heavy burden, wires were rope-like in appearance and the general appearance was as tho a fairy had touched the landscape with her magic wand strewing the skyline with a lacy network of white branches.
Today enough snow remains on the trees to disguise them as cotton plants—what a frivolous climate.
I’m hoping your birthday joys were complete. Am sending my present today along with one from Knaphus. Eleven in all. You can buy a car with it if you like or a radio or a train ticket for a weekend in S.L.C.
I will be celebrating tonight by doing some sealings in Temple tonight as it is also Grandma Bushman’s birth anniversary & a group of us are going including Vera. Tomorrow night I am helping put over a pageant depicting N.D.A. growth and Saturday Olive & I & June & 3 other of the Knaphuses are doing some baptismal work.
Vera and I had to postpone our missionary meeting but hope to get started next week.
What did you think of the proposition we had to offer. Don’t drop it from your mind without due consideration will you?
Do you hear from Lewis? You know I was just thinking the coincidence it was that you and he should both get Arizona girls. Come to think of it she may even be a relation – everyone else around there is. Now I have it! If she lives around Taylor she must be related to Vera for Vera was born there & it’s the home of he[r] Father’s folks. Ha! who said we weren’t a smart bunch. Tying a not [sic] right around the 3 couples of us. And Gene Murphy is related to some Smiths in S.L. I’ve got to look that up.
Now for my diary incidentally it is sadly neglected.
Stayed with Vera Sun. night. Monday night skipped school & sent to dinner at Eight with Torleif and Olive. Honestly honey. I was too tired to study he had been wanting one to chum more with Olive so I felt rather obliged. Please forgive?
Tuesday night I attended a Stake Mutual party on Stratford Ave. with Oliver.
It was a grand affair & the most fun I’ve had in ages.
Tomorrow night (Fri) Don & Oliver have dates from for Granite Gold & Green Ball.
Knaphus has his car back & says it is at my service. Would I like to have a week end off? Better watch for me hiding under one of the seats in your Sunday School.
Rec’d letters the other day from Marv & one of his old girlfriends simultaneously. Marv’s enjoying life, what with a dance now & then & now & then a new good-looking ‘frill!
Virgil is well now & is back into mischief again.
Connie is still undecided. I have a 50¢ order from her to make a Valentine for John. Didn’t think I’d be making them for other men did you? This coming Sat. the Art Barn sponsors are staging their first annual Beaux Arts Ball — a grand costume affair.
Last night T.S.K. called for me at school and asked if I would care to go. Didn’t say definitely but a ‘couple’ is a ‘couple’ and I’d rather ensure my social standing than my artistic one so I’m waiting till I get a personal invitation from the committee at which time (if ever) you will be the other party. How’s that?
It’s lunch hour now. We’re certainly busy at Kress. S.H. arrives Mon Tues the 30th!
Burbidge tells me his son, Smith leaves Feb. 22 for Western States mission. He may even be your companion. Watch for him.
Edna Remington (office girl) says her sweetheart ‘Wid’ Davidson presided over that branch about 2 yrs ago & that he organized the original basketball team there.
I still see Aunt Annie Folsom upstairs now & then. She sends her best wishes to you & always asks about you. She tries to check up on my behavior & says I look better than at Xmas time.
I saw Helen, Iris & your mother for awhile yesterday.
Time’s up See you tonight under that big bright moon. Where’s that birthday kiss? Here’s mine “X” [stylized “x”]
Forever,
Dorothy
Figure this out & don’t ask me. [underneath looped lines leading up to her name]
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.
