Letter
Dublin Core
Title
1837.03.29 – Elizabeth Huntington to Frederic Dan Huntington, Mar. 29th, 1837
Creator
Elizabeth Whiting Phelps Huntington
Source
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers (Box 12 Folder 8)
University of Massachusetts Special Collections and University Archives
Date
1837-03-29
Rights
public domain
Type
Correspondence
Transcription
Elm Valley1 March 29th 1837 – Wednesday even.
Dear Frederic,
You had a stormy walk on Monday morning; but as it was not very cold you did not probably suffer much inconvenience. Tomorrow is the day I mentioned for making you a visit2, but the state of the ground is such that it will not do to think of it. Besides your brother
William has invited Mary to spend the day with him at Northampton3, and it will be a good time for her to complete her musical course.
Your father went down this morning to see Doct. Brown, and inform him of his intention to leave the society.4 The information I believe was not unwelcome to the Doct. But he has certainly managed the matter very adroitly. On Friday your Pa thinks of setting his face toward Athol5, and of attending the singing lecture6 at Montague.7
I shall regret your absence if you do not come home to be here on the Sabbath. But you can better decide what is the proper course than I can. We ought to be thankful that our devotions need not be circumscribed by place. Our thoughts and grateful remembrances may dwell upon the love of our Redeemer acceptably in retirement, if we are denied the privilege of honoring him at his own table, and in the assembly of his followers.
You will not expect me to enlarge. You know the way to gain impressive views of divine truth. Our heavenly Father is more ready to give his spirit to them that ask him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children. I believe we very much peril in the duty of prayer. After all the promises, we find in scripture, our backwardness to this duty must be owing to unbelief. We do not more than half believe that our prayers for the spirit of Christ will be granted.8 That you and I may experience more fully the efficacy of this faith is the earnest desire of your affectionate mother.
Elizabeth
Mr. Fr. D. Huntington
Amherst
- Elm Valley is another name for the Porter-Phelps-Huntington homestead, built in 1752 along the Connecticut River in Hadley by Moses and Elizabeth Porter. The house and farm are also referred to as “40-acres.” ↩︎
- 2 – It is unclear where Frederic would have been at this time, because he grew up at 40-acres and didn’t attend nearby Amherst College until two years later, in 1839. ↩︎
- The town of Northampton was originally the territory of the Pocumtuc, and was purchased by settlers from Springfield in 1653 after a series of wars with the Iroquoian Mohawks and a devastating smallpox epidemic in the 1630s. The town was the site of Christian religious revivals in 1734-1735 and 1739-1740 under the congregational leadership of Jonathan Edwards (later considered one of the fathers of Evangelical Christianity). From 1842-1846 Northampton was at the forefront of the abolitionist movement, and was the home of anti-slavery advocate Sojourner Truth. ↩︎
- There has been some suggestion that “Doct. Brown” refers to the famous abolitionist John Brown – but John didn’t arrive in Springfield until 1846, after this letter was written. The book History of Hadley by Sylvester Judd and Lucius Boltwood has one mention of a Dr. Brown, with no connection to abolition. ↩︎
- Five families settled in the area called Pequoiag in 1735, later renamed to Athol in 1762 when the township was incorporated. The town was relatively quick to industrialize, adding textile, leather, wood, and metal industries throughout the 1800s. ↩︎
- Starting in the 1750s and 1760s, there was a new emphasis on psalm-singing at the meetinghouses. Often, congregations hired a singing teacher to conduct lessons during the week. At the end of the course (a few weeks long), there would be a concert and a formal lecture from the minister – together known as a “singing lecture.” ↩︎
- The town of Montague, like Northampton, was originally settled by the Pocumtuc and was named Peskeompskut. Although European settlers arrived in 1715, the town was not incorporated until 1754 – as a collection of five villages: Montague Center, Montague City, Milles Falls, Lake Pleasant, and Turners Falls. ↩︎
- When this letter was written, New England and the rest of the colonies were in the peak of the Second Great Awakening – a religious revival which spurred millions of people to join the church and attempt to purify themselves of sin before the Second Coming of Jesus. The movement started around 1790 as a reaction to growing religious skepticism/rationalism and continued until the late 1840s. ↩︎