Henry and Mary Warner lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. They are the great-grandparents of poet Marianne Moore.  By the 1860s they had three surviving children:  John, Henry, and Annie. Their letters to John, a Presbyterian minister living in Gettysburg, are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

Transcript:

Allegheny City Wednesday May 29^th, 1861

Back Kitchen 2 P.M.

Our Dear Children—We are all in excellent health & spirits—Jonnie at school, Lissie amusing herself sometimes in the house at other times in the yard, Mother & Anne plying the needle—Weather cold & clear—fire in the stove feel comfortable. Do not visit the Office of Z. & P. Folks not disposed to investigate old affairs these exciting times, no extra interesting news every thing interesting is all in, & around, the City of Washington. Have not heard from Henry since the last letter of his that I sent you; Anne says, did not feel alarmed but thought twas better move in time for fear of the worst. Robert came with her to Nashville, from that had a quiet travel to Louisville but as she drove near to Louisville fugitives like herself began to accumulate– & on her arrival in Louisville crowds were gathered to cross the river and on their arrival in Jeffersonville Indiana (free state) rejoicing became unanimous—One old gentleman who sat near her said “now I’ll take a long breath” & from that to her arrival in Pittsburgh U.S. flags were streaming every where—Anne left on Tuesday morning & arrived in Allegheny City on Thursday evening—800 miles by R.R. Of course was very tired but seems at this moment quite lively—she says, if the Union people done come out boldly—thinks the Union majority would be powerful—things there is no danger of insurrection, but at the same time says the negroes are well watched night & day by patroles, which never was the case hithertoo—While the blacks themselves seem to be perfectly indifferent & do not utter a word on the present existing state of affairs. Woe to the negro male or female found absent from their homes after Nine at night—every one in Shelbyville take turn to patrole at night—Archy told Anne the squad he was with went into the negro houses, search every corner for arms, ammunition, knives, hatchets &c look under the beds—open trunks, boxes of clothes & in many cases some of the poor things had valuable silk drapes neatly folded—opened them up for knives &c then left them all rumpled & left the house—these things have cured Archy of secession, but he has to keep very quiet—We think you folks ought to have a few more regiments along the Northern C.R.R. We were well hoaxed here on Sabbath last. Boys selling extras at 5¢ each about 300 rebels being killed at Sewells point = did not buy an extra= A company of volunteers occupied the first front pews on the middle aisle on Sabbath—10 seats—50 men the scene was quite imposing—paid good attention—congregation remained in their seats until they marched out—from the time they left their seats until the were in the streets was about 2 minutes—

Kind Remembrance to Jennie

Your Affectionate father & mother

Henry & Mary Warner

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John and Jennie Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 29 May 1861. Moore VI:04:18

Henry and Mary Warner lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. They are the great-grandparents of poet Marianne Moore.  By the 1860s they had three surviving children:  John, Henry, and Annie. Their letters to John, a Presbyterian minister living in Gettysburg, are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

Transcript:

Allegheny City Thursday May 16/61—4 P.M.

Our Dear Children

Anne and the two children have just arrived safe & sound and in good health—left on Tuesday—was glad to hear of the safe arrival of her two Boxes & Bag of feathers—we are all overjoyed at the safe arrival—Kind remembrance to Jennie I remain

Your affectionate father & mother

Henry & Mary Warner

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John and Jennie Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 16 May 1861. Moore VI:04:18

Henry Warner Jr. was the younger brother of John Riddle Warner, the grandfather of the poet Marianne Moore. In 1862  Henry would join the  Pennsylvania Independent Artillery, Battery G and would serve until 1865. These family letters are preserved as part of the Marianne Moore family papers.

Transcript [excerpt, bottom p1]:

I feel glad you take Annie’s case more calmly than you have done, no doubt but everything will turn out all right yet—And as for John I have not the least shadow of a doubt but he is safe too—that is—if he will still keep his horse harnessed—I think you had better send him my Shot Gun of the garrett & some ammunition—In this benighted part of the country we hear nothing about the war—comparatively speaking—I really believe—if the secessionists were to take Washington, hang Lincoln & Gen Scott the only remark it would occasion here would be “I wonder how it will affect the price of oil?”—I sometimes think it is perhaps a providential thing that I am up here at this time—as I think I could hardly have borne the war excitement that was in Pa while I was there, any longer without perhaps engaging myself for at least a three months trip from home—perhaps forever—

Citation: Henry Warner Jr., autograph letters signed to Henry and Mary Warner. Titusville, 13 May 1861. Moore VI:04:18

Henry and Mary Warner lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. They are the great-grandparents of poet Marianne Moore.  By the 1860s they had three surviving children:  John, Henry, and Annie. Their letters to John, a Presbyterian minister living in Gettysburg, are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

  Transcript:

Allegheny City Wednesday May 8^th 1861 Back kitchen 9 ½ A.M.

Our Dear Children—Breakfast & business of the morning over, I sit down to write to the folks in Gettysburgh—Mother on my left hand & Isabella on my right hand sewing, as house cleaning is done, & glad I am of it, Mother says I need not be so glad, as the least of it fell to my share, we are all in excellent health & cheerful, the letter from Anne I herewith send, I received this morning, we wish you to forward it to Henry, and dont let it lay about until you get time. We hope Anne has Henry’s letter by this time, I mean the one we sent to you, Mother is anxious she should have it, as such things cheer her up, for from home among strangers. We suppose by this time the Penna border is pretty well secured against rebels, from present appearance the rebels will have enough to do without troubling the folks in either Gettysburgh or Chambersburgh, or any other place along the border; they will soon find themselves in a tight place. We have no news, Mr. Zug is at Harrisburgh I suppose on business about the Western Penitentiary, as he is one of the managers of that institution, and the investigation of old office affairs connected with the Estate of John Lindsay is laid aside for the present. I am therefore much at home—we have had much rain latterly—the sun is just now come out—Allegheny is very dull, hardly a soul stirring, over in Pittsburgh it is quite a contrast, a great many strangers are in the city. People seem busy walking backwards & forwards, but little or no draying & very little doing in the stores—very few arrivals or departures of boats for ports below Cincinnati, although the rivers are in a good stage of navigation—We think it rather a risk for Anne to send any thing by rail or river to this place, as I can muster up no more news for you I will conclude

I remain your Affectionate father & mother Henry & Mary Warner

Kind remembrance to Jennie

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John and Jennie Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 8 May 1861. Moore VI:04:18

Henry and Mary Warner lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. They are the great-grandparents of poet Marianne Moore.  By the 1860s they had three surviving children:  John, Henry, and Annie. Their letters to John, a Presbyterian minister living in Gettysburg, are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

Transcript:

Allegheny City Tuesday April 30^th 1861 Back kitchen 4 P.M.

Our Dear Children Your very welcome & interesting letter reached us this morning at 8 oclock Dated 26^th inst, we rejoice with you that you are still safe and we hope every day, that now will pass by, will find you more & more secure from the attack of those, from whom, seven years ago, we could not be made believe a blow of that kind would come, however on thinking over these things, we must come to the conclusion, every night, on lying down in our beds, Mrs Craig, Mrs Eyster, You, & ourselves, It is only Our Heavenly Father, “who maketh us to dwell in safety.” We are happy to inform you we are all in excellent health & cheerful, we now feel resigned to leave the issue of this confused & really frightful state of affairs to Him who alone is able to bring order out of confusion, the drum & fife, is at this moment sounding in my ears, and although it would seem that far more men than is needed are already mustered into service, they are recruiting, & drumming up for more, as though men were scarce—The fair ground is covered with tents, the drill is going on there, our own companies, and the companies arriving from the counties around concentrate there, ready to be called out when more troops are demanded, or, on any other occasion, men are busy planting cannon on the surrounding heights &c, &c; captains of Steamboats coming up the river, tell us, the border states—Kentucky, Tennessee &c&, are as rallied for succession as South Carolina, with few exceptions, say two, out of every twenty inhabitants, that, they are treacherously rotten, and not to be depended upon, this is a horrible state of affairs, and plainly going to shew, that, at last, the time has arrived, a justly offended God, will espouse the cause of the down trodden and cruelly treated slave, who has been unjustly robbed and deprived of every right that man has a right to claim from his fellow man—Verily, a righteous God to judge the Earth there is. When we write to Anne our letters are very short, we never send her any of your letters, nor do we allude to the cause of the present bad state of affairs existing around us, for it is not an uncommon affair to open letters now in the Southern States; Henry is in Titusville, Mr. Woodsides told me yesterday he saw Him & Joe on last friday and they were well & in good spirits then—last Sabbath was our communion—Mr Coleman assisted, I am sorry to find fault with a minister in the pulpit but I do think he done the cause, more harm than good—he would sometimes become so excited both in the pulpit and when addressing a table that his declamation was terrific—I think his mind is carried away by the state of affairs existing around, I think the people will try & persuade Mr. Clark not to have him again—the “still small voice of the gospel” is for before such gestures & roaring out—Many a sad heart was there owing to the absence of sons, brothers, husbands, & fathers, going & gone to this unnatural war. Aunt B. & Asy sends their kind remembrance to you—We received a letter from Anne, she says Robert is not willing for her to leave L and that Robert also says, we are in as much, if not more, danger than they are; we do not think Robert is much of a judge these matters—Dr Prestly is very much failed—Dave is able to walk about, but weak—our kindest rememberance to Jennie Your affectionate father & mother

Henry & Mary Warner

P.S. Isabella is with us, House cleaning is still going on, Mrs Boyle paid us a visit yesterday, & says, she wont clean house until this fuss is over, for, it but be, that after all her trouble of cleaning, the rebels might burn it, then he labour would go for nothing, wise woman that

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John and Jennie Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 30 April 1861. Moore VI:04:17

Hugh Craig was the older brother of Jennie Craig Warner, who was the grandmother of the poet Marianne Moore> These letters are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

Transcript:

Locust Hill, April 25^th 1861

Dear Sister:

I have a good many letters to write. And a good deal of work to attend between this and the 8^th of May. For these reasons I must write you but a short letter. I arrived home yesterday evening. And was right glad to get home, so that I might be free to some extent from the excitement. George was to leave this morning for York. He has accepted the post of Pay-master in Col. Stumbaugh’s Regiment. Mary of course felt sad at George’s departure, but she bore up very well. Mother is a good deal troubled about the War. She says she would like to get away from Mason’s & Dixon’s line as far as she could. She says that she would not like to go either to Chambersburg or Gettysburg. She thinks the only safe place would be in Canada. The Marylanders around us are all Union men so far as I know. The Clearspring people were very much rejoiced that so many troops came to Chambersburg, they feel safer now. They are strong for the Union in Clearspring. Dr. Firey says he will spend all he has to defend the Union. I can’t pay you more than the interest on that note this spring. It might be that after awhile I might pay you some. I paid that note off, that Uncle held against you, and destroyed it. You may bring that note of mine along with you over, or mark the interest on it paid for one year and I will make all right when you come over. The troubles in our country will make quite a change in that contemplated trip in May. We will probably only go to Niagara. Thomas X. Orr is to be grooms-man. Tell Mr. Warner we expect him to officiate on the morning of the 8^th of May. I suppose it is hardly necessary that I should write to Mr. W. about it. It was the understanding when Mr. W. was over here that he was to officiate on that occasion if Mr. Dinsmore was not yet ordained. Tell him I am very much engaged, & that I hope he will excuse me for not writing. Jennie I want you to go along with Mr. W. to the wedding. Mr. Orr’s said that you should come there the evening before. The ceremony is to take place at 9 ½ o’clock. Mr. Orr’s say they can entertain six strangers. Watson intends going the evening before. Martha said she would like to know a little before hand how many of my friends would be with them one night. I want you to write to me immediately whether you will go to James Orr’s the evening before. Our plan here is for you to go to the wedding, and then come up with Watson in the cars to Chambersburg & he will bring you the remainder of the road in the buggy. Jennie I would like very much & Mother would too, that you would be here as soon as you can after I leave. If you would come with Watson from the wedding, Mother would only be alone one night. If it is had suited you I would like if you could have been present a few days before I left—but I will not ask you to do this. I expect there will be about thirty five or forty at the wedding.

From your affectionate brother

Hugh

Citation: Hugh Craig, autograph letter signed to Jennie Craig Warner. Locust Hill, Penn, 25 April 1861. Moore VI:04:17

Henry and Mary Warner lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. They are the great-grandparents of poet Marianne Moore.  By the 1860s they had three surviving children:  John, Henry, and Annie. Their letters to John, a Presbyterian minister living in Gettysburg, are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

Allegheny City Wednesday April 24^th 1861 Back Parlour 9 A.M.

Our Dear Children, One hour has not elapsed since your welcome letter was put into my hand at the post office, your letter was dated 20^th and Post Marked [Home Junct] same date, I only arrived this morning; if you do not receive our letters promptly, it is not our fault, for we answer almost instanter’, on receipt of your letter, especially when you require an immediate answer; concerning Anne we have nothing new. As for any of us going for her, under present circumstances, it would be sheer madness, while on her pact coming here alone, by R.R. of course, she would be perfectly safe the whole distance, you talk about passing through Richmond you might as well pass through the fire, I am in great hopes we will soon see her.

Harry accidentally saw the news of Davis being shot at his own door in Baltimore in the N.Y. Tribune or we would not have known a word about it, I have been looking for that news in all our Pittsburgh papers but could not see it. As you take the Tribune, we would be glad (these troublous times) to get hold of one occasionally—Henry left for Titusville on Monday via Kittaning, of which I think I informed you in my last, when I sent Anne’s letter. Now Dear John drop us a line as often as you can, and any thing concerning Anne, or any thing else that may transpire that will interest you, you may be sure we will send you word in haste without delay, so great is the excitement here that the community can neither say, or do, any thing only think or talk about the war, all telegraphic news on that subject is almost entirely cut off and the mails are slow and irregular and the people eagerly seek after the arrival of the latest news, indeed last evening I went to the P.O. found nothing there, about 4 oclock, then went over the Hand street bridge to Clendennings store that is on Hand street to see if I could hear any new news, the sound of the drum & fife we are almost sure to hear when ever we open the door and when ever we go. We have an excellent clean atlas of Mitchells that I thought I would look at for the different positions of places around Washington, when sure enough there I saw Gettysburgh only seven miles off the Maryland line, much nearer to the line than Chambursburgh but then Cham is much nearer Harpers Ferry, the scene of John Brown’s labour, well it is not likely they will trouble your place—the Rebels will have enough on their hands, but certainly your folks should have plenty of artillery & Minnie rifles united to a determined spirit to give them a sound drubbing, but wait until negro insurrection takes place. I am glad when I think I am writing to a person in a free state and also to know my letter will not on its journey have to leave the free state of old Penna. We sympathise with Jennie & her sister on the probability of Alex Eyster leaving for the War, we sincerely hope, if he does go, that he may return in safety to the beloved objects that are so near & dear to him, Oh but them rebels and foes of God will meet with a terrible retribution. The day is clearing up after rain, Mother is in right good health, is upstairs now, cleaning house assisted by Isabella, no doubt but her thoughts are lively occupied about her absent ones; So anxious are the people here that they talk of completely Wiping out that portion of Maryland that lies between them and the Capital, Oh! but they would like to walk over Baltimore, there will be some sad tales to tell before the termination of this civil war, we are very much kept in the dark here about what is going on, & it is three days before we got the news of any thing momentous that does occur, even the mails are tardy and irregular. Tomorrow Thursday, will be our day of humiliation, previous to a sacramental Sabbath, when it was first given out, about 4 weeks ago, I think if it was known that we would be in the midst of such troublous times as these, it would have been put off a little longer, for the public mind at present is in a very feverish state; every one agree in the opinion, that, never was such a unity of sentiment so general on any subject, as the feeling in regard to the present war, all parties anxious to see the South severely chastised, while on the contrary the lying emissaries of Satan are busy circulating every where that in the North the people are very much divided on that subject, that General Scott is about to resign for want of support” &c&c&c—His Satanic majesty has always been busy, and still find agents to do his will—it is a true saying, he is the father of lies.

1 P.M. Mother was just telling me at dinner that the last words Henry told her was, that he would soon be back, as he was anxious to know what was going on; on last Saturday evening Aunt Betty visited us & remained until Sabbath eve, Isabella has just been telling us at dinner, that she heard Harry say that he was offered the command of a company if he would go and what stood in his way most was leaving his mother, now he never told us that, but from his conduct, he appeared to be restless & uneasy

I shall now conclude & bid you good bye for a while—kind remembrance to Jennie—Your affectionate father & mother

Henry & Mary Warner

What does Mrs Craig think of all this?

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John and Jennie Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 24 April 1861. Moore VI:04:17

Henry and Mary Warner lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. They are the great-grandparents of poet Marianne Moore.  By the 1860s they had three surviving children:  John, Henry, and Annie. Their letters to John, a Presbyterian minister living in Gettysburg, are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

Transcript (excerpt):

“We have been plodding along in our old usual way, looking forward for merry Christmas, and also having every reason to suppose that before another year rolls around an eventful time will transpire: anarchy, confusion & bloodshed, will be the order of the day in these United States; I can hardly think it possible, a dissolution of the Union will take place without bloodshed; Read Judges 20th &  see how brother fell upon brother for this high handed iniquity, owing to our sins we have good reason to expect something similar, we will be made instruments in the hand of Providence for executing chastisement on each other.

Citation: Henry & Mary Warner,autograph letter to John Riddle Warner. Allegheny City, 19 December 1860. Moore VI:04:13