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 July 10^th 1861—Front Bedroom 2 P.M.

Our Dear Children

With very great pleasure I sit down, to write a line or two to our absent ones at Gettysburgh; As usual I have but little to write about, however any little news that I have connected with our own family I will state that first—On 4^th July, in middle of forenoon who should arrive in a buggy at the front door but Joe & Harry. Harry came in, Joe drove to the stable, about the same time, Aunt Betty arrived & her grandson Sammy Taylor—All hands ‘spruced’ up and went to see the Home guards, Artillery, Volunteers, & firemans parade, which (as I am informed was an imposing sight, your father remained home to keep house—At 12 ½ Noon, we all sat down to dinner—roast chickens, fried ham, green peas—cold pie, old potatoes, tea, &c&c&c—After tea Aunt B. & her grandson went home—in the evening sat on the front door, & front parlour looking at a grand display of fire works, so ended the glorious Fourth. On Saturday last, it was baking morning—Weather that morning was fine until about 8 oclock, just at the time the bread was going in the oven it commenced raining very heavy & rained incessant until noon. Mother had to be out, her clothes were very wet, her feet were wet also, on Sabbath day her throat was sore, on Monday was quite unwell, Tuesday yesterday could not go to market, I went, to day I think she is better, still complains of her throat. Anne & her is at present in little room over new kitchen, mother is sewing; Since Joe & Harry came home, the oil company to which they belong had two meetings and at the last meeting they agreed that they should go back & bore on for oil they are now down 400 feet are to sink another Hundred making the depth 500 feet for which they are to receive two dollars per foot—they have consented to go—whether they will leave next week or the week after they have not determined yet; If mothers throat was well, and Anne was cheerful I would say, we are all in excellent health and spirits. I handed Anne, the letter from Jennie yesterday, she is much pleased with the kind invitation, and I think has some notion of going to pay you a visit, she did not tell me this, & I merely suspect, that this is her intention; Mr Seymour died last friday, his remains was put in a metallic coffin, and on Saturday Mrs S set off to New York with them. Mrs Blackstock is still living and that is all;

On Sabbath last Dr Plummer commenced in the Basement of his new Church—in the afternoon there was no meeting at our church—Mr Clark preached at the House of Refuge; Mother & Anne attended at Dr Plummer’s—it seems Dr P never adverted to our national troubles, and we are told he never does, In his discourse he said the people now would put Christ to death if he did not go with them in opinion just as fast as they did in his day, perhaps they would not crucify him but they would hang him to a lamp post we cannot exactly pen the exact words he made us of—but the lamp post was in the expression—we think he will not be long in this community—James Gibson has left him & many others; I think now I have told you all the news I could think of

Kind remembrance to Jennie

Your affectionate father & mother

Henry & Mary Warner

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John Riddle Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 10 July 1861. Moore VI:04:20

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 July 3^rd 1861—Back bedroom 11 A.M.

Our Dear Children, We should now overlook the numerous blessings we have, and this one among the number, that of writing to those we love, under such circumstances—All in good health & spirits, day delightful, after an abundance of refreshing rain, all around as peaceable as a Sabbath day at Locust Hill—this I consider happiness, even if I have nothing to write about, and I can assure you that (next to Gods blessing) there is nothing I desire so much as peace & quietness for indeed my life has been an eventful one—Well now, I have made my debut, what shall I say? In the first place, Henry is not home, have not heard from him since Joe left, this day two weeks, and as we have been so long without hearing from him we think it likely that Joe & him will make an effort to be home tonight, as tomorrow will be ‘Independence day’. We see the O.L. Presbyterians have set it apart as a day of fasting & prayer, I think they are right, if it could be carried into practice. Our U.P. Church do not say any thing on the subject. 1 P.M. Dinner over. Fine large marrow fat green peas at 15 cents per pack &c&c&c. Anne has had a letter from Robert, he is right well, it came by Adams Express—we send our letters to him in the usual way, and he receives them, with this exception. Robert has to pay five cents, Robert has to prepay so that we cannot tell what it costs him. All we have to do is to sign a receipt to Adams Express, for the letter: we have all been long looking for the Newspaper called ‘The World,’ If you sent it, it never came here for I enquired at the P.O. for it, am curious to know what the negroes say about ‘The Unioners.’ As I have now so small a correspondence, I think I ought to write you a long letter, but really, so monstrous are the times around us, that I have nothing to write about: Mrs Blackstock is neither better or worse than when I wrote to you last. The Doctor says she may drop off any moment but there is no hope of her recovery. Our old friend James Rodgers is plodding along attending to his book store—Tommy is out of business, doing nothing, Willy is studying law; Mrs Brown, our neighbour, has only received Ten Dollars of rent since April 1^st, her tenant says, will pay her when he gets money, seems quite unconcerned, & what is worse than all, her & us, think they will never pay her another dollar—One of her sons is a carpenter & has his own family to support which is as much as he can do, and her other son is thrown out of employment by the dull times, and Agy her daughter can do no work on account of her hand that was injured by a printing press; we would rather it was otherwise with her, she is a kind neighbor & a well disposed woman.

Kind remembrance to Jennie, Mrs Craig, & family—

4 ½ P.M. Henry is not home

From your affectionate father, mother & sister

Henry Warner

Citation: Henry Warner, autograph letter signed to John Riddle Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 3 July 1861. Moore VI:04:20