November 26, 1862: Henry and Mary Warner to John Warner

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 Anne. Their letters to John, a Presbyterian minister living in Gettysburg, are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

Transcript:

Allegheny City Wednesday November 26^th 1862 10 A.M.

Our Dear Children, Your very kind letter written by Jennie on Saturday the 22^nd and Post Marked Monday 24^th we received yesterday morning for which we thank you, the contents, to us were truly gratifying for several reasons. One reason is, that there is a bright prospect of Jennie enjoying future good health, surely it must be a great blessing for her on whom the care of a family depends to enjoy good health—another reason is, the sight of your infant offspring thriving, cheerful, and lively, surely such a sight should be a great matter of thankfulness; our last, though not least reason for being so much gratified is, “Your fixed resolve not to leave pulpit preparation off until the last day” truly this is good news, Oh! how would we be gratified could we be in any corner of Mr. Finneys church on tomorrow—unperceived by human eye—well if we cannot hear you, we can think of you—we also hope to hear some one tomorrow we cannot tell who, may he speak from the heart to the heart—we suppose the bride & groom will be to hear you, in your next we would like to know of doings of tomorrow and also about the wedding. We appreciate Jennies kindness very much in writing, for we are very well aware how much it must interfere with a persons duties, situated as she is, with a babe on her hands, and also compeled to receive the various calls at the door that consequently must attend the profession of a minister—Gladly would the ‘welkin ring’ in this ‘we bit hoos’ of ours, could Jennie, John, & baby, pay us a visit, could we be satisfied that such a visit would not be attended with injury to either mother or child—the journey here and home would be the difficulty, once here, we think we could make you comfortable however we leave these things to yourselves—one thing we do know, we would have a lively time of it, no danger of having the ‘blues’—Anne, sonnie, Sis, both old and young would be highly gratified—we are very glad to know brother Dave has procured a substitute, that his aged mother will be spared from grieving over his absence, anticipating continually the arrival of sad, sad news such as many a bereaved mother in our beloved country has to mourn over—we received a letter from Henry on last Monday morning, he is hearty and well his letter was very short, says two of their companies were ordered off to Washington, says he has nothing to write about as they have no secesh prisoners to guard—says he will write often although is letters may be short—we have no news in the shape of gossip—except to inform you Lizzie Patterson is married Jennettes niece—she is married to some man by the name of Stevenson in Pittsburgh, we would not have known of the marriage if we had not seen it in the Dispatch—we have not seen any of the family since the occurrence—it is not long since her mother and her were on a visit—Lizzie is a fine big woman, and we think will make an agreeable kind wife—wishing you a happy thanksgiving day

We remain your affectionate father & mother

Henry & Mary Warner

P.S. We are all in good health

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John Riddle Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 26 November 1862. Moore VI:05:12