March 30, 1864: 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, March 30. 1864

Dear John. Hoping Baby & yourself are well, I now sit down to write you a letter as from Mother – Henry left us on Friday night, and his visit was a very uncomfortable one to us. The day after he came he prepared for Sewickly, I asked him where he was going? He said to Sewickly, it knocked me down so much that I could hardly speak. I asked him if he was engaged to her, he told me yes. I bursted out crying and told him that he said, in promise to me, that he would not do anything that would worry me; it is two years ago since he made that promise to me, then he left without making me one word of an answer, and did not come back until 12 OClock next day. I told him that I hoped, I would be quietly laid in the cemetery before that would take place; I told him that he did not do as his brother done, that he did not disgrace us, nor himself; Had we known that he was going to Sewickly, there would never be one invited into the door on his account; I went to a great deal of trouble & expense on his account but had I known that he was going to Sewickly I would not have honoured him that much. He went the second time, and staid that night and part of the second day. We never said one unkind word to him about it, but we were very cool and very broken hearted all the time he was here, and it made me so irritable that I could hardly speak a kind word to any one; We have but three, and you know the circumstances that one is placed in, now we bless God, that if Henry is lost, we still have you.

We expected a letter from you this morning, as you were to lecture on Monday night, we thought you would surely on Tuesday drop a line in the Harrisburgh P.O. which we would have this morning giving us to know what success you have had, let it be good or bad we want to know it if it had been only one line, it would suffice for the present. We are all in tolerable health.

Your affectionate father & mother

Henry & Mary Warner

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John Riddle Warner.  Allegheny City [Pittsburgh],30 March 1864. Moore VI:06:3