Letter: Rebekah Armstrong and Carlisle Society in 17951
“Grandeur has risen to a great height here…”
It was the Christmas season when twenty-six-year-old Rebekah Armstrong arrived in Carlisle in December 1795 to spend the holiday with her Armstrong relatives. Her uncle, General John Armstrong, had died in March of that year. She was staying with her Aunt Rebecca Armstrong who lived in the large stone house on the north east corner of East High and Bedford Streets. The letter she wrote to her sisters provides a rare look at Carlisle society.
Carlisle, December 19, 1795
Dear Sisters:
The first day I left home I got my eyes bleared out with the wind,2 the second was not much better, the third was a beautiful day which brought us over the river and landed us in Carlisle, a place that looks natural still to me, although there have been a great many alterations taken place since I left it.
Here are beaus and belles and all look very gay, as much so as if they were worth thousands.
I was at a tea party at General Ervins [sic]3 where there were eight ladies and at a ball where the ladies were all so gay with their white petticoats and silk jackets, curls, artificial flowers, sashes and everything to make them look gay that I really appeared among them like a Quaker preacher. There is not a girl here wears a bonnet, no more than if such a thing had never been thought of.
Beaver hats and chip hats are worn very much here. I got a blue beaver trimmed with white ribbon. Aunt gave me money to buy my hat, lace for a cape, gave me a very good shawl and several things. I think I shall find myself scarce enough of clothes here notwithstanding I did not know what way to carry what I had. Here you must be dressed every day, you have not a moment to call your own, still somebody dropping in.
There was a smart beau drank tea with us yesterday and I had the mortification of being caught for the first time with a short gown on, for here it is a great matter unless in the morning.
I think that if I don’t get fat here it will be a wonder. You remember all summer I drank but two cups of coffee and now I can manage three or four. I have been very hearty since I came here, but anxious to hear from you all--how they came on at the wedding and how everybody there comes on.
I hope you will write by the bearer of this letter, if you don’t I will be ready to conclude that you have forgotten me. I can assure you I have not forgotten you but think of you and dream of you often. Oh! If you were but here. I have a thousand things to ask you but less must suffice on paper. To give you a description of the ladies dress here would be endless. Some of them have half a dozen white dresses of different kinds and as many silk ones. Grandeur has risen to a great height here in every particular as well as dress.
I must now conclude with my love to Archy4 and Sallie McRichards. James and Ruth and all their children. My love to all my sisters and all the girls of my acquaintance as if particularly named. Tell them they must write to me. I would have written them, but time would not admit. Give my love to Mammy and Daddy and Billie and tell him I want to see him very much and flatter myself I shall see him according to promise and Archy also this winter.
I send this letter by one William Hodge, who is going to Newport [Delaware]. Give the creature a nights lodging as it will be something out of his way. I would have written to Billy but had not time as the man is now waiting for it. I have something to tell you.
Rebekah Armstrong
This letter was written by John E. Moore at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania on a Friday afternoon. Although the letter is not dated, it was written after 1847 and before 1856. He is visiting his sister Augusta (Gus) who married Samuel Linn on December 1, 1847. John describes his trip to Bellefonte in full detail. Note: John wrote three pages without a single paragraph, so they have been inserted for the sake of the reader.
1 The typescript of the letter is in the Armstrong folder in the Lenore E. Flower Collection of genealogy files, Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, PA.
2 Rebeckah lived in Delaware where another branch of the Armstrong family lived.
3 General William Irvine (1741-1804) Irvine practiced medicine when he arrived in Carlisle in 1763. He married Ann Callendar, daughter of a prominent Carlisle trader Capt. Robert Callendar. The Irvine house stood on the south east corner of E. High and Bedford streets, directly across from the Armstrong’s. The First Lutheran Church of Carlisle now stands on that lot.
4 Rebekah’s brother Archibald Armstrong (1759-1839) married Sarah Richards in 1785.
Rebekah Armstrong, (1769-1847) was the daughter of John Armstrong of New Castle County, Delaware (c. 1722-1806), and his wife Mary Springer. Aunt Rebecca Armstrong, (1719-1797) was the wife of General John Armstrong (1717-1795).