Letter: Dr. John Peebles Geddes of Newville

Letter: Dr. John Peebles Geddes¹ of Newville to Mrs. Eliza C. Dunn, Franklin County, PA, 1837
“Our village is full of bustle all summer.”

The letter was written by Dr. John Peebles Geddes of Newville who would die less than four months after writing this letter. It was full of news of the coming of the railroad, the sheriff sale of the Ege belongings, relatives, neighbors, servants and more.

Newville August 22, 1837

Dear Madam:² Owing to the uncertainty of our Strasburg mail we did not receive your letter until yesterday—but as the vehicle of a melancholy intelligence it came soon enough. The bereavement which Mr. Dunn and family have sustained in the loss of their son is indeed a severe one. I sympathize with them most sincerely. Nor is sympathy confined to those who had a previous knowledge of the young man. Yesterday when I read that part of your letter to my Father and Mother, in which you speak of William’s promising character, I saw the old Doctor wipe tears from his cheeks. Strange and inscrutable are the ways of the great Governor of the Universe. How often does it occur that the young, the amiable and the promising are taken away and the old, dissolute and useless are left. We may puzzle ourselves to discover the reasons of these things, but almost always in vain, they are done in secret counsel of the Almighty, and we can only assure ourselves that no justice can proceed from him, and that the event is one in the series of that grand system (understood only to God) which is finally to eventuate in the triumph of virtue and the downfall of vice.

But I must turn from the dead to the living—your account of the good conduct of our daughter (who seems doubly precious to me since she is absent) was exceedingly gratifying. I believe she is sufficiently apt to learn if her attention can be fixed and interested I hope she will try to be a good girl and give as little trouble to her friends as possible.

John and Maclay are going to school. Charles sometimes speaks of Laura. Nevin (the babe) has grown to be a fine fellow, he is so heavy Laura could scarcely carry him.³ The girl that lived with us for more than a year past, went away in the beginning of Harvest not to return. We have not been able until yesterday to supply her place. In a day or two we are to get one. We got along as far as I could discover, without Mary Ann as with her. We had all along a smart half grown girl who can milk, and nurse and cook too in a sort of way and then we got a wash woman as we needed one.

Our village is full of bustle all summer. The Rail Road will be completed to the Big Spring from the [Susquehanna] River, early in October and in November to Chambersburg. They have a loco-motive and two or three passenger cars at Carlisle which they are running up and down for pleasure over a distance of about (20) miles. We have about 80 wild Irish at work on the Rail Road within two miles of town. They do not seem much or any farther advanced in civilization than our American Indians [sic].⁴

Last week the whole of the personal property of Peter Ege and of his sons Michael and Joseph were sold by the Sheriff—the sale, including everything about the furnace and forge and in their houses amounted to about $12,000. I believe the property was purchased for their use. But I am afraid my old friends are so completely smashed that they can never recover.

I believe it is true that our Dr. Rankin is to be married in September to a Miss Fulwiler in Shippensburg—so Cousin Sak is done with him! Tell her not to lament about it, the loss is not irreparable. It is also said & believed that our cousin Wm. M. Nevin is to be done here in September to take to wife our Cousin Hanna Jane Maclay.

Mr. McCachren’s Sacrament was on last Sunday. It was assisted by Misses Wilson of Shippensburg & McKee of Newburg.

I have been wondering why James R. Maclay has not found time to visit us. Catharine wishes you could come down and spend a month with her before returning to housekeeping. If James Maclay will procure a horse and carriage and bring you and Laura down next week or the week after, I will defray the expense and consider myself much favoured.

My health continues to decline, though so slowly as to be imperceptible from day to day or even week to week. I cannot forget Mr. Dunn and I place myself in his Father’s situation and endeavor to realize the extent of his sorrow. Oh, it must be great indeed! It would be mere mockery to calculate his loss. When I hear of a youth of such promising qualities of head and heart being thus snatched away, it always saddens me, but when he was the son of parents who occupy such a large share of my regards as Wm. Dunn’s, I cannot but feel the loss as partly my own. But there is a bright spark of hope in his death, and I trust his lot is infinitely better than ours who must linger out our few brief weeks, or months, or years surrounded only by vexatious care and toil. If you cannot come down next week, write to us and say when we may expect you. Remember us affectionately to our dear little daughter also to Mr. Dunn & family.

Yours affectionately, J. P. Geddes

[P.S.] This letter has been written at three sittings. Mr. Barr’s project of going to Philadelphia has been entirely balked. The young men to whom he sold his store, found they would not be able to pay for it and offered it back to him on the same terms. Although he loses a few hundred dollars by their failure, he was inclined to accept their offer lest he should lose the whole he is now reinstated in his old shop, much to the satisfaction of his friends.