1865
In January of 1865, Harriet (McNeil) Pepple wrote to her sister Lucinda to update her on the family. She notes that they are currently boarding five people, thus Harriet is very busy. Everyone is in good health. Harriet intends on getting new pictures taken of the children. She asks several follow-up questions about her sister’s family & friends and wonders about their plans for the winter.
With the close of the Civil War came much relief for those at home and on the battlefront, though the trials of life have a way of continuing even when national events have subdued. Amid family members returning and the delicate political and social state of the United States–a country that needed desperately to patch itself back up again–the first several months after the war were not easy for the Chapins and McNeils.
Mary (Chapin) Burt writes to her family at home about her family’s move to the woods in Phelps, Indiana, a group which now numbers 16, including the boarders. Though novel her surroundings may be, Mary says she is quite bored, lonely, and has grown tiresome of nature–these are all factors that contribute to her solemn mood.
She mentions the War’s end, as well as the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, noting, “What a contrast between the burial of the murderer and the murdered.” Mary then comments on the garden she keeps, which has been difficult but still thriving, as well as the success of her husband’s sawmill. Further, Mary mentions that she has received, among other things, a book of the Chapin Genealogy from her Cousin Edward.
James McNeil writes to his “Dear Friends.” He relates that his mother, Nancy (Cokely) McNeil is suffering with illness, and that he has recently gained a son named Grant. He insinuates that the child was named after the Union general Ulysses S. Grant. James laments the murder of the “Noble President” Abraham Lincoln, revealing it has somewhat dampened their enjoyment of the new arrival. His sister, Angeline “Angie” Lord has started teaching near Lancaster, OH. James reveals he is in charge of a barrel factory which employs over 60 people.
Mary (Chapin) Burt writes to her “Friends at Home.” She details some of the illness that has pervaded her home in recent weeks and says that her daughter Mary Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) is still living with Josephine (Burt) Brown. This letter is the only document that confirms Dorcas and Dennis Chapin had a ninth child that died in infancy (“I was not a little surprised [torn] that you had another added to [torn] ur family”). Mary suggests that she might be pregnant, no doubt a cause for celebration following the unprecedentedly bloody war. Commenting later on in the letter about how the war has impacted them all, Mary says “your Illinois boys” should be relieved to be home from war while also mourning those they’ve lost.