1880
Following a year of varying fortunes on the frontier, the Chapins and Christys–having settled in Kansas–may have hoped for a more consistently positive experience that they could relate back to their loved ones in Illinois. 1880 proved to be as mercurial as its predecessor. Despite positive attitudes and some positive developments, the two families still met consistent hardships.
These difficulties did not subdue their attempts to recruit Lucinda Chapin to join them. Marcia seems to have viewed her mother as the family lynchpin, telling her mother “if we got you out here then the rest will follow.”
While unsuccessful in getting her mother to visit, Marcia and her family were not forgotten nor neglected by their dearest friends and family in Illinois. In the hour of her most pressing need, Marcia received a care package that made her break down in tears of joy. A shipment of provisions and clothing from friends in Urbana and Philo (among them Calista Larned) included everything she desperately needed–save for a pair of shoes, as Marcia was reduced to getting around barefoot.
A letter from the summer adds another dimension to our understanding of Marcia and her husband. Despite the taxing nature of frontier life, the Christys became involved in the Temperance movement, with Richard becoming Vice President of the local Temperance society. The temperance movement came out of America’s protestant churches in the nineteenth century, picking up considerable momentum after the Civil War. Their efforts to counsel drinking in moderation eventually morphed into a pursuit to have alcohol sales banned on a federal level. Members of the movement believed the prohibition of alcohol would improve the living conditions of the poor.
In 1919 the temperance movement’s efforts culminated in the passage of the 18th Amendment which banned the sale of alcohol. However the amendment spurred criminal activity and quickly became unpopular, being repealed in 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment.
In the following year, from which there are no extant letters, Angie McNeil Lord passed away after a bout of illness in Yantai, China. Angie had traveled to China with her husband, the Baptist missionary Edward Clemens Lord, whom she had married in 1878.