Letter from Papa Charles to Will: 11/27/1912
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A letter from Papa Charles in Canton, Ohio, to his oldest son, Will, in San Francisco, California, on the death of Will's wife, Margaret.
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Canton, O., Nov. 27, 1912.
Capt. Wm. P. Stokey
Engineer Corps W.S.A.,
997 Bush St., San Francisco, Cal.
My dear Will,
Five days ago Laura told me that she had received a letter from Mamma telling of your bereavement. It is the saddest news to me since the death of my Mother - Father died nineteen years before. And yet I know nothing of Margaret except what I learned from your letter of Dec. 22, ‘10, and the three now more than ever precious photos that it enclosed.
The sadness was deepened when Laura told the circumstances. Death is always a sad event to the survivors, but for many years, even from before I became a father, I have said that the saddest of all deaths is that of a woman in childbirth, or soon after giving birth to a child. Next to that, is such a death as that of our friend John B. Braden, who died just one week after McKinley. I remember saying, at the time, that John’s death was the sadder to us who knew both, and to his apparently comfortless parents. A study of the Book of Job enables us to see who are real comforters, Chap. 11, verses 11, 12, & 13, for, altho the three friends were “afar off” for the seven days and nights, “and none spake a word unto him” when “they saw that his grief was very great,” yet Job knew and felt that they sympathized with him. It was only when they had the presumption to try to explain Job’s calamities to him, and to blame him for them, that they became “miserable comforters,” XVI, 2.
I am also “afar off”; too far for you to see me weep, and so I write to tell you that you have my tenderest sympathy, and that now I add to my daily prayer for you a prayer that God may spare to you the new precious little “Margaret Clarke.”
Your loving father,
Charles F. Stokey
Capt. Wm. P. Stokey
Engineer Corps W.S.A.,
997 Bush St., San Francisco, Cal.
My dear Will,
Five days ago Laura told me that she had received a letter from Mamma telling of your bereavement. It is the saddest news to me since the death of my Mother - Father died nineteen years before. And yet I know nothing of Margaret except what I learned from your letter of Dec. 22, ‘10, and the three now more than ever precious photos that it enclosed.
The sadness was deepened when Laura told the circumstances. Death is always a sad event to the survivors, but for many years, even from before I became a father, I have said that the saddest of all deaths is that of a woman in childbirth, or soon after giving birth to a child. Next to that, is such a death as that of our friend John B. Braden, who died just one week after McKinley. I remember saying, at the time, that John’s death was the sadder to us who knew both, and to his apparently comfortless parents. A study of the Book of Job enables us to see who are real comforters, Chap. 11, verses 11, 12, & 13, for, altho the three friends were “afar off” for the seven days and nights, “and none spake a word unto him” when “they saw that his grief was very great,” yet Job knew and felt that they sympathized with him. It was only when they had the presumption to try to explain Job’s calamities to him, and to blame him for them, that they became “miserable comforters,” XVI, 2.
I am also “afar off”; too far for you to see me weep, and so I write to tell you that you have my tenderest sympathy, and that now I add to my daily prayer for you a prayer that God may spare to you the new precious little “Margaret Clarke.”
Your loving father,
Charles F. Stokey
1912-11-27: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
The return address on the envelope was "403 W Tusc, Canton, Ohio". We have Laura located at that address from December 1913: ...to June 1915: Probably Laura was already living there in 1912 when Papa Charles wrote this letter, so it would have been natural for her tell her father about the death of his daughter-in-law.
2.
It is the saddest news to me since the death of my Mother - Father died nineteen years before.
Here is a little about the death of Papa Charles's mother:
3.
And yet I know nothing of Margaret except what I learned from your letter of Dec. 22, ‘10, and the three now more than ever precious photos that it enclosed.
So Will wrote his father to tell of his engagement. My assumption is that Margaret urged him to do it, hoping to bring Will closer to his father, but the closeness didn't happen. I've added this letter to:
4.
A study of the Book of Job enables us to see who are real comforters
Papa Charles's religious talk sounds quite sincere. Mama Margaret would have liked that in him when she married him.
The return address on the envelope was "403 W Tusc, Canton, Ohio". We have Laura located at that address from December 1913: ...to June 1915: Probably Laura was already living there in 1912 when Papa Charles wrote this letter, so it would have been natural for her tell her father about the death of his daughter-in-law.
2.
It is the saddest news to me since the death of my Mother - Father died nineteen years before.
Here is a little about the death of Papa Charles's mother:
3.
And yet I know nothing of Margaret except what I learned from your letter of Dec. 22, ‘10, and the three now more than ever precious photos that it enclosed.
So Will wrote his father to tell of his engagement. My assumption is that Margaret urged him to do it, hoping to bring Will closer to his father, but the closeness didn't happen. I've added this letter to:
4.
A study of the Book of Job enables us to see who are real comforters
Papa Charles's religious talk sounds quite sincere. Mama Margaret would have liked that in him when she married him.
1912-11-27: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---notes---~LINKS~---site navigation
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- WILL: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- LAURA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- MAMA MARGARET: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- PAPA CHARLES: DOCUMENTS ----- Outgoing
- MARGARET: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- THE NEXT GENERATION: DOCUMENTS ----- Maggie
- NON-FAMILY: THE BRADENS ----- Related
GENERAL DOCUMENT LISTS:
- COMPLETE DOCUMENT LIST BY DATE
- DOCUMENTS BY WHERE THEY WERE WRITTEN ----- Ohio
- DOCUMENTS BY SOURCE ----- Barbara
OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
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