A passionate friendship booklet of obscure and ominous circumstances. Chester County, Pennsylvania, ca. 1860.

Handmade booklet, 2.75 x 2.5 inches. [20] pages including exteriors; 10 with manuscript writing. The front page has a poem crowned with a small inscription “[---?] Sweetheart;” and the rear has the young women’s names. There is no date, but the location is stated Doe Run, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Bound with a frail and scraggly bit of ribbon, there are small punctures where a memento was likely affixed–a photo or lock of hair, maybe. Two pages have remarkable illustrations of birds that appear stylistically to fit somewhere between Fraktur and Spencerian penwork, which would have still been gaining popularity at the time. The drawings are immensely sensitive and evocative but not traditionally “accomplished.”

Powerful and intimate, the booklet was made for “Idie” by Annie, who proclaims her love and makes ominous references: “Forgive but not forget…”, “Remember me when far away…”, and “Rather die than change.”

Idie Dear
Has thee found a true heart in me
Ah, tell me not so on paper but with thy own tongue
Not because I do not believe it on paper but
Because I would feel thy love stronger if
I was to hear thee
speak the words
write to me often Idie
Remember me when far away
Idie & Annie
Doe Run
Chester Co
Penna.

Without indulging in too much romantic speculation, it’s clear that Annie’s feelings for Ida extended beyond friendship. Her writing suggests an event had transpired and they were being separated. Whether or not Annie’s love was reciprocated is uncertain (“Be decided,” she implores). A proliferation of Ann Speakman’s (and variations thereon) in Chester County ca. 1840-1880s precludes us from making a conclusive claim about our writer’s identity, but the prime suspect is troubling. The Chester County Poorhouse Admissions Book shows Ann Speakman (identified in their records as both Ann E. and Annie) of West Chester was ordered to the poorhouse on November 13, 1866. The Children’s Board Book also shows Annie E. Speakman gave birth on January 10, 1867, to a daughter whom she named Ida Mary Speakman–and that Ida died there on March 25, age 2 months, 14 days.