Letter from a girl in Georgia who’s been “treated real mean”
(4) page ALS, bifolium, 10 x 7.5 inches. Very Good with a small chip to the bottom edge, wear and abrasion at the folds.
A letter from Alice Shepard to her friend, Miss George Faust. It’s just after Christmas and Alice is feeling “cool” that no one has responded to any of her letters. The “Jefferson girls,” she says, have “treated [her] real mean,” and are “plotting among themselves.” But, she’s resolved to be independent and talks about heading to “the Alabam” for “a while...maybe forever.”
Alice is pleasant, selectively mature. She expresses deep sympathy for a friend who lost her mother, believes the dreary weather outside is trumped by “sunshiny hearts within,” and uses the term “howdy.” She gives an unflinching account of a boy cross-dressing for amusement: “He put on my riding skirt and buttoned it up so funny and sat in the saddle so funny and looked so funny and talked and laughed so funny, and of course we all were funny.”
The “Jefferson girls” may not be the only meanies here. The “mysterious disappearance” of Alice’s horse at a party, after the other young folks had left, seems to be a prank. She was forced “to ride a strange horse on a man’s saddle, through a strange road in the dark night… I declare it was not much pleasure going.” It recasts the anecdote about the boy dressing up in her riding clothes. Were they laughing with or at her? Did they have something to do with the disappearing horse? Alice doesn’t seem to suspect.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Harmony Grove Ga. / Dec 30th 1877.
Miss George Faust:— Loving schoolmate,
Highly pleased was I to get your very interesting letter and I assure you that it was much appreciated for I liked to have had a fit when I received it. Well, ‘tis Sunday, but I thought there would be no harm in writing to you as I am all alone today. Well, Christmas has about bid us adieu for this year. Surely it has been a dreary one outdoors, but no doubt there have been many sunshiny hearts within. Your kind missive was received Christmas Eve I believe, and I really think you are due a prompt reply. Can’t help but feel a little cool toward some of the Jefferson girls. Some of them have treated me real mean I think let me tell you about it. Well, I wrote to Mollie Poole, Ella Smith, Alice Fanning, and to Florence twice but what do you think? Never got even the sign of a pen from a single one, I think I have ample room to complain. I also wrote to Ellen and Dicie Shirley in the same letter. Dicie
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wrote, but not a word from Ellen. I wonder if they have been plotting among themselves not to write to me. Well they may just go. I feel independent.
I deeply sympathize with Floy and her distress, sad, sad, indeed, to be bereft of a darling mother, Florence, so young and gay, full of life with buoyant hopes, and amid this to have the dearest treasure on earth snatched from her was certainly a stroke severe enough to break her tender heart, but we know not what the “Shadowy Future” has in store for us.
Well George I am going to leave my native state and intend going to the Alabam for a while ___ maybe forever.
I expect to leave next Friday & will stay two or three months I suppose. My cousin Ella Alexander is going. Also we are going home with our cousin Fannie Gunnels who lives in Oxford Ala. We all three cousins; about grown, full of life and of course, we will have a gay time. Cousin Fannie has already given me a sweetheart out there and I am going to see how he looks.
There were two Christmas trees in Harmony Grove —one at the Baptist Church Tuesday night
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and one at the Methodist Wednesday night. The weather was so bad I couldn’t attend the one Tuesday night but sister Emma and myself plunged out there through the mud in a buggy Wednesday eve. We spent the night at Mr. Shankle’s and returned home Thursday morning. The Christmas tree was beautiful. Completely full of nice presents. There was something in the top of the tree which looked like a smiling angel looking down at the presents. It was a large beautiful doll with snowy white wings and dressed in a white flowing garb. It was a sweet looking thing. Friday evening I started out horseback by myself, but did not go far alone I went to visit Miss Alice Pittman, a schoolmate and dear friend of mine. When I arrived, a young man was there who came to visit her. He created quite a laughter when he went to put up my horse. He put on my riding skirt and buttoned it up so funny and sat in the saddle so funny and looked so funny and talked and laughed so funny, and of course we all were funny.
I believe that’s all. I had not been with Miss Alice long before Mr. Tommy Burns came to invite us to a party. Well we all fixed up and went over to Mr. Brocks, arrived there about sundown. Found a lively crowd there: among the number, Mr. (Sletton?)
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I had a lively time with him. He was as antic as ever that night. We all went over to Mr. Neal’s to the party, but I had a time getting there. When we all got ready to leave my horse was found to be out and gone and couldn’t be found anywhere. Most of the young folks had left and I said I would stay but no they said I must go so they fixed up for me to ride a strange horse on a man’s saddle, through a strange road in the dark night, but I had somebody that was all right to go with me but I declare it was not much pleasure going. If you write to me again, direct your letter to —Oxford, Calhoun Co., Ala.
Give much love to your sister and tell your brother John howdy. How is sweet little Leela getting on, tell her I often think of her, kiss her for me.
Hoping you’ve had a merry Christmas and wishing you a happy New Year I close,
Affectionately,
Alice Sheppard