Moses Bliss Springfield Massachsuetts

For sale on Ebay is a fantastic group of 8 handwritten letters addressed to Miss Emily Bliss Care of Moses Bliss Springfield Mass. The letters date from 1839-1847 and all are written by her sister Mary in New Haven. In part....


“New Haven Oct. 1839

My dear dear sister,
I am as most ashamed of my negligence in writing you as you can possibly wish me to be……I have been more hurried and engaged than you can well believe. My new girl, a clever, stupid damsel has hardly got established herself in the affections of the children and they have clung to me like briars…….Yours truly Mary.”

“New Haven February 16th, 1842

My dear Emily,
I have been anxiously looking for a letter from Springfield for many days and after George B_____came with the expected yet dreaded intelligence that our dear friend no longer lived, I knew I should soon hear from you more particularly and you did not disappoint me. I cannot thank you enough for writing me as long a letter and I feel even more grateful to you for it that I know you have at least had others to inform of the same melancholy event. Melancholy, I ought not to call it, such a calm, quiet ending of a peaceful, holy life is not melancholy, it is most cheering and consoling. What a blessed radiance does it shed upon the cold grave to see one thus wrap the drapery of her couch about her and lie down to a pleasant dream or better still to glorious realities! We weep only for ourselves, for our transient separation, for our emptiness to follow, for our weaker faith, our colder, darker life……I go out very little only to our Society and the reading circle that meets once a week. There have been parties, weddings and 2 variety of gaieties in which I have taken no part and felt no interest. My thoughts have been too much with death and with shadow of the past and occasionally I have bright glimpses of a cherub boy in heaven which are better to me than all the pleasures of earth……Yours truly Mary.”

“New Haven, January 21, 1843

My dear sister,
I dare say you are getting quite inpatient for further news from me…..In the midst of our joy and thankfulness for the arrival of the little stranger (they just had a baby boy but wished it was a girl) and my comfortable health, we were grieved and shocked by news of poor Frances affliction. Her sweet little boy, our dear little John, has gone to join the blessed company of little ones whose angels do always behold the face of our Father in Heaven. He died very suddenly after an illness of only ten hours of a disease which seemed to be a combination of croup and convulsions in consequence of teething…….I hope dear mother will be able to come to see her new grandson. I shall rely upon some of you to supply the little fellow with a name. Let it be something pretty and fanciful. None of the common old fashioned names. I have as yet thoughts of some that would suit me……I cannot call him Willie for my Willa still lives to me in Heaven. Consult Caroline and Sarah and write me some pretty names from which I can make a selection…….From your affectionate Mary.”

“New Haven, August 24th, 1846

My dear sister,
Although I have received no answer to my last letter I cannot think of manifesting any resentment on that account as much as I have longed to hear from you….The hurry and flurry of commencement week is past and we are now looking forward to a period of still greater excitement and more unsparing hospitality when the American Board assembles in New Haven. They hold their annual meeting here on the eighth of September and the special object of the letter is to urge you and Caroline to come here at that time and enjoy with us it’s pleasures, cares, confusion and excitement. As there is some difficulty in finding accommodations for all the clergy, we have offered to take from four to six of them so you will therefore have the narrowest sort of sleeping privileges but I think you will not mind this for a few days and then you shall have as much room as you choose…….Truly yours, M.W. Bristol.”