Letter from Rev. Abraham Anderson to his daughter Margaret Anderson, 21 May 1894

What the letter is

On Monday, 21 May 1894, Reverend Abraham Ramsey Anderson — the Presbyterian minister Chuck’s great-great-grandfather, then sixty-two years old — sat down on a rainy day at home in Pennsylvania and wrote his daughter Margaret a letter. Margaret was away from home; the letter is full of “we miss you” news of the parish, the household, and the neighbors. The most likely reason for her absence: she was preparing for her own college commencement — her father mentions ordering himself a new coat and vest at John Wanamaker’s clothing establishment to wear to it.

Margaret was Margaret Florence Anderson — the older sister of Alice by two years, Chuck’s great-grandmother, and therefore Chuck’s great-great-aunt. The first name “Margaret” passed down through Alice’s branch of the family to Alice’s granddaughter Margaret ‘Peggy’ McMaster Eesley (Chuck’s grandmother) and onward to Peggy’s daughter Margaret ‘Maggie’ Eesley (Chuck’s aunt, the archivist whose deck catalogued this very letter). She would have been 25 years and two months old when her father wrote her this letter.

The letter is the second 19th-century letter primary source in this archive after Charlie Eesley’s Vietnam letters of 1969–71. Both are fathers writing to family they couldn’t see, separated by seventy-five years and a different war’s worth of historical distance.

Partial transcription

Reading Rev. Anderson’s hand is doable but not trivial — Maggie’s catalogue note characterised the script as “elegantly written” and “shows the slow pace of the era when writing was the main form of communication between distant family members.” The pages are stiff lined paper, 7¾” by 10”. A working partial transcription from the closeup and page A scans, with [brackets] marking the uncertain or illegible passages:

Monday, 21 May 1894

Dear Margaret —

It rained today, and so I cannot do much out of doors. [I’ll] write you a few lines. Emma Moore was at Church yesterday, but took sick during services and went home, so we did not have an opportunity of getting the Sabbath [Lesson?] from Ladies Hall. They did [the Coon home? — uncertain]. I’ll see her brother, or [Dr.?] Scott. Joseph C. Scott has been very sick for two weeks with [a] carbuncle on his neck — or more probably a scrofulous tumor. Dr. McElroy is fearful of blood-poisoning. The case is a serious one. Have not heard from him today; he was reported [no worse] yesterday. [Margaret? Mrs?] to see him this PM.

Charles Wallace’s have another baby — a daughter.

Mary has finished washing and scrubbing, and has seated herself on [the] side of [the] table to read this letter when finished. Marie is “exercised” about attending W. M. Society at Thomas Station on Thursday of this week. If it were not that she is anxious to show her new dress I think she would stay at home.

[…] I visited the [Pittsburg?] [branch?] of John Wanamaker’s Clothing Establishment last week, and ordered me a coat and vest. Shall wear […] to Commencement.

[Page break / further passages on page B not yet transcribed]

Your Papa —

What the letter is about, in the genre’s terms: weather, illness in the parish (Joseph C. Scott’s carbuncle and his doctor’s fear of blood-poisoning, Emma Moore taking sick at church), a new baby in the Charles Wallace household, the sisters at home (Mary scrubbing the floor on a Monday and Marie debating whether to attend the Women’s Missionary Society meeting at Thomas Station on Thursday “just to show her new dress”), and a coat-and-vest order at John Wanamaker’s for Margaret’s own Commencement. It is exactly the late-Victorian family letter form — the news of the small lives all around the writer, the small mercies and the small worries.

Note on the recipient

The letter is addressed only to “Margaret.” This is Margaret Florence Anderson (b. 23 March 1869, Washington County, Pennsylvania), the fourth of six children of Rev. Abraham and Nancy Jane Shaw Anderson, the older sister of Chuck’s great-grandmother Alice Gertrude by two years and three months. The GEDCOM gives her birth date and birthplace definitively (FamilySearch ID GMSS-RZW) but has no death date and no marriage record — meaning either she died unmarried or her later life isn’t documented in Dale’s tree. Both are common patterns for daughters of the era.

Margaret Florence Anderson is the namesake of the Margaret that runs as a given name through the family on Alice’s side: Alice’s daughter Margaret ‘Peggy’ McMaster Eesley (1914–2007), Peggy’s daughter Margaret ‘Maggie’ Eesley (Chuck’s aunt, the archivist of this letter), and the long generational line of Margarets the Anderson women began.

Provenance and catalogue note

Maggie Eesley’s Four Generations archive catalogues this letter as:

Title: Letter from Rev. Abraham Anderson to his daughter Margaret Anderson Type: letter Medium: stiff lined paper 7¾” × 10” Condition: Good, except for fading of ink Creator: Rev. Abraham Anderson Date Created: May 1894 Place Created: Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ID Number: MALetterSide A 001 en and MALetterSide B 001 en Provenance: Peggy McMaster Eesley Description: Elegantly written script shows the slow pace of the era when writing was the main form of communication between distant family members. Inscription: None Location/Rights: Maggie Eesley

Provenance chain: Rev. Abraham Anderson → daughter Margaret Anderson (recipient, 1894) → her sister Alice Anderson McMaster’s daughter Peggy McMaster Eesley (mid-20th century) → Peggy’s daughter Maggie Eesley (deck author, 2010s) → this archive (2026).