From Foster Peirce to Brother Joseph, June 5, 1864

From Foster Peirce to Brother Joseph, June 5, 1864

Peirce, Foster

Peirce, Joseph

Boston, MA.

From Foster Peirce to Brother Joseph

Foster Peirce

Jerome Peirce Collection, National Park Service

HIST 428 (Spring 2020), University of Mary Washington

1864-06-05

NPS, Civil War Study Group, Tom Neubig (Transcriber)

For educational purposes with no commercial use. Courtesy of National Park Service, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP, FRSP 16095-16102 (FRSP-00904).

English

Text

Letter #221

Boston, MA.

Boston June 5th 1864
Br [Brother] Joseph,
Since you left here Alonzo has seen Allie and talked with her in regard to having services held in commemoration of our Br [Brother] Jerome.
She at first thought Charlestown would be the place she would desire, but on more consideration thinks it would be quite as proper and in accordance with her feelings, to have them held in Orange as that was his last place of residence and believing he has many friends there who appreciate his worth.
With this view of hers and in accordance with my own feelings I would like to have you contact his friends there, and if you find it meets their wishes, you will write me and we can fix upon a proper time.
My feeling would be that it should be held as part of Sunday Service either in forenoon or afternoon as I know of one way in which a service could be of more benefit to those who are all brought under deep affliction by this dispensation or more who are in deep sympathy. If you will give me your views I will reply and endeavor to fix upon the time.
I will add that I am not aware that Jerome ever had an enemy and with the active part he took in everything good and particularly in the Sunday School while in Orange, I cannot but think he has left many friends who would be desiring to have the service held there.
I will close by saying that my family are all in pretty good health.
Give my best regards to all your family, and I am yours as ever,
F. Peirce

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE (Josef Rokus)

The memorial service that Jerome’s brother Foster discusses in this letter was held on Sunday, June 19, 1864, with the pastor, Rev. Levi Ballou (1806 – 1865), officiating and giving the sermon, in the church in Orange, Massachusetts, which Jerome and Alli attended and where Jerome had been the “Sabbath School Superintendent.” In his sermon, Rev. Ballou made reference to several letters that Abbie had shared with him.
The following is an excerpt from that sermon.
“Again, he writes his companion [his wife, Albinia or Allie], only 12 days before he fell, and after describing the place where he then was, as reminding him much of certain localities where they had in former days conversed and strolled together. He adds that by the movements of the army, “It looks like a fearful future for some.” He asks, “Shall we be spared the last fearful conflict?” “We hope all will be for the best.” He then speaks of his darling child to whom he sends some flowers which he had culled for her to keep to remember Papa and in closing says, ‘I hope to see you again soon.’”
This collection of letters also includes two letters sent by friends of Jerome and Allie to Rev. Ballou in early June of 1864 that were read at the funeral service.
In another letter in this collection, dated June 9, 1864, i.e., four days after this letter, that Allie sent to her sister Mary, she wrote that she is “very unwell” and that she is making plans to go to Orange for the service. Presumably she did.
Rev. Ballou’s entire sermon was obtained with the help of the current minister at the First Congregational Parish Church in Orange, Massachusetts, from the Rare Books Department of the Hesburgh Library of the University of Notre Dane, Notre Dame, Indiana, which has all of Rev. Ballou’s papers. Those papers also include sermons Rev. Ballou gave at the services for three other men from Orange who were killed in the Civil War.

Letter/Paper