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Correspondence of Rhoda Waterbury and
G. W. Clinton |
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Correspondence of Rhoda Waterbury and G. W. Clinton 1865 - 1867 Edited
by P. M. P.O. Box 299, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, 63166‑0299;
and Research Associate, Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, New York, 14204.
Email: mailto:patricia.eckel@mobot.org April 1866 Vol.
3. No. 50 [M 179]
Warsaw, April 24th, 1866 My
Dear Mentor, Six
weeks and I have not heard from you, I can wait no longer for I fear you are
sick. I almost know it and I wish I had something nice to send you, but I
have done nothing yet this spring, during all this time I have been helping
nurse my sisters baby boy of near two years through
an attack of pneumonia, and hardly know what it is to go to bed at night. But
I have not lost courage in it all, for I thought he would live, and we now
think he is out of danger. Everything is again covered with snow today, but
the grass begins to peep up through it so it does not seem so wintery after all and the hyacinths look queer just
putting their colored heads above the white. I rather like an April snow for
it goes off so soon it gives me the feeling of jumping out of winter at a
bound and every thing looks so fine after it. I visited Portage a week since
but as it was merely a run away from the sick room for a few hours after
having set up all night I was too lazy to do much but found several things,
some mosses &c. Now I am so fearful you are sick and cannot enjoy a long
letter that I dare not write but do send me some little word, if you are busy
I will be satisfied with only a line to let me know and do not on any account
let me tax you, with all your public business I am ashamed to think what a
burthen this correspondence might be to you for I am able to be of so little
use to you. And now my good kind Mentor I am never going to write this again
but just trust you to do as you please and I shall be satisfied only let me
know occasionally of your health and welfare and I know you will not doubt my
friendship and if it would please you I will write to you just when I want to
for I like so to talk to you, but I often think what can I say that he does
not already know. It must be part of your mission to make people happy, and I
know Mr. Peck, and I love you for he told me he did. Ever
your disciple Rhoda
Waterbury Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd
Ap. 26
For reference to
Vol.
3. No. 52 [M 177]
Warsaw, Apr. 26, 1866 My
Dear Mentor, Yesterday
I sent you word and today comes yours via Schoharie. How strange that yours
pass me and go down the State when I am so near you. I can only account for
it by inferring they have a decided partiality for the N.Y.C.R.R. Well
now it is just as I feared you are sick. This has been a terrible spring here
so much sickness. Our baby is so much better we have dressed him today, the
whole family came together to see him take a step or two and he is now
sitting bolstered up with pillows in his little crib again. These are
wonderful events in the family history as you well know, for you are a
father, but how do I know if when I am only Auntie? I hope you are out again
though the weather is still unpleasant. I know I have it now, you need a
little rest and change, and to get a little farther from Lake Erie winds will
do you good, and we are only a little way from you yet I think do not feel
them at all off in this direction, and we want to see you very much, can you
not run down here? say on some Saturday and spend the Sabbath, my brother
Prof. O. H. [Waterbury?] is Principal of Warsaw Acad. and has his Saturdays
to devote entirely to his family. I know you will like him and my sister, though
you will find things very different from what you would at my own home, yet
this must not answer for that visit among the mountains so long dreamed of.
Now just drop me word when to expect you, and if you would like we will go to
Portage on Saturday you know you can run down here at almost any hour of the
day when you are ready and we might have just a fine time at Portage, we are
three stations from Portage on the Buffalo side, but such a day as this would
not be very pleasant there and we must have a fine day to enjoy it thoroughly
especially when you are not well. Now you see I have not the slightest idea
but all this can be just as I desire it, and you must let me know at least a
day before hand that I may have the happy anticipation and have everything
just to my mind for I consider it a poor compliment to a friend to say you
have made no preparation for his visit. Now please do not wait a minute if
you are well and not too busy but just let me know that you approve my plan
and will keep watch for the spare day. I see now how it is that you make us
all so happy, your beautiful motto that was sung of the bees, I shall adopt
it from this very hour, but I shall put it in English, and I am not sure
after all but we do gather sweeter honey for ourselves by gathering for
others and you see how nice a watchword it is for an old maid. If my
sister’s family are all well it seems now I
would be happy once more even in the loneliness of bereavement when I know
that my treasures are only gathering ready for me when I go to them. Please
accept my sister’s compliments and she desires me to say to you, you
have made yourself hers too, by that kind good letter and because of my love
for you, and she hopes to have the pleasure of welcoming you to her home
soon. I want to take up the study of the grasses thoroughly this season you
know. I am not familiar with them they seem difficult to me and Mr. Peck
wants me to help him in Entomology, but I fear I have no heart for it. It
does not seem so pleasant to me to collect specimens though the study
otherwise I find quite agreeable. I have a few new species of moss that I
shall send to him soon though I think none of them are rare. There now I
think I must stop my brother has caught a glimpse of this page and says
“do you think the Judge will go through all that?” yes I am sure
of it. Now if possible let me know about what time you can come for my
brother is obliged to spend one Saturday in Rochester soon and will decide
when we hear from you for he feels as I do we shall be more than happy if we
can have you one day to ramble with us. I do hope you are better again for I
don’t want to miss your letters selfish you see as ever your disciple, Rhoda Waterbury Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd
Ap. 28 There was a In 1860 French described the State Cabinet as
the State Geological and Agricultural Hall and “is the depository of
the specimens collected during the geological survey, and also contains the
cabinet of the State Agricultural Society” where Dr. Asa Fitch was in charge of the entomological collections,
with a view to “understanding and inhibiting insects injurious to
agriculture.” This is the institution James Hall was reforming in 1865.
French said that in 1860 “The whole of these collections are open to
the public on every weekday except holidays.” p. 27 ftnt.
4, but perhaps this policy had changed with Hall’s ascendancy. Asa Fitch (1803-1879) was
appointed by the new York State Legislature in 1845 as the State
Entomologist, after having worked for the state to collect and name its
insects since 1838. With the government’s imprimatur, he was thus the
first professional entomologist in the State and also in the It is curious that Peck had an interest at
this time in the study of insects, as Rhoda and other of Peck’s
correspondents at this time indicate. Rhoda wrote: “I want to take up the study of the grasses
thoroughly this season you know. I am not familiar with them they seem
difficult to me and Mr. Peck wants me to help him in Entomology, but I fear I
have no heart for it. It does not seem so pleasant to me to collect specimens
though the study otherwise I find quite agreeable.” A. A. Adee wrote to
Clinton on May 11, 1866: “In addition to botany I look forward with
much pleasure to trouting excursions, horseback
exercise, insect-hunting, etc. Insect-hunting I have caught from Mr. Peck
... Mr. Peck continues to write
to me semi-occasionally, although his letters now savor more of beetles than
mosses. When I reach Lyndon I think the tide will turn the other way. I hope
to be able to make the acquaintance of Mr. Peck and Dr. Woolworth and to
explore the State Cabinet during my short stay in Albany. In fact I distort
my route a little to enable me to do so.” In Rhoda’s next letter below (May 7,
1866) Rhoda wrote: “ Mr. Peck has enlisted my
little nephew (and I may say the whole family here) in collecting bugs,
flies, beetles, &c. for specimens to assist in the completion of his new
work on Entomology.” Perhaps Dr. Fitch’s position was
becoming tenuous in some way at this time when the New York State Cabinet and
Museum was being overhauled by James Hall. The position of professional
botanist, as Peck was to become with the New York State Legislature’s
approval, was evolving. The role of scientist in the solution of public
problems in agriculture, as Fitch played for decades, may have appealed to Peck,
as well as following on Fitch’s heels as taxonomist among Fitch’s
insects. Peck’s later interest in mycology, where he was to distinguish
himself, may also have derived from his interest in the diseases of
agriculture and the identification of new, safe, and naturally-growing
sources of food for the people of the State. The reference to the New York Central is as
opposed to the line that ran through Warsaw, the Hornellsville
Division of the Buffalo, New York and Erie Rail Road. The mail packets
probably ran on one rail line. Portage and all references to towns of
features of this name are curiously absent from French’s geographical
index. Portage is a township in Livingston Co.” in the s. w. corner of
the co. Its surface is hilly, the highest point, near Portageville, being
about 200 feet higher than the R. R. Genesee River forms the W. boundary of
the town. Its banks are steep and rocky, 100 to 200 ft. high and in many
places perpendicular.” p. 386 Portage Station, on the B. & N. Y. C.
R. R., is on the line of Wyoming Co.” p. 386. The name of the township
was “derived from the portage or carrying place around the falls of
Genesee River. For description of See note Jan. 1866 letter above that Portage,
on the railway station lists is probably French’s “Portage Station.” |
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