Files
Download Full Text (2.8 MB)
Content Warning
The Philander Chase letters were written in the 18th and 19th century and therefore may contain language that we understand today as harmful or offensive. You may encounter paternalist descriptions of Native Americans, racial slurs, or sexism. For more information, see our policy page.
Description
Margaret asks Chase if her family can build a summer house in the Ohio woods and also requests the plans for the Seminary so the Kenyons can make a model of it.
Date
9-14-1824
Keywords
New York, Gray family, Bishop Brownel, Bishop Moore, Hartford, Philander Chase Jr., voyage to America, Ohio Convention
Recommended Citation
Kenyon, Margaret, "Letter to Philander Chase" (1824). Philander Chase Letters. 427.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/chase_letters/427
Rights Statement
Transcript
Rt. Rev. & very dear Bishop Chase,
You will be rather surprized, I think, to receive a letter in the woods of Ohio, from one whom you saw for little more than an hour, but who nevertheless can never cease to remember that interview, short as it was, with heartfelt gratitude & delight. You were also so very kind, in your manner of receiving the letter I wrote on the evening of the never-to-be-forgotten 15th of July 1824, that I am the more inclined to hope you will think me neither presumptuous nor troublesome in writing again. And, I have too much real pleasure in every thing in which Ohio, & its revered & beloved Bishop are concerned, not to seize any good excuse (such as I now have) for an employment like the present, & indeed without such an excuse, I could not think myself entitled to trouble you in this manner.
Papa told me you had been so good as to promise to send us a cargo of American plants & shrubs from Ohio. You can scarcely conceive how highly they will be prized by all here. I have been wishing much, that in addition to this Ohio border, we could build something in the way of Summerhouse, in imitation of the College, or usual habitations, in that country, if there is any thing in them which we can adopt for that purpose. & indeed, let them be what they will, it [shall] go hard but we will make something of the kind out of them. We also wish for a plan & elevation of the Seminary, & a drawing of its local situation, that we may be able to make a small model of it, to put in our Summerhouse, which must be filled with memorials of Ohio, & still more of dear Bishop Chase. But we cannot accomplish these plans without your kind help, which I am sure you will not refuse us. What we want are plans, & drawings, & elevations, of cottages [?] in Ohio, & of the intended Seminary, that we may also have an Ohio in the woods, sacred to many most interesting recollections. This is the request of all of us--& Papa wants not write it for me--but as I was the one to make this plea for such a memorial, he obliged me to the delightful necessity of writing myself. & being now grown bolder, I venture to make a further request, still more interesting to myself, that if you do not think one very troublesome, I may have the great gratification of receiving a letter from your own hand.
The Subscription I believe, is going on well, & the Ladies’ Purse for the Printing Press, fills very [?], but of these particulars Papa can give you better information.
I hope you had the satisfaction of finding all your family treasures as well as you could wish, on your arrival at N. York, especially the little Philander, in whom we must be allowed to take a particular interest, from his having been born during your residence amongst us. We are looking forward with great pleasure in the hope of receiving a letter from you the [?] end of this month. We have drunk your health every day since the 15th of July, & shall continue to do so. We are very much vexed that neither the print nor picture of you is yet completed--tho’ we want no reminder of one, whose image is too deeply impressed on our hearts ever to be [effaced] by time or circumstances.
I must tell you how very much we were all delighted, a short time since, by a hint, in one of good Mr. Wiggin’s letters, of the possibility of your making another visit to this country, in course of time, for the same pious purpose as your last. Should such a hope, however distant, ever be [?], I trust you will believe nothing could give us all such heartfelt pleasure. & I cannot myself help looking forward to it, as something more than a [bare] possibility, tho’ almost too delightful to dwell upon an as an expectation. However this may be ordered by an All-wide Providence, we know that we shall, if it be not our own faults, (& may God enable us so to live that [this] his mercy we may!) meet again, if not in this world, yet in one far better (as you so beautifully express it in your invaluable letter in my book, for which I could not summon courage to thank you at 21 (Layton Square, Liverpool, & which I often read with renewed feelings of affection & admiration even in that “Temple eternal in the heavens, whose walls are Salvation & whose gates Praise.”
Farewell! dear & excellent Bishop Chase!
The earnest prayers & blessings of this
House ever attend you, with every
Wish for your happiness & success!
Dear Edward has left us, or would
[join] Lloyd & my sisters in the
Most affectionate & respectful remembrances--
And Believe me ever to remain,
My very dear Bishop Chase,
Your gratefully obliged &
Most affectionate humble Servant,
Margaret Emma Kenyon