Fred and Amy's Story

The attic was a secret visiting place with boxes of decorations, yellowed old papers stacked in cardboard boxes and the secret portmanteaus. These trunks had decals of far away cities only seen in the National Geographic. However, our childhood memories went back to the tent fort and making bows and arrows and pretending we were Robin Hood and Maid Marian. The trunks didn’t reappear until 30 years had past into my adulthood.

 

The original plan when my grandparents moved from Illinois to Los Angeles was to throw away the trunks too much weight. The house was sold and the movers were coming soon. They had a 3,000 square foot house full of furniture, artwork, wonderful memories, and a garage full of tools. Now it had to be all sold or given away, leaving the rest to be packed up. But they were moving a 1760’s cherry corner cabinet, 1926‘s player grand piano, thousands of books and a wonderful attic full of history. Lucky for us the portmanteaus made it or this would be the end of the story.

 

The trunks were handed over to me, now I peeked inside, it was full of old letters not even wrapped in ribbons, just loose stacks and I was expecting trinkets, shells, souvenir brochures, maps of the cities visited. Eventually the trunks were packed on a moving van for Oregon. After arriving in Oreon the trunks were whispering to me, come see what I have. Lets Time Travel together!

 

Thrusters on full, Engage!

I had never met Amy’s parents, they were names and photos until I started to read the letters. The below list give you dates and examples of what they were thinking at a specific time in their lives. They liked their names however used nicknames; Samuel Johnson Schrecongost was SJ and Margaret Mary was Mary.

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• Love Letter between SJ and Mary.

• October 18, 1882,  To SJ from Mary about books she’s reading.

• Jan 8, 1883 To Mary from SJ talking about the holidays,

• Dec 21, 1884 To Mary from SJ. love

• June 1885. To Mary from SJ about getting married

• The March 7, 1886 talking about poor weather for their wedding March 24, 1886, 8 PM. wedding at her fathers farm.

• April 16, 1886  Talking about building their house. 129 letters

 

Love Letters between Amy and Fred: The same thing happened with their letters, because I didn’t met them when they were young, we met in person when I was between 4 and 5 years old in 1950‘s. They had lived over 66 years. Discovering what they were thinking and feeling about each other and their families was exciting discovering their young personalities

June 7, 1906 To Amy From Fred asked her to marry him May 31st in her parents kitchen.

July 25, 1906 To Fred from Amy  talking about going to college

These letters continue from 1906 through 1914 this is 1241 letters.  They married April 14, 1914.

It follows from 1914 through 1936  this was 2812 letters.

 

Surprise found more letters in cardboard boxes with the scrap books. Starting with WW II 1940’s through 1956 this was 427 letters. Plus another another group from 1907 through 1935 another 200 letters.

 

All total this 4809 letters not including cards and postcards, that's another 200 more stories.

 

It turned out I did find the the European souvenirs in other boxes, shells from Capri, post cards of cities with more information hand written by Amy about what she saw. Best of all her dairy about her wonderful trip that would be duplicated by her daughter and granddaughter in future years. We compared the cities we saw with many years apart and between two world wars. We all talked and laughed for hours over our photo sharing reviews.

 

I am repeating myself from the introduction page and the story page because this became my genealogy trail. Genealogy wants birth records, death records, marriage license, property ownership, drivers license, etc. I got this information instead of records but from the family members. They sent cards, announcements, telegrams and newspaper clippings and chatty letters talking about what they were doing at that specific time. Can’t get any better then if you were there. Original source information.

 

The wonderful part of reading all these letter you “feel” the personalities of the writer. Wow my grandparents were passionately in love, had goals and dreams. Her parents were in love too. Reminded their children they had life experience and it would be a good idea to follow their guidance and suggestions, always with love and hugs. It is fun to read about their friends and how they accomplished their goals and dreams. The interaction between sisters and brothers, the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

 

In the 1900‘s going to college was not a top priority. But both of my grandparents went to college. My grandmother to Oberlin College and my grandfather to Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Education was important in our family, their children all went to college and this was encouraged for the grandchildren to be well educated. Historical in the 1600 it was encouraged too. Read and Write!

 

Unfortunately there were disagreements, money worries, health issues and environmental concerns. This family lived through financial depressions, death of family members, wars and government changes going back to over 1056 years. And still the relatives have past on perseverance, intelligence, humility, curiosity, and dream of exploring the world.

 

Written by the granddaughter, of Fred and Amy Patchell in 2020, Virginia Amy Adams Wissuisk