Ohio History Journal

UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE

 

By ALICE   MCGUFFEY RUGGLES*

 

In the winter of 1847-48, Dr. Daniel Drake, then professor

at the Louisville Medical Institute, dashed off, late at night after

strenuous days of teaching and research, the "Reminiscential

Letters to His Children," published in 1879 in the Ohio Valley

Historical Series under the title Pioneer Life in Kentucky.

This little book is the most vivid first-hand account of a

pioneer boyhood in that region ever written. With his imagina-

tive temperament Drake recalls his childhood through a glam-

orous haze, yet with the minuteness of a scientist omits no

smallest, homeliest detail.

"I was happy in the days of childhood I am describing," he

observes, "and have lived long enough to find happiness in re-

curring to them, as a delightful fountain of enjoyment, which

Time, when it mercifully smites the rock, opens to us. . . ."

No other letters of Drake have been preserved in print, and

the only ones to survive in manuscript, so far as I can find, are

those he wrote between 1848 and 1852 to his son Charles' wife,

Margaret Cross Drake, of whom    he was very fond. These

were discovered in 1938, among the papers of Margaret's daugh-

ter, Anna Drake Westcott, of Washington, D. C. They give a

glimpse of the once fiery doctor, in his mellow sixties, surrounded

by adoring women and children.

In these last years Drake divided his time between Louis-

ville, where he lived in a homelike boarding-house while deliver-

ing his medical lectures, and Cincinnati, where at the house of his

daughter Elizabeth, wife of Alexander Hamilton McGuffey, he

kept the office and study he called his "Dreamery." His practise

was by this time largely consultative. Weather permitting, he

returned to Cincinnati every week-end, on the Ohio River packet,

 

* Copyrighted, 1940, by Alice McGuffey Ruggles.

(191)

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to be with his children and grandchildren, and to work up his

notes for his great Treatise on the Principal Diseases of the

Interior Valley of North America.

His summers for years had been spent in travel, collecting

data for this book, which it was the dearest desire of his heart

to live to finish. When the first of these letters to his daughter-

in-law was written, he had completed the first volume, which

appeared in 1850. For the material, he had examined over four

million square miles of territory, journeying by steamboat, skiff,

carriage, canoe, on horseback or on foot, "from Hudson Bay to

the desert lands of the Rio Grande, from the palm groves of

Florida to the headwaters of the Mississippi, from the mouth

of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes of the North to the

prairies of the far West and to the Sierras of the Rocky

Mountains."

Margaret Drake, to whom these letters were written, was

the second wife of Drake's only son, Charles Daniel, who as a

handsome, wilful child and youth had been the family problem.

At twenty-two Charles had married the lovely Martha Ella Blow

of St. Louis, a marriage Drake had opposed on financial grounds.

But the young people started out gallantly on eight dollars

a week and had seven happy years. Then Ella's health failed and

she died of a galloping consumption, leaving two children. For

his second wife Charles chose an amiable young widow, Mrs.

Margaret Austin Cross, the "Dear Margaret" of Drake's letters.

This lady was never known to address her irascible husband in

any but the gentlest tones and her step-children, little Ella and

Joseph, loved her as though she were their "mother born."

Charles Drake practiced law, for some years without suc-

cess. He and Margaret were continually on the move, from

Cincinnati to New York City, and from there west again where

in the border state of Missouri Charles plunged into politics as

an ardent anti-secessionist. After the Civil War he was elected

one of the first Republican Senators from Missouri, and ended

a distinguished career in Washington, as chief justice of the

Court of Claims,

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RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE        193

 

In the pre-war years covered by this correspondence, the

West was seething with industrial activity and political unrest.

Railroads were pushing out in every direction; factories seemed

to spring up over night. Cincinnati, the city of Drake's heart,

was being transformed, and becoming, in the old pioneer's eyes,

pretentiously modern.

His daughters, Elizabeth McGuffey and Harriet, wife of

James Parker Campbell (called in the letters by their pet names,

"Dove" and "Echo," respectively) were typical, well-to-do young

matrons of the period, living the new life of ease and leisure

that had so quickly succeeded the simple conditions of their

father's youth in Ohio and the poverty and rigors of his child-

hood in Kentucky. Alexander McGuffey, the young co-author

of the Readers, who is often mentioned in the letters, seems, at

the age when his pioneer father had been battling with the wil-

derness, to have acquired a habit of poor health which demanded

rest, relaxation and frequent trips from home.

Westerners still had the restlessness of the pioneers in their

bones and worked it off in travel, braving the dangers of the

new transportation and the risk of disease, to visit for months in

each others' comfortable homes, which, compared to those their

parents had known, seemed luxurious. But their pleasures were

limited by the fact that everyone was ailing much of the time.

Where now it is the exception to be ill, then it was the exception

to be well. That people survived at all is a tribute to the hardy

stock from which they came, for the usual treatment in any ill-

ness was a combination of bleeding and emetics that merely

made their systems more susceptible to the next infection.

Over all the humming activity of the 'forties and 'fifties the

fear of cholera hung like a black cloud. Between 1832 and 1852

six epidemics swept Cincinnati, the most terrible in 1849.

This deadly and disgusting disease, characterized by purg-

ing, vomiting, cramps, collapse, and death within six to forty-

eight hours, had been brought to England from India, and in the

year 1831 crossed the Atlantic on emigrant ships from Ireland.

Appearing first in Canada, it spread to middle-western states by

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way of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Summer was the

season in which the plague flourished, but in 1349 it arrived in

Cincinnati in May. By July nearly every family in the city had

lost some member.

Alexander and Elizabeth McGuffey lost a baby girl. My

mother, who was four years old at the time, said that her first

recollection was of being held up to kiss her sister's cold little

face in the coffin. Charles Drake, who was visiting with his

family in Cincinnati, lost his idolized twelve-year-old boy, "little

Jo, the light of the house."  Jo sickened and died within twenty-

four hours, in spite of all his grandfather's skill and devotion.

Indeed, there was no remedy known.

The citizens made frantic efforts to control the plague by

burning great coal fires in the streets day and night, "to purify

the air."        The mistaken treatment of the sick and dying was

pitiable.        They cried for water, water, and it was always re-

fused.           All the medical men, Drake included, agreed that no

water should be given.

Little Jo Drake had been just buried when Drake's younger

daughter, Echo Campbell, was stricken and barely escaped

death.  While she was still convalescent, her husband was at-

tacked and in thirty-six hours was dead.

Charles in after years described his father as a tower of

strength in that terrible time.

He gathered his children and grand-children into Echo's bedroom and

read to them the one hundred and twenty-first psalm. "I will lift up mine

eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. . . ."

The words seemed almost to be spoken from heaven. They filled our

hearts with a living faith and lifted them above the deadly surroundings,

the newly made graves and the crushed affections and blighted hopes, to

that heavenly home where no sorrow comes, but where there is joy forever

more. After the reading of the Psalm, father led us in earnest prayer,

from which we rose feeling that, indeed, God was with us.

When in the fall of '49 the epidemic subsided, people quickly

readjusted their lives, and fortunately succeeding epidemics grew

steadily milder and the treatment more intelligent. Dove Mc-

Guffey had declared after what she saw in '49, that no physician,

her father or whoever, should ever again persuade her to refuse

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RUGGLES; LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE              195

 

water to a sick child, as it was against her reason and common

sense.

After Charles moved to St. Louis, Drake used to write to

him and to his wife regularly, and Margaret kept all his letters to

her. He wrote, for the most part, of things that would interest

a purely domestic woman--of illnesses, births, marriages, deaths,

excursions, tea-parties, church services and church fairs.

There is no hint here of that side of 'his nature which had

made his earlier years a turmoil of ambitions, conflicts and frus-

trations. Life had disciplined him, and the kindly tolerance of

his Quaker mother had triumphed over the violent temperament

of the Drakes, who, back in Saxon times, had earned their name

of "Dragons."

By his family Daniel Drake was remembered for his sim-

plicity, his humor and his unselfish kindness.

The "Frank," "Nelly" and "Jimmy" he mentions were Echo

Campbell's children. The McGuffeys were "Charlie", "Anna"

(my mother), "Frederick" and "Alice."     "Sister B." was a Miss

Belle Graham, whom Drake called his adopted daughter. She

apparently had a chronic case of nerves and a warm admiration

for the doctor.

The letters are written in a flowing, energetic hand, on

large double sheets of substantial paper.

LOUISVILLE, Sunday night

Nov. 28th 1848

MY DEAR MARGARET

I have been in the way of writing so many letters to your husband that

I can scarcely find anything to say to you, except that I am very happy to

receive your letter, and ought to have told you so at an earlier date. When

one writes to a lady, he ought to have something to say. Your sex, you

know are a little jealous of their intellectual honor, and no wonder, when

so many silly and impudent upstarts of the other gender have intimated that

any kind of nonsense will answer for a woman--that a letter to her may be

composed of the lightest gossamer. For myself I have found it more dif-

ficult to write letters to your sex than to my own. I do not believe in the

frivolousness of the female mind--at least, it is not true of those ladies with

whom I correspond. But my friends and correspondents are, perhaps, su-

perior to the generality. They seem so, at least, to me.

Wishing to write you on dignified topics I begin with myself. As

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196    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

usual I am pretty much engaged. In adding up my lectures since the

session began, I find the number thirty, besides four to the Physical Tem-

perance Society, making 34 in all. Of my labours with the pen you know

something from the transmissions of MS to Charles. But never mind; it is

better to have too much than too little on hand. . . . Sister B. talks a little

of yielding to the earnest solicitations of her friends and protracting her

visit to Christmas.

Maria Rives Gross1 is to make a visit to Mrs. [Rufus] King and

Mrs. [Nicholas] Longworth when I go up next Saturday [to Cincinnati].

It will be a short one as she is to return with me. . . .

I am in good health. Kiss the children in my name.

Your constantly affectionate  FATHER.

 

LOUISVILLE, Sunday

9 P. M. March 4th, 1849.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

Although I hope to leave here in a few days for Cin., I cannot forego

the gratification of sending you a note of congratulation and telling you that

I desire to unite my thanksgiving with yours, to that merciful Heavenly

Father who has conducted you safely through suffering and peril and

blessed you with a daughter in place of the dear little one whom he had

taken to himself. I hope and pray that she will live to confer on you a

multitude of enjoyments. Alexander describes her as strong, fat and good!

-- three excellent qualities, which I trust she will not lose with the

progress of age.

You must tell her of me and kiss her for me; but don't praise my

beauty lest she should be disappointed, rather let me have the advantage of

being thought by her a little older and greyer and sallower and toothlesser

and uglier and crosser than I really am; that she may, as the saying is, be

agreeably disappointed. The coincidence of her birthday with that of her

sister is a remarkable fact -- and cannot fail to seem (the more) like a

blessing sent to make up for your loss. . . .

With love to all the people of the different houses and many fervent

wishes for your speedy recovery, I remain as always,

Your affectionate FATHER.

To MY DEAR MARGARET

Between this letter of March 4th and the following, the sum-

mer of 1849 had intervened. But Drake gives no hint of the

ordeal by fire through which his family and city had just passed.

 

1 Wife of Drake's friend and colleague, the great surgeon, Dr. William David

Gross.

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RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE               197

 

[CINCINNATI] ECHO'S CHAMBER, Sunday 4 P. M.

Sept. 22, 1849.

It was not, my dear daughter, till one o'clock yesterday, just a fort-

night after you left us, that we got any intelligence from you. Expecting

that you would inform us by Telegraph of your arrival in St. L., we

passed a most uncomfortable week. Had your letter, even, been mailed

when it was written, we should have been sooner relieved. . . . Its date was

Saturday the 15th -- its postmark the next Tuesday, the 18th !!

Since you left, nothing of special moment has occurred within the

circle that you love, or, I should more modestly say (being one of them)

the circle that loves you; and, therefore, I have but few exciting materials

out of which to construct my epistle.

Our dear little Fred, one of the sweetest of boys, has had a cold and

part of the time been threatened with the croup, for a week; but is better.

Anna, Charlie, Jimmy, Little Nell and Frank have all enjoyed good health,

and all except Jimmy have gone to school. Thus our gardens and groves

have been, for much of every day, made vocal by Jimmy alone.

Dove and Aleck jog on as usual; dear Echo attended church last Sun-

day and again this morning. Her health is better than her spirits. Sister

Belle has passed a week without indisposition and by her cheerfulness con-

tributes much to a making up for your absence.

As to myself, being the old man of the connexion I have a right to

complain, or having the disposition and the power, do complain. On Friday

afternoon I was not well and through the following night became still

worse, with an affection of the brain. Yesterday I was better, and invited

two gentlemen to tea. Before night, however, I had to take to my bed.

They came, and were not only strangers to Aleck and Dove, but to each

other. Thus it was literally a strange party. To make matters still worse

one or the other of the guests was unwell, and the host had a sick head-

ache. Nevertheless they contrived to prolong the sitting till half past 10

o'clock. Today I am better, and hope to be quite well by tomorrow. . . .

In the hope that you will find time to write frequently, I remain as

all times your most affectionate

FATHER.

P. S. Monday 1/2 past 6. We are all (I believe) pretty well this morning.

 

DREAMERY, Feb. 3rd, 1850.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

Your acceptable favor of the 22nd ult. reached me several days ago.

We were all much interested in your instructive and graphical account of

things around you. I am sorry that your circumstances compel you to

reside in a village-like portion of the city; but perhaps you are more con-

tented than you would be near 'Union Park', unless you could occupy one

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198    OHIO ARCAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

of the palaces. 'Out of sight out of mind' is a saying of extensive appli-

cation; if you saw those edifices from every window of a humble dwelling,

you might be kept in a state of envy--of all others the most uncomfortable.

. . .

We are, at present, all pretty well; and things are moving on in their

usual quiet way. Aleck holds up pretty well, better and better, I think--

that is, he can perform more bodily labour than when you left us. Dear

Echo is pale and silent, but in general composed, and at all times attentive

to her duties as a housekeeper, mother and daughter. When other resources

fail, she devotes herself to the contemplation of James, who is to her the

representative of his lamented and worthy father. She lately had a beautiful

Daguerreotype miniature of him set in a finger ring. I am happy to say

that he is, indeed, a noble and promising little fellow. Frank has begun

the study of geography and is able to point out where you live, and to give

the names of the lakes and mountains of North America. Nelly is beginning

to read, but as yet evinces a paramount instinct for the needle. She and

James ride on my back to the breakfast table!

Dove's health is good. She called on a lady at Mr. Stone's the other

day; and when I was there this morning Mrs. Farrar said, "How well

Elizabeth looks, so ruddy and so handsome,--I could not keep my eyes

from her when she was here." Sweet big-little Fred leads a tranquil life,

with as round and red and honest a face as ever, but more beautiful. I

am sorry to find, however, that one or two of the glands of his neck are

swollen. Anna goes to school and grows and learns regularly and delib-

erately, if not rapidly. Her hair is rather more of a Californian tint than

when you left.

Charlie is more in the way of change than any of the younglings,

having an increased passion for all kinds of learning, from drawings and

geography up to the German language and politeness,--his progress in the

last being greater even than in any other branch. . . .

Sister Belle's health is good for her. . . .

I have seen proof sheet to page 792 of my book [The Treatise].

The printing will be finished I hope within this month.

All the inmates of the two houses send their love and kisses. . . . As

ever, I remain and subscribe myself

Your affectionate FATHER.

 

PACKET EXPRESS, Feb. 7, 1850.

Friday, 11 A. M.

By my date, dear Margaret, you will perceive that I am commencing

a voyage and understand why I take my pencil instead of my pen. I know

not when or what I last wrote to you or Charles. I only know that it

seems a long time to me, however it seem to you. . . . When I write to

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RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE                199

 

those I love it affords me a pleasure of nearly the same kind as to receive

letters from them. Indeed, philosophically, they are nearly the same, for

it is as much social communication in the one case as the other.

Of course my correspondence is necessarily extensive; and while lec-

turing, and writing on my book, I find much difficulty in writing the re-

quired number of letters. . . .

I am happy to be able to say that I have received $3300 of ticket

money,² which has been absorbed by the debt on the [indecipherable], so

that I have added $1000 to your future resources, by coming to Louisville,

which affords me great pleasure.

The latest accounts I have from you were in Charles's letter to Aleck,

which Dove enclosed to me in her last. I am happy to learn that the St.

Louis Law Library will render it unnecessary for Charles to go to the east

for the completion of his book. In a pecuniary point of view, it would be

better for him to give it up than to be absent from his business, which,

now diligently cultivated, will soon place him where a father's imagination

once placed him, at the head of the St. Louis Bar. Indeed, I hope yet to

live long enough to see him on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the

United States, i. e., if he keep out of politics. . . .

I have lately had three most excellent and interesting letters from

Echo, Belle and Dove. I wonder if any man, ever before, were blessed

with four such daughters, as cheer my enviable old age? I have never

met with such a case before. . . . During the late cold weather Echo

had an application for bed covering for the poor, from the Relief Union,

to which she responded in a way that affords me unutterable pleasure.

Sister B. was not present to cooperate as last winter, but E. collected

money, purchased materials, and aided to some extent by dear little Nellie,

made up 20 comforters. Nellie acquitted herself with distinguished ability

and will undoubtedly make a woman of great efficiency. She has lately

become a manufacturer of book-marks, which she distributed as New

Year's gifts, and sent one down to me a few days since. . . .

Dear Anna did not look well when I was last at home; but was pale

and feeble. I could not, however, detect any special disease and hope to

find her better. Sister B.'s health and spirits, I am happy to perceive

from her letters, are nearly or quite restored. . . .

And now I will resume writing on my book, suspended at 11 o'clock

last night, leaving a space to announce the events and affairs of tomor-

row morning.

Saturday 9 A. M. This evening Dove, Belle and Aleck supped with us

[in Cincinnati]. I have found our friends and relatives well. . . .

Your loving FATHER.

2 Medical students bought "tickets" from the professors for the courses they

elected.

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ECHO'S CHAMBER, Sunday 12 o'C'k.

Feb. 24th, 1850.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER.

My date is a little uncommon. Soon after we got seated in church,

dear Harriet Echo told me that she must return home, that a kind of

quincy or croup (which she has had before) began this morning, and

from her walk through a drizzling rain, had become a great deal worse.

. . . She has bathed her feet, taken two teaspoonfuls of antimonical

wine, and is lying on the sofa reading the Western Episcopalian. Before

I close my letter tomorrow I will recur to her case.

I have the pleasure to tell you that I read (at ten last night) proof

sheets of page 866 of my first volume; and feasted my eyes, at the bottom,

with the long desired words, "End of the First Volume."   The preface

and table of contents are in the hands of the printer, and will, with the

Index (I hope) pass through the press by the end of this week.

Our lectures will terminate next Thursday, and the degrees will be

conferred on the following Tuesday. Thus after the 5th of next month

I shall have two heavy burdens off my shoulders. However, I must not

(at my time of life) take a long play spell; but after "shifting the scenes"

in my Dreamery commence on a new dream. The first article of my sec-

ond volume is on Yellow Fever. It has been blocked out, but must be

reviewed.

Through the months of March, April and the first half of May, I

hope to devote myself with some success to Dreamery work--and what

then? Why, Providence permitting, I shall then take some holiday. And

where? The answer is on and east of the Alleghenies. But I have already

(perhaps) told you of our plans. Dear Echo, with her children, wishes

to visit their father's relatives in Pennsyl. And her own in New York;

I wish to do the same and to hunt for certain books in the eastern cities,

and to traverse the mountains from New York to Georgia for the pur-

pose of studying their diseases. Thus we are intending to start up the

river in the latter part of May. Our first stopping will be at Harrisburg,

where she will spend a longer time, during which I expect to make my

most extensive Alpine visit.

But all our party is not named. Sister Belle will make one of the

traveling party, and for the first time see the East. The only thing which

I can imagine as likely to prevent the accomplishment of our plan, is the

fatal prevalence of Cholera--concerning which no prediction can be

made. . . .

5 P. M. Echo's emetic has relieved her considerably and she is now on

hoarhound candy and lemonade. . . .

Dove remained with Echo while we were gone. She and Belle and

Echo and myself have been talking matters over. I wished the former

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RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE              201

 

to add something to my letter, that you might not find it utterly barren,

but Dove had to look after that beautifulest of boys, Fred, and Belle's

mind was taken up with preparations for a fair in her church! More-

over she does not approve of writing letters on Sunday, though she ex-

pressed a desire to read what I had written.

Mr. [Charles Buchanan] Read has lately painted the portraits of

Ellick, Dove and Anna. The last with a bird in her hands, I think it the

best of the whole. . . .

The three ladies whom I have mentioned send their love to you and

yours. James who is now leaning on my table and watching my pen

says he can't think what to say to you. He just thinks again and says

"put my love to Aunt Margaret and Austin and Anna and Ella and to

come and play with us." Nelly who is lolling on Aunt Belle's lap, says

"Give her my love and tell her I sit in Aunt Belle's lap most every day." . . .

Tuesday forenoon.  I could not find time to close and mail my letter

yesterday morning. Echo has got much better. The other members of

the families are as well as usual this morning.

With love to Charles and the bairns,

I remain your affectionate FATHER.

To DEAR MARGARET.

DREAMERY, Sunday P. M. May 19th

1850.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER, . . .

The time fixed for our departure is next Wednesday week, the 29th

inst. We shall go by Pitts. and Brownst. to Uniontown, and stop at Mrs.

Oliphant's for two or three days. Then take a hack to Camb. and stop

for a day or two in Baltimore; thence go to Harrisburg. Leaving Echo

there, I shall proceed to Phila., and perhaps make you a visit of a day.

My stay in all the cities will be as brief as possible, as I feel a wonderful

instinct towards the Mountains. . . .

As yet we have (as far as I can learn) not the least tendency to

Ep. Cholera; but it is prevailing to some extent on the plantations of the

lower country. Our city is, indeed, unusually healthy; not even excepting

ourselves; and yet dear Echo is dyspeptic and looks pale; but a cough

which she had for several weeks seems to have ceased. Sister B., more-

over, has some neuralgia about her face; not enough, however, to keep

her from church and from the Gen'l Assembly. The prospect of her

accompanying us, never very bright, seems in these latter days to be some-

what overclouded. She is probably waiting for our friend Mr. Symmes,

who after 40 years of preparation, may be presumed to be nearly ready.

I have stopped writing on my book, and have for several days been

engaged in re-sorting of my papers, and preparing for our journey.

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I hope you, or your lord and master, will write on the receipt of

this, that we may hear from you immediately before our departure.

You will not doubt that if the various members of the two houses

knew that I am writing to you, they would mingle (in copious outpourings)

their love and prayers with my own. . . .

Your ever loving FATHER.

 

UNION, MONROE Co.

July 3rd, 1850.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

The ninth day of my clamberings over the mountains has just closed,

without one accident. Providence has indeed been very merciful to me.

Yesterday and day before, I travelled in a buggy with a horse, which, I

presume, was lineal descendant of one which your husband and I attempted

to get from Plainfield to Elizabethtown with, in 1827. The rule with the

one I lately hired was to stand still--the exception to go forward. I ar-

rived here from Louisburg at 12 today. While at Louisburg I visited

the Blue Sulphur Spr. where I heard that the cholera was epidemic in

Cincinnati on the 26th ult., which has made me gloomy. I felt half dis-

posed to start home by the Kanawha Valley. Tomorrow, I shall spend

at the Salt Sulphur, three miles from here, and go the next day to Red

Sulphur, 16 miles to the S. W. Thence I shall go to various places up

New River. I find it difficult to indicate the post offices to which I would

have letters sent, and cannot do better than to request your next to be

sent to Wytheville, Wythe Co. Va. I have left my map of Va. If

Charles can find one I wish him to take off its covers and send it by

mail to that place.

My health is good. I am much occupied. I cannot write long let-

ters, but expect to write frequently. You will of course hear much oftener

from me than I can hear from you. I find it difficult to get sleep enough,

as I have to rise early to make meteorological observations. It is now

near 11 P. M. so I must close with a message of love to Charles and the

dear little ones.

Your affectionate FATHER.

Fourth of July. I wish you a patriotic frame of mind, and a joyous

hearth, on this 74th anniversary of our independence. I am as well as

usual this morning.

LOUISVILLE, Nov. 2nd 1850.

9 P. M. Saturday

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

When I arrived at Mrs. Richardson's this morning, I was received

with a welcome so hearty as to make me feel at home in two minutes,

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RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE              203

 

which, it must be admitted, is a short period of time. The chamber in

which I am now writing, is fitted up with all manner of comforts, and

has, moreover, a southern aspect--  well suited to old age. This is now

the fourth time, in 33 years, that I have entered the state of Ky. as a

newly appointed teacher, and I must say that the present reception is the

most comfortable of all.

At three this afternoon, I went to the University and sold 80

tickets. . . .

I was very much grieved at leaving Harriet and Belle. Both seemed

melancholy at the separation. Two days before my departure Belle re-

ceived intelligence of the death of her brother Ezekial, in California. . . .

Sunday P. M. I dined today with Mrs. Gross, whom I accompanied to

my old church. . . .

I cannot close my letter without reiterating my congratulations on

the prospects which lie before you in St. Louis. If you are not destined

to live in Cin., I prefer your being in St. Louis to any other place, not

only on your own account, but mine also. My imagination has already

sketched out a pleasant visit to you; but I cannot pretend to see the time

when it can be made. I sincerely hope you will not have another re-

moval ....

To yourself and Charles my prayers for your continued temporal and

spiritual prosperity. To my friends, among whom you are, a kind re-

membrance.

Your affectionate FATHER.

 

CINCINNATI, Sunday 3 P. M.

June 22nd, 1851.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER MARGARET,

I am at this moment seated at my north chamber window, while

sister Echo is reading the religious newspapers, as she lies on her bed in

the adjoining room. As I write, a man is crying a lost child in the

street behind me; while in front, is the play-garden of Dove-cote, with

the young doves and camels romping and gamboling under the trees,

Alexander, the father and uncle, moving among them like a shepherd

among his flock.

I wish you could see how he has transformed and beautified this

rural gymnasium. All the old back buildings have been removed, and

new ones, further off, erected and whitewashed -- the cross fence has been

taken down, the tree trimmed up, and both the turf and pavement ex-

tended; so that it is quite refreshing even to look upon the scene from

my window. The carriage house has been extended, and formed into two

habitations, one of which is already rented to an orderly German family.

Between these houses and the other parts of the premises there is a high

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and close board fence, so that our privacy is in no degree impaired, but,

indeed, promoted.

Dove has been confined to her chamber or the house, for the last

fortnight, with pain in her back. . . . All the rest are in our usual health.

. . . We have been looking out for cholera, but it still holds off. Some

deaths, it is true, have occurred from our ordinary cholera morbus, with

certain characteristics of the epidemic, but nothing more.

Echo is anxious, however, and desirous of going to the country. If

we had a railroad to St. Louis, she would soon be with you at Linden-

wood. She would go to a new summer retreat, three miles from Xenia,

but that it would cost her 24 dollars a week. . . .

Henrietta McG. is still in Dayton. Her father [William   Holmes

McGuffey], brother and sister will start for the East, via Niagara, in the

course of this week.

My Dear Daughter, I hope you are all well. . . .

I remain as ever your faithful and affectionate FATHER.

 

DREAMERY Aug. 10th 1851.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER:

I have been longer in acknowledging the receipt of your very acceptable

letter of the 23rd ult. than I intended.

When it came I was with Harriet at the Xenia Springs. . . . Yesterday

week I brought her home from the Retreat at which she spent 24 days--

most of them very pleasantly. She had an attack of Dysentary while there

which led to her sending for me; and on her way home ten days afterwards

she had another, but is now as well as usual.

In two days after her return, that is, at 4 o'clock P. M. of last Monday,

just five days ago, Alex, Dove and Charlie set off on their northern tour,

to stay (we hope) a month. They stopped a day or two at Columbus, and

about the same time at Cleveland. Yesterday morning they reached Detroit,

without accident, and with improved health and strength on the part of

Alex, as a telegraph received last night announces. Tomorrow morning they

will proceed to Mackinaw, where I trust they will sojourn 2 or 3 weeks. . . .

Anna and Fred are in Harriet's care. They have both had good health

since their parents left them; and everything goes on pleasantly among the

4 persons and 5 children. If the Ohio river should rise considerably about

the time of their return I will advise them to take St. Louis on their way

home. . . .

Prof. McGuffey and his family have left us for Cleveland, Montreal

and Quebec. . . .

Your ever affectionate

FATHER.

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RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE              205

 

CIN. Oct. 5th 1851

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

We are all at this time in our usual health. The girls have lately been

hard at work in autumnal house cleaning. . . .

I do not know whether Alex has mentioned to your husband the death

of Charles McGuffey who in traveling with his father and sisters was seized

with cholera and died in a few hours, in Burlington, Vermont. You have

probably heard of the marriage of the professor to Miss Laura Howard,

daughter of one of the professors of the Univ. of Va. . . .

In all affection your FATHER.

 

Lo. Feb 29th 1852.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

Since my last letter I have on the whole enjoyed good health, the

most of the time very hard at work. Our lectures were closed at 12

o'clock day before yesterday and the Commencement will be held on the

6th of next month. We have about 90 graduates. . . .

Echo's house has again been visited by burglarians. They could not,

however, penetrate further than the dining-room, and as they were not

heard, there was no alarm. The few articles they took away were blended

with a larger number taken the same night from two of her neighbours,

and the whole deposited where the police in a few days recovered them.

Several houses have lately been visited in this city, and as my chamber

has unfastened door-windows opening on a back verandah, I have been

expecting a visitation.

My two discourses are printed (with numerous typographical errors)

and I will send you a copy, when a package which I am expecting ar-

rives. . . .

If Kossuth should visit St. Louis, I hope Charles will not make him-

self conspicuous in the reception. Of course all my sympathies are with

Hungary and him; but his asking money since the establishment of a

military despotism in France, is entirely a different thing from his asking

it before that event; for then there was some ground of hope that Hun-

gary, Italy and Germany might react this year, against their oppressors --

now there is none, and Kossuth will bring himself into disrepute, by con-

tinuing to solicit money, when there is no way which it can be made

available to the Independence of his country. . . .

With my love and blessing to you and yours,

I remain your ever affectionate FATHER.

To DEAR MARGARET.

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DREAMERY Sunday Morning

9 o'clock, March 21st 1852.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

I have this moment set open the door of my Dreamery to listen to

the opening hymn of your brother Ellick's Sunday School, composed of

Chas., Frank, Nelly, Anna and Gilman [Telford] -- James and Fred being

supernumeraries, and the last playing an accompaniment on his new

trumpet. . . .

You have probably seen by the newspapers, that I have been at-

tacked by a footpad. Contrary to what usually happens I got all and he

got nothing! When it was nearly dark on Saturday evening (having

arrived here in the morning) I went through our gate, and passed a reel-

ing (pretended drunken) man, who by a loud shout, uttered immediately

afterwards, caused me to stop and look around.

He was about 10 feet from me, and as I turned was advancing

towards me. I put out my hands (having no cane) and received him on

them, when I instantly felt a violent blow behind my left ear near the

base of the skull. It did not, however, so stun me, but that my hands

kept him from reaching my pockets, and, at the instant it was given, two

young men walking up the pavement, arrived. Their stopping saved me

from a second blow. He left me on seeing them, we raised a hue and

cry, and followed, but he outran even them, and escaped down Elm Street

where there were no lamps.

They saw the blow given: the instrument was a ball of slung lead,

called in the footpad vocabulary a "Colt".  Had they not arrived when

they did, I should doubtless have received a second blow and then lost my

watch or other property -- 10 seconds more would have been sufficient.

This impersonation of a drunkard at twilight, when people are hurrying

home, and running against them so as to pick their pockets, is a well

devised method. If I had allowed him to come in contact with my body

he would have seized my watch, without my knowing it, and I should

have escaped the blow. Had I been struck an inch higher I should have

fallen; had it been an inch farther forward my jaw would undoubtedly

have been broken.

For two or three days, I could not masticate my food; and now

after 8 days, the parts are still tender; but I have great cause for thank-

fulness, that things were no worse with me. The assault was made about

12 feet from our gate. If I had taken a cane when I went out, I should

have escaped the attack. Our city seems greatly infested with bad men.

We hope for a change in the mode of choosing and organizing our

police. . . .

I expect to start for Richmond (to attend the Am. Med. Ass.) on

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RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE              207

 

Monday the 19th of April. I shall go through the Valley of Virginia and

by the Univ. The meeting will open on the 4th of May.

If I did not cherish a most lively regard for Dove and Sue [Telford],

I would inform you that on the afternoon before the evening on which

I was assaulted, they had their pockets picked in the melodeon, each losing

her purse with a certain amount of money. The occasion was the per-

formance of the infant drummer. . . .

Your ever affectionate FATHER.

 

To DEAR MARGARET.

DREAMERY June 20th, 1852.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

I hope you are quiet and happy this bright, temperate and serene

Sabbath morning; tho' you may not have, acting on you, the soothing

musical influences of Alex's flute and Nelly and Anna's voices; as they

pour forth their Sunday School hymns in Dove's parlour. You are, I sup-

pose, aware that Charlie, Frank and Gilman are in the country, thus the

Sabbath School would be greatly reduced, but for the addition of Miss

Alice, whose arrival has no doubt been made known to you by her father.

Whether she has a musical voice cannot be exactly known, as she modestly

keeps it very much to herself; but whatever may be her vocal powers,

her personal appearance is highly respectable and her manners as excel-

lent as her health.

Yesterday P. M. Echo, Nelly, James and I made some country calls.

. . . We found Rufus and Margaret King at Jo Longworth's. The for-

mer told me that he had just had a letter from his mother dated at Con-

stantinople. She had visited Egypt, Palestine and Syria, and is, probably,

by this time in England. Like Madame Pfeifer she travels alone, but

unlike (or happier than) that celebrated circumterrestrial-wanderer, she

has money and means sufficient.

P. M. I have been taking a deliberate coup d'oeil of my latest born and

least grand-daughter, and cannot pass on her a higher eulogium than to

say (what is her due) that she does not fall behind any of her prede-

cessors. Her hair is nearly black and her eyes nearly blue, and her sleep-

ing attitudes, the only ones I have seen, nearly or not quite natural. My

opinion of her is, in short, so favorable, that I thought her worthy of

the name Elizabeth, and James wished to call her Lilly, but her mother

overruled us both, and imposed on her that which I have announced. She

fancies that Frederick and Alice are somewhat suggestive of history and

poetry. . . .

If the Ohio River should be navigable in Oct. I wish you would

make us a visit of some weeks. It will afford me great pleasure to meet

all the expenses attendant on it; and your chamber in Campbelldom will

be in smiling readiness. My visiting you within the next year, or 10

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months, will be nearly impossible; and I would rather you should make

a visit the ensuing fall than the following spring, as I shall probably spend

much of the latter season in the east, on business, and expect to take Echo

and her children with me. . . .

I am sorry to have to tell you that Sister Belle has been for several

weeks in a state of nervous depression. She is now at her brother's. To-

morrow morning I intend (D. V.) to make her a visit, taking with me

Elly, Anna, James and Fred; . . . we shall return in the evening -- travel-

ing out and in on the R. R. . . .

Fred has just come in and asked me to give his love. . . . I am

pleased to be able to tell you that Fred is a fine boy in everything but

his hair, in which he is a fine girl. As I sit writing all day, while the

other children are at school, he is my companion, and carries himself

accordingly. His health is excellent. All the children, indeed, are well,

except James who coughs and is thin. Nelly, however, has some sore-

ness on the edges of her eyelids, which I fear is scrofulous. . . .

I write down that Echo and her children and Alex, Dove and Anna

and Alice, join me in love . . . but if any of them do not they will scratch

out their names when they read this.

Your ever affectionate

FATHER.

 

DEAR MARGARET.

DREAMERY, Sunday July 11th, 1852.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

I love to commune with you on a bright and quiet Sabbath morning,

with the breezes (unpolluted by dust) passing through my Dreamery, and

the melody of Anna's, Frank's, Nelly's and Charley's voices, mingled with

Alexander's flute, reaching me from the parlour Sunday School, with James

and Fred joyously playing under my window, or drumming on my sheet

iron stove, or fetching me hollyhocks; while the mother of the former sits

in her chamber, reading the religious newspapers of the week, and the

mother of the latter, with her young daughter Alice, is still taking a long

morning nap.

I feel comfortable this morning, but have had a busy, exposed and

somewhat perplexing week, which gave me a rather serious oppression of

the brain, from Thursday night till this morning. On the preceding Friday

I was made (by a public meeting) Chairman of a large Committee for the

reception of the remains of Mr. Clay,3 and their transmission through our

city, by a public procession. The pageant was as successful as such enter-

prises generally are; and gave general satisfaction.

The mourning pavillion erected on the Ben Franklin by one of Charles'

3 Henry Clay had been Dr. Drake's lifelong friend and the embodiment of his

political ideals.

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RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE              209

 

old school mates, Capt. Joel Green, and Mr. Platt Evans, cost about $250

and was really very appropriate and impressive in its appearance. I have

never seen such magnificent solemnity before, as was displayed by the

hearse, drawn by 6 white horses as it passed through the city, and by the

Franklin as it left our wharf, and passed slowly and silently down the

river, carrying the remains of the great, and, as I trust, Christian man, to

the spot where he rests from his labours. In a day or two I will endeavor

to send you some papers giving a fuller account. . . .

Sometime since I wrote, asking you to visit us the ensuing fall; (lest

my invitation should have miscarried) I now repeat it. . . . Should the

river be low, you might come by land. The stage journey to Terre Haute

could not fatigue you and thence you would have a railroad to Madison.

Charles might make it advantageous to his business to accompany you to

that place, or by choosing your time you might find company thro'. If

Mrs. Peters could cross the desert from Egypt to Palestine without a gen-

tleman, you could cross the green fields and forests of Indiana, with a com-

pany of gentlemen and ladies.

All the family send love to you.

Your affectionate FATHER.

P. S. Sister Belle in gloomy health and spirits is at her brother

James'.

DREAMERY July 25th 1852.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER, . . .

Alexander with Charlie and Frank started on the ²1st for Western

Pennsylvania by way of Cleveland. We have heard of their safe arrival

in that city. The boys will spend several weeks among Alexander's friends.

He will spend 10 or 12 days and then continue his journey for 2 or 3

weeks longer. Since his departure Dove has had two days of indisposi-

tion, but is restored or nearly so today. . . .

I have not been able to do much for the last three weeks on my book,

from the debilitating effects of the hot weather.

We are likely to have a good supply of medical schools in Cin. Last

fall a new one went into operation, and another new one is about to an-

nounce itself. The Faculties are composed almost entirely of physicians

of the city, very few of whom are known either to you or Charles. . . .

In all affection your FATHER

 

DREAMERY, Sunday P. M.

Sept. 5th 1852

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

Your letter of the 25th came duly to hand; but that of your husband

giving an account of his purchase [of a house] has not reached me. With-

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out knowing the particulars of the case, I am predisposed to think well of

what he has done. . . . I enclose a check for $100 to assist in fitting up

your house--I wish I could make it $1000.

On the 12th of last month, Alexander and Dove with their 3 younger

children and a nurse, and Echo with her two younger and a nurse set off

for Gambier [Ohio]. In a fortnight I followed them, and we all got home

on the 1st inst. in very tolerable health. Alex had previously made a visit

of a fortnight to his friends in Western Pennsylvania, where he left Charlie

and Frank, who are still there. Alex as happened last year is considerably

refreshed by his escape from business.

Little Alice, the chief thing we have on hand to boast of at this time,

is slightly affected with a cold, she grows in size and fat and intelligence

and smiles. I wish I could add beauty to these interesting epithets; but I

should be unworthy to be the grandpa of such a child if I could depart

from historical and descriptive truth. . . .

Our city is uncommonly healthy. I saw two cases of cholera an hour

since, in the hospital, but they were both from a distance.

Our medical edifice is nearly finished, and the prospects for the winter

are so so. I leave you to make out the value of that definite expression.

I am trying to "make believe" that I am hard at work on the 2nd

volume of my book, but find it harder still to convince myself that such

is the fact. I did hope to begin the printing of it this fall, but that hope

is likely to fall through.

I wish Charles could (if practicable) purchase for me complete sets

of the medical journals of St. Louis down to the volume which is now in

the course of publication. I want them  for reference while writing on

our diseases. . . .

Your affectionate FATHER.

 

DREAMERY, Oct. 5th, 1852.

Tuesday P. M.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,

I lately had the pleasure of receiving, from you, a letter which multi-

plied engagements have prevented my answering before. I am now waiting

for the Scott,⁴ [indecipherable] procession to come this way from its circuit

round the city, that I may take the little ones including Fred with his Whig

flag, to see it. Cannon are thundering and the city is in some stir.

Our preliminary October lectures were begun yesterday at eleven

o'clock. The Faculty honored me with the opening address, which was a

mighty offhand affair. The number of matriculates was 25. . . . We

think the prospects very good. Neither of our rival schools has yet had a

 

4 Gen. Winfield Scott, hero of the Mexican War. In 1852 he was Whig candidate

for President, but carried only four states.

• 20
 

RUGGLES: LETTERS OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE               211

 

lecture. I know not how many matriculates they have. I have entered

on the care of the medical ward of the Hospital and must continue in

that duty, for five months. . . .

Later. The procession was to have gone up Main Street to Four-

teenth and down Plum to Third, but the Gen'l did not reach the wharf

till five o'clock instead of three--so it ascended B-W- to Fourth and

along it to Race, then down to Third and is now stopped in front of where

you lived. I got the children on a high step just below the Unitarian

Church, where they waved their flags and whurrahed for Scott. I was

made one of the Committee of Reception, but will postpone my duty till

tomorrow.

Frank and Charlie have not yet returned [from Pennsylvania, where

they had been visiting their grandfather, "Sandy" McGuffey], and are beg-

ging to remain through the fall and winter, that they may gather chestnuts,

and track rabbits in the snow. They will probably be at home in a

week. . . .

By the time this reaches you, I hope you will be comfortably, or at

least permanently established in your new,--your own home. How de-

lightful is the sound of that monosyllable,--own, when applied to one's

residence. . . .

All the good people send much love, and regret that they cannot

heighten the quality with preserved berries, but most of the jars have

fermented.

With love to Charles and the dear children, I remain as ever

Your affectionate

FATHER,

To DEAR MARGARET.

This is the last letter we have from Daniel Drake's hand.

But Charles tells in his autobiography of receiving a penciled note

written on the packet boat trip from Cincinnati to Louisville on

October 20, his father's sixty-seventh birthday. "I hope that each

of you may have as many presents and as many smiles and kisses

on your 67th anniversary," were his last words to his son and

his "dear Margaret."

Three weeks later, while suffering from a severe cold, he

spoke at a public meeting in memory of Daniel Webster, who

had died two days before. The effort brought on an attack of

"brain fever" (probably pneumonia), which proved fatal.

Drake in his "Reminiscential Letters" expressed the wish that

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when he came to die, he might have women's faces round his bed

and a woman's hand to close his eyes. His wish was granted.

The wife of his youth had died twenty-seven years before and

he had never supplanted her. But the two devoted daughters

were with him, Echo holding his hand when he lapsed into un-

consciousness.

The second volume of his Treatise, on yellow fever, had been

completed and was published after his death. The third, which

was to have been the last, was never written.

• 22