The Drawer with the Box of Letters

My mother died in 2007, having lived to almost 92.  She died suddenly, with her "house in order" in nearly every sense of the word.  Her voice mail the weekend she died was full of messages of love from people who figured she was just being her independent self, out about town, when she didn't answer the phone.  Her apartment was tidy.  All the papers to do her taxes were sitting on her desk.  She was working on her current project: figuring out if there was a way for her church to help people in her community by opening a daycare center, when she keeled over.  We like to think that Jesus called her and she was ready to go home.  She died as she had said many times that she wanted to: quickly, at home, without a long, debilitating illness.

When my sister and I did the work of emptying out her apartment, we found that the bottom drawer of her secretary desk had a good-size box of letters in it. 

They turned out to be a couple hundred letters between my maternal grandparents as they were getting to know one another and as they were courting.

The photo below shows one archive box of six into which we sorted these letters and photos that my grandmother had kept until she died, and that my mother had saved for a later generation.

Their marriage was short, as Grandpa had a heart condition that was not really treatable at the time.  He died in 1917.  The earliest letters are from about a decade earlier.

I am going to try to share a letter each day during the next year or two.  They give an unusual glimpse at some of the same years that have captured the attention of those of us addicted to PBS's Downton Abbey.

James and Janet wrote daily, sometimes twice daily, for  a couple of years.  Some of the letters are downright boring.  Others are confusing because I don't always have both sides of the correspondence--though often I do.  Others refer to familiar or important events and people in the wider world as they were observed by eyewitnesses. 

The earliest documents in this collection pertaining to Janet and Jim are work-related.  There is a letter of reference for Janet from the business school she attended.

There is a letter of engagement to Jimmy  from an employer in Glasgow.

Govan Combination Parish council
Chambers, 7 Carlton Place,
Glasgow, 26th March 1902  [Jimmy was not quite 18 at the time.]

Mr James McSkimming
21 Hutcheson Square

Dear Sir:

I have to inform you that you have been appointed junior clerk in this office at a salary of 15 pounds per annum, paid bi:monthly.  The terms of engagement to be one month's notice on either side.  You can resign your present situation and let me know when you can begin your duties here.  Please intimate in writing your acceptance of appointment.

Yours truly
Andrew Wallace, Esq. 

On the back of the letter is penciled in Jimmy's response: 

Sir,
   I am favored with your acceptance of my application for which I am very grateful.  I have infomed my employers, and shall be able to start under you on Monday seventh April.
   Trusting this arrangement will suit, I remain
          Your obed't Servt.
          James McSkimming
 

Most likely it was the result of the letter of recommendation that he had received from his school.

School Board of Glasgow
Camden Street Public School
24th March 1902

I have very much pleasure indeed in recommending James McSkimming to the notice of any one he may wish to serve.  He attended the above school all last winter for 3 evenings per week with very great regularity.  His conduct in the class was excellent.  His desire to get to know the work was evident and the progress he made was first-rate.  From 

a careful study of the work he did and the progress he showed combined with his evident desire to do well I have no hesitation in saying that he will prove a decided acquisition to any establishment.

Signed
D. Strachan M.A.
Teacher 
Commercial Classes

Moving into the world of business as a clerk had to seem like a step up in the world for a young man whose birth certificate lists his father's occupation as "fish curer."




While Jimmy was in Scotland, Janet was growing up in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and, like her sister, Flora, went to Montreal to study business.

Central Business College
cor. Prince Arthur and St. Lawrence,
Jan. 26th '03

To whom it may concern:-
                          The bearer, Miss Jennie McEwem (sic.), has
been my pupil for several months, and prior to her coming here she was a senior school pupil.  Miss McEwen is very intelligent, learns easily and remembers and assimilates well all that she is taught.  She is a very nice longhand writer and has a very correct knowledge of figures, as far as Senior school work goes.  She will be a very brilliant stenographer before many months, but at present she is only on the threshold of the art.  She is now a fair typewriter and bids well to shine in that line shortly.
  As to her deportment, manners &c she is all that one can expect.  The routine work is also well executed in her stenography, typewriting and bookkeeping, and her plodding propensity is to be much commended.  I can highly recommend her to any one needing a good, faithful clerk, and one who will conscientiously fill her duties to the fullest extent. 
Yours truly, J. M. Connelly