The following letter was written by Amorit (Starkweather) Knox (1836-1901), the wife of Reuben Knox (1830-1904) just a few days prior to a 4th of July Celebration in 1862. She datelined her letter from Union Mills, Erie county, Pennsylvania. By 1862, Union Mills was a thriving borough which grew rapidly following the completion of a railroad to the town and the discovery of oil in Titusville in 1859. “The new railroad in Union Mills provided a more convenient way of transportation. Soon a large portion of the oil was hauled to Erie where it was sent west and to the seaboard over the Lake Shore Railroad. This hauling of oil from Titusville to Union employed thousands of men and teams at a big profit. Union was densely crowded. Trade of every sort became lively and stores, shops and dwellings appeared overnight.”
Amorit wrote the letter to her brother Henry Harrison Starkweather (1840-1906) who was serving in the the 11th New York Light Artillery. Her letter contains the description of a soldier’s corpse that had been sent to Union. The soldier’s name was Gardner N. Brown (1838-1862), a bugler with the 9th New York Cavalry who died on 19 June 1862 in Washington D. C. His parents names were Nathaniel D. Brown (1797-1868) and Louisa Taylor (1805-1886). According to Find-A-Grave, Nathaniel Brown was always chasing his fortune—first the 1849 gold rush, and then the Pennsylvania Oil Boom.
[Note: I wish to thank Daniel Crone for identifying the author of this letter and tracking down the identity of the deceased soldier.]
Transcription
Union [Erie county, Pennsylvania]
June 29th 1862
Dear Brother and Friends,
I have sat down for the purpose of again writing to you to let you know that I am still alive. I have not been very well for a few days. I got cold in my head and both of my eyes have gathered and broke. The last one broke yesterday so they feel pretty well today. Jim’s folks are all well.
Mrs. Foot[e] and Julia are back here again. 1 Came last Wednesday. They wrote there was nothing to do in Chardon [Ohio] and if they wanted them to come back, they would and they wrote to have them come for they wanted another girl and Julia and Eliza can manage to do the dining room work very comfortably for two or three days. We have not been very much thronged with company but I presume we will get our pay for it before many days, for after a calm we generally have a storm instead of the other way.
Jim and Eliza and several more of us went with a Mr. Brown and wife and son and daughter to the depot to see their son that died in the army. He died in Washington of typhoid fever. He had a friend there with him and he had him embalmed and put into a common coffin, and that put in a box. He had been dead about a week and his folks said he looked very natural. There was black spots all over his face—looked like powder flashed in his face. They said it was caused by the embalming process. His father took him to Utica to bury him. They had lived there formerly but when the oil fever broke out, they came out here. They live on the Buchanan farm below Titusville. They could have had him sent to Utica cheaper than here but his friend started his corpse so soon after he died that they couldn’t get the word back to him so the mother and son and daughter came here to see the corpse and then they went back home and his father went with him alone. They had lost three children buried in Utica before this one. They have only two living now. They felt very bad. 2
We expect to have a busy time here this week if the celebration comes off as they expect it will. There is going to be a ball at the other house in the evening. Some think there will be folk enough to have a dance at both houses but I hope they won’t have one here. I sent a paper to father with a Programme of the doings here on that day. Lize said I must send it and perhaps he and mother would come out. The man that is to deliver the address is a Universalist—I believe an Ohio man.
It has been very warm the last two days but we haven’t had any such weather as we generally have in Ohio before this time. It has been very wet here too. It rained last Monday and Tuesday and it rains again today. It has rained for about two hours as hard as it could pour down. Jim and Ed Davis went to Riceville. I guess they will have a gay time getting home. Jim has sold his lot in Conneaut and took a span of horses at 400 dollars. He says he is going to get 800 or a 1,000 for them when he sells. Horses are very high here now but I have heard they were high in Ohio also.
I had a letter from Em Wolcott the other day and she wanted to know if I had heard that William Whiting had shot himself and I am in suspense about it. What should cause him to do such a thing? If you know anything about it, I want you to write me.
I commenced this letter to Hen two weeks ago and haven’t had time to finish it and had heard they had left Columbus. You will probably know where to direct it. If you will do so you will oblige me. When I was grunting around here, I told Jim I was going home the next day if I didn’t feel better. He laughed and said I hadn’t got the money and he wouldn’t give it to me either. That is what he always tells me. He says he has got me where Cale had the hen. I tell him not quite he hain’t for I could write home and father would send me the money any day but I guess I will get the money here whenever I say the word. Jim’s folks want our folks to come out here and I think they might come as well as not after haying. Take the horses and come to Mr. Hollister’s the first day and then they can come in two days easy enough.
I must begin to think of winding this letter off. Please write as soon as you can. Tell me how the baby is getting along. I want to see the little scamp awfully. I expect she will forget me altogether. Write how the cheese trade is this summer. A word from Lit and Lake will be acceptable. Yours as ever, — Amorit
Perhaps it would be well enough to put this letter for Hen into another envelope outside of this one. I will send a stamp.
1 “Mrs. Foote” was 60 year-old Nancy (Dimick) Foote (1801-1870), the wife of Erastus Foote (1794-1857) of Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio. Their daughter Julia E. Foote was born in December 1845.
2 A history of Venango county, Pennsylvania, informs us that one of the richest oil strikes on Oil Creek was on the Buchanan Farm south of Titusville. The farm adjoined both Oil Creek and Cherry Run.
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