My best assessment indicates that this letter was composed by 17-year-old Catherine Solt, the offspring of Jacob Solt (1813-1886) and Sarah Glick (1819-1902) from Fairfield County, Ohio. She was likely employed as a school teacher at the time. In her correspondence to an unspecified cousin, Catherine articulates the palpable tension within the village of Bremen, where the looming threat of war has ignited conflicts stemming from divided loyalties, already resulting in acts of violence.

A newspaper article in the Lancaster Gazette published 4 days prior to this letter seems to be the source of the information contained in the letter.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Nursery, Fr. Co., Ohio
May 6th 1861

Dear Cousin.

I was glad to hear of you & your pleasant situation. I suppose it would have to be a very pleasant place to repay for the unpleasant time you had last winter. I am very well pleased with my place. I have been very busy & had not time to answer your letter sooner. But it is raining very hard and is likely to rain all afternoon so I will improve the time writing.

War, war is all the talk & I have a notion not to say anything about it [but] I believe I will give you a little sketch of a Union Meeting we had in Breman last Saturday a week [ago]. A military company was organized & during the volunteering, one Joe Sherboro whose sympathies were south of the Mason & Dixon’s line & threw out some insulting expressions concerning one of the volunteers, when one of the Neely’s resented the insult and gave the Tory a complete thrashing.

In the evening, while the excitement was still remaining high and before the crowd had dispersed, Old Bill McCollough publicly declared that if he fought at all, he would go south and shoot north & left for home when the excited and indignant citizens took after him and bespattered him thoroughly with eggs and closed the program by giving him a free ride on a rail back to town. He soon give up the ghost and they got him up on a box & he made a speech in favor of the Union & confessed he had done wrong (all the time kept pulling the egg out [his] whiskers.

Cousin Han Lallance made her appearance last Saturday. The rest of the folks are all well & Jo too. I expect she will stay all summer. I want you to tell J. W. Black, Miss U. [Eunice E.] Davis ¹ is to be married on the 28th of the present month (peace be unto her) to a Mr. [Henry P.] Lantz of Indiana. Sabbath School next Sabbath. I believe Robert has gone out a sprucing. Steve is unwell. My Father has been sick for four weeks—fever. Matilda Hays is here at Roberts. Tell Ike to send word when he will be at Bremen & I will meet him & bring him out. Nat Duer is to preach next Sabbath for us. Write again. — C. S. Solt

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¹ Eunice Elizabeth Davis (1838-1901) was the daughter of David Young Davis (1808-1891) and Sarah B. Parker (1816-1871) of Fairfield county, Ohio. In the 1860 US Census she was identified as a teacher in Rush Creek township.