Letters Packet 7 (c)

Amerikan Bord Heyeti (American Board)

Letters between various people in the family, including Edward to Margaret and to Martha. In a 1910 letter from Edward to Martha, the status of Charlie is discussed, including his (misguided, according to Edward) ambition to open an institution for the blind in Constantinople. In 1912 Edward writes Margaret, Lizzie and Isabel from "Bairakli," "rather a new place to the north of Smyrna, describing its relative remoteness, but that friends (“American, Scotch, English, Armenian & Greek”) are nevertheless able to visit. Dated 1863, a letter to Mrs. Bliss from Martha in Cairo. This packet includes letters from Martha in March (no year, probably 1869) to Elias and Edward explaining her wrist injury. On March 31 she writes Elias: “What would you think, if we should live in N.Y. of making our house a sort of missionary home? Such a home is needed there in my opinion, and I think we might do good in the missionary cause in that way. Missionaries leaving and returning need a place where they can rest and feel that they are not burdensome, and their children often need a home where they can stay a few days or weeks. If we could undertake it I have an idea the Board would sanction and aid the plan.” In another letter to Elias, Martha expresses her distaste for “festivals and fairs and surprise parties and Christmas trees in churches and ‘sociables’ so called where dancing often ends the entertainment,” explaining that she prefers to admire those such as Margaret and her “simple way of living among those simple people compared with the parade and show and gaiety of our churches here [in the U.S].” In a letter from New York dated Dec 1868, Martha writes to Elias that she has been suffering from bronchial difficulty: “I don’t know as you would approve of my choosing a homeopathic physician, but I do not know our doctor of the allopathic system that I was willing to trust.” In a meandering letter to her husband from Feb 1869, Martha recounts in detail how she has replaced tea and coffee with “mush and milk” as her refreshment of choice (“I wish I could share with you my milk which I have sometimes at noon, sometimes at night. And such nice Indian meal mush it is & such delicious milk from Mrs. Joseph Babbitt’s dairy!”). In a Jan 1869 letter Martha tells Elias that Edward had his watch “picked from his pocket as he was getting out of the car one evening in N.Y.” Martha references her support of Elias’s work with the New Greek and Armenian Hymn Books. In a Dec 1868 letter from New York Martha tells Elias that she has learned that “Mr. Baldwin’s family and the Riggs family are related. Theodore Baldwin’s grandmother it appears is your second cousin. Her mother was Phebe Riggs, whose father was brother of Preserve Riggs, and her brother was Parmenas Riggs, father of Mrs. Crane of Elizabeth.”

Riggs family correspondence, including letters from Edward to Margaret, Lizzie, Isabel, and Martha; and letters from Elias to Martha, and Martha to Elias. Handwritten in ink, occasionally pencil, with several typewritten pages. Most quite legible and in good preservation, though some are written (doublesided) on extremely thin paper and have become difficult to decipher. In some of the letters the date received is also noted above the date of writing.

1868
1913

English

Saratoga Springs NY, Denver, Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey), Bairakli Smyrna (İzmir, Turkey), Cairo, Newark, New York, London (Bible House), Princeton, Menelham, Haas Kieuy (Hasköy), Galata, Albany, Saugerties, Indianapolis

Missions, Missionaries

SALT Research

https://archives.saltresearch.org/handle/123456789/43907

Correspondence

Letter

Print, Handwriting

ABARPC007C

Open Access

United Church of Christ (UCC), American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), SALT Research

On deposit at SALT Research from UCC and ARIT