L. B. Wilkes, from Stockton, Cal., to Mrs. Carr: "I am better—nearly well. Still, if you were here to rub my head, I believe it would hurt me pretty often yet. You are in earnest—you would like to come to California—and will, if I can find a place for you and the doctor" (meaning Mr. Carr, of course.) "The school business is overdone among our folks. We have three colleges, all mixed schools, and pretty badly mixed. Just come to our house and stay till you find a place, let that be long or short. I don't know how to write a letter, so leave the gossipy part to my wife, she is good at it. I will start the doctor a paper in which I have a small piece on the organ." (For in those days one could write about the organ, when all other subjects failed.)
To which letter, Mrs. Wilkes adds a postscript—"He says I am good at gossip; I deny the charge. He would have you both come on here; but selfish as I am, I cannot insist on your coming, for fear you might not like the place."
In 1884 O. A. Carr was appointed State Evangelist for Missouri, and the following notes are taken from his letters to Mrs. Carr. The names of places are generally omitted:
"March 3. We are poorly represented here. The people don't seem to believe the Bible. A woman, though, has been taking the rag off the bush. It is said she can out preach a man—goodness! my wife could beat nine-tenths of the preachers, but I'm glad she's a woman who wouldn't preach publicly before a promiscuous audience. There is a gloomy prospect here. Ignorance—you never saw the like. At Trenton I tried to raise money to seat the meeting house at ——, but they said, 'That is in the midst of a good agricultural district—why don't they build their own church?' They don't know that infidelity stalks abroad in daylight there, and that infidelity does not build meeting houses or anything else that is good. I have been talking to an old brother with his wife—mine host—on missionary work, trying to show that I am in as legitimate a business as the editor of the Review when he publishes a paper. The woman yielded at last—said at least there is no harm in it. Good! My desire is to meet some more of such people, and convert them. I believe I can do it! I will have a heft at it here, I think. Some good old men have tried to preach and farm, and have not done either very well, I presume. It will be difficult to persuade these people to give $200 for once-a-month preaching, when they have been giving about five dollars. I have not done a thing on the Biography of President Rogers, nor do I see how I can at this rate. I have a bad cold. The door is warped and won't close, and last night the wind whipped around into the bed, and everywhere. I've got the stove between me and that crack in the door now, and some of the atmosphere will have to get warmed, before it reaches me. Brother A. B. Jones says I'd better stay at —— and work it up; but there's nothing to work up, and the only chance I see is to get that place joined on to the congregation here.
"March 6. I've tried to introduce the envelope system of contribution in the church here (Gallatin) and have run myself down today; from house to house. I am in a cold room, writing after speaking tonight at the Christian convention. I enclose $25 for you to forward to father, Wm. Carr, Maysville, Ky. Brother S. P. Richardson says, 'Give my love to Mrs. Carr.' He says he was in your class at the University, and thinks a great deal of you. He says he had a good time in your class. He was a law student. Will Sister Rogers be satisfied with delay of the Biography till fall? How I do wish I had the material for a complete biography. I don't like to blame anybody, but I have tried faithfully to collect it. I do not like to think of anything incomplete in connection with that grand, good man.
"March 9. Thank you for that nice letter; there was great encouragement in it. A vision of you comes before me—it is a charming picture. You say you are anxious that I should succeed. But in my case, what is success? If adding members to the churches is a success, I have failed already. I have been setting churches in order, and teaching the brethren. Here at Gallatin, we meet in a hall. There is no house, and the members are poor. From Trenton I go to Breckenridge, or Grant City. Brother Floyd of the Christian Herald, of Oregon asks me for a Missouri sub-editor. I have recommended you to him. I have written my notes for the Christian Standard and Christian-Evangelist. I will watch for your article and see if it sounds like I wrote it. That was a big joke! Did I know what you could say about John Stuart Mill and the C. W. B. M.? I don't suppose Mill ever heard of such a thing as the C. W. B. M., and I don't know how you thought of both names at once. I wish you would write a dozen articles for our church papers—divide them around. Write on Women's Work, for the Quarterly.
"April 15. I rode twelve miles horseback for your letter, which heightened the joy of receiving it. I am utterly discouraged about that Biography of Brother Rogers. I cannot find time and quiet to write. For instance, I walked nearly two miles to church, then two more to reach a place to stay all night—where I had to sit up, and be sociable till I was worn out. The people are generous here, and I think, religious. The church is ajar, and I am expected to set it in order. It is rather discouraging for me to have to do the hard work, then leave to set another church in order, while some one else follows me up, and holds the meetings and gets the additions. I am here, trying to get the members to act decently toward one another. It will take a week to warm them up, and then I will have to leave.
"April 19. It rained so much last night, I could not get to meeting, and I am compelled to stay in doors. Mine host is a good man. He and wife and six children are all crowded together in two rooms, and we have confusion worse confounded. I have to cross a swampy valley to and from church (distance two miles) and a muddy, snaky river that is to be despised. Our toilette arrangements consists of a washpan outside the house. It will take a week to get the Christians to be friends with each other. I heat up in church and cool off walking home, and cough at night. Between coughs, I think of you, wondering if you are wearing yourself out with toil and anxiety. Learn to take life more leisurely! My idea is for you to become author—write a book or two, if you please, and contribute to the journals. Our papers need your talent. Please forward the enclosed $25 to mother."
From J. W. McGarvey, Lexington, Kentucky, to Mrs. Carr, April 29, '84: "Brother Patterson is to continue at Hamilton College at least one more year. He is making money out of the school at a very handsome rate; but the fact that he is building a fine dwelling on the place he bought from Brother Lard's estate, indicates that he will not remain much longer than a year. When the time comes, you may rest assured that I will present your claims and merits before the Board, in all their attractiveness. I have no doubt you could make a success of it. I am sorry I cannot accept Brother J. A. Lord's invitation to lecture on 'Bible Colleges' at Columbia."
The following of July 15th, shows Mrs. Carr working in a fresh field—the Women's Christian Temperance Union: "As Corresponding Secretary of the Columbia Union, I send you the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted at the last session of the Union: * * * Be it resolved that we as an individual Union protest against the resolution passed at the Sedalia Convention, namely, 'That the White Ribbon hosts of Missouri work for woman suffrage.' The woman suffrage attachment will necessarily complicate the nature of our plea. An organization already exists entitled, 'The Woman Suffrage Association', whose exclusive purpose is woman's suffrage. Many of our friends, and many in our own ranks, oppose the plea of woman's suffrage, as a part of our plea for temperance."