Miss Ellis to Rev. A. A. Livermore.
June 2, 1880.
My dear Friend,—Many thanks for your kind letter of Mar. 29th, though I never saw the "P. S."—which, as usual with all postscripts, contained the best part of the letter—till a month afterwards, when in house-cleaning I was assorting letters received, I noticed the last page of your letter, which was like receiving a new letter, and came in very opportune; for we have had so much to depress us of late, that I was glad to have my attention called to Philippians, which contains so much that is cheering. There has been a good deal to occupy my time and thoughts since your very kind letter reached me; but I will not allow your college term to close without sending you my kind word, though I cannot be personally present at the Ohio Conference and Meadville exercises. May you have charming weather, and a satisfactory gathering, is my sincere wish. Rev. William H. Channing's visit here was highly appreciated by his old friends and the early members of the church, and we all particularly enjoyed the Communion. It was truly a communion with the departed, and very beautiful to us. I did not have the pleasure of meeting Mr. Channing excepting a few moments at Mrs. Ryland's, which I regretted exceedingly; but it was a disappointment I could not alter.
—— and wife moved to Mt. Auburn to-day, there to make a bright, beautiful home for themselves, which is as it should be; but we who are left at home feel rather sad. The last of my dear mother's five little children has gone from me, and it is not so easy to enter into their homes and have my brothers and sisters what they were to me in our own family circle. Still all is right and best as it is; and though clouds gather over our heads, the sunshine will at length make itself seen, for "all things work together for good." I am going to be gay and spend the summer with —— in Philadelphia; and as we have not met for eight years, we shall enjoy a quiet summer together.
October 1, 1884.
... Thanks for your kind sympathy for us in our sorrow. Thanks to you for the solid foundation you laid when our dear mother died, which has given me a firm faith in the hour of trial. I firmly believe that "all things work together for good," and that dear C——'s long sickness prepared her family, herself, and all of us for her death. There was much in her sickness and death that was beautiful and comforting. It was pleasant after so many days of suffering to see her at rest; and we feel it must have been a happy release to her too, for her face in death bore no trace of the pain she had endured, of which we were glad, for she looked so natural and sweetly that we could allow her two youngest children to look at "mamma asleep, to wake up an angel in heaven." C—— never wanted her children to have a horror of death, and her desire has been granted. They have no other idea than that the Good Father released their dear mother from pain and she is an angel in heaven. An Episcopalian minister officiated at the funeral, as C—— always preferred that service. He was a personal friend of hers and my brother E——'s. My brother's widow came from ——to attend the funeral, and she requested that I select a piece to be read in case they found no one to lead in a hymn. I selected your hymn,—"A holy air is breathing round." It was read in the middle of the service, very impressively, and was particularly comforting to N——'s widow and myself, as you had officiated at our mother's funeral and had baptized C—— and N——. (Do you remember the day you baptized me and my three brothers and C—— at the Masonic Hall?) The children scattered flowers over the graves; A——, ten years old, said on returning from the cemetery, "Papa, it was all beautiful, no dread or gloom about it. It was just as mamma would have had it." And so it was. The children will always feel the life hereafter a reality. "More homelike is the vast unknown," since their mamma is there. The piece "At noontide," in last week's "Register," applies to dear C——'s death as well as if written for her. It is beautiful. I want it in a leaflet to distribute, as I have opportunity frequently for just such words. Yes! I help on "Unity," the "Register," and "Our Best Words."... Hope I am making Christians, and not merely Liberals or merely Unitarians. Think we are gaining ground with many; but the literature must be distributed with great care, I feel with you.... We are glad to have the Thayers home again, and will probably begin to work earnestly next week.
January 4, 1885.
... Thanksgiving and Christmas were rather sad days to us this year, without our dear C——, who always did so much to make the days bright for all about her. Pa, mother, and myself dined both days with C——'s family. Christmas was made a happy day for the children by all our kind friends, and we could but feel their mother was looking upon them, with a bright and happy face, in gratitude to all those who had endeavored to make her dear ones so happy. I have been very busy this winter, for the correspondents still claim my time. Young —— still appears interested, and I hope he may be able to enter college this year, for he appears to feel his isolation there much. No sympathetic person about him nearer than Mr. Barnes of Montreal.... Unity Club flourishes, so does the Day Nursery and Women's Auxiliary Conference. The fair was a pleasant occasion, and now we are all feeling cheered in having Mrs. T—— better again. I always see A—— at the window as I pass there on my way to church. He is a lovely little boy. He looks as if he wanted to know "Miss Ellis;" but I doubt if he does, without his mother to call attention to her. Hope you all passed pleasant holidays at Meadville. I must close to write to Aunt ——, who always looks for a Sunday letter from me. [This was an aged blind aunt.]
Miss Ellis's first Post Office Mission correspondent was a young man in Ravenna, Ohio, Mr. Julius Woodruff. His first letter to her said:
"Thank you for your kindness in sending me the 'Christian Register.' I am much pleased with the paper, and may become a subscriber at no distant day. I received copies of Mr. Wendte's sermon, 'What do Unitarians Believe?' I have distributed them where I thought they would do the most good, and have reason to think that good was accomplished. Before long I will send to you for more books; and if I can help you in obtaining subscribers to the 'Register' I will gladly do so. I am not a member of any church, and stand almost alone in the church I attend [Methodist], in my views. Our people seem to be almost entirely divided into three classes; namely, the strictly Orthodox, the wholly indifferent or non-thinking class, and the ultra Liberal. I am in sympathy with neither; and I know of only a few, all young boys like myself, who occupy middle ground. I can almost fully indorse the views expressed by Rev. C. W. Wendte in the sermon to which I have referred; and believing his views to be right, I take pleasure in giving them as wide a circulation as I can. In many respects I admire Ingersoll; but I have no sympathy with the so-called 'Liberal League' with which he is connected, and which has an auxiliary league in this county.
"... If I understand the theory and purpose of your church, I shall be glad to render the cause any service in my power; and if I can be of any service as an auxiliary to your Missionary Society, I have only to be instructed in the ways thereof."
As such auxiliary he acted, distributing tracts, papers, etc., with a zeal that might well shame some life-long Unitarians. In later letters he wrote:—