A Letter to my California Grandchildren
for which they are indebted to the memory of their great-great-grandmother, Margaret Lavinia Waite

by Walter Sherman Atwood (1887-1974)

There is no doubt at all that she found me totally irritating or worse, for viewpoints change with age, and now I can understand why she felt and acted as she did.

She tried in vain to induce my father to write some account of his experience in the Civil War, etc. All I know about this experience is that he mentioned being in Vicksburg and at Baton Rouge, but I do not know that he ever saw General Sherman. If he had left some written records of his experiences it would have added much interest to my visits at these two cities. And on the other hand, I have had much pleasure in the written memoranda left by my grandmother and her friends and relatives.

How much more it meant when visiting the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and studying the room taken from a house in Kensington, N.H. to discover among my antiques a letter written by a distant relative when she sat in this very room, and described the wood paneling, giving me some information the museum lacked. She wrote that the carpenter never finished two wood panels in the ceiling, and the museum had said that the panels had been removed from the room after they had bought the property. Yet the curator was bored when I showed him my letter written from that very room.

Therefore, before it is too late, I am starting to make some observations, following my grandmother's suggestions of long ago, in the hope that my notes may be of some interest in connection with our family history, or the conditions prevailing in what are called the good old days, as they were in many, many respects.

The study of history might very well mean more to the beginner, if he first has some acquaintance with his own personal family history.

The family tree is a type of history, and thanks to some of our literate and articulate ancestors, I submit a few branches of this curious tree, hoping that someone may help you to understand it, and also that you may be able to add some branches that I do not know about.

First study these symbols, and then see Figure 1.

P stands for Parent.
F1 stands for first (filial) generation.
Filial means children.
The square represents the male.
The circle represents the female.
The line connecting male and female indicates marriage.
The vertical line below the marriage line leads to the children.

In showing ancestry we begin with a known ancestor and work downward to the last generation.

(Figure 1 - omitted)

In Figure 2, we begin at the last child and work upward as far as the record goes. This figure may be called the family circle rather than Tree.

(Figure 2 - omitted)

Start with the names of your parents on the family tree, then count your grandparents, and decide how many grandparents you have, then work toward the top of the tree, and decide what relation to you was the father of the drum major, Isaac.

Now look at Figure 2, and see how many ancestors you must have in the outermost circle, if you could only find some records. And when you are old enough to have great grandchildren of your own, how many ancestors will be in their outer circle?

You will notice that the names of your father's parents are not given, for I have no records of them. Why not ask your father to fill in some of these blanks?

Several years ago, I happened to show you in an encyclopedia at your house a sketch of George Washington and his drummer boy, your ancestor, when they were at Tappan, N.J. for the trial of Major Andre, a spy. It was pure chance that I had already made an etching of the house built in 1700, where Washington lived during this trial. Since making this etching, I went to Tappan again, and outside the building where the trial was held, there was a bulletin showing the same sketch that was in your encyclopedia. This building, now a museum, was the jail were Andre was held prisoner. The trial was conducted at a nearby church, now replaced by another bigger building. But the old graveyard beside the church has some graves with various spellings of the name Campbell - Camel, Camill, Camal, etc.

In those days, spelling was often difficult to standardize for few people had much schooling. Thus our ancestor spelled his name Orgin, and his children spelled it Organ, but the French at the same time had a name spelled Orgon. And far back in historical times, spelling was in some places limited to the consonants, and the reader could supply whatever vowels he wished. Thus Jehovah was first spelled with such consonants as J,V,H, and for all we know the word consisted of three grunts. A later spelling was Yahveh, and then came JeHoVaH.

In the last five years important discoveries have been made concerning the Hittites often mentioned in the Bible. Scholars have discovered primitive marks and have reconstructed a sort of alphabet, and different researchers have filled in missing vowels so that one important king is now mentioned under at least three names, indicating that even the consonants were perhaps matters of guesswork. The three spellings that interested me were: Shubbililiuma, Suppiluliuma, and Sapalulu.

Most interesting were the various inscriptions on the stone marking the spot were Andre was executed on a hill facing the sunset. Some day you should be able to walk over the ground that you ancestor trod during this period of our heritage of history.

I can only hope that such records as I have may some day come into your hands. But I well remember visiting my great-grandmother Martha Organ, in her old house beside Strawberry Brook, and the picture of her at the age of 92, when I was about 4 years old or less, looks like a good likeness. And I well recall my interest at three years when I first learned the smell of boxwood in the kitchen garden at the back door. And our pictures of the house show the original appearance and the final appearance after they sawed off one quarter of the house to make room for Strawberry Avenue to run between the brook and the house. And the brook was a source of food every spring when the alewives ran up to spawn in Flax Pond. Sadly, people say the alewives are running instead of swimming.

New! Condemn Viruses, Spam and Pornography with EMail Purgatory™. 100% Safe! Developed by Crimson Star Software. FREE Trial Period!!!

Return to Crimson Star's Home Page