The sporadic steam of letters written by James Calhoun to his wife, Anna Bell Barnhart, continued in May. Again, these letters on average were taking a month to get to her
Anna received the following letter on May 28
Somewhere in France
May 2, 1918 (May 5 postmark)
My dear Anna;
I am writing you another brief note
to tell you that I am well and all O.K.
I am anxiously awaiting a letter
from you and feel that I shall hear from you now before so very long a time.
I am bearing the work well and
feel as good as any time in my life.
I am sending a letter to those
on the old homestead, one to mother and one to Cora. They will begin to feel that I am very tardy
in writing to them.
It seems hard to realize that
time is passing so rapidly yet time seems to have passed slowed when I cast my
mind in the past and take account of happenings.
I expect that my car is
sold. The car season will be on in
earnest. I am wondering who is operating
“Jerusha.”
This is all for today. You
perhaps think I write but little but you know that there is but little to write
at this time. I will make up for lost
time when I see you.
Your most loving husband, James
F.S. Long, 1st Lt, 7
Inf [name of censor]
The following letter was written over two days and received
June 4. It had a part II, dated May 5,
which wasn’t received until June 7.
Somewhere in France
May 4, 1918 (postmark May 8)
Chap I
My dear Anna;
Have received your two most
welcome letters written but a short time after I came away. It surely was a real treat to get them. The contents of this letter will be mainly in
answer to the two received from you. The
majority of my letters will be brief I expect; we can call them ‘Hooverized”
letters quite fittingly.
At this writing I am feeling as
fine as at any time of my life which is surely worth a good deal and it does me
a host of good to know that you are very well but am sorry you cannot stop that
worry. You better rest assured as I feel
there is no reason for feeling uneasy.
May 5
Here I am at the Y again
awaiting the beginning of services; will write as I wait.
I think you realized nearly my
feelings as I wrote my last letter from there and judging from your answer
think your feelings were very similar.
It was very fortunate under the
present circumstances that you did not continue beyond the city of K[ingston]. with
me. I surely would not have urged you to
go back had I not thought it better that way.
You will find the continuation
of this in another Hooverized letter.
Your most loving husband James.
Somewhere in France
May 5, 1918 (postmarked May 19)
Chap II
My dear Anna;
Services are over so I will
write again. You said the harder you
work the better you thought it would be for you. Perhaps work will help to keep your mind
occupied but please take my advice and do not become over ambitious.
I am very grateful indeed to you
for writing to mother. I know she was
very disappointed because we could not get to visit her; she could not but
realize that such a visit was utterly impossible however, I wish you were
nearer to her so you could see her often.
Father’s death was very hard for her.
I know you did not feel at all
like going to the social but I sometimes think it better if you could go out
oftener and enjoy social gatherings.
Your people surely have a
bountiful supply of maple syrup which will bring a goodly sum at the price you
are to receive for it.
I am glad that our faith is
strong. It does help so much doesn’t it.
There is but little to write
today. I am well and hope this may find
you as well.
Your most loving husband, James
F.S. Long [censor]
The following letter came the same day as the May 5 and Apr
29 letters.
May 12, 1918
Somewhere in France
My dear Anna;
I will take this opportunity to
write another letter. This leaves me
quite O.K. as are all of the boys.
This is a cool cloudy day. Yesterday was warm but a thunder shower has
cooled the air.
I am waiting for dinner as I
write. Came down from my billet thinking
that dinner would be ready to serve but since it was not I am making good use
of my time.
We enjoyed a fine church service
at the Y.M.C.A. this a.m. led by our Y manager the Rev Metcalf. These services are surely a great privilege
to us although a few of the boys are careless of their spiritual welfare. This is Mother’s day and the boys were urged
to each write a letter to their mother or at least ones home. I am going to write to mother.
I presume that you are at church
today as is your usual custome. I love
to think of our services over there if I cannot be there. I can picture in my mind just how everything
is there and can recall so many faces of those I knew. I have many sweet memories of past times in
our good old Bovina Center. Everyone was
very nice to me there so how could I help but think of them. Certain people up Pink Street were especially
kind and some little body with whom you are intimately acquainted has my heart
there right now. Don’t forget to look
into the future with fond hopes and you may rest assured that I shall not
forget.
You will have gotten the fifteen
I sent you and hope to soon be able to send more in a short time. You know I like to save as much I can so we
can have it to use as I fondly hope we will have the opportunity.
This is all I can write today
but you can gather from this that I am alright.
Please write. Your most loving
husband, James.
The next letter was received June 25.
Somewhere in France
May 18, 1918
My dear Anna;
Your most welcome letter
regarding the sale of the car is here and has been thoroughly enjoyed.
The sugar crop (if it can be
thus named) has been a good one indeed.
Your mother was very thoughtful of us in doing as she did; I hope we
shall not be obliged to disappoint her.
One of the boys from up state said his people were getting almost a two
spot per for their sweet.
You did right in making an
investment of our spare cash. Although
it is not much it will help some and the interest is sufficient.
Did you not over do the matter a
little on that bucket job? It evidently
brought no bad results. I think your
medicine is a wonderful cure all. I am
envious of your ambitions.
Helen Thomson knows very well
who to pick when she wants a good teacher. It is well that what you told me of
Cora has proved to be a false alarm.
I am very glad that mother and
Peter were able to come. Am glad to know
she is well. Peter surely made a good
sale of the car. If I could be there I
should collect those notes as they become due and put them out at an increased
rate. Does Charley get as good use of
the horse as he did earlier in the year?
I should have enjoyed hearing
Rev. Galloway’s series of sermons. He
choose peculiar titles for his talks but they sound interesting. [Galloway was the pastor of the Bovina U.P. Church.]
I know not where the boys of my
acquaintance are located but is a possible that I may know more of them
someday.
I hope you attended the party at
Miller’s although I doubt if you did.
You need to represent our family but I know just how you feel about the
whole affair. [This is a reference to a family squabble involving Anna's uncle John Miller.]
The new tester has too much
nerve for the good of himself. I cannot
see how he could have the face to ask Harold for the use of a horse. Doesn’t he have a horse?
I am quite O.K. at this
writing. We are having some warm
weather.
I scarcely know what to write
and feel that my letters are not interesting. You have a perfect right to be disappointed
with them. I cannot tell you how well
you told me the news from home.
Although you are far away I can
rest assured as long as your letters bring me as good news as they have to
date. That early to bed plan is a good
one. I use that method myself.
You will have had several
communications from me by now. Give my
best regards to all of our people and acquaintances.
Your most loving husband, James.
James May 30th letter also was received on June
25.
Somewhere in France
May 30, 1918
My dear Anna;
I have been thinking of you very
much today and wondering what you were doing on this Memorial Day. How much I should have liked to have been
with would be hard to express indeed. No
doubt the day was fittingly observed back in good old Delaware. There is plenty of memories to make me
realize what this day stands for.
I have had no word from you for
sometime and I surely am anxiously awaiting a message. I hope you are all very well and as O.K. as I
am. Mother or the others of our people
have not written a word; expect maybe they would rather receive than write
letters. I had hoped to get a letter
from Mother but you are the only one that has sent me a line and you can never
know how much I appreciated your letter.
The weather is nice and
pleasant. The country is beautiful with
growing plans and trees.
We are all feeling fine and
surely have no reason to complain. I
have been doing a different line of work for a few days but will soon be at my
old job again.
I thought perhaps you could use
a little change so I sent you all I could spare which was $15. It was started a short time ago. You should have the first I sent by this
time. You see I have no use for it and
love to be able to give it to you and hope it may bring you many joys. Do not scrimp yourself but use as much as you
need. I should pay my fees for Rev
Forbes salary for the coming year. I
usually gave $10 or $12 besides missionary fees. There is not hurry but I should be pleased if
you would pay it for me. You will think
I am giving you too many duties but it is hard for me to attend to those things
from here.
I can imagine very much how
things are looking in good old Bovina.
This is about the time of year I went fishing for eels when at your
home. It was later in the season the
time I came down from Gene’s, Harold C- and I used to go fishing when I was up
there. How well I remember when Ralph,
Wilfred and I caught eels or rather when they caught the eels and I was along
with them. Bryson and I talked of going
but we never did get to go.
What do you hear from Hugh’s - I
understood he was planning to perform his work without help this year and that
Mae would be without help in the house.
Mother will be a great help to her especially in caring for the children. It was good of Hugh to be so prompt in
sending the interest [piece torn off]. I
wish they would all do that way don’t you?
The YMCA manager held communion
services [piece torn off] sabbath and I expected to take part but [piece torn
off] not as I was called out that morning and was unable to be present. How often does Rev Galloway hold communion
services?
I can see in my mind just how
Mr. Davison looks driving the car. I
think when he first commenced driving that he would think ‘Jerusha’ to be of an
unruly spirit. I felt that way at first
myself but I soon became accustomed to her gait and actions. Perhaps you would have to show him how to
operate her for a few drives. I should
have liked the job of putting him wise.
Has many new cars come to town?
You said Mrs. Thomson was afraid to ride with Bryson. I never thought that he would make a fast and
furious speedshark. How nice for the
young ladies to go driving with him and enjoy a swift ride.
Give my best regards to mother
B, Edith, Ralph and Wilfred and all of our people and wish I might see you all.
I hope to get a nice long letter
from you in a few days and will send one in reply very soon. Your most loving husband, James.
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