James
Griffing was homesick -- of that he was
certain. It had been a full
year since he had left home and he was anxious to make the long trip back to
Owego during the four week vacation between terms. There was only one problem. He
didn't have any money. The
following account, written twenty years after that first year of college,
describes his plan for returning home and his eventual disappointment.
...By
selling some of my effects, I started from Middletown with near five dollars,
took a boat to [New York] City, went to a publishing house where the Ladies
Wreath and a "Floral Monthly" were
published, and the thought struck me that I could by traveling through the
country secure subscriptions enough so that the profits would enable me to pay
the way, visit home, and return back to my class after enjoying a fine time. And
you know what visions of enjoyment around the family hearth after such an
absence danced through my head only to be disappointed, as has been the case
with many a poor student. The proprietor persuaded me that I would meet with
better success by taking along specimen copies which he would sell me cheap.
[And] so I purchased [them], only reserving enough money to carry me up into
Orange County a ways, [but] not reserving enough for a meal of victuals. In good
earnest I went to work soliciting subscribers. But after toiling long and
earnestly, I found none. I was a stranger and, what was worse, people would cast
an eye at me as though they suspected I might be dishonest, wanting the
subscription money and they might get the magazine when it came.
After working
nearly two days I think, traveling many miles, I as yet had not secured a single
subscriber. Tired, hungry, and penniless, I sat me down and pondered. I was
among strangers many miles from home. Should I ever think of getting there? How
[and] in what possible way, could I ever secure means to return to my studies? I
resolved just to make my way back to Middletown again. I called into a house
[and] told a lady just my situation. She gave me a good warm supper. Oh how good
it was! [Then she] paid me the money for my bound copy of the Wreath. With this
I took the [railroad] cars back to [New York] city, went to the publishing
house, [and] told my story and my luck. They refunded the money for the other
book and I went on my way rejoicing up the river...
A
month after classes started in the fall of 1847, James received a letter from
his brother John. As he read the
words, his homesickness overpowered him and he wished that his family could know
how hard he had tried to make it home.
Tioga
[New York]
September 24, 1847
Dear Jim,
I am once more at the old
Homestead within the circle of the family, enjoying myself as I am want to do
here. I have been the rounds of my friends and found them in their usual good
health and spirits. Mother and [our brother] Sammy have been on a tour of the
[Finger] Lakes; visited their friends at Clyde, Cazenovia, & Sauquoit where
[our sister] Clara [1] resides. Found all well. Charles W.
Giddings returned with them and took [our sister] Permelia [2]
home with them to stay the
winter -- if she does not get homesick. [John] Kelly's children are all
here at present. Ann is expecting the first opportunity to go to her father in
New York. He expects to commence keeping house soon in Williamsburg, across the
East River from New York.
I
expected to find you home when I came but was disappointed. Augusta Goodrich
wrote to her friends that you had gone home -- wanted they should see you and
tell you all the news so that you could tell her. I told them if they would tell
me, I would write to her, but there is nothing of last that would be worth a
hill of beans to either of you. I saw her sister. She said the family was well.
We have not heard from [our brother] Daniel in some time and hardly know where
he is. Do you? If so, say so. And also how he is getting along.
There
has been quite a draught here so that crops have suffered much and the idea of
raising wheat in this quarter is entirely obsolete. We are living on rye bread
and honey and thankful of that. Look ahead with anxious expectation for pumpkin
pies and buckwheat cakes.
[Our
brother] Henry has got his house nearly finished and nothing to put in it. He
feels cheap enough. He thinks his crops have come in so poor that he can't
afford to marey this season. Their has been but one extra yield in these whole
diggings. I have been helping Henry lathe his house. I stayed at home while
Mother and [our brother] Sam went [on] their journey, but will return next week
if their does not come a fresh[et] in the river. If so, I will go down. I had a
long siege of the ague last Spring and do you believe it, I did not enjoy it a
whit. There is no real amusement in it nor anything that will add to our good
nature or good looks.
It
commenced raining yesterday morning and is still at it without ceasing. The
[Owego] creek is pressing the flats and if it continues much longer, the river
will be up and soon floating the current of Owego to a Southern Market. Those
concerned are on tiptoe and so am I. I expect to pilot the first trip; have got
more faith than strength - but hours, days, - I am off for the Southern pass of
the Alleghenies -- good day sir!
[Charles]
Giddings said that you were agent for something and did not succeed as well as
you expected. I suppose that is the reason you did not return home. Write to me
again. Let me know how you are getting along. George Nealy died last week of
consumption. Fred [Parmele's] folks are well. John [Parmele] has moved over to
Friendsville in Pennsylvania and has got a baby. We have a cousin in New Haven
[named] Fan Griffing. [3]
She
said if she came across you she could tell whether you was any relation to me.
She is a good girl and a wild one. She has been living in New Milford,
Pennsylvania the last three years and expects to return there again this fall, I
believe. I heard from her in Guilford last. Probably she is there.
I
should have written you before. Don't give [writing] up. It is something I have
hardly done for the past year. No excuse. If I don't do better, you must, that's
all. Don't have it said the whole family are negligent!! Won't do!
I have been attending Court at Owego [with] Judge [W. H.] Shankland presiding.
[4] Heard D. S. Dickinson and J. C. Collier of Broome [County] throw themselves,
Col. [Joseph] Belcher of Berkshire vs. S[imeon] R[ich] Griffin of Richford for
slander, and the jury awarded him 6 cents for his character but that is a little
better than our own town as Mr. Phelps of Catlin Hill vs. Sprague and his was
worth nothing!! What shows! Nothing
more. --
John
Tioga
County, NY Courthouse where circuit Judge Shankland presided in 1847
Classes
had begun again at Wesleyan University. James,
now a sophomore, tried hard to put his thoughts of home and of Augusta out of
his mind. He tried to turn his attention to his classes knowing that he
would need to apply himself in order to make the grade. Algebra gave way to trigonometry and there was always more Greek, more
Latin. He started several letters
to Augusta, but tore them up. He was too embarrassed to tell her that he had failed in his
attempt to get home. She would
think him incompetent, he feared. Instead,
he decided to avoid writing her for awhile and to become more preoccupied with
school and its activities.
During
the fall of 1847, James became very involved in the Philorhetorian Society. The
questions being debated at this time were: "Is contemporary fame preferable
to posthumous?" "Ought
theatres to be tolerated in our cities?"
"Was Cromwell truly a friend of civil and religious liberty?"
"Was the execution of Charles I justifiable?" and "Is the
Mexican War justifiable?" On
two of these questions [theatres and the Mexican War], James took an active part
in the debate and argued the negative position. He must have been gratified in both cases that the questions were decided
in favor of the negative.
Near
the close of the fall term of his Sophomore year, James left school early to
seek employment as a teacher in a select school. This year, rather than return
to Kensington, he decided to try his luck in Westchester, Connecticut. Once
there, he realized that he could refrain from
writing to Augusta in nearby Hartford no longer. He would try to make the letter sound warm and affectionate,
he decided, hoping that she would not notice or be offended by the long months
of silence between them.
Westchester
[Connecticut]
Saturday, November 13, 1847
Much
esteemed friend Augusta,
I
much hoped that an opportunity might offer itself for me to come up and make you
a visit 'ere this but as it has not been convenient, I embrace this privilege of
talking with you through the quill; not the most agreeable method of
conversation by any means, yet with much pleasure we are glad to embrace it when
deprived of other methods. Yet why need I write you when I am not sure as it
will ever reach my old friend as you thought that you should go home this fall.
Well, if it does not, nobody will be the loser, and I shall be satisfied with
the fact that I did what for a long time has seemed to be my duty.
I
suppose (if you are still up there) that you are enjoying yourself just as
usual, keeping good company for your Aunt these long evenings whilst this
increasing business of your Uncle demands his attention otherwheres. If so, I
know you can not help but enjoy yourself. It needs no great stretch of the
imagination to picture you all out before me at this hour. I think I am not
mistaken when I tell you that that is your Aunt in the low rocking chair
adjusting some garments for the children. Well said, is that you trying to do
two things at a time with one eye on your knitting-work and the other on a
lesson which must be fully committed [to memory] 'ere you retire? Then there is
Freddy putting up his block house or rather patiently reconstructing it since
the baby [5]
has
just arrived at a sufficient age to take pleasure
in tearing it down. It is difficult to decide which of you is enjoying yourself
the best. I suppose, friend A., it will be hard work for you to tear yourself
away from your friends and from Society there. I hardly know which would shed
the largest tears...yourself, your Aunt, or little Frederic. I rather guess you
will yet conclude to make it your house in Hartford.
Do
you hear from home pretty often? The last letter I received brings rather
unpleasant news. Several deaths have occurred, many of which perhaps you have
already heard, among whom are three school teachers. Viz. Mr. U. J. Ross,
formerly assistant in the [Owego] Academy, H. C. Barstow, oldest son of the
present sheriff [Charles R. Barstow], and William W. Stevens, whose father lives up
near Woodbridge's. I was quite intimately acquainted with all of them. They were
all young men of worth and promised great good in the sphere they occupied. They
all appeared healthy when last I saw them and were almost the last ones I should
have selected at whom the "insatiate archer" was aiming his death
dealing arrows. Yet they are taken away and help to increase the evidence that,
"In the midst of life, we are in death." If we only constantly have an
inward evidence that we are adopted children of our heavenly Father, and have
his spirit witnessing with ours to this every truth, then whenever the
"grim messenger" may appear to us, it will be a welcome visitor, only
calculated to remove us from all the trials and difficulties that may attend us
here to that home above, that security of endless joys which shall ever be the
portion of the faithful. Truly it must have been consoling to their relatives
and friends to know that they each gave evidence of a change of heart and
expressed a willingness to die, and left behind them satisfactory evidence that
death could be to them eternal gain.
Of
the death of Elder Peck together with the severe affliction in his father's
family, I suppose you have already been informed -- as it was extensively
noticed in the Baptist paper which I think is published in your city. If you
have not read it, you will be well repaid for giving it a perusal. I think I
seldom have read more soul stirring remarks than was made by his aged Father at
the grave. Oh, how very often are we admonished by these Providences of God of
the importance of being momentarily prepared for death. To me in particular have
admonitions been frequent. Yet Oh! How unwilling have I been to be taught. How
has my unworthy spirit well nigh famished, a feeding upon the husks and vanities
of this life when there has been such an endless supply of bread in my Father's
house?
The
Providence of God has visited us in the University. A member of our class who
commenced the present term with us with as bright a prospect for the future as
any of us was taken with the Typhus fever and died within a few days. If anxiety
and care could have saved him, he would not have died. We all could not help but
love him. With a happy disposition, thorough scholarship, he possessed many
other qualifications that united him to us with the closest ties; and what was
best of all, he was a Christian -- comforted in death by the Christian's solace
so that without a doubt Friend [Thomas] Gould [6] has joined
the family above.
I
did not make that anticipated visit home last vacation. It was not very
convenient for me to go. Besides, you remember it was very warm and dusty which
would have made the traveling unpleasant. [7] I concluded [instead] to spend the time down on
the seashore. I selected Bridgeport [Connecticut] as my place of rendezvous. It
was rather a novel employment for me to bathe in the seawater, dig seafood,
cook clams along the shore, hunt sea fowl, and take short excursions in sail
boats. Yet I enjoyed it very much. Bridgeport is truly a pleasant place --
somewhat larger than Middletown. Much good taste is displayed in the
construction of the houses and the great abundance of trees give the village
the appearance in the summer season of being situated in a grove. Tom Thumb's
residence at this place is by far the nicest building I ever saw. It is said to
be constructed after a model of the Queen's Palace, London. It is a great place
to resort.
I suppose you heard of Mr.
Kelly's marriage to Miss Charlotte Hill? He is now engaged in business in N.Y.
City and they keep house over in Williamsburgh, just across [the East River] on Long Island from
New York City. [My] brother Daniel
still lives in Baltimore; John at
Union Springs; [while] Henry has built a house near mother's and will probably go to
keeping house soon. [My sister] Permelia has gone to live with sister Clarissa
whose husband [Rev. Charles Giddings] is stationed at Sauquoit, New York this year. The rest of the
family are at home enjoying good health the last time I heard from there.
Poor
James has taken up quarters here in Westchester for the winter -- which is a small
village located on the Salmon River. His school is quite small and very
agreeable. Perhaps will not average 20 scholars throughout the winter. I do not
have a permanent boarding place as last winter
yet they give me a somewhat larger salary. There are about a dozen or fifteen
families in the district, principally farmers in good circumstances, so that the
prospects of living are favorable. The people here are nearly all Presbyterians.
Their minister is the Rev. Mr. Jewett and he may well be numbered among the good
ones of the earth. [8]
The
visiting and inspecting committee in this Society number 9 in all. However, only
six were present when my case came before them. None of them were old school
teachers. Yet I believe so many are worse than none. Each one wanted his
neighbor to ask the questions and a good part of the evening passed before
scarce anything was accomplished. And if it had not been for the minister, I
hardly know whether they would have done anything. Mistaken persons. They seemed
to think because I was from Middletown, "I knew it all," but a
thorough investigation would have rectified their mistake. As good luck would
have it, they let me pass along very easily. I expect to teach here about four
months and a half, Providence favoring, when I shall again resume my studies at
Middletown. I hope (notwithstanding my being obliged to be absent a portion of
the time) to be able to continue along with my studies and graduate with my
class. I guess you did not get down as far as Portland last commencement for I
am sure you would have let me known it if you had. I looked around among the
crowd for you but in vain. The [commencement] exercises were I think quite
interesting. G. P. Dirosway of New York City was chairman of the examining
committee. They were quite precise in their criticisms.
How
is it with you this winter, Friend A? Does your school continue as interesting
as ever? Are your Uncle [Elizur] and Aunt [Mary] both enjoying good health at
present? Have you any late news from Owego? Please
write soon and give me all the news and leave a place for your Uncle and Aunt to
fill out if they should wish. Remember me kindly to them and believe that I
shall ever remain faithfully yours,
-- J. Griffing
[1] Clarissa [Griffing] Giddings, James' older sister.
Married to Charles Woodbury Giddings, a Methodist preacher who was
stationed at Sauquoit, Oneida County, New York, at the time.
[2] Permelia Griffing, James' younger sister.
[3] Fanny
Griffing, was born 8 May 1822, daughter of Nerestan Griffing and Nancy (Parmelee)
Griffing. Her father was the son of Captain Joel Griffing, who was a half brother
to Captain Jasper Griffing (James S. Griffing's grandfather). At the time
this letter was written, Joel Griffing was living in New Haven, CT. When
visiting New Milford, Pennsylvania, Fan Griffing was undoubtedly staying
with her Uncle Harvey Griffing's family. Harvey Griffing, born 21 December
1797, son of Capt. Joel Griffing and Sarah Fairchild, married 11 May 1822 at
Guilford, CT. to Lavinia Fowler and moved to New Milford, PA., at which
place Lavinia died, 10 May 1855. Harvey Griffing died 30 May 1872 at New
Milford. According to the History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania,
by Emily C. Blackman, Harvey Griffing & Henry Burritt (born @ 1800) were
partner merchants in New Milford from 1821 to 1824, when they separated and
kept separate establishments.
[4]
The September 23, 1847 issue of the Owego Advertiser reported: "The first
term for this County, under the new judiciary law, commenced in this village on
Monday of this week, Judge W. H. Shankland presiding. The charge of his Honor,
which we had the pleasure of hearing, was lucid and able and was listened to
with profound attention. In his administration of the laws, as a presiding
officer, Judge Shankland is patient, courteous, prompt and impartial; and if
parties should fail receiving justice in his court, the fault will not lie at
his door."
[5]
James Tryon Goodrich, born July 12, 1845.
[6]
Thomas Lincoln Gould, from Nantasket, Massachusetts. Tom Gould was assigned to Room 6, Middle Section, of the College
Dormitory. James Griffing was
assigned to Room 11, Middle Section.
[7]
Apparently James is unwilling to tell Augusta the truth. He
did try to return home but was unsuccessful (See "Rejoicing up the
River"). He probably did spend a couple of days at the seashore near
Bridgeport on the way back to Middletown from New York City. His fishing and crabbing for food may have been out of necessity,
rather than for sport, however.
[8]
"Rev. Mr. Jewett" is Rev. Spofford Dodge Jewett (or Jewitt) who was born
in Barnstead, New Hampshire in 1801. In 1830, he married Abigail
Shipman Goodrich who was born in 1809. Their entry in the Colchester, New London,
Connecticut census for 1850 appears below and shows Rev. Jewett to be a
Congregationalist Clergyman. From June 1839 to October 1843, Rev. Jewett was the
pastor of the church at Windsor, which is how he undoubtedly became acquainted
with James' uncle, Dr. William Seward Pierson -- a longtime resident of Windsor.
Colchester,
New London, CT 1850 Census entry for Rev. Spofford Jewett & Family
