Welcome to the correspondence and stories from the Himmelright and Wertenberger family history. Not all correspondence from approximately 1890 forward is posted here because many letters were lost in the 1924 Berea, KY. house fire. Later, family members probably discarded some letters. The letters and stories published here contain only one side of the correspondence and cover the period between the Wertenberger marriage and their final arrival in Berea, KY. Not having both sides of the correspondence is unfortunate.
We are deeply indebted to my late partner, Sarah (Sally) MacLennan Kerr, who applied her outstanding editorial skills to transcribing and researching the details in these letters. Sally transcribed about 550 letters, extensively researching their content for accuracy and completeness. Her objective was to preserve the content both for the family and for study by future historians.
The scholarly notations which Sally made are separately preserved for historians. The version of Sally’s work presented here has been edited for ease of readability because the original letters contained many punctuation errors, missing words, and a few colloquial usages that would not be understood by most readers today.
The titles of each letter start with the date written, which allows the correspondence to be properly sequenced. In contrast, the MWD stories are discrete essays that were not written as a chronology and are not easily sequenced chronologically.
The record of the past century‘s life experiences that were chronicled by ordinary people has no counterpart in today’s world. The ubiquitousness of social media and other electronic communication has created a new dark age that is preserving little for future generations. This is not entirely bad, but it is far from good. CED.
- Member Instructions
Documented Features This website is a membership site where any authorized group member can access and read the stories. Initially, every authorized user will be a member of the same group. The site is best viewed on a tablet, laptop, or desktop device. Everything will work on a phone, but the smaller screen may force too ... - Springcrest Farm
Events circa 1905-1979. Written February 1994. Springcrest Farm had been in the Sechrist family for generations, having John Quincy Adams’ signature on its deed. Its big, white 14-room farmhouse dominated the quadrangle of small buildings surrounding it, expanding from a pioneer colonial to meet the needs of later generations by adding an apartment on either side. Beside the ... - My Grandma
Events circa 1906-1916. Written June 1995. Mary Fuhrman Himmelright was born around 18381 on a farm in Ashland County, Ohio, near the village of Redhaw. The county seat, Ashland, was eight miles away. Mary’s grandparents homesteaded the farm but were killed in the wilderness on their way to Pittsburgh to buy supplies. Her story of their four orphan ... - Santiago
Events circa 1901-1906. Written 1985-1995. It was the 22nd of September, the first day of Spring of the first year of the twentieth century when I was born under the Southern Cross. This happened south of the equator in Santiago, Chile, where the seasons are reversed. My Methodist missionary parents had been sent to my first address, Santiago ... - My Hometown
Events circa 1914-1926. Written January 1995. One morning in late August of 1914, I woke up in a new place, a new house, a new town, and a new state. Here I was, destined to spend most of the next two decades of my life. As I walked outside and looked around, I was delighted. So this ... - Mississippi
Events circa 1905-1913. Written May 1993 – January 1994. During the 1907-1911 period, the Methodist Home Mission Society employed my father and mother as “Home Missionaries” in the backwoods of Mississippi. Those woods were predominantly ... - The Porch
Events circa 1905-1914. Written June 1994. During the late 1800s, architects in this part of the country designed front porches for homes that were ostentatious luxuries. The porches they built had ornately turned spindles in the banisters and fancily shaped pillars supporting the roof. There was always a narrow panel of gingerbread lacework in the wood ... - The Trip To New Haven (1922, 1957)
1957 text and audio recounting of the 1922 disaster-laden family trip from Ohio to the Yale University commencement. - The Passport
September 1965 trip to Wayne and Ashland counties (Ohio) to locate birth and citizenship documents. - World War I
Events circa 1917-1919. Unfinished draft written . The events that happened during the last two years of World War I affected my family ???, so they were burned in my memory. We were living in Berea, Ky., dominated by ... - Wertenberger CorrespondenceCorrespondence and related posts from the Himmelright and Wertenberger families. (1899-1924)
- 990928 CHW to My Friends and to all concerned (Chile)Panama,Sept. 28 ’99 Dear Friends and to all concerned: Well, of all things, this beats all! This morning at about seven o’clock we landed at Colon. We are now foreigners in a foreign land nearly ...
- 990927 CHW to My Dear Folks on the Hill (Chile)The Athos, Sept. 27th 1899 My Dear Folks on the Hill: if you will excuse the ...
- 000115 MHW to Dear Folks at Home (Chile)Concepción, Chile Jan. 15th 1900 Eight A.M. Dear Folks at Home: After waiting nearly five weeks, finally on the third steamer that came from the north I received a letter from home last Wednesday dated Nov. 26th, . I was glad that everything was alright at home and that Ada’s school was going along rather smoothly. But you must not wait so long before ...
- 990919 MHW to Dear Folks at Home (Chile)Sept. 19, 1899New York Dear Folks at home: While I am waiting for Charlie this morning I thought I would write you a few lines more before we leave our native shores. We passed the health examination yesterday, met many of the members of ...
- 990925 MHW to My Dear People at Home (Chile) [AJD][The purser of the steamer Athos carried the envelope containing Charlie’s letter (#990927) and this letter of Dillie’s from Colón, Panama, to New York City, where he mailed it on October 13. According to the postmarks, the letter reached Redhaw on October 16.] [Sept. 25, 1899] On Board the deck of the Steamer Athos, Atlantic Ocean. My Dear People at Home: Yesterday was ...
- 990929 MHW to Dearest Folks (Chile)Panama, Columbia S.A. Sept. 29, ’993:30 P.M. Dearest Folks: While my hair is drying (just being washed) I’ll add a few words to what Charlie has already said. How glad I would be if I could show you all the ...
- 000220 CHW to Dear Parents and Sisters (Chile)Sender’s name and mailing address: Colegio Americano, Colegio Inglés para Hombres, 22 Calle del Comercio, Casilla 89, Concepción, Chile Postmarks: Concepción, December 12, 1899; Valparaíso, December 13, 1899; Ashland, Ohio, January 11, 1900; Redhaw, Ohio, January 11, 1900 Recipient’s name and mailing address: Miss Alice Himmelright, Redhaw, Ashland Co., Ohio, U. S. A.
Transcribed 2019 by CED
Posted Feb 14, 2021 at 17:49.
Revised Dec 23, 2022 at 10:27. EDT.
Retrieved Jun 1, 2026 at 22:21.
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