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71

Anna Harrison

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Anna Harrison

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Auction Date:2011 Nov 09 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS signed “A. Harrison,” one page, 8 x 9.75, February 16, 1858, embossed letterhead. In a letter to Mary, Harrison writes, in full: “I have daily for a length of time been waiting to receive a Letter from you, but have as yet been disappointed. I cannot assign a reason as the members of the family have at times received letters from their brothers who have always said your family was well. I hope my dear you will write as soon as you receive this, & I sincerely hope you will then be able to enform me something about the last days of my nephew Mr. Copeland. I was in hopes when Sally received your letter that it would have contained something about him. I need not tell you any thing about the severe weather we have had lately and still have, altho it seems more pleasant this afternoon but it snowed all this morning. Old as I am, I can truly say, I never experienced such bitter weather as we have had this winter. I have felt it as cold for a day or two but never to last so long. We almost daily have heard from my Son until the mails have been stopt in many places on account of the snow. Dr. Eaton & Family are here, the first time they have been able to come since my Son left home. The Dr. has gone to see one of Mr. Shorts children who is sick…yesterday. Dr. Thornton is sick his health, the Dr.’s I mean, has been quite poor this winter, his daughter Alice is here, also Beatrice Taylor. Her Mother & Family are well you know I suppose that Mr. Taylor has been in Washington this winter—He is I believe expected home soon, My respect to Mrs. Betsey Mr. Sheets and many kisses for all the dear children. All send much love may every blessing attend you and yours my dear is the prayer of your aunt.” Intersecting folds, a few trivial spots of soiling, and a small tear at the right edge, otherwise fine condition.

In 1858, a horrific fire at the Harrison home destroyed the majority of President Harrison's papers and forced frail Anna Harrison to move in with her only living child, John Scott Harrison, the father of future president Benjamin Harrison. There she she found the comfort and solace for which she yearned among the tragedies that plagued her life including the untimely deaths of her husband and seven of her children. This letter to one of her nieces, Mary, stressed the importance of family to her. She inquires about the death of her nephew Copeland, likely David O. Copeland, who served as William Henry Harrison's private secretary; ‘Sally’ is Ann Copeland's sister, Sarah; Dr. Thornton was husband to her daughter Mary, who recovered from his illness to live another 13 years. Dr. George C. Eaton, husband to her granddaughter Betsy, became her attending physician until she died in 1864. An extremely rare documentation of Harrison's life from a woman who preferred home and family over the glitz of Washington.
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