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The Walt Whitman Archive

Brooklyn Dec 21st/66

Sent letter to Worthen ¹   —as soon as received  Mother received letter and book—by the way can I get one of the books to present to Ruggles ²    The $31 was made up as follows  Moses Lane $5.  Davis $5. ³    self $5.  McNamee, ⁴   Brower, ⁵   Story, ⁶   Bergen, ⁷   Ward, ⁸   Lewis, ⁹   Clapp ¹⁰   and Van Buren ¹¹   (all young men employed in our office) each $2. Hope you wont be disappointed in the smallness of the amount—but Davis had to go away and did'nt have time to see if he could collect any at his office.

Mother Mat and the children are all quite well—but have rather a hard time to keep warm ¹²   —wish when you write Mother you would always say something abt Hattie's learning to read and play &c  it sets her ahead wonderfully—you know how such things please children—should like to have you write me that long letter—I hope also to be able to pay you a short visit this winter—soon after the Holidays—everything is going abt as usual with us at home

affectionately yours Jeff

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About the Text

The text presented here is derived from Dennis Berthold and Kenneth Price, eds., Dear Brother Walt: The Letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1984). For a detailed description of discrepancies between this electronic edition and the print source, see our statement of editorial policy .

The manuscript of this letter, dated December 21, 1866, is held in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

For more information on the letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman, see Dennis Berthold and Kenneth Price's introduction to the print edition.

Notes

1.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 15 December 1863. WW's letter of December 20, 1866, is not extant.  (Back)

2.  Jeff probably wanted to give Edward Ruggles a copy of Drum-Taps or The Good Grey Poet .  (Back)

3.  For Lane, see Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 13 January 1863; for Davis, see Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 22 September 1863.  (Back)

4.  Probably either John or Robert McNamee, both of whom were engineers.  (Back)

5.  Probably David Brower, an engineer who worked for the city.  (Back)

6.  Probably William H. Story, a surveyor.  (Back)

7.  The son of Congressman Tunis G. Bergen (see Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 14 May 1865), Van Brunt Bergen (1841-1917) graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1863 with a degree in civil engineering. He was employed on the Brooklyn Water Works from 1864 to 1895 and wrote a short history of the department which was printed in Henry R. Stiles, ed., The Civil, Political, Professional, and Ecclesiastical History...of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N.Y. from 1683 to 1884 (New York: W. W. Munsell & Co., 1884), pp. 584-94.  (Back)

8.  In Brooklyn at this time there were three engineers by the name of Ward: James, John, and Timothy.  (Back)

9.  Probably David J. Lewis, an engineer.  (Back)

10.  Unidentified.  (Back)

11.  Robert Van Buren (1843-?) graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1864 and joined the Brooklyn Water Works in 1865 as an assistant engineer. He was promoted to chief engineer in 1877, resigned in 1879, and was then reappointed in 1880 and held the post until 1893.  (Back)

12.  The family had moved to 840 Pacific Streeet on May 1, 1866. Located on top of a hill, this house was difficult to heat, but as LVVW noted, "Jeffy makes my fire when it is very cold" (LVVW to WW, January 17, 1867 [Trent Collection, William R. Perkins Library, Duke University]).  (Back)

Whitman Archive ID

loc.00443