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Correspondence
Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 14 July 1888
Milwaukee,
July 14th 1888
My dear Walt
I was very very glad to get a letter from you yesterday. 1 I have been quite worried about you, wondering how things were going I am more than glad to hear that you are holding your own
I am up here on a question of the disposal of the sewage of the city Davis and Flad 2 are associated with me and we have been confabing about a week—Yesterday they went away—leaving me here to make surveys etc
I am going down to Chicago in the morning to meet some people—will be back here on Wednesday
I hope dear Walt that you are gaining again—I was very sorry that I could not get back to Camden—but I had to go with my Committee to Louisville
Yours affectionately Jeff
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 July 14, 1888, 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. WW's letter of about July 12 is not extant. (Back)
1. For Davis, see Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 22 September 1863. Henry Flad (1824-98) graduated from the University of Munich in 1846. Sentenced to death after serving as captain of engineers in the Parliamentary Army during the revolution of 1848, he fled to New York City in 1849 and embarked on a distinguished career in civil engineering. He worked on several railroad projects, including one which brought him to Missouri in 1854. He joined the Union army in 1861 and eventually became colonel of the First Regiment of Engineers, Missouri Volunteers. In 1865 he became the chief assistant engineer under James P. Kirkwood on the St. Louis Water Works and served continuously on the Board of Water Commissioners from 1867 to 1875. During this period he was also the assistant engineer on the Eads Bridge, a pioneering achievement in bridge construction. He was a cofounder of the Engineers' Club of St. Louis and served as its president from 1868 to 1880. He was president of the St. Louis Board of Public Improvements from 1877 to 1890 and was elected president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1886. (Back)
Whitman Archive ID
loc.00482