Charles W. Chesnutt to John Patterson Green, 30 August 1882
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Salisbury, N.C. August 30 1882.
Hon. J.P. Green,
222 Superior St. Cleveland O.
My Dear Friend:—
I arrived safe & sound at Salisbury after a continuous ride of thirty-six hours. I found my little family here, all in good health and spirits, and overjoyed to see me again. My little girls had not forgotten me exactly, and made a great deal of noise over their papa.1
I called on Mrs. Walker last Sunday. She is with her daughter, Mrs. Dudley. I delivered the package Mrs. Green sent,
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and told Mrs. Walker how you were getting along. She inquired about the children, and seemed affected almost to tears when she spoke of them.2
She is very much emaciated—worn almost to a skeleton. She is suffering from some female complaint, which is gradually pulling her down. She is confined to her bed all the time, and has scarcely a hope of recovery. "Her only hope," she says, "is in Jesus, who can make even her dying bed comfortable." I speak thus plainly of her condition because I wish you to understand it. I do not think from her appearance that she far from the grave.
From what I saw, and from
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what my wife says—she has visited her several times—I infer that her daughter, Mrs. Dudley is kind and attentive, and does the best she can under the circumstances. She told my wife that she always got the money, and that the amount always agreed with the amount mentioned in the letter. Poor creature! she will hardly need much more in this world.
She seemed very grateful for what you sent her, and said she knew l[?] you would give her more if she would ask for it, But she knew your circumstances, and was getting along very well.
This is a dirty, slow looking place, after a couple of months in your pretty
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towns and beautiful cities of the North. But I feel at home again, and the homelike feeling makes anything bearable.
I believe I can endure the South three or four years longer before I come North again.3 My trip has made a new man of me, and the hospitality and kindness of the friends who entertained me during the Summer will always be among the most pleasant memories of my life. My best respects to Mrs. Green, and my love to the children. Let me hear from you when you can snatch time from your many duties to write. I can appreciate your letters the more highly now that I know how they are written.
Ever your friend, C.W. ChesnuttP.S. address me hereafter at Fayetteville.
Correspondent: John Patterson Green (1845-1940) was Chesnutt's cousin and an attorney, active Republican, and the first Black to be elected Cleveland's justice of the peace (1873–1882). He served in the Ohio House of Representatives (1881–1883; 1889–1891), the Senate (1891–1893), and in Washington D.C. as U.S. Postage Stamp Agent (1897–1906). Green was also the author of Recollections of the Inhabitants, Localities, Superstitions and Kuklux Outrages of the Carolinas (1880).
1. After the end of the 1882 school year, during which he served as principal of the State Colored Normal School in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Chesnutt spent part of the summer in Cleveland, Ohio, with the Greens and other hosts, before returning by train to Salisbury, North Carolina, in August 1882 to join his wife Susan and their two daughters Ethel and Helen and return to Fayetteville . [back]
2. Mrs. Walker was likely the mother of John Patterson Green's wife Annie (1848–1912), Jane Walker, and the referenced children—the Greens' three sons William, Theodore, and Jessie, who were born before 1883—her grandchildren. No more is known about Mrs. Walker's life, but a Black widowed washer and ironer, M. A. Dudley, born 1839, is listed in the 1880 census as residing in Salisbury, NC, and could have been the daughter she was staying with (i.e. Annie's older sister). [back]
3. Chesnutt stayed in Fayetteville, NC, for only one more school year. He resigned from his position as principal of the State Colored Normal School in May of 1883. After a summer in New York City, he accepted a position as a stenographer at the Nickel Plate Road railroad company in Cleveland; his family followed in November of that year. [back]
