James H. Starry family correspondence, 1840-1850
36 items
This collection is made up of 35 letters and 1 envelope, primarily consisting of the correspondence of James H. Starry, his friends, and his relatives in Clarksville, Ohio, and Charlestown, Virginia (later West Virginia). The letters span from 1840 to 1850 and discuss a variety of topics, predominantly family issues and local happenings, with content on gender relations and roles, courtship, alcohol use and temperance, African Americans, slavery, and other subjects. Several letter-writers wrote with phonetic spelling.
The collection contains 23 letters to James Starry and 10 letters by him. James married Nancy Kelley and the two lived in Clarksville, Ohio. While in Ohio, he corresponded with siblings and others in Charlestown, and, while seeking work in Charlestown, James corresponded with his wife in Ohio. The bulk of the letters is between James and Nancy; other letters are between James, his sister Sally, his brothers Joseph and John, and his cousin Caroline.
One of the recurring discussions in the letters respects James Starry's drinking, his (and others') membership in the Sons of Temperance, and family distress about whether or not James abandoned or abused his wife Nancy. With long periods of silence from James and repeated delays in his returns home to Ohio, his family, the Wysongs, belabored Nancy with speculation about whether or not James abandoned her. She received letters in which James frustrated over what he felt were unfair accusations about him from the Wysongs and hoped that his wife would not interact with them. The letters between James and Nancy reveal a young mother's efforts and struggles to raise their child "Bub" (John Daniel Starry) while living with and near their families at times of James's absence. As a distant father, he regularly offered love to his son Bub, expressed firm disapproval of whipping him, and pleaded with Nancy to keep him safely away from the well and the street.
The letters also regard family issues, local happenings, births, marriages, and deaths in Clarksville and in Charlestown. Particularly compelling news included disputes that ended in gunfire (February 17, 1842) and stabbing (September 5, 1841; February 17, 1842); the hiring and sale of slaves in Charlestown (Undated, February 24); and perceptions of the holiday celebrations of black people in Charlestown (December 26, 1847). One letter to James from his mother-in-law Anna Kelley includes an anecdote about "old solsbery," who took a young woman "he raised" to a tavern. The young woman asked the landlord's daughters for the key to keep Salsberg out, but later the girls looked through the keyhole and saw the two of them in bed together; the landlord immediately demanded that they leave (January 30, 1848).