W is for Written Words

This past week I was fortunate enough to have been given several family documents and letters to go through and scan. My maternal grandfather's first cousin, on his mother's side, brought over an old Family Bible with the copyright date of 1903, an original marriage license from 1893 and several letters and pictures. All belonging to the John Thomas and Lou Elmer (Reynolds) Bynum family. Today I want to share with you one of the letters and add a little bit of perspective into the time frame.

Sidney, Kinchen, John Thomoas, Lou Elmer, baby Grace. about 1903

According to the family Bible, J T and Lou had seven children. The children who are the main topic of this post will be Sidney and his younger sister, Grace, aka Mrs. Herbert A Williams.

Sidney was born on Christmas Eve in 1895 and registered for the draft 5 June 1917.

While carefully looking through the pile of old papers that were lying on my grandparents' kitchen table, I came across this tiny, yellowed, wrinkled envelope postmarked Nov 6 1918 with the address: Base Hospital Ward 12, Camp Pike, AR and it peeked my interest.

Folded and laid inside the worn envelope is a 4 page letter Sidney had written to his sister Grace. It's dated 11-5-18 and begins Mr and Mrs Hurbert Williams....

At the date of his letter Sidney was still single. Grace and Herbert had been married for a little over two years. She married at the very young age of 15. They had a young one year old son named Norman Onis Williams. He had celebrated his first birthday in Aug.

Nearly one month to the day after this letter was written, Herbert would die of pneumonia on December 5, 1918. Then tragically, three months later, Grace would die from wounds sustained when her dress caught fire from the open fire place in the home. She died several days later due to the burns March 3, 1919

At the start of this post, I had only intended to include Sidney's letter, but I think I'll close with an undated letter from Grace to her mother. I can infer the date is between Aug of 1917 and before the winter of 1918 because she mentions her son and the fact that the weather is hot.

Here is Grace's letter.

 

I am so grateful that Stanley and Frances were kind enough to share these treasures with me. It's my hope that they will now live on and be discovered by some direct line descendants of Sidney and Grace.

Until Next Time,

Becky

I was recently given a couple photo post cards that I wanted to include here in this post. No dates but the back of the card on the left says "From Sidney to Mama" "Sidney and K L Bynum". I believe Kinchen is sitting and Sidney is standing. Also - I believe the card on the right to be Sidney on the right with his leg flung over possibly his brother-in-law Herbert Williams. But there is no writing at all on this card. This is just a 'best guess' Herbert married Sidney and Kinchen's little sister Grace in 1916. He was 19. She was 15.