LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1862
To Julia Finney
12 July 1862
[MS in Finney Papers, Supplement # 110]
Oberlin 12th July 1862
Dear Daughter Julia.
How do you do? & how is Helen?
How much we do want to see you. Our
erries
raspberrys ^ are now ripe, & we have abund
ance of them, & as you dont eat straw-
berries I wish you could here. I suppose
you have them there but perhaps not
in such abundance as we have. They
come only once a year at best &
seldom as plentifully as this year.
We hate to ask you to leave Helen in
her loneliness & anxiety about Dolson
but we want much to see you.
By the bye We have just been invited
to visit Sarah Cowles at 8 oC[l]ock on
Monday morning. She starts immediately
after on a journey east. I leave you to
judge the rest as this is all we know
of the matter. She has been home about
two weeks. I wish to know whether Helen
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has read Dr. Bushnells "Christian
Nurture." If not whether she will read
it if I send it to her. What does Helen
propose to do with Willie or have
him do with himself. He is at his uncles.
He is rather lonely here where he has
nothing to do. If he were at study
I think he would not be lonely as he
would then form acquaintances &
be busy withall. When he goes to study
again had he not better come here &
complete his education? I expect to give
him a thorough course if I live long
enough.
Dolson it seems is still kept back
from the seat of the war. I am glad
it is so though he, I presume is not.
I hope Helen is quiet in spirit &
trusting in God. Norton was at
home & went to the Lake on the 4th
He writes since that he is well & very
busy. Your cousin little Edward
Andrews is sick at Cleveland,
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He went to spend the 4th with
Helen, was taken sick, & yesterday
they telegraphed for his mother to go
out immediately. She went but
I have not heard from her since.
Your mother is not at all well any
of the time. The cough is worse than
I have ever known it at this time
of year. She is about & busy but not
well. My health continues to improve
slowly. It is a time of unusual health
here as physicians say. It rains a
great deal so that the roads are bad
nearly all the time & we can neither
hoe the corn not get the hay.
We hope you are well. Love to
Dear Helen & the Dear Children.
But as Mothers letter went to day
I will let this lie over until
Monday.
Monday morning. I have just returned
from Sarah Cowles wedding.
She was married at 7. & left in the
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train for New England at 8.
She married the principal of the
Institution for the Blind at Janesville
Wis, where she has been teaching. Her
husbands name is Little. They are
to continue their teaching there.
I preached yesterday morning for
the first time since my severe il[l]ness.
Willie was here yesterday. Is at his
uncles now. If you were here he
would not be so lonely here. It rains
to day & rained last night.
James is well. We are as usual.
All send love. Give any quantity
of love to Helen & the children &
to Dolson when any of you
write. Your aff. Father.
C. G. Finney
Footnotes:
Brigadier-General Jacob Dolson Cox who was encamped in Charleston had had a successful campaign in Western Virginia the previous year but was unable to get a role in the major fighting in the East. See Eugene D. Schmiel, "The Career of Jacob Dolson Cox, 1828-1900" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Ohio State University, 1969), pp 80-92.
Sarah Florella Cowles (1838-1912) was the daughter of Professor Henry Cowles, of Oberlin. On Monday 14th July she was married to Thomas Henry Little, the superintendent of the State School for the Blind in Janesville, Wisconsin, where she was a teacher. See her obituary in The Oberlin Alumni Magazine Vol. 8 (February 1912), p. 168.
Horace Bushnell, Christian Nurture (New York: Scribner, 1861). Parts of this work had previously been published in 1847 under the title "Views of Christian Nurture." Finney was a friend of Bushnell's from the time when Finney had preached in Hartford in the winter of 1851-52.
Finney had written something here, crossed it out and altered it to what looks like at. Julia Finney has written over it: "? at".
Edward William Hutchinson Andrews (1849-1924) was the son of Deacon Edward Andrews of Oberlin, and his wife, Delia.
Julia inserted the word Atkinson here. James Atkinson was a son of Finney's wife.