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Carry A. Nation - Love Letter

The Famous and Original Bar Room Smasher

Love Letter

The following is an excerpt from a letter to Carry by Charles Gloyd on June 2, 1867.

Your letter has been read and reread time and again but everytime I see new beauties. It seems like a volume of which every time reading is a new page. Your remarks about the shortness of life, its great and good aims, and contentment being the secret of being happy are indeed true wisdom. True, the acquisition of property may be pursued at the same time, but if there were nothing else higher and nobler to live for what a barren desert this would be.
Now, my own darling Carrie, you will not suppose that I make these remarks for the purpose of influencing you in the least. Our holy betrothal, our plighted faith makes that unnecessary. But even if I did not know your heart to be as fixed as the hills of Jerusalem, I should say again, "Darling, my own Carrie, though my heart strings are sundered and my life pays the penalty, you are free, choose thine own."
I tell you, Carrie Love, the time will come your parents will see they are wrong. God is my support and my strength and I will prove that to them.

 

Carry A. Nation is an online exhibit developed by the Kansas Museum of History.

  1. How Well Do You Know Carry Nation? - Fun quiz.
  2. Hatchetations and Home Defenders - Why reformers smashed saloons.
  3. Paying the Bills - Selling hatchet pins, buttons, and newsletters.
  4. Taking on the Role of Crusader - Personal tragedies in Nation's life.
  5. Other Crusades - Women's health, woman suffrage, and anti-smoking.
  6. An International Figure - People all over the world followed Nation's work.
  7. She Hath Done What She Could - Final days in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
  8. An American Icon - Carry Nation is a household name today.
  9. Temperance Timeline - Timeline of alcohol reform.

Contact us at kshs.kansasmuseum@ks.gov