Swire Family Letters - Caroline Page Barclay Swire Harrison

SWIRE Family of Yorkshire, England & Jamaica

Caroline "Carrie" (PAGE) BARCLAY SWIRE HARRISON

January 02, 1840 - November 21, 1921

Carrie wrote to her brother-in-law Philip SWIRE in Louisiana from her home in Iowa City, Iowa, USA before she returned to Jamaica and remarried.

Letter 4

Dated September 19, 1878

(images & transcription below - click on images to enlarge & read letter)

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PHOTO of a young Caroline, likely taken before her first marriage. In possession of her great-grandson, Charles Harrison Wallace.


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Iowa City, Iowa
September 19th 1878

My dear Sister,

It is with great sorrow I now write. I have been so shocked at learning of the death of your beloved "Walter". Words can only feebly convey to you my sincere & heartfelt sorrows & sympathy for you in this terrible bereavement.

I'm ever all so pleased with Walter's likeness, he had such an earnest sensible face & I was so pleased with his letter. I shall always keep it. I know how sorely your heart is aching for him that is ___ and how long it will be before you can regain happiness. Words seem so like empty phrases at such a time when one knows so well ourselves. All we ought to feel of resignation & compliance with God's will that to me it is always painful to hear so I never use them. Nothing but "time" the great healer can cure the weary pain that overwhelms you all. May He the loving comforter be with you and soothe & strengthen you to bear up. You still have your other children to help you. May God bless & keep them safe. I regret so much I shall be unable to see you all. My __ little Godson ____. I had hoped so much to know his sweet ___ face makes me think of my Roger when I married his Father. You see by my letter to Phillip that I have again _______ to undertake the great responsibility of stepchildren. Poor little things they want of me so much & really they have no one else interested in them who would undertake it. I only hope I shall succeed as well as I did before. The love & friendship of Lydia, Alice & Roger ___ a lasting happiness to me. I shall have my future home very near Alice & see her every Sunday in Church. She has a splendid husband. I am not a little proud of my grandson and another is expected in December.

Roger & Charles unite with me in sending love & regards for yourself & your children.

Believe me dear Sister, yours affectionately,
Caroline Swire

Notes:

Anna is Anne C. (Kean) Swire, wife of Philip Swire.

Walter is Anna's son Walter Swire, who died in the yellow fever epidemic which swept the Louisiana area in the summer of 1878.

Roger is Roger Swire, Caroline's stepson, the son of her second husband John Henry Dalzell (Henry) SWIRE. Lydia & Alice are his sisters who remained in Jamaica.

Charles is Charles Alexander BARCLAY, Caroline's son with her first husband, Charles BARCLAY, who died in 1856.