Dearest Sweetheart,
I can't wait until our next embrace.
Special Collections
The mission of the Special Collections department at the University of Arkansas Libraries is to acquire, preserve and provide access to historical manuscripts, archives, maps, photographs and published materials to support scholarly investigation of the state, its customs and people, and its cultural, physical and political climate. Special Collections include manuscripts and archives, the Arkansas Collection, rare books and special libraries, photographs, broadsides and maps.
The department staff are always looking to expand the collection, and while they might not take all items, they are eager to consider them.
Contact the Special Collections department at (479) 575-5577 or email [email protected].
It was a love affair of the ages, and it hit Sophia Estes of Fayetteville right in the heart. The love story of Thomas Blakemore Sr. and Ernestine Grace Bryant -- who sometimes went by "Gracie" -- is told through a collection of letters.
Estes this summer donated the letters to the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections to keep this love alive.
These were written in the days before teens dated and broke up via text messages. "They tell each other everything," said Martha Estes, Sophia's mother. "These all are educated people. You can tell by their fancy print."
"They are so eloquent," Sophia added.
Treasure chest
In 1997, Sophia Estes -- who enjoys buying and selling antiques -- attended an auction in her hometown, she said.
"There was this walnut trunk that I wanted," she shared. "Well, in the trunk, there were a lot of letters. The auctioneer said they were love letters."
Other letters at the auction sold for $50 a bundle, Sophia related. "They thought that was all, but there were more in the trunk," she said. "When I got that trunk, the first thing I wanted to see was those letters.
"The trunk is gone, but the letters were so sweet, I couldn't part with them," she continued. "I read a few each night. Everybody loves love."
In fact, the trunk concealed 781 letters, written between 1907 and 1915. Ribbon or string held most of them in bundles, and many still bear the wax seals and two-cent stamps.
Martha Estes studies her own genealogy, but she turned her search to Blakemore and Bryant as if they were in her own family.
"They did marry," she said. "And they were married for 50 years. They had two children. One died in infancy, and the other -- a son -- lived and worked in Japan for 50 years."
"The son died in 1991, and that's probably how the letters ended up at the auction," Sophia Estes said. "I tried to find the family to return them but couldn't."
One of the letters was signed with handwriting of children: Jackie Jeter, Leo, Bo.
It read:
Dear Mrs. Gracie
We are so sorry you are sick and hope you will soon be well. We have been your good and loving children.
From this letter, Estes determined Gracie must have been a teacher. And also that she was ill.
The letters provided another clue. A letter came from Hyde Park Station in Chicago. It was addressed to Gracie, with the simple address: "Booneville, Arkansas."
The Arkansas State Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Booneville was established in 1909, and patients came from all over the state. Nearly every resident of Booneville was somehow linked to the institution.
The oldest and most worn of the letters in the chest were addressed to Booneville, and others mentioned the sanatorium, Martha Estes said.
"The letters never did say she had tuberculosis," she continued. "But they did say she was ill." Further research showed Gracie recovered.
"I think she was in there early," Estes said. "I think a cousin (of Blakemore's) was in there, too. The letters talk of a friend, Winnie Blakemore, whose cousin would come visit."
"Maybe that's how they met," Sophia Estes said. "When he went to visit his cousin."
Miss E (Ernestine), my dear friend, receives flowers. She is so glad to get them.
My lung is improved and I'm getting along fine with my tonsils.
-- Winnie Blakemore, October 1913
Gracie first appeared in the census in 1900, Martha Estes said, placing the girl's age at about 10. Thomas showed up in 1920, at 35 years of age. They found no records of draft with the Selective Service, and the women believe he was writing the letters at age 25.
"The census had Thomas L. Blackburn married in 1920, so they were probably married about 1915. Ernestine lived from 1889 to 1973, and Thomas from 1884 to 1963," Martha Estes reported.
Thomas went to law school in Fayetteville, St. Louis, Chicago and Norman, Okla., she continued. He practiced law in Sapulpa, Okla., and set up his residence in Fort Smith.
One letter spoke of a new financial undertaking in Fayetteville. He had bought 1/3 business in "a large and well equipped confectionery and ice cream shop," Estes said.
Bumps in the road
My Sweetheart,
Your letter of yesterday was one more of the sweetest ever letter from my Crybaby. I love my CB more than before. You know that, don't you, Sunshine.
"He mentions that he's in a hurry, but he writes five pages," Sophia Estes noted, reading one letter.
My dear Miss B,
I wonder where I shall be at this time Sunday.
Rain, snow, sleet or hail. Saturday night I will be there
Like any young lovers, Gracie and Thomas worked through some problems. Gracie apparently had her pick of beaus, including the son of John Holcomb, one of the founders of Springdale, Martha Estes said. And Thomas' words of jealousy pine from a letter:
It's quite painful to hear a fellow has been keeping you company. It's a quiet and painful seclusion.
Gracie assures Thomas the outings to the town of Booneville after her health improved were just with friends:
I never dreamed you'd be upset by it. Get it out of your head.
Thomas replies:
I'm a little insecure, so far away from home and family, I have more opportunity to make friends when I'm familiar to people.
But Gracie turned the tables when she hears Thomas saw a play and went places not available to her, Martha Estes related.
I am interested in your whereabouts, and I'm as open as a book to you.
"They were living separate lives, with stuff going on," Sophia Estes said. "It's exceptional they are happy in the life they lived."
'I want them'
Sophia Estes contacted Tim Nutt, the director of Special Collections, offering to donate the letters.
"Tim said, 'I want them. We want anything we can get from a (sanatorium) patient,'" she related.
Nutt noted these and other personal documents can provide a glimpse into the daily lives of patients -- and they complement other materials in Special Collections, such as oral histories from former patients.
"The ultimate goal, No. 1: It preserves Arkansas history," Nutt said. "These letters are likely unique information that we couldn't find anywhere else. It shows a budding courtship as well as everyday life. And it's a wealth of information for researchers."
The letters had not been recorded and processed by late July, but Nutt promised they would be as soon as other projects are completed. "And they'll be easy to work on," he said.
First, a staff member will remove the letters from their envelopes and clip the two together with a plastic paperclip. Initial research requires writing a biographical sketch to encapsulate the collection -- which Martha Estes wrote and added to the collection.
"Then (Special Collections staff) will read the letters and pull out little gems of the letters that concentrate on the physical features and facilities of the sanatorium, for example," Nutt said.
"We are really pleased to have these letters. It's a true service to buy these at auction and preserve this treasure trove of information about Arkansas history."
"We feel so fortunate we were able to see they got married," Martha Estes said.
Sophia Estes admitted the letters reappeared in her life prophetically.
"I forgot about them. But I was going through a divorce and doing some spring cleaning -- some life cleaning -- and there they were again," she said.
"Everybody wants to live happily ever after. This is the way you want it to be. You see all this love and kindness. Everybody loves love," she said.
NAN Our Town on 08/20/2015