We all know what it’s like to have that one special toy or toys that as kids, we thought about all the time. For many girls their baby doll is the friend that goes everywhere with them. And, if you were lucky enough to many dolls the whole group was your girl gang. For as much time as we spent giving them tea parties, playing house, or even making clothes for these little dolls, most of us didn’t write about them. But, there was one little girl in 1865 who did!
Her letter starts off with “Dear Cousin Gussie” and continues:
“My dolls have not been sick, I named my doll Kate and Hattie’s Maria. Hattie broke the head off of hers. Hattie is very well. Alice Hanson says there is no school this winter so mother teaches me at home, arethmetic [sic], spelling, reading, and writing. I have sewed all the work you fixed for me. I wish you all a Merry Christmus [sic] and Happy newyear.[sic] I asked Hattie to send her love but she says ‘it will make Hattie’s hands cold.’ Tell Grandma I would like to stay with her this winter.”
After that the letter is cut off, presumably continued on another page or on the back of this page. It’s dated to 1856, though the date may have been added after the fact. The letter was posted online to a subreddit called The Way We Were by user ProfessionalCrab105. The note captures a darling time in a child’s life, nearing Christmas and thinking of her family and her dolls.
We don’t know where she was located, but we do know her name Gertrude. Some of the sentiments in the letter ring out across time and space to resonate with us all, regardless of era. The original poster notes that she was 6-years-old, which makes her well thought and nicely written letter all the more impressive.
I have to imagine that Hattie is the younger sister. It’s so darling how she imagines that if she sends her love it will leave body and give her a chill. How unique and literal are the beliefs of children! Clearly the mother of the little girl who wrote this letter was doing a great job at teaching her to write, you know, since school is closed for the winter. This reminds me of the winters that Laura Ingalls Wilder described in her books- winters so cold and so filled with snow that poorly-insulated rural schoolhouses were closed down.
You can see the original letter and the responses people have had to this charming little girl’s writing below.
6 year old Gertrude writing about her dolls 1856
byu/ProfessionalCrab105 inTheWayWeWere
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