University of Virginia Library

Arriving in Charlottesville last
Friday I found your letter and now acknowledge
its receipt with many thanks. Although I
date my letters from this place Charlottesville
is still my home — Keswick is my express office.

Your kindness will be long remembered
for we will dedicate it (the Library) the Philena
Carkin Library.

Many of your old pupils
are married and have Charlottesville their home.
My sisters husband is in the service of the government
at Washington. Robert is at Rices School in
Boston: Joseph teaches near me — post office Keswick
James Anderson has been Principal of a Staunton
Graded School for three years. John Brown has
been in the mercantile business at home for
seven years and is conducting it with marked
success. Henry Cash is a public school teacher

He was nominated for clerk of the county court
about three years ago, but failed of election because
of a split in the party the white portion contending
for a white man. A democrat gained the victory
Jesse Sammons is also a teacher. He was nominated
for the General Assembly of the State in 1880, but
the best men (whites) of the party thought the time
had not come for such a move in Albemarle
then so they saw fit to defeat his election.

Dabney Minor is at Oberlin College Ohio, this winter
Rives is teaching five miles from town. Harrison
Jenkins is in Boston. David is assistant teacher
in a Scottsville school, Egbert Terry Principal.
David married a Miss Jones. Egbert our Maggie.
Willis Coller is proprietor of one of the most flourishing
hotels in Denver Colorado. In fact I think I can
say truthfully that most of your pupils of the last
years of your teaching here have made considerable
progress up ward and in the language of the
little Southern boy they "are rising" Most of them
have homes of their own and are saving money.
Here where I am teaching I board with an aunt

of Lucy Rogers who owns a hundred acres of land
with several good houses upon it. She got 20.00 a month
as cook at the Edge Hill school near Charlottesville
which enabled her to buy this place She is a widow

My father and mother and all at home
were much pleased to hear of you, and wish you
many happy days. My mother says she will
give you much praise for the interest you took
in her children, because you made men and
women of them. My sister Emma is dead,
and also one brother. My little family consists
of four children, the older of my two boys is nearly
four, named Robert.

Hoping you will not tire of hearing
this account of the boys and girls of times gone
by

Words of mine cannot express
the obligations I am under to you for the letter
sent me in April. I have been tardy in answering,
as I wished I wished to gather some information
which I knew would interest you. I feel sure
you will do your best in the matter of the books
so I will proceed to give you an idea of the
changes in Charlottesville and its surroundings

In the first place, if you should visit us now
you would take a new road at Orange Court House
and not come by Gordonsville as of old. The new
road is called the Charlottesville and Rapidan
R. R. after the river of that name along which it
runs in Orange County. Then they have placed
a depot just at the junction above your old school
house inserted which the front of the building is closed
in so now the children use the back part of the yard
in going from and coming to the school. Two
young pupils disregarded the law requiring them

to leave by that route, and were stuck by a
passing engine. One was scalped and the other
lost his right arm. The father of the latter succeeded
in recovering one hundred dollars damages, after
three trials, while the other got nothing. Now if
a pupil goes that way he is dismissed from
the school. It has often occurred to me as a
little surprising that you all never had an
accident of the kind

A look at the "—— McCormick Telescope"
on the University Mountain would richly
repay you for the time and money spent
to go up there. It is truly a wonderful thing.
They claim for it a great many merits over all
save one some where in Europe. The University
and vicinity having undergone many
improvements since you left, presents a
very grand appearance. The grandest thing
of all though is the freedom they accord to the
colored people. You will remember that during
your stay here we did not dare to go on to the lawn
Now we are cordially invited to come into the

hall and listen to the orations and I tell you
a great many of us avail ourselves of the
opportunity

The Jefferson Homestead
is well cared for now, and the town itself
is about half as large again as when you
knew it. Now there is quite a town at the
old iron bridge, which in time may be
styled West Charlottesville The factory has
been the means of building up that place.
Nancy Randolph lives here now, but her brother
Francisco has been dead about ten years.
Robert Scott teaches in Miss Gardners old room.
Rinaldo is still here, and recently bought a
part of the tailor Brockmans property opposite
Thomas Farrars. Nannie was married on the 21st
inst to William Jackson. They are now in the
North spending their honey moon. Our paper
mentions the affair as very grand. Frank and
Eustace Scott are in the navy, so is William
Scotts son Thomas. Willie is here. The Buchanan
boys are in Washington and Burrill Gaines is
brakeman on the road between this place

Staunton and Richmond. George Howard now
leads an Episcopal following in Lexington Va.
He married Wm Jackson and Nannie Scott in
the Delevan church. I shook his hand the
next day, and told him you asked after
him, and he thanks you very much, and
says he is trying to make his mark in the
world

Now, Miss Carkin the saddest
of all I have to tell is the death of the Rev.
William Gibbons. He died suddenly at Washington
last Monday morning, and was brought here
and buried today. The funeral services were
held in the Delavan church and were quite
affecting when the pastor mentioned the
two girls in Australia (Bella & Georgia) I do
not think there was a dry eye in the room.
Just think — their father taken away so suddenly
and they so far away! Well, I must not worry you
any longer, so thanking you for your trouble
for me thus far, and hoping for your success

I am unable to find words to
express my gratitude for the letters you are so kind
as to write to me. Please to accept my thanks for
your interest in my school. I will endeavor to give
you a description of it. We are situated about 10
miles east of Charlottesville, on the old "Richmond
Turnpike," and have a neat house. The ground
(one acre) was furnished by the patrons, and the
School Board put up the house for us, after we had
got half the lumber and paid for hauling all the
materials used. We got the lumber by each patron
giving so many pine trees on the stump, and
so determined were they all to have the house that
a number of the larger boys would go into the
woods, and fell and cut up a tree preparatory
to sending it to the saw mill. Our white friends
aided us by lending teams etc.

We have some advanced pupils. I
had one boy who completed Venables Practical

Arithmetic, and Harveys higher Grammar. M—
State History and other branches. At the
examination for teachers positions last year
I persuaded him to try, and he succeeded in
getting the 2d grade which they say is a
creditable thing for a country school. His
father promises to send him to the Petersburg
Normal College the coming season if he can
spare the money. I am urging him to
do so if he has to sacrifice some of his stock
for the purpose. I have also another class
of three boys to complete the "Practical" next
year. We have about thirty five scholars each
winter, and our school year is seven months.
The School Board will not do much for
country schools unless they show a good
deal of interest by helping to get what
they want. We needed maps for the school.
The Board agreed to pay two thirds of the
price if we would give the other third and
pay the express on them. I called a meeting
of the patrons and the money was raised
and the maps secured. After getting so
much, I thought a Library in the room
would set if off, and be more beneficial than
anything we have so far, hence my reason
for trying to interest you, and I thank you
again for what you have done. I want you
to know, too, that I have not been idle since
I asked you to help me, but have been begging
here also, and have secured a few books with
the promise of more by the time we commence
again.

The patrons of the school own
their homes ranging from five to one hundred
and fifty acres of land. Some of them are
very thrifty

I am afraid you are being
annoyed by our constant expression of thanks
for what you have done for us. I assure you
it is no small thing, and we appreciate
it very highly. Since your wishes must be
respected the pupils have decided to call it
the "F. B. Sanborn Library" though they wished
very much to call it by your name. Now I wish
to ask your perusal of the accompanying
little letter, written, without my knowledge
by our little secretary who is only ten
years this coming June. Her father is a
prosperous blacksmith and is, apparantly
one of the latest importations from Africa
he is so very black and ignorant. This
child was in her "letters" as they say less
than four years ago (our school year consists
of seven months) and now reads in the 5th
Reader. I send you the childs letter
because it seems to be the outpouring of

of the heart. Hoping you will kindly think
of us and with kind wishes for your happiness
from many here.

I will spend this pleasant
afternoon in writing to one I have never seen
but I have often heard my teacher speak of you
and read letters from you to us, and talk
of you as being his teacher. We are strangers
but that matters but a little. I can write to
you with just as much love as to any of
my friends. We received your box and all
were very proud of it indeed, and all my
schoolmates thank you and your friends
for your kindness. They are such nice books
and make such a respectable little Library
— just what we had talked about a long while

and O, if you could just see if now it looks so
beautiful! You said you didn't care to
have it named after you, but we had no other
name that we thought would suit so nicely as
yours, and the scholars all seem to love that
so well that we were compelled to name it
the P. Carkin Free Library

My Dear Friend and Teacher. It
is a long, long time since you were here,
and I've been thinking for several years of
writing to see if you were still numbered
with the living, but have kept putting it
off from time to time until I've made it
very late, but I hope not too late.

I have taught in the public schools
thirty three years and retired this session,
and am now farming. I own a farm of
80 acres, two horses, a colt, four cows, two
calves and we raise hogs every year. I
succeeded (they say) very well as a teacher
and am doing very well as a farmer. I
have been twice married — first in 1891
and second in 1902. By my first marriage
two girls, by the second three girls and
a boy — the baby, by name Frederick Douglass.

I am sure you have all along heard very

bad reports of the colored people. True they
have not always done as well as they might have done
any more the the white people, but many of the
stories are without foundation and others much
exaggerated, and highly colored.

I hope this letter will find you well and
that you will let me hear from you. I shall be glad
to give a full account of myself, and of the
immediate community.

I know you would be greatly surprised to
see what wonderful progress the colored people have
made along all lines. You would find it much
pleasanter, as there is more civilization, and so many
pleasant homes among your pupils, that you might
visit. Trusting that this may find you well,
with bright prospects for the New Year

Your letter of the 10th inst was
duly received. It found us well, and indeed,
more than glad to hear from you. I am sorry
to know that your sight has gotten so poor, but my
prayer is that it may not grow much worse for
years to come. I was glad and thankful to
receive the picture of the "Minute Man" I
remember so distinctly about your telling, and
trying to have us understand about them years
ago. And not only that, but you told and read
to us so much that I recall and which has
since become real to me, that I have often
wished that I could see you, and make some
apology for my ignorance and ingratitude,
for then it was meaningless to me, and as
with me, so I presume it was to a greater or less
extent with the others. But much of the
ignorance, inexperience and darkness that
met you here, have disappeared, and it is

beginning to look like a real dispensation of
freedom in which every one has some sort of a
chance in the race of life.

I taught, with the exception of the first three
sessions, in my own county (Albemarle) near
my home — the first two in Harrisonburg Va.
the third in Bath Co. Va. My parents owned
nothing and I was early called upon to get some
sort of a home for them, so I had to go to work in
real earnest about the time you left. By perseverance
and the most rigid practice of economy I succeeded
My mother lived in her new home just five years
and my father eighteen. Now I guess you don't
remember my brother Dabney, for he was one of
the younger pupils. He was about 10 years of
age and stammered a little. Well he has been
going to school the greater part of the time since
you left, and has not got through yet. He
graduated from the Richmond Va Institute and
from a theological seminary in Michigan, and
became a B. A. from Oberlin college, Ohio in 1897 and
lacks four months of finishing a four years course in

medicine in the medical college in Indianapolis
Ind. His eyes failed him and he is now preaching
in Cincinnati Ohio.

As for myself I have been a
great slave to public school, Sunday school, church
and farm. My farming has been done largely
in the night. I attended the Storer college West Va.
two sessions after I began to teach. My sessions
were only five months. I entered school 1st March
and remained until August. I left lacking
two years of finishing the Academic course. I
attended the schools held for the benefit of teachers
in the different in different parts of the state 15
summers. The last three summers I was an
instructor.

There are but few of our people
who do not own their homes. There are farms er all
around me, ranging in size from half an
acre, to one hundred and fifteen acres. Most
of them are doing well. My first wife
was from Culpepper Co where I spent several
summers in teaching school. Her name was
Mary Green. The second — Elizabeth Curry
was born and reared near Monticello the home

of Jefferson, My oldest daughter Mabel will be
17 in March. Frederick Douglass is 14 months old.

Now I must tell you something of the
town people. Benjamin Tonsler had been
Principal of the town school ever since you left
The building is a large brick structure of eight
rooms, and with all female assistants. Robert
Scott used to assist him but he died about 20 years
ago. The school is doing well, and a class
graduates about every year. The colored people
have five churches in town, and some of them
are very fine. Mrs. Gibbons who taught in the
lower schools has been dead several years. Mr
Lewis also died about 8 years ago. Mrs Lewis
is living but most of her children are dead. Mrs.
Gibbons son, John West, who came to school when
you were here has been a barber since before you
left. His owner gave him several thousand
dollars to start with and now he is said to be
worth a hundred thousand dollars in real estate.
Mr. Ferguson owns a nice residence on Main St.
The old Farrars are all dead. Some of the

the younger ones are here and have nice homes.
The Rickmonds all went to Pittsburg many years
ago and never returned. The Taylors are here
and doing very well. The Buchanans went
to Philadelphia. The Buckners are here. One of them
owns and conducts a large grocery store near the
University. Mr. Inge, Mr. Fergusons son-in-law owns
and conducts a large and well kept store on Main St.
and there are countless smaller concerns run run
by the people who owned nothing when you were here.
Now a word about the scholars you knew best.
David Smith died about 7 or 8 years ago very poor.
William Jackson taught 10 or 12 years and then
lost his sight entirely. He is totally blind. Jesse
Sammons taught about 20 years and died of a
fever. Henry Cash went west and never returned
Egbert Terry married Maggie Halestork and they
live in Ch-ville. Maggie is one of Mr. Tonslers
assistants. Two of Mr. Fergusons daughters and one
of John Wests daughters also assist. Now a word
about professionals. One of John Wests sons, and
one of Fergusons are medical men, and doing
very well. Lawyers have failed to succeed here so not
one in town. Jesse Sammons married Lula Gibbons
who used to attend your school. She was left with
four children — two 2 boys and two girls. She is
doing very well. The oldest boy is nearly 20 years old
so with farming and dressmaking she is doing
nicely. She is my neighbor. I shall have a group
picture of my family taken to send you as soon
as the weather gets so we can all get into town. I
regret that I can't do more for you than to
thank you for teaching us our first lessons. I
am sure you were not aware when kindling the
little flame of education here among us that
you were doing a work that was to be so far
reaching.

I told you I would give a full account
of myself, but that would fill many pages, and
I'll only say but little now about my experience. I
acquired a knowledge of music, and can sing and
play very well. My older girls, Mabel and Irene can
also play very nicely, and in town you would be
well entertained at any of the churches by the singing
Now I've written a long letter for you to read and

hope it will not be too much for your eyes

"The old building where you taught has
long since been torn away and all that part
of the town is laid out in streets and thickly
settled It would be hard for you to tell where the
old school house stood. The new school house is
farther down, near the Court House. If you
remember where the gas house was, it is on the
same street. x x x I should be glad if you
could see this place again and witness the strides
the colored people have made from barbarism
to civilization. I did not think to tell you in
my last, that they own and publish one
newspaper in Charlottesville x x x I will tell you

my age as well as I can. I call myself 54. The farm
house where I was born was burned in May 1865, and
with it all the records. My mother, a short time
before her death, took me with her to the old place
to get our ages, and what they gave us was all
guess work. I was born in January 1855 or 1856
Mother knew it was three weeks after Christmas. That
was all she knew about it. I am still vigorous
and can do more work at almost anything
than the average man."

After telling of the sickness and death of
his first wife, he continued by saying that he was
left with all the household cares, two babies to look
after, the farm to attend to, and a school of 70
or 80 children to teach. He managed by hiring
one and another to take care of the children
until he made a second marriage six years later,
after which, he adds, "It was better for me and
the children.

Extracts from a letter dated June 14 1910

I had sent Mr. Minor some pamphlets of the
Humane Society and asked him if there was
anything of the kind yet in Charlottesville. To
which he replied as follows.

I will give you an account of a trip
I took to Highland Co. Va. in 1879 to teach
school. It is a hundred miles from Ch-ville
to Highland Co. No railroad sixty miles of
the hundred. I walked (wading the rivers and
creeks) the entire distance. It was snowing
about all the way. I went very near the
sources of the Potomac and James rivers

which geographers say are so near each
other that a rider may hold the reins and
drink from one spring while his horse drinks
from the other, but I did not think of that
at the time. I arranged my school
business, taught five months and walked
all but 40 miles back home. I began my
school Feb. 15th and closed about the last of
June. I waded rivers and creeks about 15
days in February of that year and was not
made sick by it x x x It may interest you
to know what it was worth to me. I got 20
dollars a month. x x All schools near home
in the country were closed that year is why
I had to go from home. They generally paid
25 or 30 dollars in the different districts in
our county x x x

Extract from letter dated March 4 1911

Your last letter of Sept 16th was
duly received. We were glad to hear from
you and to learn of the many helpful
Societies among you. I thank you very
much for the "horses prayer." Some horses
do need to say it daily, but I am thankful
to say mine have not said it this winter
though the winter has been long and
severe, interspersed with a day or two
of mild weather now and then. x x x x
I am quite busy preparing for
my crops, and at present the prospects before
me are quite bright. I have a great deal
more work than I can do but and cannot afford
to hire help but am doing very well alone,
and when school closes in April Mabel and
Irene will help me a little.