Very sincerely yours,
L. W. V. KENNON, Maj. 10th Inf.
HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, NATIONAL GUARD OF PENNSYLVANIA, WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA. JANUARY 19, 1908.
Dear Madam:
I am sending you herewith my check for two copies of "Vanished Arizona."
This summer our mutual friend, Colonel Beaumont (late 4th U. S. Cav.) ordered two copies for me and I have given them both away to friends whom I wanted to have read your delightful and charming book. I am now ordering one of these for another friend and wish to keep one in my record library as a memorable story of the bravery and courage of the n.o.ble band of army men and women who helped to blaze the pathway of the nation"s progress in its course of Empire Westward.
No personal record written, which I have read, tells so splendidly of what the good women of our army endured in the trials that beset the army in the life on the plains in the days succeeding the Civil War. And all this at a time when the nation and its people were caring but little for you all and the struggles you were making.
I will be pleased indeed if you will kindly inscribe your name in one of the books you will send me.
Sincerely Yours, C. B. DOUGHERTY, Brig. Gen"l N. G. Pa. Jan. 19, 1908
SCHENECTADY, N. Y. June 8th, 1908.
Mrs. John W. Summerhayes, North Sh.o.r.e Hill, Nantucket, Ma.s.s.
My Dear Mrs. Summerhayes:
Were I to say that I enjoyed "Vanished Arizona, "I should very inadequately express my feelings about it, because there is so much to arouse emotions deeper than what we call "enjoyment;" it stirs the sympathies and excites our admiration for your courage and your fort.i.tude. In a word, the story, honest and unaffected, yet vivid, has in it that touch of nature which makes kin of us all.
How actual knowledge and experience broadens our minds! Your appreciation of, and charity for, the weaknesses of those living a lonely life of deprivation on the frontier, impressed me very much.
I wish too, that what you say about the canteen could be published in every newspaper in America.
Very sincerely yours,
M. F. WESTOVER, Secretary Gen"l Electric Co.
THE MILITARY SERVICE INSt.i.tUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. Governor"s Island, N. Y. June 25, 1908.
Dear Mrs. Summerhayes:
I offer my personal congratulations upon your success in producing a work of such absorbing interest to all friends of the Army, and so instructive to the public at large.
I have just finished reading the book, from cover to cover, to my wife and we have enjoyed it thoroughly.
Will you please advise me where the book can be purchased in New York, or otherwise mail two copies to me at 203 W. 54th Street, New York City, with memo of price per copy, that I may remit the amount.
Very truly yours,
T. F. RODENBOUGH, Secretary and Editor (Brig. Gen"l. U. S. A.)
YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONN.
May 15, 1910.
Dear Mrs. Summerhayes:
I have read every word of your book "Vanished Arizona" with intense interest. You have given a vivid account of what you actually saw and lived through, and n.o.body can resist the truthfulness and reality of your narrative. The book is a real contribution to American history, and to the chronicles of army life.
Faithfully yours, WM. LYON PHELPS,
[Professor of English literature at Yale University.]
LONACONING, MD., Jan. 2, 1909.
Col. J. W. Summerhays, New Roch.e.l.le, N. Y.
Dear Sir:
Captain William Baird, 6th Cavalry, retired, now at Annapolis, sent me Mrs. Summerhay"s book to read, and I have read it with delight, for I was in "K" when Mrs. Summerhays "took on" in the 8th. Myself and my brother, Michael, served in "K" Company from David"s Island to Camp Apache. Doubtless you have forgotten me, but I am sure that you remember the tall fifer of "K", Michael Gurnett. He was killed at Camp Mohave in Sept. 1885, while in Company "G" of the 1st Infantry. I was five years in "K", but my brother re-enlisted in "K", and afterward joined the First. He served in the 31st, 22nd, 8th and 1st.
Oh, that little book! We"re all in it, even poor Charley Bowen. Mrs.
Summerhays should have written a longer story. She soldiered long enough with the 8th in the "b.l.o.o.d.y 70"s" to be able to write a book five times as big. For what she"s done, G.o.d bless her! She is ent.i.tled to the Irishman"s benediction: "May every hair in her head be a candle to light her soul to glory." We poor old Regulars have little said about us in print, and wish to G.o.d that "Vanished Arizona" was in the hands of every old veteran of the "Marching 8th." If I had the means I would send a copy to our 1st Serg"t Bernard Moran, and the other old comrades at the Soldiers" Home. But, alas, evil times have fallen upon us, and--I"m not writing a jeremiad--I took the book from the post office and when I saw the crossed guns and the "8" there was a lump in my throat, and I went into the barber shop and read it through before I left. A friend of mine was in the shop and when I came to Pringle"s death, he said, "Gurnett, that must be a sad book you"re reading, why man, you"re crying."
I believe I was, but they were tears of joy. And, Oh, Lord, to think of Bowen having a full page in history; but, after all, maybe he deserved it. And that picture of my company commander! [Worth]. Long, long, have I gazed on it. I was only sixteen and a half years old when I joined his company at David"s Island, Dec. 6th, 1871. Folliot A. Whitney was 1st lieutenant and Cyrus Earnest, 2nd. What a fine man Whitney was. A finer man nor truer gentleman ever wore a shoulder strap. If he had been company commander I"d have re-enlisted and stayed with him. I was always afraid of Worth, though he was always good to my brother and myself.
I deeply regretted Lieut. Whitney"s death in Cuba, and I watched Major Worth"s career in the last war. It nearly broke my heart that I could not go. Oh, the rattle of the war drum and the bugle calls and the marching troops, it set me crazy, and me not able to take a hand in the sc.r.a.p.
Mrs. Summerhays calls him Wm. T. Worth, isn"t it Wm. S. Worth?
The copy I have read was loaned me by Captain Baird; he says it"s a Christmas gift from General Carter, and I must return it. My poor wife has read it with keen interest and says she: "William, I am going to have that book for my children," and she"ll get it, yea, verily! she will.
Well, Colonel, I"m right glad to know that you are still on this side of the great divide, and I know that you and Mrs. S. will be glad to hear from an old "walk-a-heap" of the 8th.
I am working for a c.u.mberland newspaper--Lonaconing reporter--and I will send you a copy or two of the paper with this. And now, permit me to subscribe myself your
Comrade In Arms,
WILLIAM A. GURNETT.
Dear Mrs. Summerhayes:
Read your book--in fact when I got started I forgot my bedtime (and you know how rigid that is) and sat it through.
It has a bully note of the old army--it was all worthwhile--they had color, those days.
I say--now suppose you had married a man who kept a drug store--see what you would have had and see what you would have missed.
Yours, FREDERIC REMINGTON.