Love Letters

February 07, 2013

This Valentine's Day week, the staff of MGC will share some of our favorite stories of love, family, and genealogy. We hope you enjoy these endearing courtship stories as much as we enjoyed researching them.

My husband’s grandparents, William Edward Clark and Cora Melinda Bromley, wrote letters and kept journals during their courtship. William helped run the family store while Cora taught school about eight miles away. Cora’s first entry on September 8, 1902 states, "Today a friend, Mr. Clark, presented me with this record book, and I have decided to keep a diary." My favorite entries are on the day that William asked Cora to marry him. William recorded that Cora was going to make him wait for a week for her answer. He worried the entire week. Cora, on the other hand, expressed that she was the happiest woman in the world and would answer yes.

In a letter dated December 30, 1902, William could not get away from the family business to see Cora. "I cannot begin to express how greatly disappointed I will be, for oh, how much I love you and long for you through every waking hour…Each of my delightful visits with you is like a beautiful oasis in some vast desert, where time grows long before I reach you, but when I come, joy and happiness unspeakable are mine, and I receive renewed strength to continue on until I can come to you again."

William and Cora married on June 10, 1903 and had seven children. In 1929, while apart, Cora was disappointed that she could not return to him for another week. She wrote, "I have a wonderful store of beautiful memories—memories that I would not exchange for all the money in the world—and this serves, sometimes, when I am along, away from you." Their love for each other did not fade, but grew with time.
 
Jolene C.
Midwest Genealogy Center