Letters read by Ruthie

Letters, that's all I have is letters- remnants of a love story that has become somewhat mythical to me.  These are the only tangible objects that remain of my mother and father's love. My mother, Jennie Stoddard never grew  old. 

The railroad in Utah’s North brought Edwin and Jennie together… it is this great steam horse which tore them a part. Nestled in the mouth of Ogden Canyon where the tracks meet is where my father Edwin grew up.  It was only natural that Edwin became a railway man.  The tracks connected Uintah to Logan, and thus Jennie and Edwin on the Bamberger Railroad.

The two fell in love on the brink of World War I. They married June 24, 1914- four days prior to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria.  This bullet triggered World War I.   The Great War shaped their lives and the lives of their future generations- in ways unimaginable to these two young hearts.

These letters were penned by their young hands and their hopeful hearts.  They are but etchings- a mere echo of Jennie’s short-lived life.

On March 2, 1914 Edwin wrote from Pocatello Idaho Depot (The Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway Railway):

My Dear Jennie,

“…Isn’t it the most glorious thing this love one gets for another.  It appears most heavenly in its mission, and dear I enjoy it more and more every day.  And it is getting most unbearable.  Can’t you come, won’t you come dear, as you have stolen into my life and it appears that you have become a part of it, to leave as silently as you entered would nearly break my heart, I do believe.

I will try and bear it until the spring dear, and then won’t you come to me, as I have stated you are the missing link of the chain, to my happiness…”

Jennie, the daughter of prominent Logan citizen, Thomas X. Smith, was her father’s darling.  As the youngest child of a large polygamous family, she was the pet.  Uncommon in her day and especially for women, she was also a scholar having received two years of college education. 

Jennie and Edwin’s letters continue but were few.  Jennie fell for this eloquent railway man as they communicated via letters through their courtship, early days of marriage, and the birth of two children, Cleve and Ruth.  While the war drew to a close in Europe, another disaster struck as the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 raged hitting Edwin on the railway.  The story goes that “Ed” returned for a short visit and unknowingly infected Jennie.  He returned to the railway and fell ill.

The last letter of communication between the two shares the tale of their “almost happily ever after.” 

The letter was post dated October 14, 1918, 2 pm Salt Lake City Utah:

Mr. E.C. Stoddard

C/O Columbia Hospital

Butte, Montana

Salt Lake City, Utah

October 13, 1918

My Dear Bug,

“No one can tell how I felt when I heard you were ill.  I would give anything if you were here and I could care for you.  O. Bug!  Why did you go? I’m just heart sick.  Ever since you left I’ve been so depressed and felt as if something would happen.  If you were only home…”

The letter is signed, “with bushels of Love and Kisses

From Babes and myself,

Jen

 Grandma Annie was with my mom at this time during the worst it.  She went  out to get more medicine for Jennie and returned to find her near death. Edwin received word of Jennie’s imminent death while he lay in a hospital in Butte, Montana.  He arrived in Salt Lake City on a stretcher stricken with the flu himself.

My mother Jennie made one last request on her deathbed to Edwin- The promise that her children would not be raised by a stepmother. 

 Echoes from canons of the Great War halted on November 11, 1918.  Eleven Days later on November 22, 1918 my father Edwin lost his sweetheart and later Cleve and I. (mother's  sister Marie and husband Leo Kimball raised Edwin and myself). My mother, Jennie, died at 26 years of age- she never lived to grow old.