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#3014: Willa Cather to T. Kenneth Wood, April 7, 1941

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⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ Dear Dr. Wood1:

When I finished reading your kind letter, I wished that my father3 were still living and here to read it with me. Many of the places you mention I do not remember, but he would have remembered all of them. I remember the Round Hill Church perfectly, but had no idea that the head of the Opequon Creek was so near Round Hill4. It was not with my grandfather, William Cather5, that Henry Clay6 used to stop on his journeys, but with my great-grandfather, James Cather7, who lived somewhere beyond Flint Ridge. Lena Gore's8 mother9 was a Campbell, not a Cather. Lena's father10 was the son of "old Mother Gore11," who was a daughter of my great-grandfather, James Cather. The tough tavern12 I mentioned13 was near Hoag Creek, much nearer Winchester14 than is the present post-office, Gore15. A young engineer in Washington16 has written me that the denuded Double-S17 is finally to be blasted away and made a straight line18. What a pity! I made a short motor trip19 through the valley three years ago, but when I passed my old home20 I turned my eyes away from it. Such ruin and desolation is sad to look upon. The old winding road from Gore up to Timber Ridge was one of the loveliest things in all Virginia21.

Thank you for your good letter, I am

Gratefully and Cordially yours, Willa Cather