Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
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| Textual Feature | Appearance |
|---|---|
| passage deleted with a strikethrough mark | |
| passage deleted by overwritten added letters | |
| passage added above the line | passage with added text above |
| passage added on the line | passage with added text inline |
| passage added in the margin | passage with text added in margin |
| handwritten addition to a typewritten letter | typed passage with added handwritten text |
| missing or unreadable text | missing text noted with "[illegible]" |
| uncertain transcriptions | word[?] |
| notes written by someone other than Willa Cather | Note in another's hand |
| printed letterhead text | printed text |
| text printed on postcards, envelopes, etc. | printed text |
| text of date and place stamps | stamped text |
| passage written by Cather on separate enclosure. | written text |
Your letter written in reply to Roscoe3's request will help me a great deal in making out my income tax declaration, and I am grateful to you for getting the information to me so promptly.
I agree with you that we had better sell the Colorado4 land if we can get a reasonable offer for it.
I am very sorry to hear that the spring on the pasture land in Smith County5 hads dried up.
I only hope the timber that grew along the stream will not die from lack of
moisture. I suppose that one good rainy season would bring the spring back to its
own again.
I am under no delusion about the Guy Henderson6 place. Why Mr. Auld7, or any other banker, should have loaned about $8,000 to Guy Henderson on that property is beyond my comprehension. But since he had made such a loan, he (Mr. Auld) made good his loss by taking $8,000 which I had sent him, to invest for me, and turning the Henderson mortgage over to me in exchange. I did not even know I held a mortgage on the Henderson place until I went to Red Cloud8 some eight years ago. I had always thought that farm was the worst looking piece of farm land between Red Cloud and Hastings9.
Now, Mr. Crowell, you have been to a lot of trouble for me, and I must insist that you let me acknowledge my debt by sending you a check. As for the old chicken house on the Henderson place, you would have been welcome to that at any time. -2-If there is anything left there that would be useful to you, I beg you to take it. The check I am sending you is certainly not very large, but if times improve and we get a little more out of the land, my checks to you, as my confidential agent, will certainly improve.
Very sincerely yours, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let3164.xml
- Letter identifier
- 3164
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Willard Crowell 1
- Date letter was written
- March 2, 1940
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Person Annotations
Crowell, Willard (1885-1963). Webster County farmer. Born in Indiana, Willard Crowell came to Webster County after 1900, probably to join his elder brothers Henry and Omer; he lived and farmed in the Batin area from 1910 into the 1930s. He and his wife, Adelma (known as Lulu), had four children, Clarence, Robert, Howard, and Geraldine. Crowell was elected sheriff in the 1930s. He also helped Cather manage Webster County properties she owned or had mortgages on; they sometimes had differences of opinion on these business matters, but she was concerned when he had suffered a disabling fall in August 1943.
Cather, Roscoe (1877-1945) (“Ross”). Cather’s brother.
Roscoe was born in Virginia, the second child and oldest son of
Charles and Virginia Cather. After graduating from Red Cloud (NE) High
School in 1895, he taught country school for two years, attended the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln for one year (1897-1898), taught high
school in Carlton, NE, and Oxford, NE, and finally became superintendent of
schools in Fullerton, NE. There he met fellow teacher Meta Schaper, whom he
married in 1907. They relocated to Lander, WY, in 1909, where he opened an
abstract office and where their three children, Virginia and twins Margaret
and Elizabeth, were born. In 1921, they moved to Casper, WY, where Roscoe
became president of the Wyoming Trust Company, and in 1937 to Colusa, CA,
where Roscoe and his brother Douglass had acquired a controlling interest in
the First Savings Bank of Colusa. Roscoe served as president of the bank
until his death. Willa visited Roscoe and his family in Wyoming several
times and shared important travel experiences with them, including a 1926
trip to New Mexico with Roscoe, Meta, and their children and a 1941 San
Francisco vacation with Roscoe and Meta. She also relied on him to handle
family-related business as well as personal financial matters, and he was
one of her chief correspondents throughout her life. Roscoe served as a
prototype for one of the twin brothers in the Templeton family in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Henderson, Guy (1885-after 1940). Webster County farmer. Born in Kansas, a son of S. F. and W. E. Henderson, who had moved from Nebraska to Kansas in the early 1880s, Guy Henderson and his wife Emily, with whom he had three children, moved from Smith County, KS, to neighboring Webster County, NE, during World War I. He farmed in Red Cloud precinct into the 1940s.
Auld, James William (1876-1962) (“Will”). Red Cloud banker; Cather’s
brother-in-law. Will Auld was born in Marion County, IA, and
attended Simpson College in Indianoloa, IA. He worked at the State Bank of
Red Cloud (NE) from 1898 to 1938, first under his uncle W. T. Auld, who was
president of the bank, and then as president himself. He married Willa
Cather’s sister Jessica in 1904, and they had three children, Mary Virginia,
William Thomas, and Charles. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1933. While
Jessica and Will were still married, Willa Cather liked and trusted him, but
in the wake of the divorce, she blamed him for mismanagement of Cather
family financial assets. In later years, he lived in Lincoln, NE, and
remarried.
Place Annotations
