CLARA BARTON GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Golay, Jules & Harriet B. Dec. 1864- Dec. 1881White Hall the 4 Decem. 1864 My Dear sister! These few words are written with my right hand; I never did before, and I go more slowly as with my left. But everything must have a beginning and in a few days I shall write quicker and better. I am so glad to show you how much better is my arm. And the day where I shall go visit you is not distant. Is our brother doing so well as me. I wish I was one of your laborer for go with you to see your sick and wounded soldiers. I can put on the both sleeves of my coat, and the wetter persevering to be like in spring I go work every day from morning to night. If you please, answer me to that question: Shall I ask a furlough for Christmas, can I go to visit my sister?I have read in the papers a deserter of the tenth army corps was shot the 25 of the last month. But I have presumed too much of my strength. I can not write any more with my right hand. Every days I read the news papers; and the most interesting news for me are those of the James. With my books I learn many words; but I do not any progress for the prononciation. The choice of my words, and the all syntax of my letters are ridiculous, and I never will write in English to anybodyelse as you. If I had my sister for teach me now than I am healthy, in few months I would speak very well. But alone I learn what I can and not what I will, nevertheless I hope to do any progress in the language of my new country. I think seriously for the future, because I shall be able to do any work in few wheeks, and so soon I can I will leave the hospital; but I shall do nothing without the advices of my dear sister. I shall write my farawell with my right hand, and pray my sister to accept the true love of her young brother. J. Golay Miss Clara Barton Flying hospital of the 10th Army Corps Near Richmond. Va RISTOL DEC [6?][*33*] [*re Jules Golay*] [*[1864?]*] It is a question in my mind if I shall receive your full forgiveness for the great liberty I take in [writing] addressing one [you] a gentleman, to whom I am an entire stranger whose position I should have whose sincerity . I should [reserve?] - Still there is between us one tie that binds and upon this alone I depend for pardon for my freedom of action in this instance - The name whom you list I [have] found and having [kept] retained him [with] near me [at?] [this time] so long, it is perhaps proper that I should report to you the progress - he has [made?] and the relative one sustain Eight months ago, he fell [into] under my care, in front of one of our [beleagured?] cities, [sadly] fearful, sadly wounded, he had done a soldiers duty bravely, but one thought it was his last - Still his youth, a strong constitution and a well- [....... .....?] mind [performed under?]for him, and to our surprise and joy he evinced signs of recovery - His intelligence interested us and we made every effort to sustain him - in spite of all we could do he suffered much, but manfully and well, being almost upon the open field, and in the midst of a moving fighting army he [suffered] lacked many comforts - but made no complaint - he had been brave and we honored him - he had been unfortunate and we pittied him He had come to us in the day of our sorest need and we thanked him - he had struck brave blow for human liberties in a country not his own and we blessed him - he had given to us forever the manual use of his good right arm and we loved him. It is often a [subject] matter of astonishment - of wonder to me why he [came] left his, such a home as he must have had in his own lovely country to come to us in our destruction & grief - and it is still a wonder why he [does not] remains with us - It is true [our that] America may be a better country in which to reap a quiet harvest - fortunes are made here rapidly I know, but he has not ever signified to me that this was his desire - Education, manners and talents like his will always open wide the door [of] to a genteel, nay even luxurious living in any country, and to these qualities of mind & power he adds an industry that should in [this case?] a country like ours bring him affluence. If this be his object he keeps his own wise counsel, [but] and is never idle - and it is but just to add that he enjoys the full confidence and respect of every person who [acquaintance?] he has found since I first knew him His assumed relation with myself often brings a smile to face, - While yet he was lying weak and frail [like a child] in his little army couch - and I had neverseen him upon his feel and never expected to, he asked me one day with all the innocence of a child if he might be my brother. I replied yes, my little brother (for I had [none]) never had one) and I am greatly his senior he grasped the promise with the modesty of a boy and has held it with the firmness of a man - nothing for a moment caused him to forget the relation if he sees me sorrowful he tries [..............?] to cheer me, if oppressed with care, he tries to help me think, and if he sees my two hands laden as sometimes would be the case in the singular one like I have lost, he comes generously to my side with his one to lighten the burden [.........?] I have come [.............?] upon him [.....................................................?] forget [that ..................................?] is not a real one - [and .......................?] is a gentle sister under your noble roof where pure and [role?] claims freely a kindness, and to whom I should promptly yield, [....?] I should be very very sad to lose my little brother, even though he [...?] should go to her - I do not infer from this my dear sister that I should say one word [..........?] your son to remains away from his home and relatives. I shall not - but [if he] while he decides to remain in my country. [I must continue to cannot] it will be my pleasure to [but] render him every service in my power as well for his meritorious conduct as from all that he has so profered for us for the affectionate regard he has always evinced for me - You [.... ....?] must have looked with interest and perhaps at times impatience upon our protracted and terrible war which we believe to be near [at end] - nearly at an end - The north has never regarded it other than a matter of time. [......?] we were sure to conquer but who can measure the precious blood that has been spilled. Thank God it is so near over - and with it forever fades away the stain of human slavery [forever] from our [lannes?] [I hope] I must my dear sis ask your kind pardon for [.....?] writing you a letter of such length and in a language not your own. [I regret my inability to write or speak your elegant tongue] but I can scarcely persuade me that yourself are a stranger to me, for so much ofsympathy, has gone out to meet you during these past months I have thought so much how you must all have suffered from the heavy affliction of this absent one - that you have all grown very near to me - I believe I am waiting for Sister Elizas letter with as much interest as Jules - And dear sir once more, let this interest long cherish - plead my pardon of the gracious hands of one free citizen I entertain sentiments of the Most profound [highest possible] Respect - Clara Barton Monsieur Isaac Golay Geneva Switzerland Dear Sir [*May 18, 1865*] Washington DC May 18th/65 Hon. W. Wilson My dear friend I think you will pardon the liberty I assume in bringing to your notice and for your possible consideration a disabled Soldier of our Army - A few words of his history will express my request. - Last Aug. this young man was [brot?] into the field hospital from the Petersburg front - in a supposed dying condition having suffered [exaction?] of the right shoulder joint - [and ... of bone -] He was a native of Geneva Switzerland, [spoke] and his intelligence and refinement at once attracted attention & was the [.....?] of the whole Medical Staff. [every effort was made to revive him], with great effort he was saved - has been discharged and is now with me in this City. He proves to be the [youngest son of one of the ...........Judges of Geneva] youngest son of Monsieur Isaac Golay one of the oldest Judges of the Supreme Courtof Geneva - with whom I have been in correspondence since the accident = [The son only] Up to the age 19. had been educated in the best schools of Germany & Paris from which latter place he left without his fathers knowledge to come & enlist to America for Americans, for the reasons given me in broken English the day after his wound. that he [styles?] all Republicans should fight when a Republic is in danger - this was his fifth wound. - He is perfect master of French German & Italian languages [and ...?] [to] was proff of mathematics before he left the German Schools - He likes America and desires [to remain here until he perfects our language and learns ... the lessons of our ancestors] - learn our [language & dreams of] remain to being a citizen but is ambitious & would support himself. From this I present his case to you and ask for him a situation in some Dept until he should have decided upon his future course - His knowledge of written English is astonishingly [correct] accurate - having learned from books rather than conversation not one American clerk in ten [twenty fifty] whose orthography is as correct as his - he can write all day, but of course it is hard - hence a [n...?] copiest would be use to check he could be put. but if some position [which requires ...] requiring intelligence, [...?], responsibility, [mathematical] "ready reckoning," a acquisition with languages. something later adjustment of foreign accts. could be assigned him, that he would in my opinion be found [....?] [adaptive to it] invaluable. he is diligent - faithful, and energetic - [and if it were worth the while to mention the subject of morals, I can make cheerful testament to his] and perfectly correct in his entire deportment -Sir - I have the Honor to request an appointing as Govt Clerk in your Department Yours very respectfully Jules Golay [*33*] [*Jules Golay Answered Nov. 10-67-*] Georgetown D.C. Thanksgiving day. Dear sister Clara, We received two days ago your kind little letter of the 23d inst. It found Mattie almost well and already out of bed and she is this minute rocking herself in the chair with her baby in her arms. She wanted to write you herself, but you know it is only two weeks since our darling was born and I do not think that she ought to do it, but if you send us your address she will write you next time. We think that we have a very very nice baby, and every one thinks so, and we feel very happy and grateful, Mattie's health is very good. could not be any better under the circumstances and she bore cheerfully and patiently her confinement, and I feel stronger now and morecourageous than ever before. We had to take care of Mattie and the baby an elderly lady by the name of Mrs Knight she was recommended to us by Dr. Magruder of G. who attended Mattie. she is still with us at present, but will soon go as Mattie hardly needs her any more. Rosa came to the house yesterday. she was well Mattie tells me for I did not see her myself being in the office. she said that aunt Sally was sick with a lame back got tired cleaning the house. I knew nothing about it until last night, and mean to call on her today. Congress has met as you know, and they will keep themselves busy, for there is enough to do for the country. Among their committees, is the committee on retrenchment now investigating our bureau, we are burdened with work by those investigations. one is no sooner ended than an other begins. and as none are favourable to the present organization. I expect (I have very good reason for it, some relating to the counterfeits of 7-30 which after all seem to have come out from an impression taken in our bureau. on a genuine plate) that this committee will soon offer a resolution abolishing the bureau, thus I will find myself out of government employ. and if I succeed in my present enterprise, will not try to obtain an other position. Long ago if you remember, it was my intention when Dor. first came in Wash. to start with him the same kind of business in which I succeeded well in Europe the sale on sample and on commission for manufacturers and importers. Dor was sick and disheartened. and my project fall into water (as the Frenchman says) but although it slept, it was not dead. andbetter I know this District the more I see the possibility and even certainty of making a better, more independent and more honorable living than to keep in Government business. I have not work enough there, and it is an uncertain position. and as you told me when I first took it, it is a life of routine which like solder's life if followed for a number of years unfit any one for anything else. It has so far proved a blessing to me it has afforded one an honorable easy and renumerative position, especially when I was then unfitted to do anything on my own responsibility, wounded and stranger unacquainted with the language, it had not been for such a position. I hardly know what I should have done, and would probably have been obliged to return broken of body and of heart to my forever distant home, and now when I look around me and find myself so comfortably situated, happier than ever before in all my life. blessed with all that can make man happy. I never forget that it is to you that I owe all that. first from the day when you picked up your little brother in the woods of Virginia, sick, fainting, sore, wounded and bleeding. and when I thought myself that I could not live. and to this day as I have always told. I believe that had it not been for you, I would this day sleep in one of these lonesome and forgotten graves marked "Unknown" What difference between my life of then, and my life of this day, and when comparing them it seems that I should not try an other life, feel satisfied and enjoy my present position as long as it last. and many would call this plan the wisest. but you know that this world is advancing. why should Ilazily look on and do nothing? No. I am now younger and stronger than I will ever be, and if do not try now, I never will. With energy and industry I know that I will succeed if I can obtain the confidence of a few good manufacturers to represent them in this District, and act as their agents for the sale of their goods. I have all ready written to different parties trying to interest them in my enterprise and to give me moral help, the only kind of help that I will ask. I have written to Willie Child trying to have the agency of the [?] mill of Oxford. I have also written to Jerry Learned of Worcester through Elvira and as Worcester has many manufactures, perhaps he will be able and willing to do something for me. I have written also to parties in N. Y city unknown to you, and have secured the agency of a few firms, but nothing very important and if I succeed well I will take my license in a few weeks. (it will cost $100) and then start business. A few months ago, I asked you the address of E. B. Ward of Detroit. Mich. asking you if I could refer him to you for information about myself, and you told me I could. I will write him as soon as I have time, for running two machines at once take every moment I am out of office, and perhaps for your safe, he will do something for me, and if you see him, I know that a few words from you would do more good than anything else on my favor. In your perigrinations all over the East and West, you have good chance to see men of business whose goods would be saleable in D. C. and who would be glad themselves to find a new outlet for their articles if their interests were intrusted in the hands of a faithful and careful agent. If you know any such menyou would do me a lasting favor by sending me their names and address and allowing me to use your influential name on my behalf, that is to refer them to you for information. I wish you could spare a few minutes of your time to answer my letter, and tell me what you think of my project. a few words of encouragement from you would do me more good and give me more courage than anything else, for although full of resolution and willing to persever to the end. I realize perfectly well that I am a little stranger boy in a big strange land, all that although I am a father! Mattie sends you a great deal of love, she was very happy to hear from you, and wish you to write us as often as you can. Always loving you tenderly, we remain your very affectionate Jules for Jules & Mattie Georgetown D. C. December 17, 1867 33 Dear sister Clara Jules Galay I received last Saturday your welcome letter written in the Express Train. Probably that you did not know where you would be when it would reach us as you did not give any address, but I hope that as one of my letter directed to Wash. reached you safely, this one will do the same and arrive in time to wish you a merry Christmas and happy birthday and that you may enjoy a great many more of them. I have been thinking of you all these days, wondering if you were not snowed up for the telegraph brings the news of great snow storms almost everywhere, and here we have had more of it than I ever saw before in Washington. I wish you could spend Christmas with us, it brings so many recollections of the past, and it is so long, so verylong since we sat at the same table... I hope that we will see more of you next spring and summer than we did this year. I have decided to give as far as I am able a fair trial to the commission business, and if I fail it will not be for want of energy or perseverance. I am certain of success if I can only obtain the confidence of a few good manufacturers, but unknown as I am will I succeed? I have formed a copartnership with Mr Brooke, and old friend of mine, he is an energetic and reliable young man, almost as poor as myself and with a wife and child to support. We shall try if by uniting our efforts and energy we can arrive at something. The 20% bill for the clerks has been defeated. The Calvary Baptist Church corner of [G] and H was burned down last Sunday. I have been a long time without hearing from Geneva. Dear Clara I know that you have but little time and feel often tired, but will you not try to write sometime a votre affectione frere Jules Golay Cassie dear, This is the first time I have attempted to write since my baby was born and even now she is screaming at the top of her voice while Jules is making nearly as much noise trying to quell her. She rules the house completely shows more temper than a child six months old ought to Wednesday.. I had got just as far as you see last night when Jurles and the baby grew too boisterous for me and I was obliged to stop and quell the riot. I see that I have not given the little Miss a very good recommendations. She is bright as can be and very sweet when she is not crying. I am very impatient for you to see her. Would you call her "Antoinette" forher grandmama Golay.? that is her name Jules tells me. I have nothing to write that will be of any interest to you, and I will not trouble you with little unimportant gossip until you have more time than now. I love you very much and hope that you think of me once in a while. A few lines from you would make me very happy but I know just how busy you are & shall not feel piqued if I do not get a letter Jules is good as he can be gets me everything I need for my comfort and more too.. He thinks the baby is very nice and we both want you to see her. she has very beautiful eyes. Please accept much love Aff Mattie [*Jules & Mattie Jany. 1868*] [*33 Jules Golay*] Washington D.C. October 15th 1869 My dear sister Clara, I received two days ago your dear letter of the 22d of September. You can imagine if it was a treat. You have so many friends interested in your here. that I read it to a few, and, by this time everybody knows where you are and that you arrived safely. The favored few who read the letter were: Ida, Mamie and Miss Willards, cousin Rob. S. Hale and Mr. Hitz - The later had the best of me, he had a letter from Mrs. Hitz dated four or five days later. and written after you had been to Lausanne - I am obliged to work in the office from 7 1/2 A.M. to 10 1/2 P.M. we are employing double force now, it is rather tiresome but it does pay just my pay - Mamie has been here for nearly three weeks. she likes it very much - I think she has improved wonderfully, she is no longer the shy child she used to be and although very bashful yet, she behaves more like a young lady. We are fast friends. last Monday we had a holiday on account of the death of ex President Pierce. and we drove around the city: the Soldier's home, Cristal Spring etc. It was one of those beautiful fall days like we have in Washington - Our horse Major trotted like a race horse that he is, on the shady avenues of the soldier's home. seeming to enjoy it as much as we did. We picked up a tremendous I hope your health will continue to improve and before returning to the U.S. you will visit our poor lonely Brother Dor - Forgive this hurried letter. I shall write better next time. I will write soon to papa, Eliza and Louise - Good bye darling sister Clara. across the ocean I send you a hundred kisses Your affectionate brother Jules I have not had a chance to see aunt Sally since I received your letter but I saw her a week ago and she was very well -[*Jules Golay and H B G*] [a]ppetite and went to Harvey's for our dinner, [the] afternoon we passed in the Smithsonian admiring the mummies and other antiquities - knowing Mamie as you do, you know how much she enjoyed looking at the birds, nests, eggs, - etc. etc. After that we went to Miss Willard's. Mamie got dressed and we started for the Opera, the Riching's troupe being in the city. You see that we make the best of our holidays. Was not that too bad poor Abram went as far as London for nothing, it would have been so much more comfortable for you if you had had him to travel with you across France. He seemed to be on a wild goose chase also when he went to Lausanne for Mrs. Hitz. It was lucky you arrived just on time for the fête and I am very glad you enjoyed so much. Mr. Hitz gave me several numbers of Le Journal de Genève giving a full description of it, still I think Louise's letter was the best to read. You will all have seen by this time the picture of Hattie sent a few weeks ago. I am sure I thought I had told you to tell everything about my plans for the future - You have done so of course [now ?] that you understand that it is no secret - Darling sister, never fear to be a trouble or an expense to our dear friends at home - They will be very very happy to have you there as long as you are pleased to remain, they love you and treat you as one of the family, when you go you will be regretted as much as I would be myself. You have seen by this time that our folks at home are plain honest people, you must not ever feel that you are not at home at Geneva, we all wish you to consider it as, they all write me how happy they are to have you with them - Washington, D. C. September 20th 1870 My dear sister Clara, I wrote you last addressing my letter care of U. S. Consul at Geneva. Have you received it? Having not heard from you for a long time, I write again, hoping to hear from you soon. You have no idea how much I miss you, and although there is more than a year since you left the U. S. even now, I cannot realize that you are gone. Often whenI pass in front of the little house corner of 6th and Pa. Aven. it seems to me that the face of my loved sister ought to appear at some of the windows of the cottage. When shall you come back? Mr. Westfall tells me that Dor. has left Seychelles if I had known where he was, I should have written to him. I hope he will return via Europe, and you will see one of your big boys. If I have not had direct news from you, I hear you spoken of, and I never meet one of our acquaintances without having your name mentioned. If you are very far from us you are still farther from being forgotten - I have read a letter from you in the Independent, the number containing it must have sold better than any other. Ida has spent three months in North Oxford, and Mary took her place for nearly two months. The Secretary of the Treasury having enforced the rule of "not two of the same family in office" we could not keep Mamie and Ida. I have become your neighbor, having bought a house on C street between 1st and 2d opposite Mr. Halstead's house -How is your health? Your cousin the judge, R. S. Hale, thinks that you would have been better if you had spent the summer with him in Elizabeth. By the way the judge has resigned his position as special consel of the Treasury Dept. and has gone back to N. Y. He was nominated on the Republican ticket as one of the judges of N. Y. unhappily the Democrats have gained the victory. I felt very sorry for the judge. I see Mr. Hitz quite often. he is very well, he is always the same gracious, kind and [*Jules Golay Sept 3/70*] generous gentleman you know. When Hattie was in Maine this summer we were solacing each other. I am sure that he misses his wife very much. I have just got back from N. Oxford where I have spent a week. I took Mary home with me and brought Ida and Nettie back to Wash. Everybody is well in N. Oxford. Sam Barton has got an other little boy 10 days old. Emilia is already out of bed. When I was in Boston I went to the office of B. B. Vassall but he was on leave. I met Fanny Vassall in the carsbetween N. Oxford and Worcester. She was very well, and told me that Ber. was well. Cousin Elvira is very well also. Ada, now Mrs. Clark has you know perhaps lost her baby. My position is always the same, well paid. ($3,500 per annum) much labor and responsibility, that I do like for I am strong, but there is also much hate, jealousy, and prejudice against a stranger holding an honorable position. It is hard to have so many enemies, it renders me old and sometimes I regret my old position of clerk. A man is learning every day, yet a certain kind of ignorance is certainly bliss. You also my poor sister have passed through it, you have been hated for the very good you have done and hatred made you older than years. I am becoming gray too, but all is for the best in the best of the worlds, and the hatred of men has made me love God better. I have come to the conclusion which you reached doubtless long ago, that there is no true happiness except in trying to make others happy, and by good example, to raise, even if ever so little the better aspirations of mankind.What sad news we receive from Europe. "La belle France" devastated. how many tears. how much suffering, and how few angels of the battle field there is there! Of course you are near the sufferers, there you are doing good, and as usual praise and blessings follow you wherever you go. Good bye dear sister write soon to your affectionate little brother Jules Golay Washington D. C. November 18th 1870 My dear sister, The same day that I received your dear letter of the 15th of October written from Strasbourg I read in the "Chronicle" extracts of a letter you had written to Mrs. Griffint and dated Carlsrue - and the next day joyous tidings of an armistice of twenty five days reached this side of the Atlantic. I do hope it is true. The good work is going on here to raise funds for the relief of the sufferers both in France and Germany but by what means they expect to reach the sufferers I know not. If they knew that you are among them trying to relieve the sufferers why should not the people of the United States send their supplies to you? It seems to me, that a direct appeal to the people, through the press would bring forth much of what you need. Why don't you try? Have you heard from Dor since you wrote me last? A few days ago an other little girl made her appearance in my house, making me feel very much like a father now. Dr. and Mrs. Barrett are spending the winter with us and it has been a great comfort to Hattie to have her mother near her in her hour of trial. She is doing very well; our little baby weighed 10 1/2 pounds when she was born. Ida is pretty well and still lives at Miss Willards. Stevens has a position in New York and boards in Brooklyn with his wife.Uncle David Julia Mamie Ada and her husband are all in the old home in North Oxford. A few weeks ago I was in Boston and saw Col. Tuft and Miss xxxxxx that lady friend of yours who was in the office with Col. T. when he was the Mass. state agent in Washington. They are with Bernard in the same office in the State House. Ber. and Fannie still keep house in Worcester. Aunt Sallie has not been well for a long time, so Ida tells me for I have not seen aunt Sally for many months. Mr. Westfall is well. I met him yesterday and he inquired for you Mr. Parker whom I saw and gave him your message was very much pleased that you remembered him. He said: "Tell her that I have her picture in my album and it is among my choice pictures. Now remember that much, will you?" Sam Barton and Emily are well. Elvira is well. she has had her house renovated this fall. and it looks like new. Robert S. Hale is also very well he passed through this city a few days ago on his way to Richmond. Rosa and Jerry are keeping house and doing well I think when last I saw Rosa she seemed to be very contented. Mr. Hitz is very well. I saw in the papers that you were the guest of the Grand Duchess of Baden. allow me to congratulate you. Hattie sends her love to you and will write next time just no she keeps in bed. Good bye darling sister, when you can spare time write your affectionate little brother Jules Golay [*Jules Golay 33 Nov 18 1870*] OFFICE OF GOLAY & MORRILL, MANUFACTURERS OF THE PATENT "COMET" FIRE KINDLER, 289 EAST KINZIE STREET, Chicago, August 15 1877 Dear sister Clara, Your long and welcome letter has just reached me. I will answer it briefly at once and at lenght in a few days. Hattie and I will call on Mrs. Weeks this evening. I write to Abraham by the same mail and if my letter reaches him you will probably hear from him. It would be I think very good for both of you, if he can be of any real use to you as I hope he will. For the last two years we have not been blessed with a surplus of this world's goods, but keep hoping that the future will be better. Hattie sends her love. Will write you at lenght after seeing Mrs. W.[*Jules Golay*] GOLAY & MORRILL, [703 FIFTEENTH STREET, OVER THOMPSON'S DRUG STORE,] [WASHINGTON, D.C.] Chicago, Ill. Nov. 14 1877. Dear Clara, I had to leave the City sooner than I expected and felt sorry not to see you again before going. It is probable that I will be in Wash. before you go North. Hattie and Nettie send their love to you. Yours truly, Jules Golay Your affectionate brother Jules The last address I had from A. was 183 Wooster St. New York City [*Needs no answer*] Return to GOLAY 289 East Kinzie Stree If not delivere OFFICE OF GOLAY & MORRILL, MANUFACTURERS OF THE PATENT "COMET" FIRE KINDLER, 289 EAST KINZIE STREET, Chicago, Nov. 29, 1877 Dear sister Clara, Your postal of the 21st inst. is recd at the same time a long letter from Abraham. There are no news here, my hopes of going to Paris are growing beautifully less, my friends quarrel more and more bitterly with the administration, and for the first time since I have been in this Country, the Democrats have a majority in the Senate. Under the circumstances they have something else to do besides interesting themselves in poor me, and, if I am disappointed, I am not surprised at their forgetfulness. Well, it is said that all is for the best in the best of the worlds, if we only think so, and although for one I try hard to do it, I fail sometimes in the most dismal manner. How are you getting along? When you are not too tired, and feel like it, United States POSTAL CARD WRITE THE ADDRESS ONLY ON THIS SIDE- THE MESSAGE ON THE OTHER U. S. POSTAGE ONE CENT To Miss Clara Barton. Care of John Hitz Esq. Cor. of 6th and C Sts. S.E., Washington D.C. Ansd. [Nov?] 21 - [*[33]*] [*40*] [*Jules Golay*] 601 N. Wells St Chicago, Ill. Nov. 22 '78 My dear sister Clara, During the last six weeks of the last session of the present Congress, I have been employed by the House Committee on the Expenditures of the Treasury Department. I worked as well as I could. The Chairman was satisfied with me, and told me that he would employ me again this winter. Unhappily, Mr. Glover the Chairman of the Committee, failed to be renominated for the next Congress and he has just written me that he was broken down in health that a scoundrel had been elected in his place after having obtained the nomination by the grossest frauds, that there was no encouragement in looking into crookedness, that he cannotplease write me all the news. Direct letters 269 Erie St. Have you written again to your friend in Chicago? Hattie and the children are well and send love. Remember me respectfully to your friend Mrs. Shepard. Your affectionate brother Jules do much during the next session and that he does not think that he will need my services. This places me in a very awkward position, I depended on that place, and hoped to save enough during those three months to start again in Chicago my little commission business, and now I have no money to do it with. If I could borrow $200 for six months, with interest of course, that would put me on my feet again, and there is nobody in the world of whom I would ask such a service except my sister Clara. If you can possibly do it, I have no doubt that you will, and I believe that you would make a great effort to do it, if you could realize what a help it would be to me. We are all well here, living by ourselves in our humble little home. Hattie would send love, but she is out, and I have not told her that I would write to you. Hoping that this letter will find you happy and in good health, I am as ever Your affectionate brother Jules Golay 601 N. Wells St Chicago Ill. Ansd July 8, 1880 to 601. Wells St Jules GolayAnswered, Dec. 17 1880 Mrs Hattie Golay Brewer Maine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 This seems like the old army days Jules GolayJuly 5. 1880. 601 Wells St Chicago Ills. My dear Miss Barton, Jules wishes me to write you that he has been obliged to have his right arm amputated. He has been suffering with it for months past more than usual and finally about two weeks ago it became unendurable - The Dr. examined it and said probably an abscess was forming - After a few day the abscess showed itself and was lanced -He was taken to a Hospital near us and there the Drs. made another examination and decided that the arm must come off to save his life. The bone was so much diseased that he was in great danger of blood poisoning. So last Saturday the 3" the arm was amputated. They say he is doing as well as they can expect but of course I still feel that he is not out of danger - To-day however he for the first time expressed a wish for something to eat - I go in the morning and stay all day with him and sometimes all night = Abraham stays at night too and another young man has stayed - The Brothers give him the best of care but cannot be with him every moment as I can - Luckily our girls have gone out into the country not far from here to board for a month and I am entirely at liberty to be with him. He wrote this little scrap on Sat - which he wanted me to send you - Abraham has been very useful and very kind - He is at work and doing very well. The children are well and very happy - Nettie's health seems to improve every year - How do you do dear Miss Barton?Jules will be glad to hear from you - Fortunately the weather has been cool and comfortable - Jules sends love to you and I wish to add mine - Very truly Yours H.B. Golay. I should tell you that the Dr. found where the ball had hit the bone and they say if the bone had been cut off a inch more in the first operation all this might not have happened - [*Answered July 17 1880*] 601 Wells St - Chicago Ills. July 13. 1880. My dear Miss Barton - Your letter to our dear Jules came yesterday and Abraham has told me that he sent word to you that Jules has left us. He died July 8" at one o'clock after two weeks of great suffering - so great that when I think of it and recall his peaceful face after death I can be glad that he is at rest - You know his life had not been an easyone in many ways. He died of pyremia - blood poison - and the Dr. tells me now that it has been coming on a long time and that the arm should have been taken off long ago but how could we tell that when he could use it comparatively so well - Tho' for a year it has been growing more and more painful at times - more easily tired - But it would have seemed unwarranted to have made any cutting into the arm for so slight (as it seemed to us) a cause - He put all his affairs in order tho' he had not much to leave - and said what he wanted done as to his funeral etc - He often said he hoped to get well but it would be a satisfaction to his mind while he was sick to feel that all was settled - We buried him in the simplest manner as he wished - You know dear Miss Barton how much we have lost and how full of promise he was - I have been touched to see how nearly he was appreciated by our friends here and I [could al] wish he could have known more fully their kind feelings while he lived for he often felt misunderstood and sad in consequence - I shall go to Brewer to my parents as soon as affairs are settled. They are aloneand need me now that I am not bound here by Jules' business as we used to be - I shall have to stay here until Aug - but then I hope to go to them - I think the free country life will be good for the girls - I have two of my own - Cornellia nine - and Juliette seven - I shall hope to hear sometimes from you for I have a very tender feeling for you for Jules was so fond of you and you were so kind to him. Every one who loved him or whom he loved is doubly dear to me now - I am not very well - am feeling the effects of watching and anxiety - but I suppose I shall soon be better as I am naturally strong - Very truly yours Harriet Golay. [*re pension for Jules widow*] Brewer ME - Dec. 11. 1880 - My dear Miss Barton - I have often thought I would write you of our safe arrival here and our comfortable home with my Father & Mother but I don't know as I should have chosen so unseasonable an home as this - nine o'clock Saturday night - if I did not think you might give me a little help - A lawyer of Chicago - Jules' friend and mine is interesting himself in getting my pension and me Yours very truly H. B. Golay - Brewer Penobscot Co. Maine.he thinks as did Jules before his death and after his amputation that Jules should always have received a full pension and he proposes applying for the difference between the pension Jules did receive and the full pension - He wants some facts as to the former reopening or abscesses which Jules had - Do you know anything about them when they took place and where Jules was. It was before I knew him so I could give no information on the points but it occurred to me that perhaps you might have known of them and could remember about them - Should you not consider that Jules was unfitted by his wound from performing manual labor? Are you well dear Miss Barton? And still at Dansville? We are settled here for life as far as I see and I think it is a very happy home for the girls to grow up in - They are very well - Nettie grows strong every year I think - they are now going to school in Brewer but I suppose they will go to Bangor in the spring - Carrie Brown and the children have made a visit here this fall - Father Brown is in a [*33 Jules Golay*] Dear Mary - Dec 27. 1881 I have been asked by the Pension Office to give proof of the following: "the dates of birth of all the soldier's children claimed for, proved by a verified copy of the church record of baptism: or public record: or by the affidavit of attending physician or of private attendants who should state how they are able to testify for the precise dates -" Can you help me anysad state - almost blind - unhappy and his mind failing - Mother Brown devotes herself to him and keeps well - My Father is as perhaps you know almost entirely blind but is cheerful interested in all that goes on and with no signs of mental failure - Both he and Mother seem to enjoy the children and I hope our being here will add some brightness to their lives - I hear of Abraham as prosperous and well - If you can give me any help in these matters I shall be very much obliged if you will write me at your earliest convenience as it is important to get the business ahead as fast as possible - And [receive?] about Nettie's case - do you know who was the physician or if there were any public record or in fact anything by which I can find out about it Will you answer as soon as possible - We are all well except slight colds - The girls had a very Merry Christmas - With wishes for a Happy New Year for you and yours I am yours truly H. B. Golay