I have two large file boxes to comb through FULL of all the hard work
my Grandmother Acelia C. Hall had done on the
genealogy of our family. It is a task that relaxes me, and excites me at the same time.
While I was looking through a few papers last night, I came across this little envelope, and here
is what I found inside.....
"Nellie Fenton Carey-
Written 1949 after first reading of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass-"
(Nelly's handwriting)
On the bottom of the envelope, my Grandmother (Nelly's daughter, Acelia) wrote..
"Mother knew him when she was child in Sea Isle. N.J. He stayed in their hotel"
"Nelly Fenton Carey 1949
1879 Apr. 24- (born)"
She puts the page number where the quote is found..
Page 100 1949
"There is that in me, I do not know what it is, but I know it is in me"
Nelly writes..
"When a child of about eight years (I was born 1879) Walt Whitman was a summer boarder
at my father's hotel
-Minerva House-
Sea Isle City N.J"
"I remember him well and remember one day on beach when
he was talking to his friend Dr Elton-
Vineland N.J.- Walt Whitman threw back his head and
opening his shirt said I am different from many men. I have something
different inside- here- and he almost pounded..."
"...his chest as he said it-
It made an impression on me for I wondered just what he had
in there. I can see him now perhaps a picture in a child's mind
for I do not really know how he looked in about the year
1887..."
"...but this is my memory picture- partly grey thick hair and long reaching to his
coat collar- kindly and almost child like in manner-
Once when some unruly...."
"....children named ? with money but no breeding pushed
my brother and me down into a pile of clam shells and
then ran- Walt Whitman wiped some blood..."
"...from my nose with his handkerchief and said "Dont cry child
and nevr forget no one can hurt you but your self." I thought at the time
he wouldn't think so if it was..."
"....his nose but knew of course long afterward what he meant
Dr. Elton had a pair of ponies "Pet & Dally" and the two- very old
men, they seemed to me- rode......"
".....in a straw
phaeton, I suppose it was- at low tide every day-
and several times my sister and I had the pleasure of
riding and holding the reins...."
"...I am now almost seventy one- a widow with four grown sons
a daughter ten grandchildren and one great grand child and am
reading Leaves of Grass......"
".....for the first time- What a wonderful man and what a
wonderful message. In Song of Myself (meaning I am sure "All Men"....."
"...he says- "There is that in me-I do not know what it is but I know it is in me-"
just what I heard him say when I was a child."
