Letter, Wilford Woodruff to Ezra A Scammans, ALS
Salt Lake City: December 1896. Document. 2 pages.
[note written vertically] part of a Copy of A Letter to Ezra A Scammans Colombos Kansas
Salt Lake City Dec [28/23?]/96
D[ea]r Ezra A Scammans
Dear Friend
I have just rec[ei]v[e]d your very interesting Letter Containing the Account of the Death of your Mother & our Beloved Sister Rhoda F Scammans but she lived to a great age and was justly beloved by all who knew her. Sister Shuah of Scarboro is all that is left of the family I have recorded in my journal the funeral Notice of her Death I will have all also published in the Deseret News the Funeral Notice I will forward a Copy to You Now Brother Scammans I have a favor I want to ask of you that is this I want you to send me by Letter the age Birth & Death of your Father And the Date of the Marriage of your Mother to him I keep an Account in my Journals of all our family affairs & I would like to get an Account of what I speak off now Father Ezra Carters family has lived to a great age most of them I attended the
funeral of Sarah Foss she was about 95 I think Father Carter was about 96 If I live I will be 90 the first Day of March Next I am the oldest Man of my Fathers House left in America for the Last 200 years except 2 My Great Grandfather was over 100 years I had an Uncle 92 I had one brother Die the next year is his 90 year
How long I shall live I I [sic] know not I ha[v]e suffered a great Deal D[ur]ing the past Year of my life I have hardly slept 3 Hours a[n]y night d[ur]ing the past year I am suffer[i]ng with the insomne [insomnia] or Athsma [so?] one half of the time Nights I do not sleep at all but get up in my bed room read Books or papers & get a knap of sleep in the morn[in]g from 6 to 9, perhaps an hour &; occasionall ^occasionally^
sleep an hour at my Offi[c]e in the Day time for [an?] year &; could not not [sic] lie on my Left Side a minute I suppose it was the Aff[l]iction of the Heart but I have been bother now force while I ride from my farm to my Off[ic]e by Morning And am at my Desk soon after 9 oclock And I never had more work to do in no part of my Life than at the present time Our office is Crouded Daily with Men upon E[ve]ry variety of business And Hardly a Day passes but what we have Meetings upon business I have a great Deal of Brain work Never more than at prese[n]t Concern[i]ng our family affairs I will say I never [hear?] a word from Shuah I think she Never writes to Me and I dont know what her age is I think she is younger than Either Phebe or Rhoda I should pleas[ed] to hear from you at any time I dont know how m[a]ny children Sister
Rhoda has
Respectfully Yours
Wilford Woodruff
Ezra Arthur Scammon was the son of Rhoda Farnum Carter, sister of Phebe Carter (Woodruff’s first wife). Phebe was born in 1807, her sister Rhoda in 1809 and Shuah in 1811 (she was, in fact, younger than the other two). Rhoda F. Carter Scammon died on December 18, 1896 in Kansas.
In his journal entry for December 21, 1896, Wilford Woodruff recorded:
I received a Letter from E A Scammans Son of Dr Ezra Scammans wh[o] informes me that his Mother is Dead on Friday Dec 18, 1896.
||Rhoda F Scammans was Born March 12, 1807 Died Dec 18, 1896 Aged 87 years 9 Months &; 6 days||
Thus all of the Carter family are now Dead Except Shuah who lives in scarborough Maine[.] I wrote a Letter to Dr Ezra A Scammans
The notice of Scammon’s death was published in the Deseret Evening News on December 22. Condition: Very good. Item #41354
Price: $10,000.00