The Andrew Wylie Family Letters - Indiana University Bloomington

is a heaven on earth to live near to Christ, & tho’ young yet I often think it would be far better to
depart & be with Christ -- O what can the world give to allure the soul to time! all is vanity -- Let
us watch & be sober & have our lamps trimmed & our loin’s girt about waiting for the coming of
our Lord & Master.
I have taken a fearful cold--have been in bed, have much work to do, pressed with duties,
meetings almost every night--& for me to write must often really take the time I ought to be
spending in sleep. To see you all I long for it, but to come out now would be impossible, much
exposure now would almost kill me; I often ask myself when I shall see you. I was at Milton the
other day & Theodore is very anxious for me to beg you to come on & pay them a visit & stay
there & it would be a visit to me too, as we are near together. Do write soon & may the God of
love keep & bless you with all sptl [spiritual] blessings --
your affect bro
Anderson
Andrew Wylie Jr. to Elizabeth Wylie McCalla, Bloomington, Indiana
Washington 19 th Feby 1859
Dear Sister
Your letter announcing the decease of our beloved mother was an afflictive missive to my
heart, unprepared by prior intelligence for the sad announcement. I had been hoping to see her
again some time during the approaching spring and to take little Andrew with me. But I am never
more to behold her in this world. She has been removed from us to that better world whither so
many of our family had gone before her, and whither, through God’s good mercy, I pray we may
all be advanced after the few years or days which may be allotted to us on earth, have passed.
So distinctly come back to my memory the visions and incidents of my own childhood, when
our parents were both in the prime of life, and we the children, were at home a united & happy
family--that my lifetime, thus far, appears to have gone like a vision of the night, and I wake
and find that I am myself growing old, and must expect ere long to follow our dear parents &
brothers along the dark way which they have passed, as I trust, to join them again in that happy
land, where youth, and union, and joy unspeakable shall be ours for evermore. Thither we are all
tending swiftly as time can carry us. Nor do I mourn my fate. When the final hour comes (and
soon it will be here) when I shall be called hence, it will prove a sore trial to bid farewell to my
precious wife, and boys; but oh, how greatly sorer would be the trial, if I knew that the separation
would be eternal. I shall go before them, but they will soon rejoin me; and this reflection will
lighten the pains of my departure. So is it with our beloved parents & brothers already in their
heavenly home. The heads of the family are there; there, is now the family homestead. They
are now six in number, and we are but eight left behind, and scattered in different places of the
world. In a few years we shall be again united. May God in his infinite mercy grant this for
the Redeemer’s sake! Aunt Catherine Leake has also been recently taken from this world of
trouble--a troubled world it was to her, of poverty, of suffering, of cares, of disappoint ments, of an
anguished heart. How grateful the relief, how joyful the change to her emancipated spirit.
It is my intention to go West the coming Spring and to take Bloomington on my way
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returning. I cannot speak positively however of either the visit, or the time; but think I shall go,
and probably in March or April. Tell Redick to keep his feet dry and to put a plaster on his breast.
Something of this sort he must do, else he too will soon be followed to the grave. But for care of
this kind, I feel assured, I should myself, at one time, have fallen a victim to consumption--that
dread destroyer of our race.
Your affectionate Brother
Andrew
Mary Caroline Wylie to Margaret Wylie Martin, Bloomington
Alexandria Feb 19 th 1859
Dear Sister Margaret
Your letter was a messenger of sad sad tidings. Oh tis a bitter thought that we are never
more to look upon the dear face of our Mother -- home is bereft of its best and loveliest attractions,
Father and Mother both gone! -- Oh that we could live such lives of purity & religion as
to insure us a happy meeting with them in those regions of the blest to which they have gone,
hallowed are their memories! -- It must have been an unspeakable consolation to you to be able to
close the eyes of that dying Mother, & catch the last faint sounds of her fleeting breath.
You do not speak of Elizabeth’s being present at the afflic tive scene, & I presume she is
still in Cleveland, what steel to her heart will be the announcement, as it was to all the absent
ones, my dear husband, Irene, & Anderson --
Little Andrew was much affected by the tidings, he has often expressed great fondness for
G.Ma since his visit to Bloomington-
You have our heart felt sympathies both with & for you-- especially for Jennie for she has
no husband & children to turn to & cling more closely to, in this hour of trial as we have.
Redick was a devoted son, he will miss dear Mother sadly when returning from his
evening labors -- Mr. Wylie expects to visit Bloomington some time in the Spring, and it would
afford me sincere pleasure to accompany him that I might see my relatives in Bloomington, as
well as Chicago, to which point, & even beyond he intends to extend his journey, passing by
my sister in Ken tucky, but the expense and fatigue incident to such a long travel compels me to
remain here during his absence -- I am still nurs ing my infant, & should have to take him, and a
nurse, and Andrew is in too delicate a condition of health to think of my being separated from him
--
Andrew is improving now, but had been confined to the house for two months from either
a sprain, dislocation, or rheumatism in his hip, we think perhaps an injury received at school when
engaged in some sport with his play fellows --
You say Mr. Martin talks of settling in Texas it is a very delightful climate, and I should
prefer--(from various accounts I have received of it) to living there to almost any of the Western
States -- There seems to be quite a tide of emigration that way from Virginia,--many of her
wealthy and influential farmers removing there -- I should like particularly to see your dear
children, and also Elizabeth’s little girl --
I am very sorry to hear that Redick has a cough for I think the lungs the weak point in the
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