A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

Not great poetry, perhaps, but they were married 3 September 1851.In 1850 men were going West to seek gold in California, and Alfred Arnold among them. Mygrandmother (his daughter Carrie) used to tell me that he did find gold and bought back five twenty-dollargold pieces which she had in her toy box as a small child.Mary Ann’s second husband, John Stevens,, started in California at this same time--perhaps withAlfred?--and never returned. He died 13 November 1850, probably in Nicaragua, which was the quickestroute to California.In 1857 Mary Ann sold her property in College Hill and moved with her family to Columbus,Indiana, where married daughter, Elizabeth, was living...Daughter Deborah and Alfred Arnold went toowith their three children and shared a house with Mary Ann. Before long they were again running aboarding house.A memento of this home was sent me by a cousin: a slip of what she called her Aunt Debby Rose. Ithad accompanied them on their various moves...In 1876 daughter Deborah died, leaving Mary Ann at loose ends once more at age seventy-eight...”The Bard acrostic, dated September 6, 1850Doomed as I am, in solitude to wasteEach present moment, and regret the past,Bereft of every joy, I valued most,Old friends torn from me, and my dearest lost;Regard not this I wear, this anxious mien,As dull effect of humor, or of spleen!Ha! Still, I mourn with each returning day,All those - in early youth snatched thus, away;Nor think that I - through years of doubt and pain,Not fix’d in choice and faithful - but in vain!Belief (sic) me then, thou generous and sincere,An eye that never yet denied to wrongs a tear;Real claims of friendship, still thy heart well known,Doth think that lover’s are but fancy’d woesAlas - ere yet his destined course half done,Behold a wanderer on a wild unknown!Alas neglected on the world’s rude coast,Reft of each dear companion, valued most,Nor ask why clouds of sorrow shade his brow,Or ready tears wait only leave to flow;Let all that soothes a heart, from anguish freeDelight the happy - but it palls with me.If you think the fore part of this Acrostic a fit and worthy production for your Album I have no objectionsto your copying there as a token of respect for a friend whom you have often solicited to favor you withsomething of the kind. But if it don’t meet with your approbation make it a burnt offering to the flames isthe request of your---Ever Sincere Alfred34