The following history I took from my Judd book. - Jeanne Oliphant Guymon
INTRODUCING RICHARD OLIPHANT
The following biography about Richard Oliphant in the Rare Books Department of the University of Rochester Library in Rochester, New York in the book The History of Oswego County New York 1789 to 1877, was found and copied by my sister, Margret O. Knaphus and her husband Andrew Knaphus and is included as follows:
Richard OliphantAmong the representative journalists of this country and state, none stood higher in the general estimation of the public than did he whose name heads this brief narrative, Richard Oliphant. We have before us numerous sketches of his life and character from which we glean the following:
Richard Oliphant was born in the city of London, on the 23 of January 1801. He came to this country and took up his residence in the then village of Auburn when he was twelve years of age. He early evinced a love for the “art preservative of all arts,” which he regarded, with professional zeal, as the most ennobling occupation, down to the day of his death. The first type he ever set was in 1810, when he commenced, like most boys in printing office, by setting “pi” in Russels Court, Drury Lane, London. The first regular composition he undertook, was at Auburn, in 1814 under the instructions of Thurlow Weed. In 1816 he commenced work for Skinner and Crosley, publishers of the Auburn Gazette. In April 1823, Mr. Oliphant set the first type that ever filled a “stick” in Syracuse. This was for John Dunford, who started the Onondaga Gazette, the first paper published in Syracuse and employed Mr. Oliphant as printer. The latter did not remain long at Syracuse, for during the year 1824 he started a paper at Auburn of which he was editor and proprietor, called the Auburn Free Press. This was a good-looking weekly for that day, and it was an enthusiastic supporter of John Quincy Adams. It was the largest newspaper in the state west of Albany, and a strong rival of the Cayuga Patriot, to which it was politically opposed. In 1829 Mr. Oliphant sold the paper to his brother, Henry, and in the month of November of that year, came to Oswego, where he continued to reside until his death. In an address he delivered at a supper given on Franklin’s birthday in 1860, he told how he came to visit Oswego. He said: “As early as 1822, I made a hasty trip to this then small village and [at] that time had as much idea of locating here as of planting a standard on the moon. Though passionately devoted to my calling, there were other passions and other attractions that drew me hither. A certain young lady, who has since grown rather matronly, had captivated my boyish affections. I was in pursuit of her, and as she resided some few miles east of this, my peregrinations took me through Oswego.”
These visits continued, until 1826 when Mr. Oliphant was married to Miss Anna M. Jones, the lady he referred to in his Franklin supper address. The nuptials were solemnized in a log house in the town of Scriba, and he added to the above, that “the humble domicile as fine in his eyes as any that now grace the city.” And that “ever since” he has “cherished a warm regard for log cabins.”
On the 17 of February, 1830, In Oswego, Anti-Masons founded the free Press and named Richard Oliphant as the editor. With a penchant for controversy, he filled its columns with attacks upon masonry and democrats, goading some of his less articulate opponents into violence. In March 1830, irate anti-Anti-Masons returning from a fire, wheeled a pumper to the front of the Free Press shop, and played the hose upon the windows, breaking them, and deluging the presses. Two frightened journeymen fired pistols, but fortunately did not injure their tormentors. They were arrested, nevertheless, and on the day of the trial, attendance was so large that the hearing was removed from the tiny courtroom to the Welland house. The defense argued that the men had only fired into the air to frighten their annoyers, and that the hosing was an irresponsible act of those entrusted with public property. But the jury found them guilty, and they were fined $50.
Mr. Oliphant issued the first number of the Oswego Free Press, which he continued to publish until 16 April 1834. On the 2nd day of January, 1837, the Oswego County Whig was started by A. Jones and Company, with Richard Oliphant as Editor. On the 9th of May, Mr. Jones withdrew, and Oliphant and Ayer, formerly of the Herkimer County Journal, became proprietors. At the close of the year, Mr. Ayer withdrew, and Mr. Oliphant continued the paper until 27 September 1844, which was the last of his editorial labors. After this time, he devoted himself to the job printing business which he continued to within 3 or 4 years of his death, when his sons, John Henry and Richard J. Relieved him of the cares of the office by becoming proprietors, although, down to the week before his death, he occasionally worked at the case, for which he used to say, “his fingers had an itching.”
In 1818, Mr. Oliphant published the “Western Wanderer,” a neatly printed volume; and in 1819, the Phoenix, a monthly paper, to which he was a regular contributor. He also contributed to the “Oasis,” a very handsomely gotten up and finely printed publication issued in 1837.
Besides being a pungent paragraphist and good political writer, Mr. Oliphant possessed a fine poetic strain, and some of his poems, which we have seen and pursued with pleasure, denote the innate beauties of his mind, while doing honor to his brilliant intellect, and his vivid imagination.
In a sketch of this kind, it is impossible to enter into the various acts of a long and busy life, and we therefore close with the following apt quotation from the correspondence of one who knew Mr. Oliphant well, and appreciated his worth heartily.
“Among the printers who knew him, he will be long remembered as one as whose proof sheet was free of all errors of the heart. Peace, then, to the memory of a brother typo to whom death so suddenly put his final period. The grim tyrant of the tomb seldom, if ever, embraced a husband, father, or friend with kindlier qualities of our humanity, than he who has suddenly been taken away. The earth clods of the cold and silent grave never covered a bosom in which beat a nobler, more generous, and truer heart, and he will long be missed with regret in the circles in which he moved.”
Mr. Oliphant took a deep interest in all matters pertaining to the moral and intellectual, as well as in the material, progress and development of Oswego. Especially with regards to educational affairs is it true. He lived to see the growth of the present excellent system of public instruction, and no one man did more to bring the schools up to their present high standards which are not surpassed by any in the state, that did he. For many years he was president of the Board of Education, and filled that office with marked ability and zeal.
At his death, which occurred 8 Mar 1862, Mr. Oliphant left a widow and five children, all of whom are living. Of the latter, John H., and Richard J., are printers (the former conducting the business of his father), Sarah E., is the wife of George B. Powell, Martha A., the wife of D.M. Mead, the druggist, and R. Amelia resides with her mother. These are all residents of Oswego.RICHARD OLIPHANT, EDITOR AND NEWSPAPER WRITER
As was stated above, Richard Oliphant started his writing at a very early age. He was well educated as will be evident in the following letter he wrote to Thurlow Weed, who he grew up with. Thurlow Weed was a publisher of the first newspaper in Auburn. Richard learned the printer’s trade, working under the instruction of Thurlow Weed in Auburn in 1814. Richard was only twenty years old when he wrote “The Western Wanderer” which he refers to in the following letter to Thurlow Weed:
Auburn, N.Y. - August 10, 1821 - Dear Weed, It affords a painful senation to look back to the enjoyment of our childhood, and contrast then with the melancholy change of after life; and was it not that a correspondence with one, when I have scarcely seen since these careless, infantile, happy hours, now inseparably connected with them, I would forbear the gloomy task of retrospection. You knew me then, as you knew many other, without regarding what might avail me in the after walks of life; you knew me as a young and thoughtless youth, who cared for nothing but the present moment. I thought of nothing and cared for less. I had no gloomy forebodings, no anxieties for the morrow. Misery was a stranger to me; and did I perchance prognosticate, it was always a phantom that deluded my imagination, and makes me now more dejected. I did little but “build castles in the air,” and they served to enliven me, and keep up, a little while longer, the groundless calculations of my silly heart. I was ignorant of the affairs of the world - the deceit of mankind, and the corruption of the human heart, and, my friend, I was happy in that ignorance; for the delusions and ignorance of youth, you probably have experienced, are sweet, this cold reality soon follows. Reality has overtaken me, and I find my self a gloomy, melancholy, fellow, with lonely sufficient resolutions to carry me through my daily avocations. I find all my former intention, to be sophistical and fallacious. And to the future I am unknown, but
“Forever thou I cannot see,
I grop in fear”
When you visited me last fall, I had been for some time, in [a] gloomy state of mind, owing to many misfortunes befalling with, a recital of which I will neither tire your patience, nor harass my own feelings; let it suffice, that by one villain or other, more deceitful than Lucifer himself, my generous heart was led astray, and I was duped out of more than eighty dollars. I do not tell you of those little incidents to hear myself prate, but to convince you of the confidence I place in you, and the friendship I have always maintained for you ever since our first acquaintance and which was greatly increased by our last interview. Your visit inspired me with new life and animation, new courage and exertion, and I dwelt with emotions of joy in the happy accident that brought us together, long after your departure, and [the] pleasing memory will bring it to mind, when we shall be much farther asunder, parted to meet no more.
Now what has transpired with T.W. [Thurlow Weed] is not for me [to] say; doubtless, however, you have seen many weary hours since we parted; as I am a firm believer, that
“Thou was made to mourn!”
You are now, I hope, settled, and consequently not so much exposed to the vicissitudes attendant on a less established mode of life. At any rate, I wish you well, and heartily hope your paper will be the source of a profitable emolument. I think it appears more favorable than your paper in Chenango. I keep a file of it, and therefore hope you will send it regularly. I have read your editorial articles with much pleasure, and [I] must say, I think they add much to the interest of the paper; I am likewise much pleased to see you devote a large portion of it to miscellany.
I still continue The Wanderer, to divert me in my leisure hours; but you will perceive by the number, that it is nearly completed. I shall, if I have time, after finishing this, write the sulstctory [word illegible]. Capatan is my signature. All that I have ever written have always been done in a hurry, and consequently appear in the Wanderer, unfinished.
If my commensing the correspondence, on the openness of this epistle, should, to you, wear the aspect of a boldness unbecoming or if my luonbrations are uninteresting, pardon this feeble attempt in one who has had but few opportunities or require mental knowledge, and who is now fully sensible of his ignorance. You, when I first became acquainted with you, was far advanced in the knowledge of the world, and professed of more than ordinary talents. I then knew nothing, and though I have since striven with might and main to acquire something, have almost ruined my constitution by intense study, I am now far below mediacrity. It is not with the idea that you will be much benefitted by my scribbling, that I wish you to write. But that I have not the talents, at least allow me a friendly, generous heart.
I have lately received a friendly letter from a Mr. Hunter (former partner of L. Woodworth,) promising to get me a place and advising me to go to New York, where it is my determination to go as soon as my time is out, which is the 23rd of January next.
If you will write to me, and tell me what issue of the The Wanderer you are looking [for], I will endeaver to send them. I observed a piece of factry marked in your paper a week or two ago, which I found to be very fine. I suppose you marked it for my perusal. Please write Monday, and should nobody call in my name for it, you will oblige, by sending it by mail, Yours sincerely, Richard Oliphant --- Mr. Thurlow Weed.
My time is out in about five months.
Living in the town of Auburn [see map on opposite page, Auburn is located on the upper right hand corner of map] , Richard Oliphant was the editor and proprietor of the Auburn Free Press Newspaper between the years 1824 - 1829. It was during this period that Joseph Smith received, translated and published the Book of Mormon. Richard was in a good position to write about these happenings although we did not find any issues which dealt with this. On closer examination, one might find articles written about this “Joseph Smith” who was causing such a great stir in the state.
The Landmarks of Oswego County another book, says that the newspaper called Equal Rights was issued in the village of Oswego in 1837, printed by Richard Oliphant for unknown publishers. The Oswego Patriot was issued from the Palladium office in the fall and winter of 1838-9, in advocacy of the cause of the so-called “Patriots” who were to invade Canada. On May 13, 1836, the Oswego Mechanics’ and Manufacturers’ Association was incorporated by David Harmon, Jr. Martin Curtis, Richard Oliphant, Elias W. Warner, John Carpenter, David Ayer, and W. Adrin. This was a charitable organization designed to maintain lectures applicable to the mechanic arts, and also to form collections, etc.RICHARD INFLUENCIAL IN POLITICS
Richard Oliphant was one of those people who struggled to effect change in the all phases of life in New York including canal building as is seen in one of his letters he wrote to the then governor of the state William H. Seward.
Richard Oliphant was also interested in politics, striving to get the best man into office. This letter written by Richard to William Henry Seward the governor of the state, is dated at Oswego, on January 27, 1840 and is signed “Your sincere friend, Richard Oliphant.” It is found in the Seward Collection at the University of Rochester Library.Dear Governor (Seward), In your note of the 20th instant you will accept my acknowledgments, and I would not trouble you so soon, did I not conceive it of some importance to communicate some facts connected with the general welfare of that party to which you and myself have been so long and so ardently attached.
Since I last wrote you, I have understood that it is useless for the Whigs of this county to say any thing as to the nominations for this county or vicinity, as they have all been settled by a little clique or regency, when its desire is to put all such matters at rest.
If Judge Grant is the man for Canal Commissioner, he will get much influence from Anandoga County - if he is not, we do not believe Mr. Beckman can be the man under any circumstance. He is overbearing in his deportment, and all together such a man as the people can not commune with. If the matter was left to the petitions of voters from this county, Grant would receive twenty names where Beckman would one.
But in any event Judge Grant can be provided for, and his friends who have known him for years, expect that it will be as a matter of course.
Another thing I would mention in all candor, and that is that the opposition make a great handle of the fact that you have said nothing about the Niagara Ship Canal. If we have a canal commissioner in this route, that course of complaint will be paralyzed, and you can do nothing for us.
You say in your note that you will converse with Mr. Dues on the subject. Did you say to him anything about my letter? And if so, may I inquire what he said to it on how he feels about it? Whatever you wish me to keep, shall be sacredly. I think much of Dues, but whether he has united himself with the interest of the cliques, I know not.
You can show this to friend Weed. I have not written to him at this time but you may say to him, if he can steal time from his arduous duties, I should be happy to get even a line from him.
Pardon my freedom - if I write at all, I must write as I feel. Just drop me a line. I shall only expect a line, know you must be distracted with business.
Mrs. O’s respects to you and yours. Your sincere friend, Richard OliphantA letter from U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward dated at Albany, November 16, 1840. It is in answer to Richard Oliphant’s letter above.
My dear Oliphant, I appreciate your solicitude in behalf of Judge Grant. I have a high respect for him and so strong a desire for his success in obtaining some situation that it might now or at a future time the desired mission be assured.
Of course I can’t know who will be candidate for the Whigs you allude to or what wants. If I knew all this I could but know that it would not be right and proper for me to interfere in the matter.
Hitherto I have deemed it my duty to withhold myself from doing any thing for any body in regard to office under the general government. I do not know whether it will be necessary to maintain this group. Jim must determine. In the meantime I can only say that when the time arises for professing Judge Grants candidacy if his wishes are then made known to me I will consider the matter as shall be my duty such as does of every public relations and responsibilities and I doubt not that my actions will be such as you will approve.
Grateful as I am to you and so many fine and so many faithful friends, the obligation I owe to all public - to become undecitedly and preceptible, is the struggle which must take place for office at Washington. I wish I had time to write you more at length but they must be brief. Even this narrative, short as it is can be about the opinion of my grateful and sincere friendship, Richard Oliphant Esq. Signed William W. SewardWILLIAM H. SEWARD, AN AMERICAN STATESMAN
William H. Seward was termed as an “American Statesman” in many history books. In the history book “History Reborn” by Vicki Jo Anderson, which is at present being used as a history book by a private LDS school, Heritage Academy, started by Earl Taylor and Glen Kimber as co-founders; this year it was made a charter school which means that it will be funded by public funds but it has a certain amount of leaway in what can be taught in the school. Mrs. Anderson has this to say about William H. Seward:
As Secretary of State, Seward’s superb diplomacy kept the European nations from taking advantage of this troubled land during the Civil War. His loyal support to Benito Juarez finally helped drive the French out of Mexico. After the death of Lincoln he helped implement Lincoln™s ideas for peaceful repatriation of the south. Seward’s gifted diplomacy saved his country in many instances, and his iron will helped restore a badly shattered nation. Seward is perhaps best known for his purchase of Alaska from Russia. This purchase is often referred to as “Seward’s Folly,” for many at the time thought the purchase was worthless. However, Alaska has returned to this country many times the value of the purchase price.
In 1830, he was elected to the state senate and later became the governor of the state of New York. He also advocated new and better organization of the public schools, supporting certain claims of the parochial schools for help. In 1844, he supported Henry Clay for the presidency and made speeches for him at public meetings.
One of his recurring themes was the immorality of slavery. In 1849, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and in 1850, while promoting the admission of California as a free state, he uttered these immortal words: “The Constitution regulates our stewardship; the Constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a Higher Law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes.” Because Seward was the organizer of the Republican Party, Lincoln chose him to be his Secretary of State.PHOENOMINAL GROWTH OF NEW YORK
The Oliphants and Youngs lived in New York during the early 1800 period. They saw it change from Indian paths and trails to the building of canals to the faster travel of railroads to accomodate the needs of the people to move from one place to another. For that reason a treatise of the changes made in transportation, learning etc., will be given here.
Our early highways were few and poor, and travel over them was very costly and beset with difficulties. Waterways had been improved to the benefit of the people of foreign lands, and accordingly progressive minds in America were busy with plans for like improvements here. George Washington, a surveyor and an engineer before he became a soldier and a statesman, was acclaimed by early writers as the father of American canals. Before the Revolutionary war he had succeded so far as to obtain official sanction for one of his projected plans. At the close of the war, but before peace was declared, he started from his headquarters at Newburgh and made a journey through central New York, especially to view the possibilities for inland navigation. The first waterway improvements in New York were made by a private company, chartered in 1791. Within five or six years the natural streams had been improved so as to facilitate traffic to a considerable extent, but the need of something better was felt, although the people were not then ready to commence the great undertaking which the situation demanded. The population west of the Genesee valley and even farther east was small, not because those sections of the state were not fertile and attractive, but people were slow to go far inland, where the bringing in of supplies and the carrying our of products could be accomplished only at heavy expense and with great risk.
The first roads built in New York followed the general early Indian paths and trails and many developed into our modern highways. The first roads were often terrible - clouded with dust in the summer and clogged with snow in the winter with spring and fall making them mud holes. They were bumpy, rutted, uneven, muddy, icy, dusty and dangerous most of the time. “Modern” ingenuity brought in all-weather roads consisting of logs laid across the roads which were called corduroy roads. New innovations, much less bumpy, were the plank roads whereby the logs were sawn flat and laid crosswise on the road. But these were expensive and since construction and maintenance lay almost completely a local responsibility, few could afford to build them. Farmers usually paid their road taxes with their own teams and labor. The plank road craze swept the state in the 1850’s. Improvements finally came with the advent of the bicycle and the motor vehicle.
The stagecoach was a favorite means of travel for passengers from about the close of the Revolution until the 1830’s, when the railroads started. Many early people were employed as agents, drivers, porters and many other jobs on the stage lines.
Roads were so bad in those early days that most people traveled on the waterways whenever possible. The Susquehanna River from Pennsylvania brought many from that state. They sought more land for less money. With the coming of the Erie Canal in 1825, great numbers of people came through New York, and many were attracted along the way and settled the areas along the canal. Passenger travel was heavy on the Erie Canal until about 1830 when it gradually began to lose out to the newer and faster railroads. [ notice map of canal system shown previously]
Canal building was a result of the deep need for better transportation in the New York area. It became necessary to bridge the gap between rivers and lakes. Agitation for the building of canals was almost constant. It culminated in the fabulous Erie Canal which was open in 1825, and was a financial success from the beginning. Freight rates were cut as much as 90% from Erie to Albany. The building of the canal itself employed thousands of people and the development of industry and settlement was phenomenal. The story of the change in the lives of the people is one of fascination and interest, especially to anyone whose ancestors were a part of this time and place.
The effect that this new transportation had upon the whole nation was powerful because the doors to the whole west were now open. The state of New York grew beyond belief with New York City promptly becoming the busiest port in the country. Cities along the canal route became boom towns. Points in Ohio were now open for passengers as well as shipping, and trade began with Cleveland. Boats took immigrants west and freight east.
It is important to remember that New York’s main transportation was over the waterways which were natural and that the turnpikes, canals, and railroads were only connecting links until about 1850. All kinds of boats and vessels were constantly busy on the lakes and rivers.
Fleet of boats leaving a Barge canal lock. Notice contrast in size of locks with the three old canal locks at the right.
THE STORY OF THE NEW YORK STATE CANALS
The Story of the New York State Canals - The canal system is of great interest because it is part of the history of our ancestors who lived nearby. The Erie Canal was built when they lived there and they traveled on them.
The 363 mile Erie Canal was opened with great ceremony in 1825. Dubbed variously as ‘The Grand Canal,” “Clinton’s Folly,” and “The Big Ditch,” the Erie has been recognized as one of the greatest engineering feats of its day. By connection the Alantic Ocean and the Great Lakes, the Erie opened the west and initiated a great surge of commerce and emmigration. A series of additional canals connected to the Erie Canal provided commercial transportation links throughout the Empire State.
The original canals were widened and deepened in the mid-1800’s and finally reconstructed into the Barge Canal in the early 1900’s. Known today as the New York State Canal System, it generally uses or runs parallel to the original canals, in many sections now utilizing rivers and lakes.
Here and there, one can still find vestiges of the Old Erie; a silent stretch of the original canal spared from being filled in; a preserved stone lock; remnants of an aqueduct. Towpaths, once trodden by mules and horses, are now grass-grown or transformed into pleasant hike and bike trails. Communities that sprang up along the early canal such as Lockport, Palmyra, Spencerport and Middleport still carry their “port” names today.
Those glorious days of a snail-paced life at four miles an hour, the packet boats and dandy skippers with stovepipe hats, the mule teams and “hoggee” mule drivers have all vanished. Nonetheless, the colorful and unique life-styles along the Erie, the canalers’ personal experiences, and their nautical fantasies were captured in stories and tall-tales or transposed into lyrics.All hail! To a project so vast and sublime!
A bond, that can never be sever’d by time,
Now unites us still closer - all jealousies cease,
And our hearts, like waters, are mingled in peace.[See map of canal system. Notice a closeup of Palmayra, Oswego and Auburn]
The first fleet to travel its full length was headed by the boat ‘Seneca Chief,” bearing New York State’s Governor Clinton, the Lieutenant-Governor and a company of distinguished citizens; the start from Buffalo on the morning of October 26, 1825 was accompanied by the firing of a cannon and this was echoed by the booming of a line of cannon stationed at suitable intervals all the way across the state to Albany and down the Hudson to New York City - a grand salute from a battery five hundred miles long, announcing to the people of the state the completion of the most stupendous undertaking of their time. The “Seneca Chief” bore two barrels of water from Lake Erie, which Governor Clinton emptied into the ocean at New York in a formal ceremony, generally referred to as the “Marriage of the Waters” between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.
The effect was soon felt, not only through the state but throughout the east and the Great Lakes region. Settlers flocked westward, forest gave way to sawmills and hamlets and these in turn grew into villages. Prosperous towns were established on the Great Lakes and a splendid chain of cities sprang up along the line of the Erie canal. It is difficult to realize the conditions that prevailed in America a century ago; we are likely to forget the magnitude of the undertaking and we lose sight of the tremendous difficulties overcome and the strenuous efforts exerted by the men who gave to the State her canal policy.
The locks system today is much different than that used when they were first built on the Erie canal. See picture on page to see the striking contrast in size of locks compared to the three old canal locks at right.
It is interesting to see how these canals worked to move canal traffic from lake to lake and from river to river. Each lake and body of water were of different levels necessitating their moving into locks which raised or lowered the crafts so they could continure their journey on through the canal system. Each lock had a different amount of feet to raise or lower the boat. (notice the New York State barge Canal map showing the amount of elevation getting greater, starting with 125 feet at Troy near Albany to 565 feet elevation at Buffalo.)LETTERS WRITTEN BY RICHARD TO CHARLES HENRY OLIPHANT
The following letters written by Richard Oliphant to his to son, Charles Henry Oliphant, give an idea of their relationship with each other.Oswego, N.Y. - 22 January 1849 - My dear C., Both of your letters have fortunately fallen into my hands in due course of mail. I regret that they are not such as I think you ought to write to me. I should always be as pleased to hear from you, and would be as happy to write to you when time and circumstances allow, but to make this correspondence pleasing or profitable, you must adopt an entirely different strain, and I do hope you will be satisfied, and reflection that the style you have adopted is but illy calculated to heal a wounded spirit.
I wish not to hurt your feelings. I shall ever aim to spare them, let your course be what it may to me. And I hope I shall be granted in my expressions in this, though you certainly have not been very careful as to yours.
I should have answered you long since, but I know my seceptability, my sensitiveness and I felt you had wronged me without cause, I was afraid to trust my pen till the excitement should subside, lest I might say something which I should afterwards regret, and I would now merely state that you are mistaken with regards to my promising to write at such a time but even if I had so promised, it strikes me it would have been more becoming in you to have found out the cause of my remissness, before you undertook to chastise me - especially when you remembered how very remiss you yourself had been with regard to my letters.
But I wish not to recriminate, I desire not to open old sores. If I know my own heart, I love you with a feeling that you do not understand, but which is pure, ardent and disinterested. I do devoutly wish you well, and whatever promises I have made you, will if in life, be fulfilled. I think of going to visit my mother in a day or two, and I had thought I would call on you; but I cannot. My wife will be with me. I hope to see your city on the first running of the boats. Write to me still, and you know what will please me as well as I know myself. Try to govern yourself, for without self-government, you never can aspire to anything noble. I say let me hear from you, but say nothing you are not willing anybody but myself should see and you may still rest assured I am your real and devoted friend. R.-----Letter from Richard to Charles dated 7 January 1851 - Oswego, N.Y.
My Dear C.---- Yours came duly to hand, and for my not answering it at once, you may again have fallen into some ungrounded fears, through your extreme sensitiveness. But now let me say once and for all whether I write you or not, whether I visit you or not, my feelings are the same towards you. And any apparent neglect on my part, rest assured, is thru some cause beyond my control. If it were so that I could, I would write you every week and visit you semi-annually; but I cannot do it. I am more confined that ever; and you know too I am growing somewhat older than I was twenty-five years ago. I cannot endure what I once could and comparatively I write nothing. It was only last evening I made a brief reply to a letter from my brother at Washington, which should have been answered long ago and letters from my relatives at Auburn are still unanswered. Still they do not think I love them the less; nor must you think so for one moment. My writing days will soon be over; but while I can write, you shall at any rate have your share of my communications. You would like them the better because they came from my whole hand.
If I can, I still mean to see you this fall; but you must not take it to heart, if I cannot bring it about. And here let me say once and for all, you must not think, when you do not hear from me that I have forgotten you - there is seldom a day to passes without my having thought of you and yours more or less. My writing day, however, is about over. I seldom write save on business. My own brother at Washington, I have not addressed since last December.
I cannot now write you as I could once, for I am oppressed with business. And besides I am afflicted with a most wicked bile on my hand. This is a visitor I have not had for more that twenty years.
Remember me kindly to your chosen one. I do not know her, but if she is kind to you - if she is loved by you, my affection is hers on your account if for nothing else. Long may you and her enjoy each others society, without one word of discord - with naught but smiles from either. Oh! Love one another and then the world may smile or frown [whether] prosperity of adversity may beset you. You will have a little world of your own, of happiness and love.
I send with this a letter on the subject of your last addressed to Fox O. Miller on your request. Although I have put prices low, I will give you for your benefit something off of what I have stated. Still I must act cautiously or I shall be betrayed. This letter of course [is] private and confidential; but by this I do not mean that I desire any secrets from your wife. She is the recipient of your secrets. And I shall not detour you the notion of making her a partner in your correspondence. Still a farther explantion should deem a breach of confidence. I have no fears. I hope your little ones are well and will long prove a blessing ad comfort to you both.
If you travel, shall you want the cards you spoke of when [you were] here? Hope I will cheerfully print them for you.
And now my dear C. believe me as I am in weal or wo. Yours truly, R _____ P.S. Remember me most effectionately to Mrs. B. and little Franky. I love them both. When you write, tell me what Mr. Miller it is.Letter from Richard to Charles in Rochester, N.Y. dated - Aug. 18, 1851 Friday Morning Oswego, N.Y.
My dear Friend, I am exceeding low [in] spirits. I will not write now only to say that I want Elizabeth to take the B-train immediately according to the directions. I shall see her soon if all be well.
One of the patterns for it is longer than neccessary but she can keep the supplies for making new sleeves, or anything else. There was so much in the piece, and I told the merchant he need not cut it. The toys for the little ones had better perhaps be owned by both conjointly, and then there will be no jealousy as to who has the best. I hope the children will be pleased with them. Tell them to be good boys, and love and obey their parents, and then I shall love them, and will come and see them before long. I hope the cards will suit you and do you good in your new location. And now Charles, you may kiss Agnes, and she can reciprocate in my name, and I subscribe myself. Your gloomy friend, R_______. P.S. I hope you will drop me a line to let me know whether you receive this all right, and I would like to know how A. likes my selection for her dresses. I meant to have enclosed this in the parcel this morning, but in my excitement, forgot it.
Do not be offended at my paltry presents - they are sent more as a token of remembrance than for value. Friday afternoon - the parsel will be in your city this evening.Letter from Richard to his son Charles, written 24 September 1851 from Oswego, N.Y. This letter was written just after Charles had seen some bad times. He was sick and was out of work so he went to live near his father in Oswego. Concerning that time, Charles says: “During this time I was badly hurt by a scaffolding falling, broke my right arm; while it was healing I went to visit my father at Oswego in September 1848, I commenced business - bought a city lot and commenced making me a home. This house became my home in 1849. In it September 25, 1849 my son, Richard James was born. I built a shop and carried on business until I left that country.
“The first two years of my residence here, I had much sickness, probably mostly caused by excessive labor. At one time for eight months I was helplessly sick, and once was supposed to be dying. Along through these trials and labors, there was mingled a spirit of uneasiness, a desire to gather with my relatives in the West. Often in a dreary mood, I have looked to the West, desiring to travel that direction. With changes involving prosperity and adversity, I spent the time until 1851. September 25 of that year my third son, Edwin Colt was born. Through sickness and adversity, my home was sold and about two weeks after the birth of my son and before my wife was in safe condition to move, I had to move out of my home in quite a destitute condition. Anticipating the coming evil, through the influence of my old friend, Professor Burbank, who was at the head of an old institution of learning in Wyoming, New York, I visited him in company with Henry A. Ward. This resulted in my moving to that place, where I arrived with my family during the holidays in the winter of 1851 -52. This was 40 miles from Rochester, and this move effectually took me out of the unfortunate groove in which I had been running.” The following letter must have been written to Charles just before he moved to Wyoming, N.Y.Oswego, N.Y. - 24 April 1851 - My dear C. - Your late note came freely to hand. I have read it more than once or twice, read many times with emotions alike - of pleasures and pain - of satisfaction amid regret. I was always pleased to hear from you, but I must explain that you havn’t cause (it is very hard to make out these words). I am satisfied with you, but I regret and I felt extremely bad, that I have been so remiss.
I hate apologizes therefore [I] make none. I am not in a frame of mind were I want to do so. I am sorry dear C., [that I am] very unwell. I have been so for more time than not,` and it is in suffering both physically and mentally that I address you. If you knew a society of my distress in the head, you would feel for me.
You speak of my long neglected visit. It is all too [pios, it looks like] and for me to enter into an explanation would be [abasing. it looks like] I meant to have been with you again many times ere this, but believe me it has not been of my choosing. I did intend to have visited you, on the 9th of the present month, but circumstances over which I had no control, prevented me, and now I cannot say when I shall be able if ever, to leave town. You will remember, that I am over fifty years of age and that many cares are very heavy and oppressive. Still, if you can stay in Rochester, I trust it will not be long ere I give you a stroke of the hand, and as you say you have rented your house for a series of years, will you write me at once, and tell me all your plans, - if you intend to move, where to, and for what purpose?
I would rather you would stay where you are, but I acknowledge you are, by no means bound by any wishes or advice of mine, and I shall not cherish one unkind feeling, let you pursue what course you may, that will tend to your comfort or advantage. I would like, nevertheless to have you here in case of emergency, I could visit you. Write me privally[?] tell me all of your mind - you know one thing, of any note - no one sees your letters to me but myself. If you think of moving, where?
I send you a proof of a card I got up for you -- if you stay in Rochester, tell me how to change the location, and I will alter it, and strike some off for you, or if you would like some struck off for another place, you shall have them. Tell me how you like the design of it - it is mine, and perhaps that will make it please you.
When you write (and I hope it will be at once), tell me what articles you most need for your little family, tho’ I may not be able to help you.
Remember me kindly, affectionately to Agnes - kiss the little ones for me.
Remember me also (if you let her know I write you) to Frances, her husband and my dear little Franky, who, I suppose, is now quite a girl, and has long since forgotten me. Well, it will be but a short time, I feel, before I shall be forgotten by all.
Do let me hear from you, and believe me, ever, as I am, Your real friend, R_____Letter from Richard to his son,Charles Henry Oliphant, dated 20 April 1854. In the following letter Richard showed love for his son and was sad to see him leave to go to Utah. He was concerned about his health and about keeping from Charles’s friends the truth that he had gone west to join with the Mormons.
Charles had written to his father to send some seeds to him in the west, to plant in the new area of the Rocky Mountains where the Mormons had located themselves. I will quote part of this letter:Oswego, N.Y. 20 April 1854 - My Very dear Charles, It is so long since you have written me, that really I began to think you would forget how to address me, but while I would not have you engage in the labor of writing even to me, to the injury of your health, for the word, I am truly glad to hear from you once more, and the more so, as it convinced me your health is better. Long may it be precious to you, with every other earthy blessing. There is a part of your letter which would seem to require my first attention, and that is the subject of seeds. I am sorry but the thing is utterly impossible. In the first place, you wish them by the first of May. Yours came to hand on the 18th and you will see at once this requirement is out of the question. In the second place, we have no seed store, strange as it may appear, in the city, and it would be vain to attempt to find what you require in this place. If indeed I could find them, I could not send off such a box with out its being known, and it might result in consequences painful to us both. I would really be glad to serve you, and if I should go to New York, or any other place, where they can be got, and where no suspiciions will be aroused. You shall be remembered to the best of my ability, though I am wholly unacquainted with the business, and might but illy serve you after all.
I think of going to New York, but this must depend upon my health, of which litterly I have to be very careful.
By the way I am going to Rochester in a few days, if all be well, with my youngest daughter. I have not been there since the time you remember, when I called on you. I know not how I shall get along with matters; but fear I shall have to evade the truth, which thought annoys me. But I think I shall not admit I have heard from you since you reside in Iowa, and certainly not admit that I was emmessary to your going, which by the way I was not. I would have rather you staid, but if you are going to do better - if it is going to conduce to your health, or happiness, though I tell you frankly, as I told you, when I parted with you it cuts off all hopes of seeing you again. It is a cruel thought, and often causes me suffering. Still I yield because I am compelled. Charles, do you ever think we shall never see each other again? If you do, I know it will give you pain, and as I wish not to add one pang to your bosom, or cause one melancholy reflection to warp your mind, I will say no more on the subject. Keep up good spirits - do not injure your health - be happy in your wife - do not think of getting another, let those around you do as they please, and I hope your best days are to come.Remember me kindly to all your uncles. James wrote me a cold letter on your account. I lay up no thing against him. He did not know me. I do not believe either of the other brothers would have written me such a letter - no matter. Let by-gones be by-gones. Remember me affectionately to your Aunt Fanny, and if it is lawful, you may give her a kiss on my account. I think if I were there, I should be impelled to the liberty for “old lang syne.”
Thank Agnes for her letter. Tho I mean to write her in a day or two, I will say no more about her.
Write when and as often as you can, and believe me ever your affectionate - R.
The following is a letter written by John Oliphant, to one of his sons, possibly Richard, dated 18 November 1831 in Auburn, New York shortly before Johns death.Letter VII To His Son. Auburn, N.Y. Nov. 13, 1831.
My Dear Son -- I have been exceedingly gratified, in receiving your pleasant communications, both as it regards your health, and your feelings, respecting the glorious displays of the riches of divine grace, in the recovery of guilty, and polluted, sinners, from ruin. My soul prays, for you, that you may retain these anxious desires, for the salvation of men; ----- to serve the blessed Redeemer; that willingness to work, the work of him, that hath sent you that will bear inspection, in the light of eternity; that preparedness of heart, to meet temptation, and in the midst of snares, to go right on your way. My dear son, in order to do this, you will have to cultivate, and be in the practice of living near to God, of lying very low at his feet, watching unto prayer, and hanging upon his arm every moment, for every separate duty; and for resistance to every sin. May my son find out what the most Holy means, when he speaks of singleness of eye, of simplicity of heart, of that tender love to your dear Father, that casts out all fear. Dear son, being shielded by the armour of God, and having on the breastplate of faith, and love, watching unto prayer; and leaning on the strength of the Almighty, you may be saved from backsliding, and from dishonouring the most Holy Lamb of God, as I have done. (The rest of this letter and his other writings are in the back of book.)The reader may see from his above letter written to one of his sons, possibly Richard, that John Oliphant was a very religious and good person. I do not know what feelings he had about the emerging Mormon church, but to say the least this church was causing a very great stir among the many other churches of that day and probably the church to which he belonged. The Mormon Church was organized 6 April 1830 shortly before he died in Auburn 8 December 1831; he probably was aware of it because of his close proximity to Palmyra.