Hap­py spring every­one!  We hope every­one is enjoy­ing the first few days of April.  With East­er com­ing up on Sun­day, we decid­ed to post a Camp­bell let­ter about the East­er hol­i­days.  On April 7, 1836, Hugh Camp­bell wrote to his younger broth­er Robert from Philadel­phia.  He says that “Vir­ginia, Har­ri­et, and A. Matil­da have been dai­ly mourn­ing your absence dur­ing the East­er hol­i­days.”  The Vir­ginia who was miss­ing Robert so ter­ri­bly over East­er was now 14 year old Vir­ginia Kyle, who Robert would mar­ry in 1841.  Hap­py East­er and hap­py spring from Camp­bell House Museum!

Philadel­phia April 7th 1836
Dear Robert
A few days after you left us I wrote Mr. S. giv­ing my views in oppo­si­tion to your design of vis­it­ing the moun­tains.  I sin­cere­ly hope that both you and he will coin­cide with me and alto­geth­er aban­don every thought of fit­ting [?] out any expe­di­tion which may require your per­son­al guid­ance.  You will great­ly relieve my mind by say­ing that you have arranged mat­ters so as to be enabled to remain at St. Louis.

I called on San­drette on Sat­ur­day last request­ing the trees for friend Sub­lette.  The ice had not then dis­ap­peared from our streets.  Our equal is not yet in oper­a­tion and under all the cir­cum­stances he feared that we could not man­age to send them in any thing like prop­er sea­son for replant­i­ng.  He had not final­ly decid­ed on not send­ing them and I con­clud­ed to leave the mat­ter to his own option.

The woman and child of whom I spoke arrived here two or three days after your depar­ture.  Owing to the dif­fi­cul­ty of con­veyance my canal I have been unable to send them to Pitts­burg.  They are still in the city but will short­ly be off, if in my power.

Your neg­li­gence in omit­ting to write me from Pitts­burg or some oth­er point in your route has giv­en me some uneasi­ness.  I have been ashamed to answer the inquiries of your friends (and real­ly you seem to have a good­ly num­ber) by say­ing that not a line has yet been received from you although you are now 3 weeks gone!  Vir­ginia Har­ri­et and A. Matil­da have been dai­ly mourn­ing your absence dur­ing the East­er hol­i­days.  Our neigh­bors Mr. Miller and fam­i­ly have also been mak­ing kind inquiries for you an din short all our vis­i­tors seem to think there is a void in our soci­ety since you bid us “Good bye”. [End of pg. 1]

[Pg. 2] The great press of busi­ness hav­ing par­tial­ly sub­sided, I have turned my sit­u­a­tion to Mrs. Kyle’s mon­ey [not sure that’s the word] and am not get­ting [?]___ the prin­ci­pal part of the order, which will be for­ward­ed about a week hence.  I will then write them for­ward­ing bills and direct­ing Bess to come down to St. Louis and com­plete the assort­ment from stores in that city.  In the mean­time you will oblige me by call­ing on Mr. Sproule and request him to give me through you a brief abstract or mere­ly the bal­ance on her two accounts.  She has one as admin­is­tra­tor and one indi­vid­ual account.  When I know the state of those accounts I can give such advice as Bess asked for with regard to remit­tances in her last let­ter.  My opin­ion is that if they can spare the mon­ey they should send some to me and avoid get­ting [?]____ (me maybe?) so deeply in debt for goods they order from me.

Mary wrote you late­ly.  She talks of you a good deal and I believe regrets your absence near­ly as much as she did mine.  Both she and Har­ri­et are ask­ing me to request that you will make it a point to be here very ear­ly in the sum­mer.  I think a lit­tle trip to Cape May would be of use to you and should you come on I will make it a point to lay aside the cares of busi­ness for a brief peri­od and go down there with you and Mary.

Mr. Gill con­tin­ues as when you left him — appar­ent­ly in good health but in real­i­ty hold­ing his life by a very inse­cure tenure.  He is quite rest­less under his con­fine­ment.  I fear his first effort to go out will be his last for any excite­ment is like­ly to prove fatal.

Archibald is busy prepar­ing for the cares of house­keep­ing and has already pur­chased most of his fur­ni­ture.  I under­stand he is to be mar­ried with­in a fort­night but hav­ing avoid­ed all con­sul­ta­tion on this mat­ter I am unable to talk any thing of his views.  He will in all prob­a­bil­i­ty imi­tate Mr. Bak­er in his state of living.

It is now late and I am fatigued.  Shake hands with my friend Wm. L. Sub­lette and say some civ­il things to all oth­ers who may inquire for me.  I earnest­ly beg you to write us fre­quent­ly.  We are uneasy on your account and you know it but I have no time to chide you.
Good night!!!   H. Campbell
[End of pg. 2]

[Enve­lope]
[Post Mark] Phila
7
Apr

Mr. Robert Campbell
Saint Louis
Missouri