[Letter to James and Frances Chambers - April 6, 1925]

Text: "Chester, Virginia. April 6, 1925.
Dear James & Frances:- Are you dead? I have not heard from you for so long. Did you go to Houston the first of March? As you expexlpected to? I will leave here Thursday the 9th for Tulsa, I will stop and spend a week or two, with Beulah, if nothing hapens [sic]. I wish you could both have been with me on my […] visit I have had, two weeks ago today we went into Richmond to hear Billie Sundy. The Kiwanis Club had him thair [sic] to speak they were having a big time in the afternoon 2:30 he held service in the old City Auditorium seats 5,000 people. Every seat was taken, and people stood up around the wall and sat up in the windows. They reserved 1,000 seats for the club members. I wish you could have heard the music. A man & woman from New York sang “The Old Rugged Cross,” the most beautifull [sic] thing I ever heard. Then men sang one was the Frenchman, one a Swede, and one Englishman, they all sang together & each sang in their own language. They had such wonderfull [sic] voices. You just felt like you wish they never would stop just sing on & on, it was so beautifull [sic]. Billie Sunday has a clean good face, his sermon was fine. He is not still one minnet [sic] just goes as hard as he can up & down the the altar or platform. And his gestures are just like he was playing baseball: His voice is not very good. They say he is loosing [sic] his voice. I hope not. After service we went to the All Saints Cathredal [sic] (Catholic). I wish you could se it. It is so grand and beautifull [sic]. I wish I could describe the Jeffersion [sic] Hotel, said to be the most beautifull [sic] Hotel in the south. I will have to describe it as best I can when I get home, after we left the Cathredell [sic] we went over thair [sic]. It extends from Franklin St. to Main St. You go in on Franklin, and about one hundred feet from the main entrance is a fountain, and a life size Statue (Marble) of Thomas Jefferson, made buy [sic] Robert Valentine sculptor (Irving cousin). I will have to describe the interior of the Main Corridor when I see you. We have been going in every week to attend lecture service at St. Pauls Cathredal [sic]. That is such a beautifull [sic] old church, where Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson Davis attended. The building is so beautifull [sic] inside. Galleries on both sides & end. UP across in front-of the alter [sic] is six big marble pillars, [sketch] curved across the front like this. The windows are large & beautifull [sic] nearly all memorial windows. Thair [sic] are Bonze Tablets on the walls. The one near where we sat was in memory of Winne Warren Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis confederate president. The music was beautifull [sic]. We heard the Bishop of South Carolina, Bishop of Tennessee, Bisop of West Va., Bishop of Maryland. They were all fine. The Bishop of Va., preaches this week. You could go & go all the time some[…] near every day Mr. & Mrs. Green took us over to Petersburg in their car. Petersburg is older than Richmond. It is old, old, the old part of the town puts me in mind of “Dickens” works. You never saw anything like it. Out on Walnut Hill the fashonable [sic] part of the City is beautifull [sic]. It is all so old and quaint we drove out through Camp Lee, where the Army Camp was during the World War. Said to be the largest camp during the war, 160,000 men thair [sic]. Saw the Brestworks. Drove on over to Hopwell the City that sprung up in one night. It is where the Dupont Ammunition works were. They worked 45,000 men. It is all ruins now, they […] turned a wheel after the Armustic [sic] was sighened [sic]. You see great big & little building in suits. It is the worst reck [sic] you ever saw. Thair [sic] are a lot of people thair [sic] yet. Did not get away in time. While the settings was good. The Dupont works were […], now you don’t see any thing but huge piles of […] & piles of Brick piles of rails. They had their own railroads, Ms. Greene said thair [sic] was a high iron fence with five or six strands of barbed wire on top of that all around the works. A road all around and six mounted Gards [sic] rode around that day & night - every man went in thair [sic] was searched when they came in the gate. Thair [sic] is where they made powder out of Cotton. We drove on over to City Pond that is right on the James River. Thair [sic] is where the Appomatic [sic] River emptys [sic] into the James River. It is so beautifull [sic]. We drove down to the Wharf. Thair [sic] was no boats in, but we saw out on the River the mast of a boat (ship) sticking up out of the water where a ship had sunk. I wish I could tell you all I saw, so you could see it as I did. We passed the Eps plantation. You never saw anything so beautifull [sic] as that home the grounds are wonderful. But oh it represents $$$ & Dollars . We saw the Battleground where the battle of the Crator was fought during the Civil War, Saw where they burried [sic] the fedral [sic] soldiers. I think I told you about that Battle, where the federals burried [sic] a ton of powder and during the battle it blew up & killed 10,000 federals. They lost more men than the Confederates did. Everything is getting so beautifull [sic] trees all out in bloom. Did you know H[…] at Mar[…] at McGregor, in a bad state. I wish you would both go over to see him. I am afraid he won’t live much longer. How I wish I was rich for once in my life. When I came up here about two months after I came I weighed 1.51 K now I weigh 171 K. What do you think of that? I don’t like to be so heavy. Frances weighs 182 she don’t look it. She has been having such a bad time with her teeth. Dr. Has been treating them, some had to be taken out. How is your Mother? How are they all over to Edithes? She wrote me she & Mrs. Lyll & Mary wanted to go in and spend the day with you. I never heard if they came in or not. I guess I had better stop. I know you are tired reading this now. Love to you both. Lovingly Mother."

Written in upper-left corner of first page: “I forgot to tell you they have big silk mills at Hopewell.