Robert Morton Hughes, Sr., to Nella Fontaine Binckley, December 31, 1937

Miss Nellie Binckley
[Robert Morton Hughes (at Norfolk, Virginia), December 31, 1937, to Dear Nellie (Nella Fontaine Binckley) at Washington, D.C., Box 1, Folder 8: Nellie Brinkley [i.e. Nella Fontaine Binckley], 1927-1937, Robert Morton Hughes Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529. This is my rough transcription from a carbon copy of the letter sent.]

December 31, 1937.

3230 N. St. N.W.
Washington, D.C.

Dear Nellie:

Pardon my delay in acknowledging receipt of your letter of the 21st and the pictures. My health is jot good and my doctor limits me to meagre hours of work. I can write only on the typewriter, and one of my fingers was out of commission for some time owing to a fall.

We were much interested in the pictures. The dress must be very artistic, but they are not pictures of you, as your back is almost turned to us. I wanted to see how well you bore your years since the time seventy years ago when you and I waited on Cousin Sue, and Mr. Wharton was so afraid that we would set his vestments on fire with our candles. You remember that it was a tableau wedding in Mrs. Ann Eiza [Eliza] Campbell's house in Abingdon. 

We live now with our son and his wife, and their two children -- a son and a daughter, aged respectively nine and six. Mattie suffers a good deal with rheumatism, but neither one of us is confined to the house. I had two severe heart attacks last year but none since then, and suffer from the ills incident to my years. I was 82 last September.

Yours affectionately

[Ellen/Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (September 1, 1860-April 27, 1951; she was not born in 1877 as she successfully hoaxed some time after returning from the West Coast to the East Coast in the early 1900s)
Robert Morton Hughes, Sr. (1855-1940)
Cousin Sue = Sue Henry Mitchell/Michel (September 15, 1845-March 15, 1940) married William Meade Taliaferro (1814-1913) on October 16, 1867. Hughes was twelve at the time, and Nellie seven
Ann Elizabeth or Ann Eliza Campbell = ?
Mr. Wharton = Rev. Mr. L. B. Wharton?
Mattie = Martha Louisiana Smith Hughes (1853-1944)
Robert Morton Hughes, Jr. (1880-1951) married Caroline "Carolina" Wright Kennedy (1889-1985) in Norfolk on April 29, 1927; they had two children: Robert Morton Hughes III (February 18, 1929-alive as of February 28, 2014), who married Jean Goode Davis (1929-2014) in 1951, and Caroline Wright Hughes (September 30, 1931-NA), who married John Jenette Neal, Jr. (1929-2006) in 1962]

Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration; in this case, specifically to William for providing a scan of the original letter, and in turn thanks to Mr. Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Specialist.  

Nella Fontaine Binckley to Cousin Robbie, December 21, 1937

From Washington Evening Star, February 1, 1920

[Nella Fontaine Binckley at Washington, D.C., to Robert Morton Hughes at Norfolk, Virginia, December 21, 1937, Box 1, Folder 8: Nellie Brinkley [i.e. Nella Fontaine Binckley], 1927-1937, Robert Morton Hughes Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529. This is my rough transcription.]

3220 N Street n.w.

Dec. 21st 1937

Dear Cousin Robbie:--

Your letter of last Spring came when I was ill, & unable to answer. After over a month in bed, I managed strength enough to get to the country. I can always get well out of doors. But after a month there, when I had greatly improved, they tore up the nearest street -- the only way anyone could drive in -- & I had a terrible time for the next two months. Weather very hot, & for the whole month of August I had no ice! The ice man couldn't get there. 

The summer was a nightmare. And I couldn't get back to the city to live, as the van could not move my things. I did get in Oct. 1st.

I have a lovely apartment in an old mansion in Georgetown, which has been remodeled into apartments. But it was still full of workmen when I moved, & workmen underfoot in my apartment till a few weeks ago, when I said I'd rather do without the last things than be bothered with them any longer.

Only recently have I been able to finish unpacking & get straightened out. So you see why I have not written before.

It was very kind of you to send me the clipping about Uncle Joe. It interested me intensely.

As it is so many years since we have met, I thought I'd send you & Cousin Mattie my latest photographs, taken three or four years ago. It was a costume I designed & made myself for one of the Arts Club balls. It represents the waves. You remember when a wave runs upon the beach the white foam makes a ruffle edge, & bits of green water sprouts through, here & there. It was of green like the samples I enclose. The bolero jackets was of the blue. The veil was a white & silver Egyptian scarf I have.

Merry Christmas to you both, from Nellie

[Ellen/Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (September 1, 1860- April 27, 1951; she was not born in 1877 as she successfully hoaxed some time after returning from the West Coast to the East Coast in the early 1900s)
Cousin Robbie = Robert Morton Hughes, Sr. (1855-1940)
Uncle Joe = Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891)
Mattie = Martha Louisiana Smith Hughes (1853-1944)]

Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration; in this case, specifically to William for providing a scan of the original letter, and in turn thanks to Mr. Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Specialist.