Mary Snodgrass and Charles Webster Archive

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1912-09-02 charles to mary

Transcribed on January 13, 2024

Twenty-ninth Season

The Lake Geneva Encampment

of The Institute and Training School of

Young Men's Christian Association

P.O. Williams Bay, Wis. Sept 2 1912

My Dear Mary,

It would indeed be good to watch your face as you open this - the first letter from me. I cannot realize that already you are so far away & I'm lonesome to see you again. I have found myself glancing along the tent rows expecting to get a glimpse of a familiar little figure - clutching an armful of towels under one arm & trailing a broom in the other hand. We did not have the opportunity of talking much this morning, but so long as I could look into your brown eyes I did not feel it necessary to say a great deal. You will remember that the train backed into the Williams Bay Station again after we said good bye, & I had a glimpse of you through the windows on the side opposite your seat. I liked your brown dress & it seemed strange for you

to be wearing a hat. I can imagine you struggling with gloves & in other ways adjusting yourself to civilization. I told Clare & two other of the boys that I am to visit your home very soon, but have not seen Maud yet. We have been working very hard & it is possible that I shall leave in the morning. I have been in a picturesque costume, similar to those worn by Joe & Rube, & so it is well that you are not here to see me. The girls, also, seem to be very busy, & very tired, so that you have escaped some heavy work. I am wondering if my sweetheart will be very tired as she faces a new year's work at school, & I am very anxious to know whether this will be your last. You will of course tell me how your mother, the others at home, & your friends receive your news. It is all very wonderful to me, Mary, that I have found you & you have been in my thoughts all day. This greeting is written under all the trying & disconcerting circumstances incidental to tent life & with which you are familiar. However these few lines bring to you my kindest thoughts & as I write I pray that the Great Father will ever keep us close to Him & to each other.

Yours & His

Charles

Since writing I told Harold the news. He is not surprised & says they all suspect some development from the course "Rational Living". We must "keep persistently at our best"

Love Chas

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Archive Owner Posts

Welcome to the Mary Snodgrass and Charles Webster Archive

Posted January 15, 2024 by Archive Owner

Mary Snodgrass and Charles Robert Webster met at the Lake Geneva Encampment of the Institute and Training School of Young Men's Christian Associations early in the summer of 1912. Mary was a high school Latin teacher from Indiana active in YWCA work. Charles was an Australian YMCA secretary in the United States for further training. By the end of the summer they were engaged. They returned to teaching in Indianapolis and studying in Chicago, wrote to each other frequently, and visited occasionally. After another summer at Lake Geneva, they married Sept 1, 1913,, and headed off for Charles's next assignment. For six years they lived in India, Africa, and India again. Charles was often away from Mary's base, so the frequent letters continued. After returning to the United States and settling in Denver, Charles's work with the YMCA required travel across the western states and more letters. Much of this correspondence survives and comprises the majority of this archive.