PBA Galleries

Autograph letters, signed by Thomas Logan, to Miss Maude Hurd, in Alton, New Hampshire. Each 4-pp or so, on 4-page conjugate lettersheets approx., 20.3x12.5 cm

Rather poignant series of letters, beginning with the first young Corporal Logan wrote to Miss Hurd, asking for permission to correspond with her after being assured by her brother Seth, with whom he served, that she would be receptive. That she was (there is a retained copy of her reply to the first letter, acquiescing to the exchange), and so began a paper romance. Logan was smitten (it gets lonely for a soldier on the frontier), and soon he was showering Maude with paper kisses. There are also occasional reflections on life at a military for in the far west, "ell pet you say you can't tell whether I have any girls out here? You may rest easy on that score Maude, for girls of any kind would think twice before coming to such a lonely desert as this is, and when any girl comes here to work for an officer she never stays long...There is going to be a circus in town Oct. 11th (Coles great circus) and I am thiking some of going... for it is a little excitement to relieve our monotonous life..." The correspondence starts in April, 1884, and ends in December of the same year. Some four years later Maude had apparently fallen out of touch with Logan, but was still interested, and received a letter from a soldier at the U.S. Ordnance Proving Ground at Sandy Hook, to whom she had apparently made inquiries, "I cannot give you the desired information about 'Logan', I have not heard from the West for over a year.. If I can find out for you I will be pleased to do so..."