Dear Brother John: Kitty Armstrong’s Letters from New York to John Francis Armstrong

March 31, 2016

Catherine “Kitty” Armstrong (1860-c. 1940), 1887 photo by Platt Photography in Augusta, GA, Image from the collection of Patricia Van Sant Real courtesy of Mary Real

Catherine “Kitty” Armstrong was baptized at Cloonacool Parish in County Sligo on September 24th, 1860, around the time her brother John Francis turned fifteen. Kitty was the eighth of nine children born to Francis and Anne Leonard Armstrong who, according to the baptismal register, were residents of the Townland of Kilcummin.

James Armstrong and Mary Armstrong, possibly Kitty’s older siblings or relatives of the same names, were listed as her godparents. No surname was recorded for Mary but “Do” was listed, which indicated the same last name as James. However, while Kitty’s brother James would have been around sixteen at the time, her sister Mary would still have been a baby.

In April of 1887, when Kitty was twenty-six, she and her younger sister, Annie, left Ireland for New York in defiance of the family in Sligo. Upon their departure, their older brothers, James and Luke Armstrong, and Mr. James J. Flanagan, who was in love with Kitty, wrote to John Francis in Augusta, Georgia and asked him to find his two sisters and send them home.

Below are transcriptions of two letters that Kitty wrote to John Francis after she and Annie had arrived in New York and made contact with their cousin, Kate Leonard.

It should be noted that the only copies I have of Kitty’s letters are scans of photocopies of the originals. Some of the words are illegible, so I put what I thought she had written–my best guess–in parentheses followed by the word “Illegible”.

In one instance in the second letter, a word was repeated and, in another, a phrase appears to have been left out. In both cases, I made notes in parentheses. I also attempted to type out Kitty’s original punctuation and capitalization as they appear in the letters.

Kitty’s May 1st, 1887 Letter To JF

324 Plymouth St.
Brooklyn NY

May 1st, 1887

Dear Brother John,

You will be surprised to hear that myself & Anne are over here. I would have written from home to you before we came but up to the last day we could not be sure that we could get away, and to tell you the truth I was ashamed to write to you of Tom’s marriage so soon after your affliction. But Kate Leonard tells me she sent you word about it. She was going to send you a telegram yesterday when we arrived here but I would not let her till I would write you all the particulars. We have come out with the intention of spending two or three years on our own. Look we are in the best of health and spirit and admire this place very much. We had a very favourable though rather slow passage and the two of us were awful sick on board but we came intermediate and had lots of attendance. William Mullarkey, Ellen’s (husband’s nephew? Illegible) came with us till he left us in the steamer at Liverpool so we were very comfortable. We are here with (Peb? Illegible) herself & Anne live quite near each other. Kate is staying here also she was not feeling well and was having a rest when she heard from us so she came to meet us so you can fancy what a pleasant night we had all together. We intend to earn a lot of money and go home after 3 years. Whatever way we get on here for that length we intend and have promised solemnly to go home at the end of that time. We will be sure to come see you some time within the three years. Write here and let me know how the children & yourself are getting on. Mary had a letter from you at home before we left. I intend to keep you posted in our movements while here and I expect you will write to me also. We have plenty of money with us so we intend spending a few days here &  then we will try our hands at a little work in this country to make ourselves smart before we think (Letter ends here.)

I could not find a final page with Kitty’s signature for the May 1st letter, so the correspondence ends in the middle of a sentence. Although the rest of the letter is missing, I am hopeful that one of JF’s many descendants out there will have a complete copy of it tucked away somewhere.

Kitty’s May 6th, 1887 Letter To JF

Kitty’s second letter to JF from New York was written five days later, on May 6th, in response to a letter he had written to her and Anne.

324 Brooklyn

May 6th, 1887

My Dearest Brother,

I am very sorry to have given you such pain, but I really could not think of refusing to go to see you after your touching letter. Anne gave in to go to see you at last. I was not so much against going at any time don’t imagine for a moment that there was any cause such as you describe for us having our minds made up not to go south but of course you understand the folly of the trip especially for you to be thinking of coming up here for us it won’t make much of a difference only the time spent in going and coming. I don’t know what day we will start but I’ll send you a dispatch when we are starting don’t expect us to stay longer than than (word repeated) a week or so. Kate went to work again Wednesday and I must go to see her before we start (to see how) she is feeling. I’ll be talking to you when I get there about sending that cheque to Kate. I made her tear it up. Goodbye for the present from

Your loving sister,
Kitty

If you would like to learn more about Kitty and Annie’s trip to America, see Runaway Sisters: The Story Behind the Photo of Annie and Kitty Armstrong and their brother John F. Armstrong.

Sources

“Cloonacool: Catholic Parish Registers.” From Registers.nli.ie. The National Library of Ireland: Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI.  Entries for the baptisms of Catherine “Kitty” Armstrong on September 24, 1860 (page 10) and Anne Armstrong on July 12, 1863 (page 26). Accessed at http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0127 in February 2016.

(Note: Currently, the online baptismal records for Cloonacool Parish only extend from October 27, 1859 to January 4, 1881. As far as I know, there are no extant records for the parish before 1859.)

Letters to John Francis Armstrong from family, friends, and associates. Family collection. 1887. Print.