Henry O. Wagoner to Frederick Douglass, March 23, 1878

HENRY O. WAGONER TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Denver, [Colo.] 23 March 1878.

DOUGLASS—

The news of the death of my dear and only son,^{1A letter that Henry O. Wagoner enclosed in this letter to Douglass reveals that his son had died on 4 March 1878 of “violent lung disease,” probably tuberculosis, at l’Hôpital de la Croix-Rousse (the Red Cross Hospital, named for a cross made of reddish stone erected on a hill in the city in the sixteenth century) in Lyon, France. Nelson P. Gregory to Henry O. Wagoner, Sr., 5 March 1878, General Correspondence File, reel 3, frames, 242R–43, FD Papers, DLC.} who was my last great hope of earth, saddens and depresses me byond measure of expression. I have had a long series of these disastrous bereavements, and yet I have held out well in my physical, for one of my age. Other than my mental depression I have’nt a pain nor an ache. I attribute my bodily health and vigor to the fact that from early youth I have strictly conformed to the laws of health and hygienic influences, therefore, having taken very little medicine through life. Always temperate, and never either danced or tried to dance in my life, never having had a fashionable taste in that direction, though I always thought dancing a healthful exercise, if in moderation. After the death of my wife^{2Susan Wagoner died in 1870.} I commenced smoking, and in a short time found its effects detrimental, and so quit it at once.

But I am reminded that you, as Marshal of the District Columbia, have enough to engage your mind without my troubling you in this way, and so I beg pardon.

I do not forget that you once lost a loving and lovable daughter,^{3Douglass’s youngest child, Annie, died on 13 March 1860 while he was in Great Britain. Fought, Women, 172–73.} and therefore you can experimentally sympathise with my bereavement.

My son had become a Mason in France, in a lodge under what is known there as the Scotch-Right; and, as I understand it, was burried under the auspices of that order. Dr Nelson B. Gregory^{4Nelson Brainard Gregory (1838–94) of Unadilla, New York, was an aspiring dentist who went to France as a young man and became a pioneer in American dentistry; it cannot be determined where or whether he attended medical school. (The census records for 1870 and 1880 list his occupation as a mill laborer and farmer.) Gregory apparently gave up dentistry upon his return to the United States and began farming. In court proceedings from 1895, the year after his death, Gregory is identified as a man who “for a number of years lived in France” and who returned there around 1878, lived with a woman in Lyon, and fathered multiple children. New York State Reporter, Containing All of the Current Decisions of the Courts of Record of New York State, ed. Charles L. Mills (Albany, N.Y., 1895), 69:479; Francis Whiting Halsey, The Pioneers of Unadilla Village, 1784–1840 (Unadilla, N.Y., 1902), 97–98; Find a Grave (online).} wrote me a good letter which announced the death of my son, and in which letter he gave me such particulars as might be of some interest to you and other friends in Washington, therefore, I here enclose you a copy of said letter which

you may have published for information to his Eastern friends. Should you do so, send me some copies.

Fraternally

H. O. WAGONER^{5Wagoner sent Douglass the following two letters concerning his son’s death: “L’Hospital de la Croix Rousse,” Lyons, 18 February 1878. My DEAR FATHER: It is, indeed, a long time since I wrote you. Your favorite sayings that “no news is good news” and so forth, is like all other old sayings—more often false than true.—If I had written you during that long period of silence I could only have told you of very bad health and embarrassed circumstances. But regret to be obliged to tell you that I am at present in the hospital. In addition to my severe cough which had greatly reduced me in flesh and strength, by a change of the weather about 15 days ago my larynx was suddenly attacked and an entire extinction of voice followed so that I could speak only in a whisper. I called my doctor and remained in my room a week but friends urged me to come to the hospital thinking I would have better care. I yielded to their request and have been here 10 days in the pay Department. It cost but little—2 francs per day. But the food is very coarse and impalatable and one is obliged to obtain many extras. My voice is not yet permanently restored. At times I can talk and <at> others it escapes me and I am compelled to whisper. Besides this my cough is still bad. I have scarcely any force whatever. My legs are those of a perfect skeleton although my face with its full beard is deceptive. It is almost impossible for me promenade the ‘grande Salle’ five minutes so little force do my legs possess. I am not sure how serious me* really is. But I will try to keep you posted of progress although it is difficult for one so ill as I am to write Love to all Your affectionate son HENRY *Poor boy, in this objective personal pronoun he betrays a French idiomatic construction, by his habit of speaking French almost constantly. He was the only American employee in the office. I have asked, in a letter, whether his last words were in French or English. This letter is for you, and such private friends as you, in your discretion, may see fit to read it to, or allow them to read it. Lyons, France, 5 March 1878. Dear Mr Wagoner: It is my painful duty to tell you of the fatal termination of your son’s illness. He died yesterday at 8 A M. I at once claimed the body and ordered preparations for funeral, and to-day the Consulate at Paris have sent word to take charge of all. Services will be protestant as that is known to be your belief as well as his. I have little to write you just now as to particulars. He had no suffering. Like all those violent lung diseases the end was sooner than we expected, but, as I wrote you formerly was almost certain. He never considered himself dangerously ill for a moment, and even on Sunday made all sorts of plans to return from, “L’Hospital de la Croix Rousse”—Hospital of the Russian Cross—to his rooms. My assistant ordered him at a Restaurant a tenderloin of beef of which he was so fond for his breakfast, for Monday, but, when kind hands took it he had breathed his last. And I regret to say only surrounded by hospital nurses, although so many warm and kind friends would like to have heard his last words. I will write you again after the funeral, or at any time if I learn anything that will be of interest or use to you. His personal effects will will be properly cared for. And I most earnestly assure you of my deep regret and profound sympathy, & I am Fraternally NELSON B. GREGORY}

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 3, frames 241–43, FD Papers, DLC.

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