December 1, 1886
Dear, dear William,
I do hope you received my earlier letter wishing you the very best on your birthday. Mail delivery can be so unsure, but you know my heart and know that I am thinking of you on your birthday, and to be sure, every day.
It is thrilling that you are settling in and that work, while mundane, is keeping you busy. I love hearing about your patients and can’t wait to meet them for myself. I feel a bond with Zerilda already and hope to meet her and her charming children, Charlotta, and baby Bertha. I do hope the babe will be healthy and grow strong. I am also excited to meet Clara and her new baby. Perhaps we shall become friends, and if I can be so bold, a mentor for me when it is my turn to embark on my own journey of motherhood. How I long to be your wife and bear your children!
Time seems to go so slowly, and each day apart from you feels like a year. Mother and Father are making arrangements with Uncle Hank and Aunt Louise to assure I reach your side safely during their trip west. I should arrive in summer, perhaps as early as June. My dear heart, I shall be with you soon. Perhaps, Dr. Russell, you have a cure for the ache I feel inside.
I miss you greatly,
Theresa Darlien Perry (soon-to-be Russell)
May 15, 1887
My dearest William,
The most unbelievable thing happened! Uncle Hank, Aunt Louise and I stopped at a roadside inn during our journey to you and discovered to my delight that the east bound mail coach had pulled in that very same day! I begged the driver to check for a missive from you and he must have seen my desperation for he looked through the bags and discovered your letter dated a month ago. As if that weren’t enough, he told me that the west bound mail coach should be arriving early tomorrow morning and if I had a reply I could give it to him and it would reach you before I do.
Indeed, that it devastating news about poor Clara. I wish I had arrived earlier and been there to comfort her. I pray her heart will heal.
I could not pass up an opportunity to get another letter off to you before I see you, but alas, this must be short as dawn is already streaking the sky. I have packed a wedding dress and can’t wait for the wedding bells to ring and to become your wife. I hope you have found a place for us to live as I am ready to set up housekeeping. You would not believe all the things Mother and Father have packed for our new life together.
I hear a horse outside, I must go.
All my love,
Theresa
December 26, 1900
My dear husband William,
I wish I had not come to visit my family. Yes, it is a wonderful visit but to think I am here enjoying the luxuries of the east while my friend Zerilda has gone to be with Jesus with her babe! It was hard enough to leave knowing she’d deliver while I was gone but to have this tragedy befall her without me there breaks my heart. The first thing I want to do when I get home, love, is to plant flowers on the graves. I will bring some bluebell bulbs with me, they are a sweet and lovely flower that should grow well in the hills there.
The thought of enduring another dinner party here weighs heavily on me. If this trip has taught me anything it is that I don’t belong here anymore. I love my family here very much but I belong with you in our little house with your surgery in the front and our children playing in the fields behind the house. I can’t wait to begin my journey home. My parents have been talking of moving out west; I believe this would make my joy complete.
Please convey my condolences to Zerilda’s family, especially sweet Charlotta. I shall return as soon as I can.
I love you, my beloved.
Theresa Darlien Russell
Before or after finding the cache, feel free to wander in the cemetery and look up both the Quinn’s and Underhill’s plots, and post pictures. Cache is a matchstick container at eyelevel or so in one of the black locust trees. Enjoy the views from this fantastic place.