Author: Barbara Lawrence

Publisher:

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

A collection of letters mainly between Gershom Flagg and his son Willard but also to and from prominent St. Louisans, Illinois politicians, and others. Crusty, wry, opinionated, Gershom Flagg and his son who was at Yale, kept each other up to date concerning local, national, and international politics; agricultural, social, and economic trends; and duels, bank robberies, and hangings in and around St. Louis and southern Illinois; and the latest fads at Yale. These letters show that even during the early prairie years, Illinoisans were not isolated from the world of culture and politics unless they chose to be. Gershom Flagg viewed the world through a curmudgeon’s eyes, his son Wil­lard through the eyes of a romantic. Their letters add flesh and blood to the skeleton of history as they provide first-hand accounts of great events by the men who lived through them. The Flaggs wrote of cholera epidemics, river travel, prairie fires and fires in St. Louis, education, social events, and entertainment. Because Ger­shom was a great gossip who kept track of his neighbors, he includes facts about local weddings, births, deaths, even family quarrels.