Hanson-Allen Family

Emma Louisa Allen

The following article probably relates to Emma Louisa (referred to as Mrs Arthur Dudley), as Emily was probably too young to have then been married. This photo was taken in September 1867, when Emma was aged 26 . She would have been about 23 when she wrote the letter from South Africa.

From The Fort Myers Press, Thursday, July 7, 1910

Letter Lost Forty-Five Years

Finally Reaches Destination - Tender missive of congratulations

"Port Elizabeth, Algoa Bay, South Africa, November 7, 1864.

My own dear Julia,

Although it is past 1 p.m. (sic), I must write you a line to wish you many happy turns of your twenty-first birthday. My dear Arthur joins me in this and so does Mr Hare who has fallen desperately in love with your riding photo and tries hard to make me give it to him. He desires me to insist on your coming out by the next mail after receipt of this, and has begged me to enclose you his card which, however, I will send with my diary. Don't be vain. I am very, very weary, and must continue this tomorrow."

The above is an excerpt from a letter written just forty-five years ago to a beautiful English girl, living in London, in honour of the day in which she really passed the border line which separates the gladsome realm of girlhood from the even more beautiful and grander state of womanhood. It was delivered, not to the original of the photograph mentioned, but to a woman of sixty-five, who at the time was supposed to be on her deathbed - to an aged mother whose beauty has been increased but not lessened by the passage of years. Even Time, merciless destroyer, cannot mar the beauty of a good woman's face.

It was supposed to be delivered in London in the year 1864 - when the great (American) civil war was ddevastating the southland and sending indescribable sorrow to many hearts, but was delivered to Fort Myers, Florida, August 1, 1909.

It was addressed by Mrs Arthur Dudley, now a resident of Craddoc, Cape Colony (South Africa), to her sister, Miss Julia Allen of London, who is Mrs William Hanson, the beloved mother of W. Stanley Hanson, the well known travelling representative of the Tribune, who has just returned from his mother's bedside, and reports that her condition is improved. This will be pleasing news to the young man's many friends in South Florida.

According to Holy Writ the Children of Israel journeyed through the wilderness forty years before reaching the 'Promised Land,' and the history of that journey is one in which stories of dangers, privations and interesting incidents abound. The letter which reached London was not delivered and thereafter journeyed to various points around the globe lasted five years longer and the missive, could it weave a story, would undoubtedly recite a few incidents that would cause the experiences of the most venturesome child of Israel to pale into insignificance.

Mailed when the writer, the addressee and all persons mentioned therein were in the bloom of youth, with life and prospective happiness just beyond the horizon, the letter was delivered when all these hopes had been achieved, shattered or rested in the graves of the dreamers. The writer's husband long since died, and the young man who naturally, became infatuated with the beautiful girl in the riding habit portrayed in the photograph, has either 'wrapped the drapery of his couch about him' and 'crossed the river' with his dream, or, bowed with years, still cherishes the vision in his mind, having been bettered by his love or admiration for the girl he never saw.

Letter well preserved

Although the envelope is scarred and worn, it has protected the message of love so faithfully that the lines are just as legible today as they were on the night they were penned long ago. Where fate took the missive is not known, but it finally returned to the writer, and was again sent on the long journey to the 'Land of Flowers,' where it gladdened the heart of the aged woman who stands with fearless feet at the brink of the 'Great Divide,' ready for the summons, 'Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.' - Tampa Tribune, Sept. 8, 1909.