16 January 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtY, UCCL 08610)
It seems that a relative of yours, a young Mr. Webster, of Fredonia, N. Y., has been paying serious attention to a young niece of mine, Miss Annie Moffett, of Fredonia, & my object in intruding upon you is to ask if you know anything against th Mr. Webster’s character & will be kind enough to communicate with me upon the subject.1explanatory note In one or two instances gossips have spoken against him, but so far as I can learn they are not particularly respect-worthy witnesses.2explanatory note
Asking pardon for troubling you, I an am Ⓐemendation
Yrs Truly
(“ Mark Twain. ”)
Prof. Whitney.
letter docketed by Whitney: S. L. Clemens | (Mark Twain) | Hartford, Jan. 16/75
While visiting the Clemenses, Annie doubtless talked about her suitor (and future husband), Charles Luther Webster (1851–91). A native of Charlotte, New York, Webster was a land surveyor and civil engineer in Dunkirk, about three miles from Fredonia, his home since the age of five and Annie’s since the spring of 1870. Whitney (1827–94), an eminent linguistic scholar and lexicographer, had been a professor of Sanskrit at Yale since 1854. The relationship to him was an enduring Webster tradition. According to Annie’s 1918 “Family Chronicle,” Charles Webster’s mother, Maria Whitney Webster (d. 1906), was the daughter of Calvin Whitney, who “was related to Professor Whitney of Yale” (Annie M. Webster, 24, 26, 36). Whitney was unable to confirm a connection, however, writing to Clemens on 18 January (CU-MARK):
I am very sorry that I can not return a satisfactory answer to your inquiries. It is impossible for me to say anything in favor of the young man in question—only, it is also impossible for me to say anything against him, for if I have any such relative, I have never been aware of it.
And he added, “I feel almost personally acquainted with you thro’ Mr. Trumbull, and have besides been one of the collaborators (several times removed) in the ‘Gilded Age.’” James Hammond Trumbull had provided the multilingual chapter epigraphs for The Gilded Age, including one in Sanskrit for chapter 54, evidently prepared or verified by Whitney ( MTBus , 239; “Business Directory,” Fredonia Censor, 13 Jan 75, 1; L4 , 115 n. 2, 117–18; L5 , 297–98).
The “gossips” possibly condemned Webster for a “terrible misfortune in his childhood”: at age nine he accidentally killed a four-year-old girl while playing with a gun (PAM to SLC, 10 July 87click to open letter, CU-MARK). Nevertheless, on 25 May 1875 Pamela Moffett wrote to Mollie Clemens: “Annie thinks everything of C. W. I believe he does of her. His character and antecedents have been pretty thoroughly sifted and we have every reason to have confidence in him” (CU-MARK).
MS, William Dwight Whitney Family Papers, Yale University Library (CtY).
L6 , 353–354.
The William Dwight Whitney Family Papers were in part donated by his daughters between 1894 and 1959, and in part purchased from John Elliott in 1982.