{"id":1763,"date":"2016-03-30T16:53:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T21:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/?p=1763"},"modified":"2017-09-01T13:20:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T18:20:56","slug":"this-just-in-letter-from-a-faculty-member-from-1919","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/2016\/03\/30\/this-just-in-letter-from-a-faculty-member-from-1919\/","title":{"rendered":"Dearest Little Friends: a 1919 letter from a faculty member comes back to Abilene"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0never know what the mail will bring. \u00a0Last week we received a kind donation from an eagle-eyed antiquer who spotted this letter from 1919. \u00a0Written by S. Vernon McCasland, faculty member in the Science Department, it reveals\u00a0a charming friendship with two of his former pupils.<\/p>\n

We do not have a file for McCasland. \u00a0From a quick\u00a0internet search I see his stint at ACC was brief. \u00a0He taught science and served as the school’s first football coach. \u00a0After leaving ACC to pursue\u00a0graduate study,\u00a0McCasland<\/a> went on to a distinguished career<\/a> in biblical and theological studies, teaching many years at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Letter,

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Maude Tyson, May 25, 1919, p. 1<\/p><\/div>\n

May 25, 1919<\/p>\n

Mr. Claude + Miss Maude Tyson;
\nGoldsboro, Texas.
\nDearest Little Friends;-
\nYou don’t know how much pleasure it was to receive a letter from two of the finest little people that ever have come to school to me. \u00a0Your letters were so nicely written, too. \u00a0I remember so well how small and young you were when you first came to school to me. \u00a0And also how good you were and how much you learned.<\/p>\n

I can never forget the people of Midway and the Winter [page 2] that I stayed there. \u00a0I would like very much to have your pictures. \u00a0You are doubtless much larger now than you were then, and will soon be really grown up.<\/p>\n

I still remember putting Claude up on the table before the school. \u00a0It wasn’t very funny, was it Claude? \u00a0But that was just a sign that you were a real boy. \u00a0I am teaching in college now, where I have lots of big boys to manage. \u00a0Sometimes I go to town at night and bring one home when he has slipped off. \u00a0Wouldn’t you like to be one my boys here? \u00a0I would be very glad to have “my little twins,” in college here sometime.<\/p>\n

Would be glad to hear from you again whenever\u00a0you want to write.<\/p>\n

Give my best regards to your parents and Mamie and [illegible] also to all of my friends there.<\/p>\n

With love,<\/p>\n

S. Vernon McCasland<\/p>\n

\"Letter,

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Maude Tyson, May 25, 1919, p. 2<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Letter,

Letter, S. Vernon McCasland to Claude and Maude Tyson, May 25, 1919, envelope<\/p><\/div>\n

PS: The letter was sent to us from New Mexico. How a letter from a beloved teacher was preserved all these years, and how it trekked from Abilene, to Goldsboro Texas to New Mexico and back again, must surely be a fascinating story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0never know what the mail will bring. \u00a0Last week we received a kind donation from an eagle-eyed antiquer who spotted this letter from 1919. \u00a0Written by S. Vernon McCasland, faculty member in the Science Department, it reveals\u00a0a charming friendship with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83130,83088,83112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acu-history","category-archival-discoveries","category-this-just-in"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4fxGI-sr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1937,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions\/1937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}