Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598

Sale 2598 - Lot 272

Price Realized: $ 3,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(FAMILY PAPERS.) Family papers of Littleton L. Page of Charles Town, WV, including sons in the Spanish-American War and World War One. 32 items (0.4 linear feet) in one box; various sizes and conditions. Various places, 1875-1919
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Additional Details

Littleton Lorton Page (1850-1914) was born into slavery, and made his way to the Union lines to serve in a Colored Troops unit, taking his name from an officer named Littleton Lorton. After the war, he founded the first school for Black students in Charles Town, WV, and served as a trustee of Storer College in nearby Harpers Ferry; the local high school is named in his honor. Offered here is a lively grouping of his family papers, most of them relating to the military service of his two sons. The collection begins with 4 charming letters from Page to his future wife Georgianna Smith, Charles Town, WV, 1875-1877. One apparently alludes to his initiation into a Masonic group: "I have just returned from the lodge, but have not been hauled over the coals yet. . . . There is not much fun in it for me, but I must stop as I am to tell no secrets."

Oldest son Henry Littleton "Harry" Page (1880-1954) sends 4 letters while in service during the Spanish-American War while in training camp in Kentucky and Georgia (plus one enclosed letter from a friend). He served in the 8th Immune regiment, raised among Black recruits from Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and West Virginia in hopes that they might be malaria-resistant. 3 are on patriotic letterhead featuring Admiral George Dewey. After his first payday, Harry wrote on 22 September "As soon as I got my money, I gave it to Lieut. Hill because the boys steal so." He was appointed regimental orderly, and they were reviewed by Secretary of War Alger, who pronounced them "the best regiment in the state." In an undated letter, he wrote "I just came off guard last night at the hospital. There are over 350 patients in there with different kinds of diseases. Some are from Santiago de Cuba, shot in different places." An uncaptioned photograph of a military band appears to date from this period and may include Harry. Also included are 3 postcards addressed to Harry from sister Cerelle and a friend in 1908 while he was traveling with Stetson's Uncle Tom's Cabin theatrical troupe.

Second son Gouverneur Morris "G.M." Page (1890-1958) wrote several letters home. 3 were written while a student at Storer College, WV, 1905-1906. The big excitement on 1 March 1906 was a fellow student in the mail room "rifling the letters and they caught him. He took in about forty dollars." G.M. enlisted in for service in World War One with the 803rd Infantry. 10 letters and postcards were written from training camp at Camp Custer, MI; Camp Upton, NY; and "somewhere in Canada." On 12 August 1918 he wrote "I don't find anything so hard about it. The main thing is to be punctual, obey orders and whatever you do, do it with a snap. Tomorrow I think we begin bayonet drill. . . . This is certainly some bunch of colored folks in this company. . . . I have one fellow whose name is Peter Lukey and he is a young giant from the mountains of W. Va, 20 yrs old, can't read and write, and guesses at his age from what somebody told him. There are some fellows here who don't know what their mother's name is, and don't know one letter from another." On 20 August he writes "I was selected as a candidate for officers training camp, but my heart was slightly irregular Sunday when I was examined and don't expect to pass; the physical examination for the officers camp was about five times more rigid than the one we took when we first came here."

These camp letters are followed by 8 letters and 2 postcards which G.M. wrote from France, 30 October 1918 to 12 February 1919. In his first, he jabs at his brother: "Tell Harry I expect I will have a few things to tell him about soldiering when I get back. He used to talk about the Spanish American War, well that was a scrimmage compared to this." On 18 November he writes his mother with alarm: "Cerelle told me you were trying to catch the influenza, but I hope you have not succeeded. . . . I am sorry so many deaths have occurred from the influenza." On 2 December he described a "place today that at one time had been a woods, but now not a tree is left, and not an inch of ground which has not been rooted up by shells." On 12 February 1919, after the censors had lightened up, he offered more details on his service: "Yes, we were up in the Toul sector and the St. Mihiel sector, up near Verdun and the Argonne. . . . Seen German planes brought down, balloons on fire . . . It was a terrible one and I hope there will be no more like it in my time at least." Also included are G.M.'s certificate to practice law in the District of Columbia, 1922; and his baptismal certificate from 1945.

Finally, the collection contains a photo album presented by Littleton Page to his sweetheart Georgia in 1877. It begins with two small penny photos from Charles Town, very likely depicting Littleton and Georgia. They are followed by 16 unidentified tintypes and cartes-de-visite of Black sitters, followed by 10 others of white sitters. Most of the latter portraits are quite defaced.