Orene Wetherall's family lettersOrene Wetherall probably averaged an hour a day of her life writing letters to someone. The spacing of her letters stretched, and their length shrunk as she got older and the arthritis in her hands, which she began to suffer when in her 30s or 40s, made writing and even typing more difficult. Orene's penmanship was clear and fluid, totally unforced, as though her pen -- fountain pens until ballpoint pens became more common -- was directly connected to her vocal chords. Reading her letters you get the feeling that she is talking to you. To be continued.
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Letters from Orene to Bill1940, 1947, 1952William Bascom Wetherall (1911-2013) left 166 letters he had received from Orene Hardman and then Orene Wetherall between 1937 and 1952. Of these, 41 were received from Orene Wetherall during 3 periods in 1940, 1947, and 1952 when they were separated on account of travel or work. 1940 17 letters 19 Aug - 17 Oct 1947 17 letters 9 Jun - 12 Jul 1952 7 letters 5 Jan - 28 Jun |
Letters from Peck to Boise19 August - 17 October 194017 letters, including 1 postcard, posted by Orene Wetherall to Bill Wetherall in 1940 survive. All were posted from "Mrs. Wm. Wetherall / Peck, Idaho" to "William B. Wetherall / 305 P.O. Bldg. / Boise, Idaho" as she was staying with her parents, Owen and Ullie Hardman, in Peck, while Bill was working in Boise. The envelops bear the 3-cent purple Thomas Jefferson stamp issued in 1938 for standard domestic surface male. |
Peck 19 Aug 1940 frank, Monday [19th] letterBill forgets shoes in Peck"a little squaw fish, a trout, and a pheasant""Immediate family" attends weddingThis letter is written to Bill after he leaves Orene at Peck and goes on to Boise work for a couple of months. Orene wonders if he has found "a decent place to live" and what of boarding [meal] arrangements he has made. "Room and board" means a place and meals, but busy people who lived by themselves might also "room" (sleep) at once placed and "board" (eat) at another.
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Peck 17 Oct 1940 frank, Thursday [17th] letter"strange how quickly a person can change"High school carnival "just a big noise"Bill turns down Sandpoint offerThis last letter letter of the 1940 group puts an end to the temptation to relocate from California to Idaho. Had they stayed in Idaho, I -- and later my brother and sister -- would have been there, and the history of the Wetherall-Hardman family would most likely have been very different.
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Letters from Peck to San Francisco9 June - 12 July 194717 letters posted by Orene Wetherall to Bill Wetherall in 1947 survive. All were posted from "[Mrs. William]] Wetherall / Peck, Idaho" to "Mr. William B. Wetherall / 1922-24th Ave. / San Francisco, 16 / California". About one-third of the envelopes bear the then standard 3-cent purple Thomas Jefferson stamp (Scott U.S. #807, 1938), and another one-third have the then standard 5-cent red DC-4 Skymaster airmail stamp first issued in 1946 (Scott U.S. #C32). A few were sent in stamped envelopes embossed with the round 3-cent purple George Washington issue (Scott U.S. #U436, 1932). And one letter bore the purple 1947 Joseph Pulitzer birth anniversary commemorative issue (Scott U.S. #946), which had come out on 10 April that year. |
Peck 30 Jun 1947 frank, 30 July [sic = June] 1947 letterBill leaves medicine and fountain pen in PeckUllie waiting hysterectomy operationHardman family difficultiesWhen bringing Orene to Peck In 1940, Bill left his shoes. In 1947 he left his medicine and fountain pen. When moving to Grass Valley in 1955, he left his heart in San Francisco, where the Wetherall-Hardman family began. Over the years, however, he also developed an indelible love for Nevada City, where he spent remains of his days.
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Peck 9 July 1947 frank, Wednesday [9th] letterSitting between the two little pigs"You have some awfully brown kids"Hardman clan too hard to get rid ofThis letter, though shorter than most, ranges over more topics than many. Several of them infolve problems or conflicts.
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Letters from Lewiston to San Francisco5 January - 28 June 19527 lettersThe 2nd group of the 71 letters from 1936 consist of 16 letters -- 15 of them postcards -- which Orene wrote and posted while traveling with Marguerite Manion and her parents through the western states. The trip took the party of 4 south through the coastal states of Washington, Oregon, and California, as far as Tijuana in Mexico, then north through some inland states, including Colorado, Utah, and Montana. The family briefly returned to their home in Firth, Idaho, after which Orene accompanied the Manions, without Marguerite, to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. |
Letters forthcoming.
Other family letters1975-2003Orene was the inverterate letter writer in the family. Bill Wetherall wrote legal briefs everyday but preciously few letters. It was never surprising to see a letter from Orene, and they were likely to be longer than short. A letter from Bill never failed to astonish and stir curiosity. Orene's lettersMost of the letters that Orene wrote to her children, that are known to survive, are those she sent to Billy. And the only reason they survive in comparatively large numbers is because he is a pack rat. Practically every letter of the many he received from her after he settled in Japan in the summer of 1975 are organized by date in a file drawer at his home in Abiko. Jerry, who settled in Hawaii in early 1970s, also received many letters, and has kept a number of them. To what extent Mary Ellen kept her mother's letters is not known. The detritus found in her garage after she died contained many letters she had received from friends and family members alike. But the letters were mixed up, and neither Billy nor Jerry, who had only a few hours in the space of two days to do a triage on her belongings after her son Ditta had gone through what interested him, were unable to spend a lot of time going through the letters and decided not to save them. Among the few letters her mother had kept from her, however, was one in which she informed Orene that she, Mary Ellen, had found the man she intended to marry -- who would be Ditta's father. This letter was given to Ditta. This writer, Billy Wetherall, now wishes he had kept the many letter he received from his mother, and rare letter he received from his father before the summer of 1975, when he moved to Japan. But in preparation for the move, he disposed of many of his personal papers, including the many letters he had received from his mother (and the very few letters he had gotten from his father) while working in San Francisco on and off from 1959-1962, Studying at the University of California at Berkeley in 1962-1963 and again in 1972-1975, and serving Uncle Sam in the U.S. Army in 1963-1966. But gone is gone. Bill's lettersBill commuted more with his children during the 10 years after Orene passed away in 2003, and his own death in 2013, than in the half century since Billy, Jerry, and Mary Ellen flew the Grass Valley coop. Mary Ellen would later settle in Nevada City, and then Grass Valley, which made letter writing a less likely way of keeping her abreast of family news. |
Family letters1975-1979To be continued |
Letters forthcoming.
Family letters1980-1984To be continued |
Letters forthcoming.
Family letters1985-1989To be continued |
Letters forthcoming.
Family letters1990-1994To be continued |
Letters forthcoming.
Family letters1995-1999To be continued |
Letters forthcoming.
Family letters2000-2003To be continued |
Letters forthcoming.
Wetherall Family Christmas cards and letters1940s to 2010sIn the late 1940s and early 1950s, when the Wetherall-Hardman family was living in San Francisco, Bill and Orene sent out a few family Christmas cards with a family photo on or enclosed in the card. After moving to Grass Valley in 1955, Orene occasionally wrote a fairly long Christmas letter that she sent to a substantial number of relatives and friends in your address book. After her death in 2003, Bill himself wrote a few such letters. Copies of a few of the earlier cards and letters survive in the detritus collected by Ullie Hardman, Orene (Hardman) Wetherall's mother. Most of the letters written from 1975 survive in my (William Owen Wetherall's) collection of correspondence from my parents. |
Peck 19 Aug 1940 frank, Monday [19th] letterBill forgets shoes in Peck"a little squaw fish, a trout, and a pheasant""Immediate family" attends weddingThis letter letteris written to Bill after he leaves Orene at Peck and goes on to Boise work for a couple of months. Orene wonders if he has found "a decent place to live" and what of boarding [meal] arrangements he has made. "Room and board" means a place and meals, but busy people who lived by themselves might also "room" (sleep) at once placed and "board" (eat) at another.
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