November 4th, 1907
Omaha, Nov. 4th 1907
2132 N. 29th St
My dear Harry: –
The nine o’clock whistle has just blown but I have to write to you so I get it done. I didn’t write yesterday be-cause I didn’t get any time. I suppose you heard in Ma’s letter what a bad girl I was yesterday to read your letter to Alma but there wasn’t anything in it unless it was about the report & the dropping out if you don’t get above some mark but I didn’t think you’d get below & I new [sic] you’d get above so I didn’t think it hert [sic] if I did read that to her. She read me her letter every bit of it even the very last thing – But I’ll tell you I won’t read her any more letters & I won’t get to hear any of hers either. That was the only one I heard of her’s & I was in my glory hearing it as she read but when I got home I wasn’t in my glory.
Edward Lundberg & Mr. and Mrs. Lundberg was up Friday & Marion went down for Alma & we played Hearts & I’m sending you the score paper. All that pretty printing Edward done. Alma put a note on there to you when she was up Sunday. Well when Alma went home Edward & I took her home & on the steps outside Alma fell down & E. helped her up. (I fell too but I got up myself.) Well all the way down that hill he helped her & she didn’t stop him either. She wouldn’t say “Leave me alone” like she did to you once. When I told her Sunday she laughed & said Well what could I do You see I wasn’t as free to him as I was to Harry. A & I had a good laugh at it when coming from the P.O. Well when C & I came up the hill we had a race but E beat & that’s the way he helps me home. I suppose you will hear this from Alma too but she said I should tell you & that she would tell you too…
So begins the first of the surviving letters of Lillian Anna Parsons to her older brother, Harry Parsons. Lillian was 15 when she wrote the above letter and Harry had been a student at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago for all of about two months. He reported to the freshman class on 16 September 1907, four days before his 18th birthday, as one of 258 “earnest, faithful, conscientious, and unassuming young men of unusual physical and mental vigor, intelligence, and ambition.”[1] Though Harry doesn’t appear in the freshman class photo in the 1907-1908 yearbook, he does appear in the full list of freshmen as a mechanical engineering major with a home address of 2132 N. 29th St., Omaha, Nebraska.[2] This is the same address from which Lillian would write all of the letters to her brother during his years at school.
The Parsons lived in this location until sometime around 1915, when they relocated to the house most of Lillian’s children remember at 1905 Lothrup St. in Omaha. Unfortunately, the neighborhood that was home to so many of those mentioned in Lillian’s letters is now long gone, though a modern-day Google Street View image does show “that hill” that Lillian references in her letter to Harry. The Jensen’s house, barely two blocks away, was at the intersection of 29th Street and Burdette (pictured below) and down the hill to the right.
The Armour Institute of Technology existed thanks to Frank W. Gunsaulus and philanthropist Philip Danforth Armour. Gunslaus was a preacher, among other things, and was responsible for the “Million Dollar Sermon” in 1890 that inspired Armour to make a $1M donation to found Armour Institute, provided Gunsaulus served as President. The school opened in 1893 to students of all classes who wanted to make a difference in the rapidly changing world. Gunsaulus remained President for the next 27 years, including the entire period Harry was in residence.[3] The school was originally co-educational, offering courses in engineering and architecture, as well as domestic arts, commerce, music, and kindergarten normal training,[4] but as the mission focused more and more on engineering co-education was abandoned, and by 1907 when Harry began his studies the student body was all young men.[5] Fitting for a school aimed at students of all backgrounds, Armour Institute also offered evening, summer, and correspondence courses.[6]
In 1940, the Armour Institute merged with the Lewis Institute of west Chicago to create the Illinois Institute of Technology, which still stands today in the Armour Square neighborhood of Chicago, across the I-90 Expressway from Guaranteed Rate Field (formerly Comiskey Park), home of the Chicago White Sox. The original Armour Institute main building and the slightly younger Machinery Hall, built specifically to house the rapidly growing mechanical engineering student population, are still standing today as city landmarks.
Lillian’s letter is full of the gossip, chat, and poor grammar and spelling of a 15-year-old girl, and the names she mentions are noteworthy. Lillian’s report on Alma (Jensen) is interesting, as it becomes apparent in this letter and later letters that Alma and Harry clearly had some type, likely informal, of understanding. Alma Stella Jensen was born on 24 November 1891 in Nebraska, most likely Omaha. Like Harry and Lillian, she was first-generation American born to Hans Jensen and Mary (Hansen) Jensen, immigrants from Denmark around 1880. Alma was less than a year older than Lillian and part of the High School class of 1910 (Lillian was in the class of 1912; Harry in the graduating class of 1907). She was an only child and, as of 1900, living with her parents at 2811 Burdette St. in Omaha, about 2 blocks away from the Parsons.[7] While Lillian and Alma clearly are friends and spend a good deal of time together, I can’t help but detect a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) note of the “frenemy” in their relationship. Alma was clearly a frequent, direct correspondent with Harry herself, even if she did, apparently, once tell Harry to “leave me alone” when he tried to help her.
The Lundbergs, particularly Edward, don’t show up in Lillian’s later letters, but this is most likely Edward Francis Lundberg, born 20 April 1890 of Nels and Ida Lundberg, both Swedish immigrants. In 1900, the Lundbergs lived less than a mile south of the Parsons on N. 26th Street.[8]
“Ma’” is mentioned in this letter, as she is in several letters, providing Lillian advice post-social blunder; it is easy to picture Ida Parsons as the amused and sometimes exasperated mother trying to keep her rambunctious and socially active daughters out of trouble. Also noteworthy and almost miss-able in this letter is “C” – most likely Lillian and Harry’s younger brother Charley, who was a few weeks shy of 10 years old when Lillian composed this letter and talked about racing up the hill. Marion is mentioned only in passing, as the one who went to fetch Alma to play Hearts with the Lundbergs.
The letter continues with Lillian’s report on her Algebra and writing classes and her assessment of her own bad writing, but there is one final, beautiful gem:
“Well A & I played our duet but of course I made a mistake where I always do. You know that hard part the 3 & 4 lines in “Flower Fairys” Well in the 4 line I got behind but I caught up & it wasn’t noticed.”
Why is this beautiful? Until I found these letters, I had no idea my great-grandmother Lillian played the piano. It isn’t surprising, given that it was common for girls of Lillian’s social class to play a musical instrument, but this was a tiny detail that was never mentioned when I was growing up. Despite my best efforts, I was not able to determine the exact song, “Flower Fairies,” that Lillian and Alma were playing as a duet in 1907; it was a fairly common song title at the time and there are several possibilities (all of which could be wrong.) This is a little gem I would love to uncover someday!
See Volume 1 of the Lillian Letters for the story behind Lillian’s letters and for more information on Lillian, her parents, and her siblings!
[1] Armour Institute of Technology, The Integral, Class of 1909, Volume 10, Page 85; online copy available on Ancestry.com, “U.S. School Yearbooks, 1900-2016,” > Illinois > Chicago > Armour Institute of Technology > 1909, (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1265/images/40392_b075494-00000?ssrc=&backlabel=Return : accessed 7 October 2023), image 86 of 287.
[2] Ibid., 219.
[3] Illinois Institute of Technology, “Early Leadership” (https://www.iit.edu/about/history/early-leadership : accessed 7 October 2023).
[4] Armour Institute of Technology, The Integral, Class of 1909, Volume 10, Page 36.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Paul Batesal, America’s Lost Colleges, lostcolleges.com, “Armour Institute of Technology, (https://www.lostcolleges.com/armour-institute : accessed 7 October 2023).
[7] 1900 U.S. census, Omaha, Ward 6, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 66, page 121 (stamped), sheet 6-B, dwelling 127, family 132, Hans Jensen; NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 924.
[8] 1900 U.S. census, Omaha, Ward 8, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 81, page 5 (stamped), sheet 5-B, dwelling 105, family 107, Nels Lundberg; NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 925.