All Alone, Without Money, No Language--Just Yiddish": An Immigrant's Letters from Missouri to Galicia

In June 1891, Shimshon Gerye, a Jewish immigrant from Galicia (a region that now falls across the border of Ukraine and Poland) living in Sedalia, Missouri, received a letter from a cousin back home. The content of the letter was probably rather mundane (a request to send money, inquiries about health), but its timing was somewhat unusual: in the thirty-five years that Shimshon had been living in America, this was apparently the first he had heard from his family in Europe. What survives of the ensuing correspondence, written in Yiddish and spanning a one-year period, provides an interesting view of the situation of the immigrant and the pressures of assimilation, as well as the Yiddish language in America at the end of the nineteenth century.

Letter from William Croswell to George Richards, 1794 September 1

One-page letter from Croswell to George Richards, the Pastor of the Universal Society in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, requesting information about teaching opportunities in the area.

Letter from William Croswell to Dr. Dingley, 1795 July 9

One-page letter from Croswell to Dr. Dingley in New York City, requesting information on teaching opportunities in the area.

Letter from William Croswell to an unidentified recipient, [1808]

Draft of a page-and-a-half letter regarding Croswell's employment situation in Liverpool.

Letter from William Croswell to an unidentified recipient, 1808 April 5

Draft of a letter requesting help in publishing a map.

Letter from William Croswell to [John] Bonnycastle, 1808 May 6

Draft of a letter to John Bonnycastle of the Royal Military Academy in Woolrich, England, requesting a recommendation.

Letter from William Croswell to John Bonnycastle, [1808 May]

Draft of a letter requesting help in publishing a map.

Letter from William Croswell to James Maury, 1808 June 4

Draft of a letter to James Maury, the American consul in Liverpool, with information about Croswell's failed plans to publish a map.

Letter from William Croswell to Sarah Bumstead, 1808 August 13

Two-page letter describing Croswell's time in England.

Letter from William Croswell to Sarah Bumstead, 1809 April 15

Two-page letter with information about Croswell's activities in England.

Letter from William Croswell to John C. Page, 1811 December 24

Draft of a one-page letter regarding Page's financial assistance to Croswell in Liverpool, with a laid-in leaf containing an accounting statement.

Letter from William Croswell to an unidentified recipient, 1819 December 19

Draft of a one-page letter to an unidentified recipient in Liverpool regarding an unpaid debt.