The Love Letters - Revision history

MarisaSandoval at 17:54, March 6, 2009

2009-03-06T17:54:34Z

MarisaSandoval at 17:52, March 6, 2009

2009-03-06T17:52:44Z

MarisaSandoval at 17:39, March 6, 2009

2009-03-06T17:39:40Z

MarisaSandoval at 17:57, March 2, 2009

2009-03-02T17:57:50Z

MarisaSandoval at 18:01, February 25, 2009

2009-02-25T18:01:40Z

MarisaSandoval at 17:58, February 25, 2009

2009-02-25T17:58:04Z

MarisaSandoval: Protected "The Love Letters": WSM article [edit=author:move=author]

2009-02-25T17:56:19Z

Protected "The Love Letters": WSM article [edit=author:move=author]

MarisaSandoval at 17:56, February 25, 2009

2009-02-25T17:56:00Z

MarisaSandoval at 17:55, February 25, 2009

2009-02-25T17:55:08Z

MarisaSandoval at 17:54, February 25, 2009

2009-02-25T17:54:14Z

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 The secret didn’t last long. Summer 2008 the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Edward and Xerpha Gaines returned to eastern Washington. They talked and laughed, piecing together their own memories of Edward and Xerpha, and mentioning the bundle of letters that gave them the details of their grandparent’s romance.
-[[Image:Xerpha7.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.]]At the end of the reunion, they delivered to Washington State University an astonishing gift–Xerpha’s steamer trunk which holds nearly a century of private papers detailing the life of a woman whose story is not only threaded through the University’s, but also through the story of agriculture in Washington State.
+At the end of the reunion, they delivered to Washington State University an astonishing gift–Xerpha’s steamer trunk which holds nearly a century of private papers detailing the life of a woman whose story is not only threaded through the University’s, but also through the story of agriculture in Washington State.
 Worn and heavy, with a torn label bearing Xerpha’s name on the side, the trunk contains a variety of treasures: a prayer book, a tiny box full of beads, a wedding dress, an envelope of pictures of Xerpha as a girl, Edward Gaines’s correspondence as a scientist, and a water-stained box bearing the label “Old Hampshire Bond: The Stationery of a Gentleman.”
-The stationery box invites more scrutiny: Inside is a stack of letters wrapped with a white silk ribbon, now yellowed and frayed. The first, dated May 29, 1910, is addressed to Miss Xerpha McCulloch, Othello, Wash. It starts with “Dear–Sister?–Xerpha?–Friend? Which shall it be?” Edward describes their parting at the Ritzville station as he watched Xerpha board the train for home. A few hours later, the letter notes, Edward got on another train bound for Spokane, as he made his way to Pullman where he was a student at Washington State College.
+[[Image:Xerpha7.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.]]The stationery box invites more scrutiny: Inside is a stack of letters wrapped with a white silk ribbon, now yellowed and frayed. The first, dated May 29, 1910, is addressed to Miss Xerpha McCulloch, Othello, Wash. It starts with “Dear–Sister?–Xerpha?–Friend? Which shall it be?” Edward describes their parting at the Ritzville station as he watched Xerpha board the train for home. A few hours later, the letter notes, Edward got on another train bound for Spokane, as he made his way to Pullman where he was a student at Washington State College.
 The content is hardly the hot words of young lovers, though. Throughout the dozens of letters covering two full years, they discuss teaching Sunday school, Edward’s agronomy studies, Xerpha’s work at the Othello post office, her mother’s health, and his visits home to his family’s farm.

@@ Line 119: / Line 119: @@
 Gallery of Photos and Letters from Xerpha's Trunk
-<>Image:Xerpha7.jpg | Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.
+<gallery>Image:Xerpha7.jpg | Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.
 Image:Xerpha-letter-May1910.jpg | Letter from Edward Gaines to Xerpha, May 1910.
 Image:Xerpha-highschool-portrait.jpg | Xerpha's high school graduation photo. Grant County Historical Society.
-Image:Xerpha highschool graduation cert.jpg | Xerpha's high school graduation certificate. Courtesy Jocelyn Liu.</><br>
+Image:Xerpha highschool graduation cert.jpg | Xerpha's high school graduation certificate. Courtesy Jocelyn Liu.

@@ Line 119: / Line 119: @@
 Gallery of Photos and Letters from Xerpha's Trunk
-<gallery>Image:Xerpha7.jpg | Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.
+<>Image:Xerpha7.jpg | Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.
 Image:Xerpha-letter-May1910.jpg | Letter from Edward Gaines to Xerpha, May 1910.
-Image:Xerpha-highschool-portrait.jpg | Xerpha's high school graduation photo. Grant County Historical Society.</gallery><br>
+Image:Xerpha-highschool-portrait.jpg | Xerpha's high school graduation photo. Grant County Historical Society.

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:57, March 2, 2009
Line 119:		Line 119:
	Gallery of Photos and Letters from Xerpha's Trunk		Gallery of Photos and Letters from Xerpha's Trunk

−	<gallery>Image:~~Xerpha1~~.jpg \| Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.</gallery><br>	+	<gallery>Image:Xerpha7.jpg \| Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.
		+	Image:Xerpha-letter-May1910.jpg \| Letter from Edward Gaines to Xerpha, May 1910.
		+	Image:Xerpha-highschool-portrait.jpg \| Xerpha's high school graduation photo. Grant County Historical Society.</gallery><br>

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 This year, when she was preparing for the Gaines family reunion, Jocelyn thought about the trunk, which was being stored in Western Washington at a relative’s house. She was the last one to really look through it, and she realized it might be well protected, and maybe even useful, in the hands of the University. So she loaded it in her car and brought it home.<br><br>
 Gallery of Photos and Letters from Xerpha's Trunk
-<gallery />
+<gallery>Image:Xerpha1.jpg | Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.</gallery><br>

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:58, February 25, 2009
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	But fate had a final gift for Jocelyn. As a vet student, she found herself house sitting in an old farmhouse near campus. Not until the owner handed her the keys did she learn that the house on Gaines Road was the one where more than a half-century earlier Xerpha had raised her family.		But fate had a final gift for Jocelyn. As a vet student, she found herself house sitting in an old farmhouse near campus. Not until the owner handed her the keys did she learn that the house on Gaines Road was the one where more than a half-century earlier Xerpha had raised her family.

−	This year, when she was preparing for the Gaines family reunion, Jocelyn thought about the trunk, which was being stored in Western Washington at a relative’s house. She was the last one to really look through it, and she realized it might be well protected, and maybe even useful, in the hands of the University. So she loaded it in her car and brought it home.<br><br>	+	This year, when she was preparing for the Gaines family reunion, Jocelyn thought about the trunk, which was being stored in Western Washington at a relative’s house. She was the last one to really look through it, and she realized it might be well protected, and maybe even useful, in the hands of the University. So she loaded it in her car and brought it home.<br><br>
		+
		+	Gallery of Photos and Letters from Xerpha's Trunk
		+
		+	<gallery />

← Older revision	Revision as of 17:56, February 25, 2009
(No difference)

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 The secret didn’t last long. Summer 2008 the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Edward and Xerpha Gaines returned to eastern Washington. They talked and laughed, piecing together their own memories of Edward and Xerpha, and mentioning the bundle of letters that gave them the details of their grandparent’s romance.
-[[Image:Xerpha7.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.]]At the end of the reunion, they delivered to Washington State University an astonishing gift–Xerpha’s steamer trunk which holds nearly a century of private papers detailing the life of a woman whose story is not only threaded through the University’s, but also through the story of agriculture in Washington State.
+[[Image:Xerpha7.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Xerpha's trunk. Photo Zach Mazur.]]At the end of the reunion, they delivered to Washington State University an astonishing gift–Xerpha’s steamer trunk which holds nearly a century of private papers detailing the life of a woman whose story is not only threaded through the University’s, but also through the story of agriculture in Washington State.
 Worn and heavy, with a torn label bearing Xerpha’s name on the side, the trunk contains a variety of treasures: a prayer book, a tiny box full of beads, a wedding dress, an envelope of pictures of Xerpha as a girl, Edward Gaines’s correspondence as a scientist, and a water-stained box bearing the label “Old Hampshire Bond: The Stationery of a Gentleman.”
@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 After Europe, the Gaines family returned to Pullman and welcomed and supported many a student and young scientist at their home. They also saw their two older children through college and watched them find partners and marry. Then their son John enrolled at WSC, followed eventually by their youngest, Grant ’43.
-[[Image:Xerpha6.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Xerpha with her daughter Mae.]]The summer of 1939 was eventful for Xerpha. Just when things at home seemed to quiet down, her daughter gave birth to twin boys. Xerpha traveled to Mae’s bedside in Oregon and stayed several weeks to help her daughter through a difficult recuperation.
+[[Image:Xerpha6.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Xerpha with her daughter Mae.]]The summer of 1939 was eventful for Xerpha. Just when things at home seemed to quiet down, her daughter gave birth to twin boys. Xerpha traveled to Mae’s bedside in Oregon and stayed several weeks to help her daughter through a difficult recuperation.
 Though the tone of correspondence between Xerpha and Edward during this trip was happy, she came home at the end of July to find her husband in a sorry state. He was fatigued, he couldn’t lift his feet, and his hands trembled. After visiting a doctor in Spokane, they learned he had Parkinson’s disease.
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 Among those opportunities was the chance to assist with WSC President Enoch Bryan’s history of WSU. Xerpha, with her meticulous attention to detail and deep knowledge of the University, was an ideal assistant for compiling the index for the book. She also served on the board of her church, was a house mother for the Farm House, and took part in the Pullman chapter of the American Association of University Women.
-[[Image:Xerpha4.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Xerpha’s self-portrait.]]“She was a very nice lady,” says Betty Lee ‘54, who was a student working a summer job at the herbarium when she met Xerpha. “And she was smart,” says Lee, noting how skilled the older woman was at identifying new plants. Mrs. Gaines would often go out–around Pullman and Moscow–and collect for the herbarium, says Lee. “She was very well known in the community for her work as well as for her community service.”
+[[Image:Xerpha4.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Xerpha’s self-portrait.]]“She was a very nice lady,” says Betty Lee ‘54, who was a student working a summer job at the herbarium when she met Xerpha. “And she was smart,” says Lee, noting how skilled the older woman was at identifying new plants. Mrs. Gaines would often go out–around Pullman and Moscow–and collect for the herbarium, says Lee. “She was very well known in the community for her work as well as for her community service.”
 Xerpha wasn’t one to be idle. She never watched television. She always had tenants living in her house, often visiting scholars and new faculty. She also found time to follow her curiosity–to some of the remotest parts of the state.