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Grace H. Fisher
January 2002
To the Reader:
About a year ago, I bought a desk at an estate auction. It was a gorgeous mahogany lady’s writing desk, and it was sold with its contents apparently intact. Among the things in the desk was a silver-filigree Waterman’s Ideal fountain pen, engraved with the name Stephen J. Henderson and made by the L. E. Waterman Company in about 1915.
I was intrigued. I was born Grace Banfield Henderson, and there is a Stephen J. Henderson in my family tree. I decided on a whim to see if I could ascertain whether the pen might have belonged to my ancestor. I began by looking through my own jumble of family papers, and when I came across a letter that strongly suggested the relationship, I got serious. My research eventually led me on a quest that took me to Europe and back again, following a trail of letters. Researching the letters’ addresses and return addresses forward and backward, to establish an unbroken chain from 1915 until today, was an arduous connect-the-dots effort; but it has borne fruit, in more ways than one.
I found that the pen’s original owner was indeed my ancestor, and this pleases me.
But I also discovered another history, one that turned out to be far more interesting, in a way, than my own family tree. I met dozens of people in my travels, and I came home with about a hundred more letters. One of the people I met, quite incidentally, was Donal Higgins, the Webmaster of Pentrace: The site for fountain pens that write. When I related my tale to him, he asked if I would allow him to publish it on Pentrace, and I agreed. From among the letters I brought home, I selected eleven for publication. Those letters have been published on Pentrace, and they are now made available here as well. As you read them, you will come to realize my reason for choosing these particular missives. I hope your journey through time will be as fascinating as mine has been.
Please read the letters in order the first time. Feel free to browse after you have read them all, but only by reading them in order will you be able to gain a full appreciation of the reasons for their inclusion in this collection.
Letter 1: Stephen J. Henderson to Grace B. Henderson
Letter 2: Henry S. Penyard to Margaret Cadogan
Letter 3: Margaret Cadogan to Siobhán Cadogan
Letter 4: Edward J. Cooper to Margaret C. Cooper
Letter 5: Gérard F. Robioux to Bernadette G. Robioux
Letter 6: Bernadette G. Robioux to Christine H. Robioux
Letter 7: Samuel R. Fleming to Richard A. and Charlotte G. Fleming
Letter 8: Richard A. Fleming to Thomas F. Long
Letter 9: Thomas F. Long to Richard A. Fleming
Letter 10: Kevin J. Long to Thomas F. Long
Letter 11: Rose B. Hall to Jeanne B. Myers
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