A Smithsonian Mystery
In the spring of 2015, the Smithsonian Magazine was contacted by the U. S. Postal Service’s historian regarding a very intriguing mystery. It appeared that the postmaster in Newaygo, Michigan received an envelope containing letters mysteriously marked “Postmaster/ Newaygo, Michigan”.
It was the first of its kind. The town’s zip code was added by a different hand. And there wasn’t any return address. But what it contained were letters not from this century and from the civil war to say the least.
A Piece Of History
To check the authenticity of the envelops, a curator of philately in Washington, D.C., at the National Postal Museum was contacted. Daniel Piazza pronounced the letters to be authentic right away.
This only made it all mysterious. Where had the letters all come from? Why had they suddenly reappeared now? These questions will soon be answered.
Just Another Day In the Post Office
As it had already reached the attention of the museum, the mystery of the item now had to be scrutinized. This would be critical in helping them understand and share the item’s importance with the public.
They also needed to know how the letters got to the Postmaster and who was the mysterious sender who mailed it after 150 years?
The Best Man For The Job
The historians revealed the letters were written by someone who had lived during the civil war. To fill in the gaps in the sender's biography, Steve Kochersperger had the best insight with his expertise in the Civil War.
He uncovered eventually that there were no descendants looking for the young letter sender. “It felt like he was looking for someone to tell his story.” His research revealed that the young sender must have died at the age of 21.
You Have Mail!
Scrutinizing the envelope further, the postmark indicated that it had been mailed the day before, from Grand Rapids, 36 miles away; the careful, somewhat spidery penmanship suggested that the sender could have been an elderly senior.
“Except for the ‘Received Unsealed’ sticker on the back, there was no sign that the envelop contained anything other than, say, an authorization to hold mail,” recalls the woman who then ran the post office in this tiny Muskegon River lumber town.
Evidence From The Past
Inside that envelope was another one, brown and brittle, its edges a little bit tore. A battle scene, in blue and red ink and bearing the legend “The War for the Union,” was imprinted on the top-left corner.
Though the postage stamp had been removed, the name of the city of mailing—Norfolk, Virginia—was partially legible. But wait, here's the interesting part...
Finding It's Way Home
It was obvious that the letters were mailed by someone who could have been a soldier in the civil war to his family.
Could they have been held onto by someone in the family all this time, probably just left in attic or passed down along? Fortunately, not thrown away so that somebody who’d find them could sent them to the postmaster, thinking that the postmaster would probably find the family. Here's how it actually happened...
Unsuspecting Postmaster
Back to the day on April 24, 2015 of the letter’s arrival in the Newaygo, Michigan Post Office, Postmaster Lori Boes, started her daily routine by going through her mail. That was the day she came across a mystery letter in her pile addressed only to “Postmaster, Newaygo, Michigan 49337.”
She pondered over it first and then opened it. The sender had, after all, addressed it to the postmaster.
Blast From The Past
Lori Boes could not help but feel intrigued. It would have been the first time she would ever receive a letter addressed to just the postmaster, without her name on it.
She opened the envelope and what she found would make her embark on a trip through history…over 150 years into the past!
It's Ripped!
She wasn’t even aware what was inside the envelope, so she ripped open the letter without any precaution. Well, she assumed it was just a regular envelope with a perfectly legal stamp.
It was strange though that the letter didn't bear a return address, however, this is sometimes also normal for letters that come across in a post office.
Ripped Apart
As she opened the envelope she was initially quite confused. Later, she would have to admit that she could have been a bit more cautious at the time. But to be fair, how would she have known what was inside the plain and simple envelope?
Luckily, the actual letter inside remained intact. However, she learned a very important lesson, you can come across the most unexpected and delicate things in the ordinary post…
Not Of This Century
As she read the letters it contained inside, it dawned on Boes that she was reading a note sent home by a soldier during the Civil War. “Suddenly, I felt the enormity of what was in my hands,” she says.
“My heart leapt in my throat.” She was holding a piece of Americana. She was mortified that she’d ripped open the outer envelope. Then, this happens...
The Quest Begins
To solve the mystery, the Smithsonian magazine was contacted. The magazine’s 1.8 million circulation with its 6 million monthly readers were essential in putting the word out about the source of the letters.
This was the strategy they opted in getting the sender to reveal him or herself.
A Good Eye
The next days would see dozens of the museum staff, postal service and Smithsonian magazine search how to solve the mystery envelope.
Steve Kochersperger, a USPS researcher, did impressive research on the young sender. Beth Heydt, Smithsonian collections manager, worked with the magazine staff to arrange a photo shoot to create a historically correct recreation of a Union soldier’s writing space.
The Bait
They were certain that the accompanying article, “Newly Discovered Letters Bring New Insight Into the Life of a Civil War Soldier” would bring the sender into the open.
Eventually the story by Franz Lidz was published in the magazine, detailing the life of a young soldier who had authored the letters. It had become wildly popular with Smithsonian’s online readers. Pretty soon, an email from Courtney Cresta from Spring, Texas, arrived saying that she knew who mailed the letters.
Located!
Nancy Cramblit of Muskegon, Michigan, says she mailed the letters in hopes that the post office would find family members of the young soldier that wrote them during the Civil War.
It was a delight speaking with Nancy Cramblit about how she found the letters and here’s what she recounted.
Inherited Mail
Her husband who died in 1978 was sort of a junk collector. Over the years, he'd have junk piled up from yard sales. Not knowing who it belonged to, she put it in with his funeral stuff and just forgot about it. The box it was on was along with other letters that had his family name on, so she sent them to his family and eventually found the mysterious letter as she was going through all of his stuff.
They laid on her desk probably another six months before she decided what she could do with them. Hoping they could find a family member, so she put them in the mailbox.
Familiar Letters
She didn’t put in the return address. She just addressed it to the Postmaster hoping that it would reach the family of the original sender. She happened to be an avid subscriber of the Smithsonian magazine without always having the time to read it. But the week after the article about the Civil War soldier was published, she was able to sit down and read it.
She could not believe it. “Oh my gosh, that’s the letters that I sent out,” she was floored. She couldn’t believe they went that far.
Decluttering
To Nancy, it was just shocking. She never realized what a historical difference they would make. It was just something she didn’t need hanging around her house.
But sensing that they were valuable to somebody else, she couldn’t throw them away either. She decided she wasn't keeping them in her house any longer so she did this.
She Sent It
In an interview, Nancy recalls that she never wanted to put a return address on the envelop. She just addressed it to the postmaster the year she remembered to mail them.
All she ever wanted was to find a family member. She figured if there were any family members in Newaygo, the Post Office would know how to find them.
A Yard Sale Find
She never really thought of them as being the historical piece that it was since she found it in with others that her husband had from his family. He dealt in junk. She never knew where he got the stuff he hauled home.
She instantly thought that the letters could have not been from his family. There were letters in the same box that were from his family and specifically addressed with their family name.
Mixed Up
She could tell the difference between his family letters and stuff he brought home that was junk, which made her suspicious about that envelop.
Nancy doubted that there has been any connection between her husband’s family and the young soldier’s family. Her husband was from Ohio and he got those family letters when his parents died. She was certain he found it once as he loved shopping in yard sale.
Locating Relatives
Asked if Nancy had ever read the letters, she mentions she had read them at that time and put them back in the envelope. She thought it was very interesting, but never realized the historical content or even how old they were.
Having lived in the neighbouring town for most her life, she have never heard of a Shephard family either so all of it remained a mystery.
Torn Beyond Repair
Back in the Postmaster’s Office, not a soul could explain the mystery letter that turned up. It was not long after that investigators and departmental superiors at the United States Postal service, and even the Smithsonian joined forces to solve the case.
Postmaster Boes, then realized that by mistake she'd ripped a piece of it off the older envelope when she'd opened it. She regretted being so careless once she found out what was inside.
One Mistake
If only she had known, she would’ve been far more careful, as she certainly knew how fragile older paper could be. This would have been the biggest mistake she's ever made in her career.
As Bose investigated the mystery letter closer, it came to light that the envelope had an image of what looked like a battle on it, a battle that was older than any one could ever be alive to witness.
Puzzle Solved1
The words “The War for the Union” were still clearly visible on the envelope. With further inspection, Boes realized that the mystery letter must have been from the Civil War --- 150 years ago!
She was ridden with guilt due to how hastily she'd torn open the envelope; after all, she treasured the efforts made all over to retain American history and this item in her own hands could be a valuable part of it that required preserving!
Mystery Of The Letters
Kochersperger who worked on the authenticity of the letters was moved by the young sender’s words. He identified with him as a boy off to see the world.
He began by transcribing the handwriting. Literacy rates were high during the Civil War which explains why young soldiers were able to write beautifully in their time. Still, many enlisted men preferred dictating messages to their comrades whose writing was more legible and neater.
Sender Identified
Once the letters were deciphered, the sender was later identified as a 21-year old Nelson Shephard.
Here’s what Kochersperger was able to piece together: Nelson Shephard was born in 1843 or ’44. He was the oldest son of Orrin and Sarah Shephard’s three children. In 1850, the family lived in Grass Lake, a whistle-stop of the Michigan Central Railroad. He also uncovered that Nelson was not exactly a role model in his time, he was arrested for burglary in his teens and eventually spent some time in Jackson State Prison. During the 1860's he'd work as a mill hand in the town of White River, where the Shephards had resettled.
A Good Son
Despite his delinquent past, Private Shephard was a devoted son, assuring his family that he could read their letters and his safety. He was sure that a Union victory was within arm's reach.
One of the letters he'd written read: “Alexandria, Virginia My Dear Parents, I received your ever welcome letter last Sunday and I just returned from Guard and I was just in the right mood to write so I will try it we left Union Mills the next day after I sent you the letter as we passed Fairfax Court House we marched about 6 miles when we were drawn up in line of Battle. But nothing hapend [sic] only a few of our Pickets taken Prisoners the next morning we took three Prisoners Rebels....”
Forever Alive
The story of a mystery letter received by Lori Boes, the postmaster in a small town of Michigan, has now been solved. But the sad story of the original sender of the letters inside the mystery letter, Nelson Shephard, the young 21-year-old soldier who passed away, two weeks before his third Christmas in the Union Army, will live forever, thanks to the letters he wrote.
All we leave behind are memories - whoever we are or whatever we do. Our legacy is all that remains after we pass on from this world. With the words he left to his family, Nelson Shepard's legacy will definitely live on longer than he ever thought he would.