Civil War Letters

Civil War Letters Go Back Home

Earlier this year, the Okanogan County Historical Society was contacted by Judy Tonseth of the Methow Valley Senior Center Thrift Store. They had been given a donation that contained Civil War letters written in 1864 and 1865 and wondered if we would be interested.  We were!

With the letters was a note that read: “Civil War letters from a soldier 1865 from army hospital-Left to me by member of the Lafeber family in Rochester” and with a printed name of Richard R. Northrup.  Most of the letters were addressed to people living in Rochester, Monroe County, New York.

Our researcher, Barry George, immediately started reading the letters and discovered that they were written by Charles Lefeber (aka Lifeber) to friends and family. Part of the challenge of reading the letters was Charles wrote in “Onomatopoeia” which is “the use of words that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes”.  

Barry was able to determine that Charles was wounded in battle on July 30, 1864, near Petersburg, Virginia.  Many of the letters were written from the hospital on stationary letterhead: United States Sanitary Commission –Soldier’s Letter. His letters talk of forced marches, having bean soup for dinner, and that he is happy that there is plenty of wood for a fire in his tent.  

In the process of assembling a list of Civil War Veterans who lived and died in Okanogan County, Barry developed a contact, Art Kelly, in the Tri-Cities, who works on Civil War documentation for Eastern Washington.  Art suggested that Barry contact the historical society in Monroe County, New York. A google search found the Rochester Historical Society and William Keeler.  Barry called and soon got a response that they would like to have the box of letters.  Barry scanned the letters and envelopes and photographed the camera box for OCHS files and sent the original letters to New York.

Barry discovered the Northrup family had ties to Monroe County, New York, and contacted the Northrup daughter who had donated the letters to the Methow Valley Thrift Store. She said her father had gotten the letters in the 1960s so the letters have been traveling around the United States in their small Kodak camera box lid for about 59 years.  The story has come full circle and the letters are back in Rochester, New York.

William Keeler of the Rochester Historical Society has since shared information about Charles Lefeber’s family and their trip from Holland and Charles’ life after the Civil War.

If you would like to know more about this story, Barry wrote an article in the Okanogan County Heritage, Summer 2024 issue, detailing his research.  Individual copies of the Heritage magazine are available for sale.  Or if you are not already a member, consider becoming a member of OCHS.  The annual dues are $40 a year and include 4 issues of the quarterly magazine.

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