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The following account books of the Bodman family, and the accompanying letter from George Bodman, are indicative of American economic development, showing the family's progression from hauling hay for rum in the eighteenth century to managing the family trust's stock portfolio in the twentieth century.
Debts owed to Joseph Bodman of Williamsburg, Mass. are shown in these pages of his account book, 1783-95
"The following is an agreement for the division of lands owned in Co- by Lewis and Luther Bodman in Bement, Ill...."
From account book of Lewis and Luther Bodman (L. & L. Bodman Co.), Williamsburg, Massachusetts, 1868-71)
Pages from the account book of Edward Cushman Bodman show various stock holdings, 1915-19
The account book of the Herbert Luther and George M. Bodman Trust, 1932-35, shows the sale of a large number of stocks during the Great Depression.
"We have been very busy especially in grain and stocks, and the brunt of it has fallen on me. The Market has been crashing steadily since last Friday, until the majority of people consider it bottomless, --a pit engulfing the unsuspecting widows and orphans."
George Milmine Bodman to his brother Herbert Bodman, Sr., circa 1907
"I have felt so sad and lonelytoday that I hardly know what to do with myself; What is it that has kept you from home today? [I]t seems to me that I could put up with almost any inconvenience if I could only be with you. I do not believe it is right for us to be seperated [sic] so much as we have been for a year past, I cannotfeelreconciled to it."
Philena Hawks Bodman to her husband, Luther, October 1, 1856
"I notice you are rather lonely and almost impatient to see me once more at home, but never mind take the word for the deed, I shall get home by & by…. "
Luther Bodman, Jr. to his wife, Philena, June 23, 1856
"In your letter you speak of coming across one of my old letters written 40 years ago.... [W]e were then just commencing the activities of life and now standing near its brink. How few of the familiar faces we then left behind are still remaining. Another generation has taken the places we then occupied, and soon our places will be filled by another generation."
Samuel Bodman to his brother, Lewis, 1 March 1875
(typed copy of original)
"My dear Theo,
I liked the time best of all when we sat by the boat with your dog and friend dog about us and listened to the wind in the trees and the little waves on the beach. You gave me a glimpse my darling of a love which I have read about and of which other people have spoken but which it never occurred to me I should be lucky enough to receive. Other people have pretended to like me but there have been none of whom I suspected of such generosity. It doesn't seem as if it could have ever have come to the great majority of men or they would never behave as so many men do."
Herbert Bodman to Theodora Dunham, while both were in France during World War I, 20 November 1917
"Deeply as I should delight in the blessed work (and play) of keeping you happy, my impulse is to look to you for happiness as I cannot look to any other soul on earth. Whether I say this utterly in vain or not you need not tell me now; I know only, now, that it is a crumb of comfort just to tell you.... [Y]ou can make joy easy and spontaneous in me and you can touch with a gilding of sunlight every joy and every care, alike, that is mine."
George Washington Cable to Clara Bodman, October 2, 1904
