Dan King photo

The Brick Store Museum holds over 30,000 pieces of archival material written by historic Kennebunkers. The Voice from the Past feature will share compositions from the museum’s collection. This week’s column comes from a letter written by Abigail King, of Danvers, Massachusetts, to her niece Mary Cleaves, of Biddeford (later Kennebunk), in 1835.

May 11, 1835

Dear Friend,

With deep sorrow of heart I have just perused a letter from Sister Margaret informing us that death has again entered your family and taken from you its remaining head.

God’s ways are not our ways, we must find ourselves comfort in the things of this life, but let God breathe upon them, they vanish, and are gone. So is our life, it is as a vapor…it appears for a little time and then vanishes away, the aged must die, the young are likewise called to appear before God, to give an account of themselves to him. What account can we give of our past life, for his kind care of us?

Your sincere friend and Aunt,

Abigail King

Cynthia Walker is executive director of the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk. She can be reached at cwalker@brickstoremuseum.org or 207-985-4802.