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WCU - Horace Kephart

Leonard Kephart to Laura Kephart, February 12, 1949, page 1

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Leonard Kephart to Laura Kephart, February 12, 1949, page 1

HL_MSS12-05_02_15_10_01
Item 2 - Leonard Kephart to Laura Kephart, February 18, 1949, page 2
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Leonard Kephart to Laura Kephart, February 18, 1949, page 2

HL_MSS12-05_02_15_10_02
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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • February 12, 1949 Dear Mama, Another Valentines Day has come around and that is always Mama’s birthday. It seems to me that on that account Valentines Day has always been as big a “day” in my mind as Christmas or the fourth of July. I used to get a big kick out of the fact that none of the other boys parents had birthday that came on a famous day. So you see you have always been a distinguished person. I must confess that I’m finding it a bit difficult to remember all the birthdays now with so many children, grand children and in-laws as I have. But there is still no difficulty remembering when your’s comes. Usually I can remember our Barbara’s because hers is the day before the 4th of July - though I’ve been known to “remember” that it was the day after. Well, I’m old enough now that i can use the excuse of advancing years for my poor memory. That reminds me that I saw a statement in the Readers Digest or some such place that very few people could give the full names of all their great- grandparents. I said to myself “Well, I can” but when I tried I found that I could not remember any of them exactly. So would you be good enough to put me straight. I have not the vaguest notion of the names of anything el [sic] about Grandma Kephart’s parents. I had a reminder of Uncle George the other day. I had to go out to Bozeman Montana for a series of meetings. While I was there the paper reported that it had been 42 below 0 at Elliston the day before. Elliston is about 50 mi From Bozeman. I was there a good many years ago and had a good time visit with Uncle George. I have an idea that his difficulty was that he never g [sic] a real break. It was not so much a matter of getting bad breaks as of nev [sic] getting any good ones at all. Most people get at least one in the course of a lifetime but I dont believe that he ever did. Thats a pretty discouraging business. I had a little break the other day. Nothing to boast about. Just one of those things that sort of makes you think-you aren’t the world’s worst dum [sic] bell perhaps. Last summer when I returned from East Africa I told those wh [sic] ought to know that in my opinion the famous Groundnut Scheme on which the British were spending hundreds of millions in Tanganyika was doomed to fal [sic] if they did not get someone in there who knew something about practical agriculture. My report was considerable of a jolt in some quarters and the British Minister of Agriculture asked for a special report. Last month the Labor Government in London announced that to their great regret the Groundnut Scheme was not going to produce the crops that had been promised and that a complete shakeup of the operating personnel was being ordered. I guess I should not gloat over other people’s misfortunes but I could not help feeling that my judgement was vindicated. Now there is talk ( in the paper this morning) of sending a “strong U.S. crew of specialists” over there to try to get those people out of their difficulties. I dont know w [sic] that means and if there are any agronomists in the bunch I’m going to try and get on the part. I still think that East Africa is one of the finest places I’ve ever been and I’d like to go back. I’d go in a minute if it w [sic] not for the children but I just cant like the idea of living so far away f [sic] them. Of course if Jane and Ralph ( and Barbara too, I guess ) do finally to Japan I might as well be in East Africa as here. We dont know yet what the Army is going to do with Ralph. He has asked to be sent back to Palo to get a Doctors degree. We dont see much of George and Pauline even though they live only three bl [sic] from here. I guess its our fault for not going around there more often. Then too I’ve been away from home more this year than any year since I’ve
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Horace Kephart

Background and Early Career Horace Kephart was born in 1862 in Pennsylvania, but spent much of his youth in Iowa. He went on to achieve success in two careers. Trained as a...

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