Using primary sources
What is a primary source? Using textbooks, encyclopedias, and the internet are good starting places to learn about people in history, but they are secondary souces. Primary sources can add a lot of information to your understanding of history. Primary sources are like the “eyewitness reports” of history – the letters, photographs, diaries, journals, and newspaper articles left by people who lived at a certain time in our past. Often, these sources tell us what people were thinking and how they felt about events happening in their world.

The following letter is a primary source. Elizabeth Gruber, who lived on a farm just outside of Marion wrote it to her parents in Virginia. Read the letter, and then answer the questions which follow.

Dear Father and Mother, Brothers and Sisters –
It is with an aching heart I attempt to address these few lines to you. When Abraham left us we were all in good health, and this by the leave of Providence we were permitted to enjoy for eight days, when alas, the scene changed:

Yes, my dear parents, death in an unexpected moment made its appearance and took from me my dearest friend on earth. My dear husband is gone to the grave; and so sudden was his taking away that I was not permitted to hear a word from his dying lips, although I was with him when he died.

Monday morning, Feb. 26th, he went about his work apparently as well as ever. He was cutting timber for rails within six rods of the house. Rebecca was with me in the house and Sarah Margaret was near where her father was at work; the other children were gone after hay. Christian had felled a large tree in the morning; he had been from the tree to the house several times. The last time, he assisted me in doing some of my work; he then went back to his work and had been gone almost fifteen minutes when Sarah Margaret came in and said, I’ve seen father fall off the log and he has not got up. Rebecca and I ran immediately to him. We found he had fallen off the log backward and was lying with his back to the ground. We rubbed him for some time in hopes it was nothing more than faintness and he would revive; but alas, the vital spark had become extinct and all our tears and exertions to revive him were in vain.

Seeing a stranger crossing the plain, I sent Rebecca to the nearest neighbor’s for help in hopes the stranger would come and stay with me until the neighbors should come to my assistance. But although he came within call and I lifted up my hands and begged that for God’s sake he would stop, he only looked at me and passed carelessly along and I was left alone until the neighbors came. All seemed to sympathize with us in our affliction, and kindly did all that was in their power to make us as comfortable as our circumstances would permit. This morning many came to see us; some came from Marion. They tarried with us until about two o’clock, when we set out on our mournful way to the grave. The corpse was carried to Marion, where I looked on my husband and the children on their father for the last time. We saw his remains deposited in the grave and then went to the school house near by, where Elder Hutchens preached. At the close of the service I returned home a disconsolate widow with the fatherless children, accompanied with some of our relatives and a few of the neighbors. Could some of you have been with us it would have been a great satisfaction. I should be glad for some of you to come and see us as soon as you can. The neighbors and people here are very kind to us. They have appointed a day to come and split rails for us. This I consider a great kindness, for which may heaven reward them.

Our relations here are all well and wish to be remembered to you all. There has been much good preaching here since we came, and although it is some different from what we have been accustomed to hear, yet it is a satisfaction to go to church as the denomination appear to be united and willing that every Christian should enjoy their own opinion.

I wish you to write a letter to us as soon as convenient after you receive this. Nothing more present, but I still remain,

Your loving daughter till death,
Elizabeth Gruber
March 6, 1827

Using Primary Sources Activity I

1. What event is Elizabeth describing in her letter?
2. What does Elizabeth mean when she says “the vital spark had become extinct”?
3. Circle five words in Elizabeth’s letter that you do not know. List them below and find their meanings in a dictionary.
4. What did you learn from Elizabeth’s letter about life on a Marion County farm in 1827?
5. How does the information Elizabeth provide contrast with the information you would find in an encyclopedia about early Ohio farms?

Using Primary Sources Activity II
Read the Elizabeth Gruber letter. Write a letter below as if you were Elizabeth or her oldest son writing home to the Virginia relatives a year later. Let them know how you are doing since Mr. Gruber’s death, what you have experienced and what you have observed abo

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