McLennan Family Fond

Limited information is available in the Rare Books and Special Collections archive about Alice McLennan, the daughter of  Hugh McLennan. Alice was born on May 23, 1859 in Chicago. She lived with her unmarried sister Isabella and her unmarried brother Bartlett. During the war the majority of correspondence between Bartlett and his family went via Alice. Also Alice was the family member who was informed of Bartlett’s passing during the war.

 

A Poem for Alice from William McLennan 

 

The Sorrowful Story of Miss Alice McLennan

 

Miss Alice she was a young lass,

Whose hair all mixed up in a mass,

She wasn’t a fool,

So she went off to school:

Where she learnt ‘xaminations to pass;

But alas

She was tail in the “Biography” class

 

Her name it commenced with a “Mac”

So she shut her book up with a smack,

And says she “I will try

To stand very high

In this “Biography”, I so much lack.”

When; crack!!

She was down with a crick in her back,

 

Then followed a pain in her head,

So they packed her right off to her bed

Says she, “Oh my eye!

It’s so hard here to lie,

I’d sooner eat water and bread!"

But it led,

To their taking her, up home, instead.

 

So now she is lying at home,

And she’s up in her room all alone,

She scolds her poor mother,

And her .... brother

Who wishes she’d start off for for Rome.

home!

I must stop; she’s beginning to groan.

The F of the Family                              Monday Nov 1875