Epistles from Pap: Letters from the man known as 'The Will Rogers of Indiana'

From the opening

To "Munny"--Aura May Sawyer--and "Pap"--Andrew Everett Durham-- small-time lawyer, farmer, Hoosier politician and father extraordinaire of son J. Frank and daughters Mary Joanna, Sarah Jane, Margaret, Ann Drew and Aura May.

The writer of these letters, Andrew Everett Durham (1882-1954), was a well-known figure in his day--an Indiana State Legislator, railroad lobbyist, small town lawyer and banker, part-time farmer and livestock-raiser, public orator, occasional newspaper correspondent--and prolific writer of letters.

Andrew's son, J. Frank, still lives in Greencastle, Indiana, the place where Andrew made his mark. For years Frank had wanted to "do something with Pap's letters" in the way of publication, but, as a practicing attorney and busy man in his own right, felt he needed some help. He tried to enlist his sister, Joanna, once an Associated Press feature writer, New York Bureau, who now resides in Milford, Pennsylvania. She was one of my columnists when I was editor of the weekly Pike County Dispatch, in Milford. However, Joanna felt she could not take time from her own obligations to assist on Frank's project, and asked me to help.

Frankly, I wondered at first whether Andrew E. Durham's letters would arouse much interest in these days of globalization, the Internet and a pop culture centered around sensational audio/video special effects, but I agreed to at least look at a few. Soon an Express Mail packet arrived with the first of hundreds of pages of yellowed onion-skin copies of typewritten correspondence, most of it dating from 1913 through 1954.

It wasn't long before I cracked my first smile over a clever turn of phrase used to describe a domestic scene. The first good laugh followed not long after that, upon reading how a former governor colluded with a livestock speculator to run up the price of breeding bulls. An account of a disastrous summer theater production was downright hilarious.

A short sample. Read the whole book

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