Letter signed T.K. Skinker, aboard steamer Washington, to wife, St. Louis. Arrived at Old Point last night. Our party consisted of Mr. & Mrs. Ballard & their daughter Miss Gertrude [Gertrude Ballard], Mr. & Mrs. Kingsland & grandson Douglas, Mr. D.M. Houser & his little boy. Teddie Wilcox came to see me this morning. Our party was increased by the addition of Frank [Estes] & Mrs. Estes, Mrs. Kingsland’s daughter Bessie and her husband and Mr. Harney and Charlie Knapp who came from New York. Dedication ceremony of the Battleship Missouri. In the company I found quite a number of Missourians, among them Commander Knapp, Dexter Tiffany, young Chaffee of Carthage, and Ensign Castleman of Kentucky a nephew of George. The speeches didn’t amount to much. The service is massive and handsome & will make no small addition to the ship’s furniture. We saw where the fatal catastrophe occurred a few weeks ago., 1904 June 4

Item — Box: 2, Folder: 3

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The collection consists primarily of Skinker family correspondence, the bulk of which is between Thomas K. Skinker and his wife, Bertha Rives Skinker. The collection also contains several folders of tax receipts of Thomas Skinker dated 1839-1886. This finding aid was compiled by keying in the document descriptions on the folder covers. These document descriptions were presumably written by a Missouri Historical Society archivist soon after the collection was purchased in 1978.