September, 2003

My Dear Cousins,

I have a treasure to share with you. Grandma Katherine Elizabeth Hoag Hoyt (Kitty)

left a journal of her daily life as a primary grade teacher with black children for the American Missionary Society in Wilmington, NC, in 1897-98. (These were the grandchildren of slaves.) In addition, there is a talk she gave to a church group around 1913 about her work. The talk provides helpful background about Wilmington, the Gregory Institute, or day school where she worked, the teachers' home, the students and their families. Also, she makes a touching appeal for tolerance and compassion toward African-Americans, known then as "coloreds" or "Negroes."

The journal and talk were among the things that my Mother, Ruth Hoyt Edwards, found in Grandma Hoyt's Clinton, Michigan, home following her death in 1958. Acknowledging that they belong to all the Hoyts, I have transcribed the talk and half of the journal and am sending copies for you and your families.

You will find question marks (?) in the text occasionally, which indicate that I was unsure of the word or spelling. The journal was hand written in pencil, and some parts have faded over the years. Perhaps I will complete the last half of the journal but decided to pass this much along now.

Grandma and Granddad Hoyt made regular winter visits to central Florida, where my mother Ruth and I lived. Their extended stays gave me ample time to get acquainted and come under their beneficent influence. I was born in 1938, and I believe they

came almost annually through Granddad's death in 1953, with Grandma continuing to come until her death in 1958.

This letter is intended as a preface to her journal. I've lifted up personal qualities reflected in her writing along with my own memories of Grandma Hoyt. These qualities include:

. Courage, adaptability, and a sense of justice: Leaving her home in Michigan and traveling to unknown, far-away North Carolina to work with black children and their families was extraordinary for a young woman of her time. As a child, I recall that she befriended the black servants in our household and often sat and ate with them in the kitchen. This was a departure from expected custom in the South of my childhood, and such actions spoke louder than any words.