"I sent my letter to her home by a messenger who reported that he
understood at the door, as he handed it to the person who answered
the bell, that Miss Ellis was dead. I hoped that he was mistaken,
but your letter confirmed it. I knew she was very feeble. She
wrote me some two weeks before Christmas, saying she was very weak;
but I did not think for one moment that she was in danger, or I
would have hurried to see her. I shall miss her greatly, and her
dear letters to me, which I prized so highly; and you, who saw more
of her than I could possibly, will feel her loss greatly. I believe
there are few persons capable of entering so entirely into sympathy
with others who needed it as she was, and of giving such
consolation; at least, it has not been my good fortune to meet many
such. I will be glad to receive the memorial of which you speak. I
shall be very glad if your minister would write me on the subject
of joining the church, as I was depending on Miss Ellis to guide me
in the matter, which she was ready to do one year or more ago."
In 1884 Miss Ellis received the following letter from a young man, Mr.
A. J. Beach, who had been one of her discouragements, because, after
some correspondence, she had ceased to hear from him. Mr. Beach was
usher in the State Penitentiary at Joliet, Ill.
"More than a year ago I wrote to thank you for papers which you had
kindly sent me. In answer, you sent me a very kind letter, and
named several books which I might read with profit. I procured a
number of Rev. James Freeman Clarke's works, which I read
carefully, and from which I gathered much of great value. I also
subscribed to two of the papers you named, to which I have become
so much attached that I could not possibly do without them.... Your
letter led me to a course of reading and investigation that has
proved a sun-burst to me. I have been in darkness. I am out of it
now. I am connected with the State Prison (as usher), not the
pleasantest position in the world; but I have tried to show many of
the poor convicts the better way of life, and to cheer them by kind
words and a showing of real interest in their unfortunate
condition, and I believe I have succeeded in making lighter many a
poor friendless fellow's load...."