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Subject: [GEN-STORIES] "Memoirs of an English-American" Prelude Page 1
Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 08:14:48 EDT

COPY OF "MEMOIRS" BY WILLIAM GRIFFITH WARING
Prelude written by the Grandson of WGW Richard G. Waring

William Griffith Waring wrote many diaries during his lifetime, most of them
in the shorthand method devised by Isaac Pitman, after the year 1846. The
alphabet of two other systems have been set forth in his Bible, given to him
by his Aunt Ann Roberts in 1833, and now in the hands of Richard G. Waring.
It shows what an avid interest he had in shorthand, which he employed rather
extensively. However, his diaries before 1846 must have surely been written
in long had, but not to be confused with the writing of his Memoirs in his
later years in shorthand. Then, according to the opening sentence of the
Memoirs, he must have referred to his diaries, and extracted from them what
he wished to transmit to his family and to posterity.

One astonishing fact, if we can accept it as being correct, is his opening
sentence: "I write out some notes dated Feb. 24, 1820, viz:" which would
indicate that he had not yet arrived at his fourth birthday, since he was
born on October 3, 1816, in Breinton, three miles west of Hereford,
Herefordshire, England. His writings indicate that he had a vivid memory,
and it might have been that he later wrote of events back to 1820, when he
was age three, going on four. I think he later wrote back to that time. And
since he did not meet Mr. Isaac Pitman until 1846, it seems quite apparent
that his earlier diaries were in long hand, but that his late Memoirs were in
Pitmanic shorthand.

And that is where his son, William George Waring (1847-1935) enters the
picture about 1932-3 (living then in Webb City, Mo.) He contributed his
immeasurably valuable efforts in painstakingly reverting to his early day use
of the Pitmanic Shorthand method, and using his knowledge thereof in
"translating" the "Memoirs" as written by his father, into a longhand copy in
his own handwriting. His writing was always "minute" and a duplication of
the final page is made a part of this typewritten edition, to illustrate this
fact. And, as my cousin Dr. Clarence W. Waring, of Sarver, Pennsylvania,
wrote to me on September 16, 1977, "You should use a magnifying glass to read
George's writing. Grandfather wrote just as fine. He would get three lines
in the space most people use for one." This is no exaggeration.

When W. George Waring undertook the monumental task of transcribing to long
hand, he was well into his eighties, and I am sure that he used a magnifying
glass, and that much of the shorthand must have been badly faded besides
being very small. Although Uncle George had good eyesight, and never wore
spectacles, this undertaking had to be a labor of love, with the word "labor"
including its big brother, "laborious." He fortunately inserted some
explanatory and additional interpolation of his own, which add much to the
value and meaning of the test. I believe he leaned toward the side of
accuracy of transcription, as the sometime lack of punctuation will attest,
and it may be that some words might have been so undecipherable as to almost
defy the most proficient transcriber.

And now, in 1977, we come to myself, Richard Gilbert Waring, being one of the
last surviving grandchildren, being born in Tyrone on April 28, 1900, and
living in California from age ten, with all of my adult life spent in
Modesto, California, where I became Stanislaus County Recorder for
thirty-nine years, besides my musical activities. Having only recently
learned that Robert Newton Waring had promulgated in some form or other, a
continuation of his 1898 "A Short History of the Warings" - I was about to
find out some amazing and interesting facts during a month long trip that
took Zella my wife and myself to Salina, Kansas; to Joplin, Missouri; to
Tyrone, State College, Boalsburg, and Oak Hall, Pennsylvania; and Alplaus,
N.Y.

Upon visiting Sister Mary Grace Waring at Marymount College, Salina, I
learned that the 1943 version of the R.N. Waring tabulation was in the nature
of a scroll, 24 inches by 90 inches. The "Prefatory" as signed by Robert
Newton Waring, Manasquan, New Jersay, states in part, "James Howard Waring, a
Professor in the University at Orono Maine, is hereby granted exclusive
permission, or cause to be used any or all portions of this Table in the
contemplated new edition of the History of the Warings."

In June of 1977, I talked to Iva Waring on the telephone, and she informed me
that after Howard's death, that she had given the notes and papers of R.N.
Waring to Fred Waring, at Shawnee, and she understood that Fred had turned
them over to his daughter, Dixie, who is now Mrs. Al Wilson, of Shawnee, PA.

While later visiting the Carlisle Herrick family in Alplaus, N.Y. and his
mother, Frances Herrick, I was given a copy of the Scroll in a greatly
reduced size. Later, in July, Sister Mary Grace furnished me with a full
size copy of the Scroll, from which I had a "tracing" made from which I have
had seven copies made to date, at the very nominal cost of about $3.00 each,
including mailing charges.

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