Martha Bevins letters to Tom McCarthy

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Talks about the Chinook Wind and gives a weather report.

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Groundhog Day, waiting for the woodchuck.

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Tornado in tree patch.

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Feeding the song birds and the way to do it.

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Talks about "Mrs. Fur", a squirrel, raised by Bevins on formula. "Mrs. Fur" has been released into the wild and is building its nest.

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Talks about Henry David Thoreau's Walden sent to her by Tom McCarthy as a thank you for her letters, which were unprompted. Mentions Balchen's War Below Zero.

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Card with illustration of a Bob White. Talks about her fan mail and her enjoyment of bringing tree patch life to others.

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Card with a woodpecker illustration. Talks about Carolina Wren in her cellar, getting into suds and white paint.

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Bevins thanks Tom McCarthy "for burdening yourself with tape recorders through Europe in order that we who could not go might enjoy the tour". This is a reference to a European tour Tom McCarthy hosted for about thirty Cincinnati residents, listeners of his morning program.

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Finding abandoned kittens.

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Talks about a town visitor finding Bevins' lively, sunlit woods "gloomy".

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Talks about the day after the election and the foggy weather.

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Describes a quail battle, live, over the radio. One Quail on McCarthy farm and one in Blevins' tree patch. Bevins, south of the Ohio River, had taken out-of-doors her radio while hearing Tom McCarthy, about fifty miles away, north of the Ohio River, broadcasting live the sound of a quail that had come close to the porch from which he broadcast his daily, Monday to Friday four-hour breakfast program. In summer the porch was screened in, in colder weather storm windows enclosed it, in freezing weather he moved his microphone and broadcast equipment into the sitting room. He would have asked the radio engineer in the studio in Cincinnati, to turn up the sound volume so that listeners could hear the sound of the quail's call. Bevins watched her quail's reaction to the "invisible" quail suddenly in his territory, through the radio.

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Talks about the "Flying Boxcar" and Bevins' pioneering interactive radio with stopwatch.

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Describes winter's first "Christmas card". There was not much smoke from surrounding chimneys due to people having installed oil burners and "stokers". Describes an abandoned house, her snow blade on a tractor, birds shouting to be fed, and the mockingbirds and doves not migrating as food is plentiful at Bevins' farm.

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Description of the 198 Big Freeze and the breaking up of ice on the Ohio River.

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Feeding wild birds and ways of doing it. Describes the design of suet feeder and baby woodpeckers herded by parents to suet feeder.

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Talks about Tobacco Bed Spring, hand reared rabbit making nest, and pigs "wearing cummerbunds".

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Bevins reflects on Tom McCarthy's photographs of Ireland, which he either sent her or she saw on television (at one point McCarthy had television newscasts). Bevins thanks him for sparing her "selfies". Bevin puts out strips of burlap to help the birds build nests. Bevins says she enjoyed McCarthy's broadcast while going into the lion tamer's cage with lions and tigers together. Photographs of Tom McCarthy's broadcast from the lion's den appeared in the newspapers. Bevins refers to Tom McCarthy's "wild week of aerial acts, lion's dens and copter flights." There is a surviving tape with the writer of this of Tom McCarthy recording an interview inside a lion tamer's cage where there was a mixture of lions and tigers.

The "copter flights" would refer to Tom McCarthy, whose farm was surrounded by a creek that became a roaring torrent during high, spring floods, covering the only bridge exit, so on at least one occasion he was collected by helicopter that put down in a field near the house, taking him to survey and report on the flood waters that had made many Ohio River valley residents homeless, or trapped in or on top of their homes.

As news editor he had to go into Cincinnati for a mid-day broadcast, radio and television. In those days newscasters were not just attractive faces and voices but experienced journalists who had to put together the news reports, local and international, follow-up stories and then broadcast the news.

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Describes the arrival of spring and the activities of wildlife. Describes how the Brown Thrasher will attack snakes, cats, and hawks when they invade the Thrasher's territory. Brown Thrasher imitates a sea gull after spending winter on the Gulf Coast.

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Describes hoeing the woodlot, being intentionally noisy so birds do not set up a stalking alarm, and frog sounds heralding the real spring.

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Describes a Cardinal hearing and responding to a Cardinal on a transistor radio, birds attacking a caterpillar infestation, and woodpeckers hanging upside down from branches at a suet feeder.

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Answers questions asked on air. Bevins answers included peanuts for wild bird feed, the shells make good mulch, and use Rotenone as a pesticide instead of DDT.

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Talks about starlings killing other species' fledglings, jays have a special alarm call, the dogs kill a snake, and Bevins met a rattle snake.

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Talks about string beans, Thoreau, and that a Cow Bird is killing other birds' young. Tom McCarthy (widely respected as an unflinching, crusading journalist) probably read out, in full, Bevins' letter about killing Cow Birds, something he would have personally disagreed with, probably saying so mildly on air, which one can deduce from the unrepentant tone of the opening of Bevins' letter of July 3, 1958.

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Bevins is not remorseful about the Cowbirds. Talks about Nike missile site.

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Talks about feeding a baby robin and cow bird habits. Encloses what Bevins thinks is a cricket corpse. [not included in collection]

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Card with illustration of a rabbit and a bumblebee. Bevins says she can use both hands again after her accident with a tractor. Bevins enjoyed the recordings of Tom McCarthy's trips, particularly the trip to the Western United States.

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Talks about the weather and drought. It has finally rained after a drought since July 4th.

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Talks about her "inability to use hand" and deadly algae on the pond.

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Talks about the Asian flu at an airbase in World War II caught from the Russians. This new type of flu fascinated the base doctor.

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Talks about autumn after a drought, foxes, sparrows, and migrating Monarch butterflies and birds.

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Talks about spectacular falls from aircraift and how a wheelbarrow of cement cushioned a man's fall.

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Talks about air currents and flying.

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Edward J. Hunter of Batavia, Ohio, was a physicist and metallurgist during World War II. Tom McCarthy had received an unsolicited letter from Edward J Thompson, which was Thompson's response to Tom McCarthy reporting, on air, public findings about education. Hunter recounts the benefits of the disciplined education he had received in Britain and decries too great an emphasis on sport and not enough on discipline and education.

Tom McCarthy would have read some or almost all of Thompson's letter out on air, which prompted Bevins to respond. Thompson asked that the final paragraph of his letter should be kept confidential and the "strikeout" line drawn through that paragraph shows that Thompson's request had been respected.

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Bevins wrote to Tom McCarthy in response to an unsolicited letter he had received from Edward J. Thompson, Thompson's response to Tom McCarthy reporting, on air, public findings about education in the United States at the time. She takes issue with his opinions on education in the US.

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Talks about skywatching for Sputnick and a theory that a red mist seen in the sky is a Russian plot. The Theory was that the Russians were trying to color the moon red but the red dust ended up in Earth's atmosphere.

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Photographs enclosed but not found. Talks about shortwave radio, Christmas customs, and Christmas cards sent by fans.

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Talks about Bevins' landing her plane in a Carolina swamp during a storm, rock and roll, and a black community at a train station singing in the moonlight.

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Mentions fan letters from McCarthy's listeners to her. Bevins wrote: "deeply regret losing your radio program." Tom McCarthy's contract with WKRC Cincinnati expired and, after a short pause, he moved the program to Kentucky-based WNOP radio; the program format was essentially unchanged and Tom McCarthy was still broadcasting from the porch of his Ohio farm.

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Bevins tells McCarthy "Welcome to Kentucky". Bevins mentions an "enclosed" but that has been lost. Presumably a cutting from a newspaper about Tom McCarthy's program move to WNOP. Tobacco-bed spring is three weeks late. Mentions and includes a poem entitled "Once". Presumably typed by Bevins.

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Page two of the letter is missing. Talks about how the mockingbird is militant about its territory.

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The word obscured on the last line of the first page is "plane". Talks about near miss of Hindenburg over New York City. Bevins likes McCarthy's new theme "it is happy music".

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Talks about "alewives" and how the blooming of great oaks signaling the visit of warblers. Bevins states she liked McCarthy's leisurely newscast.

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Talks about changes in farming methods.

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Talks about gardening, poison oak covering a fence acts as natural security, and a delicious new corn hyprid. Bevins mentions Tom McCarthy's braodcast from French Lick, Indiana, where Frank Sinatra was making a film. She talks about her reaction to actors while she was in Hollywood.

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Bevins declines to be interviewed on Tom McCarthy's radio show, citing "I panic completely when confronted with a microphone." Talks about the beautiful autumn, migrating birds, and fishing in the pond. Talks about illegal hunters and visiting Mergnansers, Sandhill Crane.

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Bevins' aunt is ill so Bevins had been away. Talks about how the coming cold weather sent of 1000 birds from tree patch, migrating at night. Mentions the hibernating bass in the pond.

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Talks about jets breaking the sound barrier, twigs feell at the shock wave, livestock and wildlife scattered. Mentions spoonersims.

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Talks about Old Farmer's Almanac, the high winds, a goldfinch came into the kitchen for protection, radio static predicting a coming eletrical storm, and the goldfinch waited for the storm to pass before leaving.

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Talks about owls' soundless flight, Tom McCarthy reading his novel on air, great horned owls nesting, and jays helping find a male owl.

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Congratulates Tom McCarthy on being made a Kentucky Colonel. Bevins talks about diggind doves out of snow and how the doves lost their tail feathers.

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Talks about how Tom McCarthy's program was three hours long. She receives several fan letters a week. Mentions that McCarthy is going to Ireland on business and that her wingman sends her a calendar every year with the latest news from Ireland. Bevins writes her farewell to McCarthy and his family who were moving to New Hampshire.

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Photographic Christmas card showing tree patch in the snow. Talks about rustlers stealing cattle, horses, and pigs. They stole her best steer from the man who had just purchased it from her. She's keeping her horses near the house which they tried to enter instead of the barn.

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Photographic Christmas card. The date of the card is an estimation because the New Hampshire beaver colony mentioned on Bevins'had not been established when the McCarthy's first moved to New Hampshire. Talks about how it is a fine year for persommons and how she would love to see the McCarthy's beaver colony. Bevins is still receiving fan mail from McCarthy's radio show.