Through a series of telephone calls, Claude Britton eventually got in touch with the parentis.
His was a tenuous connection to the Waynes. His wife was Esther Bishop. Esther's mother was a cousin of Charles Wayne (Harley's son)
Even so, Britton apparently was all that was left of the Wayne family in Illinois. Distant cousins in South Dakota and California have yet to be traced.
Britton was all too happy to share family reminiscences and memorabilia with the Parentis.
"He called and said he would tell all about the Waynes if he could come and visit the house in Union. He had never been in it. Of course we said yes," said Mrs. Parenti.
"He came over with his daughter, a picture of Mrs. Wayne and a shoebox of letters from the attic of his house."
The letters were the ones Mrs. Wayne had saved from her husband since the Civil War days. There were also some from back to 1843 which vividly showed his abolitionist sympathies.
These letters must be the ones that are being transcribed now by the McHenry County Historical Society.
--Old Secesh
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