have no doubt been loking for a leter from I me for a long time I have no excuse to make only that I have so much to write that I dred to commence for it will take me so long we have been up to uncle davids to day we found the folks all well Orilla and husband were at home on a visit Nancy was at home her husband is in the army yet Uncle Richards folks are all well Olive is is married to Mortimour Sharp they have a son Lydia is married to Edward boyer he is drafted but I believe he has hired a substitute Henry Jacksmans folks have been haveing a very serious time with typhoid fever they have all had it but one and his wife died with it
I have been down to make Elizabeth a visit and stayed two weeks I fund them well and we had a good time in general we would liked to have had you with us I tok Philly and ted with me and sent them home when they had stayed a week Jates folks were here last week they are all well Fathers are well his wife has gone east on a visit they live very fast there now Father and the old lady and the girls and goes to every dance he can hear of I have never danced any since the ball we attended at hamilton before you left I saw the folly of it ther but I gues that father will dance as long as long as he lives it is very disgusting to me but I cant help it and you know he has no regard for the feeling of his children but he think deligt is the cunningest child that ever lived
Ther been a great many drafted about here but they were not all coperhead before the draft but they are all very loth to go and are cursing old abe lincoln many of them that have helped to support him and some have tried to runaway but have taken and brought back and every one that is worth any thing are hiring substitutes and paying from six to 1000 hundred dollars Talimy Rummels had to pay a thousand dollars and that will kep him in debt all his life time they were building a house but it aint likely it will ever be finished Aunt lucy and uncle roger Are failing but aunt does the spinning and weaveing yet Henrys folks are guetting along first rate they have got half of the old farm and I gues they feel pretty independant Timothy had been farming uncle sims place this summer Aunt laury works very hard I think she is the best one among them she is in travail Lucinda is married to hyram Mccord they own the old Lou Austins place And wer doing first rate but he is drafted And she is lef in a bad situation I dont know it will go with her Mose fee lived on the old turner place he is drafted I believe he is going hire a substitute if he does it will brake him up and it will lots of others there is some that will give every cent they have to guet rid of going and I am afraid they will have to go after all for I expect there will be another draft sooner or later John Wood is drafted the crains have all escaped this time for which I feel truly shameful but expect they will catch it next time
Page 4th
Nov 6th
It is a rainy
dreary day and I cant help feeling lonely when I think of the Poor Soldiers it who have been torn from their families and home to be on the cold ground or perhaps on the battlefield fatigued and wounded with nothing to shelter them and I feel very thankful that my husband is still permitted remain at home I suppose your husband is at home ere this and I can rejoice with you butt I know I dont how to appreciate it I think you must have had your age renewed since you left here by the way you tell a working but it is not so with me I cant do am growing old very fast and I cant do half the hard work that I used to I dont know what I should do if lute should go to war for I could not farm as you do I feel well enough if I dont do anything but am guetting so fleshy that I cant stand warm weather I guess Ill have to move to Illinois to guet my age renewed I had 30 weight of wooll but they are very poor I am hireing them spun I intend to weave enough to pay fro the spinning if I could weave as I used to I might guet rich but I feel as ambithous as I used to goods are very hig I am guetting so that dare not go to a store for if do I cant guet away without spending 5 or 10 dollars and what I fesh home is so small that I cant see it we can guet a pound of tea 2,25 calico for 50cts comon delanes 60cts +c but I dont complain as long as I can have my husband with me for if we raise anything we can sell it for a good price but we haint raised much for the past two years the corn crop is rathe slim ours is very small but it is sound and that is better than it was last there is some god corn potatoes have come in better than we expected but some of them are rotting the price is reduced to 50 cts but we haint any to sell and dont know but we will have to buy apples are scarce about here we had enough to dry but not any winter apples but father had a good many he is making a goodeal selling aples for a dollar a bushel and cider for 8 dollars a barrel but it dont do us any good I would like to send you our likenesses but lute never guets time to go and have them taken you wanted to know if Arvilla husband was in the army he is not nor wanot be as long as he can keep out of it she married John Duncan They sold their place last spring a pretty fare price and havent found one that they by to suit them and so they haint bought yet
Teddy says Tell Aunt Celina he wants her to come out here he wants to see you and the children Tell john that he is trapping fer muskrats he has caught two and expects to make a fortune this winter and would like to have him to help him he is very short of his age but he is a great help to his father he can harness the team and drive them any where and does a great many chores he has a horse that he has raised from a colt and brok himself he rides and drives him were ever he pleases Old cate has got a ring bone on one foot and is so lame tha we cant drive her I dont know but we shall loose her
I Am glad to hear that you are religious and have the society of christian friends and hope that you may hold out faithful and at last reap your reward but hope you will not become to self riceuos for a while and at last fall into temptation
As for me I try to do as near right as I can but i have no one help me and I feel as a lost sheep no sheperd but I live in hope I may know what it is to be a christian
I desire an interest in all your prayers but not your curses we are commanded to love our enemies and pray for them that despitefuly use us but fear that many of our professed christians fail to do tha in time I feel as though we were a deluded people and I done know but we shall all be cut off one thing is certain the innocent have for the sins of the guilty I will drop this question for the present for the reason tha I know not how to discuss it
You wanted to know had become of Mr Ladoe she was married a year ago to a man from out near hillsdale I suppose she though he was rich but he want and he married her for her property but the estate had not been settled and she couldnt hold the property and he got sick of his bargain and left she lives in Hamilton yet the folks say that she cant afford decent victuals for herself an children Lewises folks have moved away and I dont know where Taylor has moved away I believe he is practicing medicine Uncle Charly Crain lives in the long house The Baxster girls aint married yet jane Colton is married jane smith is married marg fee is married Clarinda is a widow hannah nichols is married to hustchman the husband of Caroline Skeplar deceased I have been two evenings and one half day writing this and hasnt told haf you wanted me to but I will quit for this time hoping you will not fail to write as son as you receive this
