John Benjamin was born in England in 1823. In 1849, at the age of 26, he immigrated to America with the goal of seeking opportunities in the new world and improving the life of his family. During his immigration and eventual settlement in Hutchinson, Minnesota, John saved many personal letters that were written by and to him. These letters, the subject of this web site, bring to life his immigration and the life of others during this courageous adventure. The most recent letters posted on this sight are on this front page. To see all the earlier letters, keep pressing the “Older Posts” button on the bottom of this page. The earliest letter recorded here is June 20, 1849. The letters…………









July 25,1851 Robert Benjamin-1795 to John Benjamin-1823

Bagillt
July 25, 1851
Dear John,
We received your letter of the 23rd June and was very glad to hear that you were both well and healthy and that you got everything and comfortable, and we all wish for it to remain so with you, and we hope that Elizabeth likes the country after venturing the wide ocean for to come into it, and we all join in love to you both and wish you much joy and happiness, and to inform you about ourselves we are part the same as usual only your mother has been very bad upon __ but thank God that it is no worse with us, and as for your sister Mary Ellen she has been very bad.  She has fallen off so much that you would hardly know her if you would see her, and she has been to the country now this fortnight and we have heard from her today and that she is coming on very good.  She is out at ___ at Robert Jones Flint’s sister and they are very good to her there everybody she says, and she gets a basin full of __ milk from the can every morning and it does agree with her very well.  She says ___ us for that miserable Price, as you call him, for he has never shown his face here, but I was at the mill last Tuesday and Mr. Gleave came to me and told me that he had received a letter from him and he said that he was married and that his wife’s father had died and had left her all his ___ and they say that she is worth about two thousand pounds, and that he is going but to America again, that he means to go to ___ when he will be going that he should  call upon Mr. Gleave. 
Mr. Gleave and Robert Williams sends their respects to you and that they should write to you soon, for I told the both that day that you had sent in your letter that they had never sent an answer to the letters as you had sent to them, and Robert Williams told me that he did not like to write for he means to go to London in the next week, he thinks, to the Exhibition and then he should have some news for to send to you, and in regard to Samuel Hughes and his wife, they have been here one night last week enquiring if we had any news and they were very glad to hear about everything being so comfortable with you, and he told me that he means to write to you very soon for they mean for to try to come out to the states in August if possible, and they send their greatest respects to you both, and likewise your brothers and sisters sends their kind respects to you and that they are all well in health, and both Mr. Jones the __ of Holywell, the Rev Mr. Jones, the minister of Holywell is very desirable to be kindly remembered to you  and that they are very thankful to you for the cards as you sent to them, and they wish you much joy and happiness, and as for the cause of your mother’s head been so bad  as that Mr. Maurice lives at Flint, as I informed you before, he goes past here several times in a week some times and he is certain to call every time  and he is beginning to go very cross and I cannot tell you more than you know about it and it keeps so sorry here that a person cannot save six pence for to __ ahead __ __ __ __. 
So your mother and all of us is longing for to have a long letter from Elizabeth for your mother says that she should never forget her.  Therefore they all join in love to you both and wish you well from your dutiful father and mother, Robert & Sarah Benjamin, and so God bless you both and we hope He will remain with you forever.  Amen

No comments:

Post a Comment