August 11, 1858 Thomas Gleave to John Benjamin-1823

Flint

August 11, 1858

 My Dear John,

Your kind letter comes duly to hand but I was in Scotland at the time and since then I have been a good deal from home.

 I feel ashamed at being so long in writing.  I felt that every day I was doing wrong in not writing you a line.  My great reason for delaying was that I had not been successful in procuring the money you want.  I went to Holywell to Mr. Jones and he could do nothing.  I requested him to see Mr. Garner, your brother in law, thinking he might be able to render assistance but he could not.  I fear in the present state of things that all our attempts will be futile.  I feel very sorry for you and can assure it’s no empty excuse on my part, no unwillingness, but inability to do what you want.  I hope ere you receive this that means may have sprung up from some other source, tho by all accounts money is as scarce in America as here.  We are all in a woeful plight: trade very bad and no cash to be got, although the money market is easy and it may be borrowed on good security, but it does not get into the commercial channels.   There is no immediate prospect of an improvement.

 

We have every appearance of a good harvest.  Whether that will make a difference or not I cannot tell.   I hope it may.  We have not been working full time for months and we have not near the number of hands employed that we used to have.  Robert Williams is with us but not doing much. 

 

I am just on the point of leaving for Scotland again.  I shall be about three weeks away, I do not expect to do much business in the present state of affairs.  Will the great gold discovery in Oregon do you any good?  It appears by the papers to be causing a great sensation.

 

Do pray write to your father.  They are very unhappy in not hearing from you, and let me hear from you soon.  I do hope and trust you will be enabled  to write in better spirits than last .

 

Our united kind regards to Mrs. B. & yourself. 

 

Believe me to be yours ever faithful,

 

Thomas Gleave

Aprl 16, 1858 Lane Sanford Bank to John Benjamin-1823

Banking House of Lane, Sanford & Co.

Rockford, Illinois

April 16, 1858

Dear Sir,

You favor of 27^th February came duly to hand and I was glad to hear from you.

There has been nothing strange here since you left, only awful hard times.  I never want to go through another ordeal such as we passed through last fall & winter but, thank God, we passed through it without tarnishing our honor, though we met with losses. We have had a very warm open winter, all the cold weather was in November & February.  Our spring is quite early, at least a month or six weeks earlier than usual.  The open winter has made it quite sickly; there is now and has been more sickness this spring than has occurred at any time since I have lived here.

I am sorry to learn of your dam proving a failure.  Enterprises of that kind can only be engaged in profitably by men or companies with ample means to meet all ___________ that may arise.

I don’t think Mr. Dickerman has done anything since you were here towards selling your machinery in settling up.  You know he is quite dilatory.  There is a new reaper factory started in town, Fountain & Co.   They might want some of your machinery & I will make the suggestion to Mr. D.  You had better write him and ask him to try & close it up in some way.  

In regard to the loan, I will be glad to have it as soon as you can make it convenient.  I was obliged to continue it a while at 3% per month and now have it borrowed at 2% per mo.  The great financial troubles during the fall & winter made money so scarce I could not get in any, and this, in connection with a large amount I had to pay last fall and again this spring for a near relative, has kept me quite behind and likely to for a time. 

I hope your friends at home will be able to assist you.  Hoping to hear of your own families’ health & your prosperity.

I remain yours truly,

R. P. Lane

Feb. 19,1858 Thomas Gleave to John Benjamin-1823

Flint

February 19, 1858

Dear John,

I letter from you at any time is a welcome guest, but more especially after a long silence.  I have been expecting to hear from you for some months as Robert Williams told me you were going to write soon after he saw you.  I am very sorry to hear that you are embarrassed and I regret to say we are quite as bad here.  We have never experienced such times since I knew anything about business.  The Borough Bank Liverpool broke about 4 months ago.  Mr. Gardner was a shareholder in it and it has almost ruined us.  You may think I am naming this as an excuse for not sending you the required aid, but I can assure you it is not.   Were I in a position to assist you I know of no one in whose integrity I have greater confidence, and it is from sheer inability and not inclination that I am unable to do it.  There has been an awful panic here, the effects of which will be some time felt.  I have just been upon a journey for three weeks in Scotland and I solemnly declare I have never found money so hard to get; in fact, it is almost impossible to get it.  I fettered myself very much by the purchases I made at the Mostyn sales, so much so that it would be impossible for me to raise a hundred pounds at all unless I was to sell again.   What I have bought, if your application had come before I had vested my little money, I could have accommodated you , but now I am completely past.  I hope relief will spring from some other source.  I shall be going to Holywell in a few days and I will consult Mr. Jones the watchmaker about it.  I think (but do not know positively) he may have some money unemployed.  I have turned the matter over and over again in my mind but nothing as yet has presented itself to me.  I am sorry it is not in my power to relieve you at once. 

The friends you have named in your letter are all well and are glad to hear from you.  Your brother James is married and living in the cottage opposite our mill.  He is working with us but we are very slack and have been working short time all through the winter months.

I shall conclude my letter without entering into passing events.  I feel too much depression in not being able to do what I could wish for you.  We must try to trace the hand of our Almighty  providence in whatever befalls us whether in prosperity or adversity, may be able to say from the heart thy will be done. 

My wife and all friends join me in very kindest regards to you and yours and hoping to hear from you soon with a more cheering account.

I remain as yours truly,

Thomas Gleave

August 30, 1857 John Benjamin-1823 to Elizabeth Benjamin

Hutchinson, M. I.

August 30, 1857

My Dear Elizabeth,

I was very much disappointed yesterday in not hearing from you, for the mail came in but no letter for me.  I hope and trust that you are all quite well, as I am happy to say that I am with the exception of a burnt back.  I  & a Mr. Smith, a friend of those folks from Rockford I wrote you about, went into the woods to get out some logs to finish my house, with up to enough of a certain length for the sills, & we attempted to run them down the river, but could not very well without taking off our clothes & going into the river, which we did to our sorrow for our backs is completely burnt with the sun so that we have not been able to do anything, since all the sympathy we have one for the other is to laugh at one another for being so foolish as to do so.  However, we expect to go to work again tomorrow.

I did intend leaving here for home tomorrow but this affair has put me so much back with my house so that I will be obliged to stay at least this week before leaving .  Keep up your courage for these better times coming I hope.  I could not get any time to take me home with this week anyway, but I expect to have some next week.  I have no doubt from my writing you last week that you will be disappointed in not seeing me at home this next week.  However, you will see from this letter what the cause of delay is, which I hope will not be delayed after this week, for I am indeed very anxious to see my little friends to whom I have __ so much & always willingly for they are all the world to me.  Without them the world would be nothing to me now for having made all the sacrificing man could make. It only makes my heart grow more & more fond of them & to live without them I can’t much longer, nor will I, indeed, be my luck what it may.  

I hope you are having good success in selling off the things for I shall not want to be detained there long.  I shall have to go see the Dr. at Rockford and then return as soon as I can.  Tell those folks from Rockford to be by the middle of the 20^th of next month for I expect to be at home by a week from Saturday next.  I shall leave in one week from that time or on the Monday following.

We had a birth in the town this morning, the second one that has been born here only.

My regards to all enquiring friends and my best love to yourself & my little ones.

Yours most affectionately,

John

August 23, 1857 John Benjamin-1823 to Elizabeth Benjamin

Hutchinson M. I.

August 23, 1857

My Dear Elizabeth,

It gave me very great pleasure to receive a letter from you yesterday and hear that you and the children were in better heath as I am happy to say that I am quite well at present, thanks be to God for it.  In regard to my coming home, if I don’t hear anything to the contrary or different from you before Monday or tomorrow week, I shall, if I can, start for home where I expect to reach by Saturday evening sometime.  I would rather not come at present if I could avoid it for my means will not enable me to travel much.  However, if I can’t do better I must do the next best thing & come home and dispose of my things or give them away to someone.

I have made arrangements to have the lumber for my house this week.  I’m going to have it on the way making before I leave here so that it will be ready by the time I get back here with my family. 

There was a cow got into my well on Friday and was, of course, dead when found.  I took a yoke of oxen the same evening and drew her out.  She belonged to one of the Hutchinson’s.

I have altered my mind in regard to the size of my house since I last wrote you.  I’m going to have it a little bigger & stronger for we have very high winds here at times.  There was one house, a new one in course of erection, blown down last week __________________.  I thought it best to alter my plans some little, which I have no doubt you will like much better than the original plan.  I’m going to have three large rooms, buttery, & a good large cellar so we shall have room enough for all practical purposes at present with one ________for a large garden lot to grow our sauce in.  I don’t mean our human sauce, but the real vegetable which can be grown here in abundance.

It has been more like a Sunday to me today than it has since I have been here, for we have had two sermons preached by a very fine man from Glencoe, 17 miles from here.  He is going to be here every other Sabbath for the future until we have a settled minister of our own.

In regard to what I am going to keep, I don’t think it best to keep but little for it cost too much for freight.  The clock will be about all, I think, beside the stove.   If you can sell the stove for what it is worth, do so, and everything else in the house with the exception of the bedding & clothing, which we shall want & is very high here for common calico, which you can buy there for 1 __.  You have to pay 20 cents here & other things are in the same proportion, but this state of things will not last long for we shall have a steamboat running here in the spring __________ 10 miles of here soon.

I hope that Edwin has sent those things off from Rockford for I shall be looking for them soon.  Our mail is very irregular.  I shall send this by the minister.  He is at our house _______ this evening.

Don’t let Edwin have those things without the money for he has not, according to what you say, which of course is true, done what he promised me when I came off to America oblige _____ by, for better I can’t do at the present time .  Better he ought to have done to me, but, however I shall not trust to anyone after this.  I shall come to see what I can do with the doctor for he is my only true and real friend indeed.  If I can raise the money I shall leave a week from tomorrow.  It will take all of a week to come home in, for it takes three days to get to St. Paul from here. 

If you can get anyone to put up some 50 or 40 lb. of butter for our winter use, do so & try to pay them in furniture.  Perhaps the Albrights would do so.  Let Edwin have the chairs or anything else to pay for it.  Butter is 30 cents per lb. here & in fact can’t get any at that price.  You might take some ham or anything in the provision line of goods out of the house for this will cause some to buy perhaps where they would not otherwise.

Robert had better not leave until I come home for I think I can fix for him this winter somewhere for he can get his land here, but not any down east.

I must close for the present, hoping this will find you and my dear children all well.  My regards to Robert and all enquiring friends.

Faithfully yours,

John

August 23, 1857 Elizabeth Benjamin to John Benjamin-1823

Beloit

August 23, 1857

My Dearest John,

It is six weeks tomorrow morning since you left home.  I did hope that you would of been to home by this time but I have hoped in vain.  There have been many changes since you have left for here.  I am now all alone, and have been a week, and Robert did not pay his last week’s board, but wrote to Edwin to tell him to send it down to me, but I have not received anything from Edwin, although I wrote to him and told him if he had no money to bring me some butter for I had none.   And wanted him to saw some wood but he never came nor wrote so I have had to saw and split my own wood, for Robert did not leave only enough for a day and a half, but I look for better times before many days are over, for I can’t stand this longer.  If I had been well I should not mind it, but I am getting better than I was last week.  I was quite sick last week with dysentery, but thank God I am better. 

This has been a very lonesome Sunday to me.  I don’t know how it has been with my dearest John.  I received your kind letter last Tuesday.  It had been 16 days in coming , the one you wrote on the 3^rd of August, the one you wrote the same time as Robert’s,  I have not received yet.  It is strange.  I think   Edwin’s letter I had posted the next day and wrote a note with it.  My dear John, your letter raised my spirits up considerable well.  I shall say cheer up, cheer up for if we have only a cover over our heads that we can call our own, Oh! what money it will save.  I shall feel like a queen.  Well, hurry up your cakes for I don’t want to be paying two dollars and a half here and you will have to come quick for I have only half a sack of flour in the house and no money to get some. 

I hope you have written to Banks for __ to come home before now, for it will be getting late for the children and sooner the better you come home for to try to sell some of the things for I can’t go out to see anyone about them.   I did go to the boss of the paper mill and he came to see the lounge but he said he did not want one so high priced, but perhaps you can get him to take it.  We shall have to let some of the things go for rent I suppose for it will be twenty dollars on Tuesday .

I believe the children are very impatient to see you.  Sis says that is a very long time and Bobby says he thinks it’s dreadful strange.  Sis opened her eyes when I told her I had a letter from Pa.  When is he coming home, she said.  The baby is as fat as butter and grows like a ___ ___.  You would hardly know him; how strong he is.  When I lay him down in turns right on his face.  He is a good child.  I hope he will prove a blessing to us.  I am doing all I can with him sewing so that I shall have time for something else when I get to my journey’s end , which I hope will be before long. 

I look for a letter from you every day.  I have had a present of a dress from Mrs. Wheeler.  I get my milk there now.  I get all the sweet corn I want too.

I hope that these few lines will find my dear John in the enjoyment of good health.  Don’t be too venturesome.  You might acquire a cold by sleeping so.   Be sure and cover yourself from the night.  I hope to see you for an answer to this letter.  Be sure and come now.  That’s a good boy.  I hope you had my letters, 4 I think I have sent, for you must feel lonesome not hearing anything from home. 

When Robert has gone to Dedham ________________________________.

Your affectionate and fond wife,

Elizabeth

I don’t know what the bedsteads are worth, the chairs too, suppose you want to sell.

August 23,1857 Edwin Benjamin-1833 to Elizabeth Benjamin

Belvidere

August 23, 1857

Dear Elizabeth,

I have delayed writing to you till now for I have been expecting come up all the time, but I haven’t had any time to as yet.  We are keeping house here and have been since the 5^th of this month and I have been very busy.  While washing the house, painting and paper it too.

I was sued for $65 here last week.  I had my name to a note that White gave a man here in town and I had forgot all about it.   I haven’t paid it yet. I don’t know what to do about it.  They parties got a judgment against me for the amount and I suppose if I have anything they will take it.  White hasn’t said a word to me since I’ve been here. 

I haven’t been to Rockford yet, but I shall as soon as I have any money to have the things down here so as I can send them away.  I shall send you $1.00 in this letter which is all the money I have at present with the exception of some change.  I should send you more if I have it.  Frances wants me to give you an order on Allen for that $3.00 by the way.  I think I will and you can give to someone to get it for you. 

I am very sorry that Robert Williams went away the way he did.  But he is as mean as I always thought he was.  When I come up I shall bring the letter he wrote to me and let you see it.  I have done as much for him as wish to and he never thanks me for it.

I shall write you again middle of the week and I may go to Rockford.     I am going to write to John this week.

Yours truly,

Edwin

Frances wants me tell you that she never felt so well as she has since she has been down here.  She walked home and back the other day.

Edwin