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…………









April 2, 1852 Robert Benjamin-1795 to John Benjamin-1823


 
Bagillt

April 2, 1852

Dear John & Elizabeth,

I am again obliged to drop a few lines upon the same subject as before in hopes to find you in perfect state of health as they leave us.  As I told you in my last that your mother and myself is but very indifferent indeed and I am very sorry that we have to trouble you so much and likewise to give you so much expense in paying for letters but we hope that you will forgive us for the present for we have not the means of doing it at the present time and we hope that the Lord will pay you double and treble, that is our sincere wish at all times. 

And if you please, what I have to inform you of is about the money as Elizabeth’s uncle has as I wrote to you last week all the particulars how it past with us and how he had promised to give Mr. Maurice a note for to send to Denbigh to the attorney if she would write the authority for him herself.  Mr. Maurice was obliged to go to him three times himself before he got a note from him and now he says he won’t pay the money except that Elizabeth will send a stamp receipt for twenty pounds for him of her own hand writing and then he will pay, and Mr. Maurice on Wednesday last took the trouble on him to come down from Flint to our house of purpose for to let me know and to send immediately according to that, for he knew how I had sent last week, and Mr. Maurice is begging on Elizabeth for to do so that he will wait that long again and if in case that she will do so he will make him pay and likewise he is begging of her to enclose a kind of a copy for both him and me of what she will send to him and then he cannot deny anything about it, and he told Mr. Maurice that his daughter should write to her cousin likewise but Mr. Maurice wishes for me to write immediately, for he says to me the Lord knows when they will write, and we hope and beg of you to send us soon as you can for Mr. Maurice says that they are at Denbigh so cross about the money that they have been left so long as two years without paying and he is a little easier with us than he was for we had a little conversation a little time back about your grandmother at Caerwys and he says he was a great friend with her and that he had a many a good dinner with her and that he had paid a many a hundred pounds in her house and I have to inform you that we do not know what to think of your brother Edwin greatly for he is not half well altogether at present and indeed he has not hardly lifted his head up properly since we have buried your sister and while she was ill he used to run home two or three times a week and he cryed [sic] a deal by coming into her sight, therefore he looks very bad but we hope that he will take a turn and that soon or else we doubt it will be bad with him again.

Therefore I must conclude for the present.  Your brothers and sisters send their kind respects to you and that they are all well at present excepting your brother Edwin as I have told you above.  And so from your dutyful father & mother,

Robert & Sarah Benjamin

PS Your brother in law Robert Jones of Flint is very desirous to come out to America altogether as I have   understood this week since you went away therefore your sister has told me of it that he wants her altogether for me  to write to you for he does not like to ask me himself for to send to you for your advice first for he is very anxious for to come

 

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