Belvidere, Jan. 6th,
1861
Dear Brother & Sister,
It is somewhat over four months since I have taken up my pen
to address you, and it is the commencement of a new year, and I hope that God
will permit us to address each other oftener for the coming year than we have
for the past.
I was happy to hear in your last that you was all well as I
am happy to say that we are all well at present, thanks for the same at all
times. I believe that our boy was born since I wrote to you last, however, the day that he
was four months old he weighed 19 lbs.
He is called the finest boy in the neighborhood. You helped us to name Mattie. Why can’t you help us to name him? We have given him one name that is Reinfrew
[sic]. Maybe you know that that was the
name that the queen of England gave the Prince of Wales when he came here to
visit this country and we both liked the name very much. He is the best natured baby that I ever saw.
Yesterday we went down to visit Eggleson’s folks. If remember, they was the ones that bought your
cow when you was here. We had a good
time.
In your last you mentioned of my sending you five dollars. I don’t know when to send it to you for I
have not got it now, but I may have it before long. I don’t know that I ever told you how I was
situated……….well, I’ll tell you. My partner
(Mr. Cohoon), we went out here in the country and bought a horse power and paid
$5 for it. We fixed it up and we got a
small line of shafting and put that up and I got the use of Capt. Hull’s lathe
and I turned out a spindle out of piece round iron and we made wooden standards
and went to work, and we advertised in the paper that we was going to repair
thrashing and reaping machines of all kinds.
It wasn’t more than two or three weeks but we had the yard and the
street covered with machines of all kinds and had to work late and early, and
so we had to have a different lathe, and Cohoon went to Chicago and bought a
good lathe. I have turned a good deal of
iron this fall and do more or less every day, and now we have got two shops,
and the new shop, if you remember, is the old saw mill building where you
worked in with me for old White. I traded
a reaper and twenty dollars to Gilman for it and paid a man for moving it up
here across the railroad track. The old
horse power we have turned one side and got a new one, and a good one too. And we have got two shops, horse power, two
lathes, saw, and a machine to turn whiffle trees and hair stuff and also other
tools. And we have got two horses. One is a horse and the other is a mare. The horse is the biggest horse in the county. He is 17 hands and a half high.
All these things we have had to pay for out of our summer
work and, of course, you can judge for yourself whether we have much money or not,
although we have done extraordinarily well this summer considering a new
business. But we are good at it. I have got a thrashing machine of my own
that I am going to let George & Franklin to run on shares next season. I traded for it. The cillinder [sic] to it busted and the man
that owned it got afraid of it and he is a Dutchman and didn’t know much about
such things.
Frank, Frances’ twin brother, is here living with us. He has got a team of his own and hauls wood
to town with them. If remember when I
was in company with White, he bought Mr. C. Tuttle out of the farm and gave said
Tuttle a note and I signed it with
him. The note was traded off to Mr.
Downs of this place and when I came here year ago last fall Downs sued me and
White, and the constable took everything I had.
But it so happened that I had tired of it before and put everything I had into my father in law’s hands and so
they didn’t get anything. But
last week I offered to pay my half of it and they was to let me know in a few days,
but I have not seen them since.
I wish you was here to work with us. We have all we can do and could have more if
we could do it. Last harvest we had to
hire a man to help us quite a while. In another
year we are going to start a little furnace.
We paid over $300 for castings to Rockford and Beloit folks and the
prospects are such that we believe that this year we will have to hire two or
three hands to help. We are going to
have a good engine lathe here this spring.
I think my father in law will let me have money to get it. I was to Rockford to get my papers and got
them through Edward Griegs & Lambert.
They are all well. I got that
part of your lathe that you left, but I don’t think that I got all if it. You must write and let me know how much there
was of it for I shall go get it.
Yours truly,
E.
Benjamin
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