Chicago
Dec. 15th, 1872
Dear Brother John,
It has been some time since I heard from you although I have
been very busy for some time past, besides some of my folks has been sick all
the time. Since I wrote to you last
Fredie has just got well from a severe case of the croup. All are comparatively well at present. I have been very busy too in the evenings
making drawings and some improvements on
machinery at the L. B. Walkers & Co. machinery depot, which place I am now
taking charge of. Mr. Walker has been trying to get me there for
the past two years and I thought of taking an interest in the machinery shop and
manufacturing, but now think of doing nothing at present. Only take charge of
the place until Spring and then may go east with my improvements on planing machines
and sell the eastern territory and manufacturing there myself.
Money matters have been very snug here this fall and winter
and in fact is not easier __ and a great many firms are only running on three
quarter time and perhaps only half as many hands employed at that, and I
anticipate some failures here before Spring, and there has been some
already. I don’t think I ever saw all
kinds of business so dull as it is now .
I sent you some papers with full account of the horse
disease[1] and Boston fire[2] and this week will send you
Harper’s with a portrait of Greeley, and if I can get some circulars of my improvements
sometime this week I shall send you some of those, which is the best
improvements perhaps in that time since the woodwork patent, and will give as
good a satisfaction as my machine in the woodworking line, and I think now of
take a trip through the lumber regions with it as soon as get my papers ready. I am now making the drawings for a new
machine and will have it ready in a few days and get patterns made for the same. I have built one machine already and have started
it last week with my matcher and cillinder [sic] heads in it, and it is
considered the best machine out, but it was built from old patterns and I did
not like it as well as I shall the new .
As soon as I shall get the machine done I am going to have a wood cut
make of the same and will send you one of the cuts.
I haven’t seen Charlotte of late but think they are all
getting along well, and Richard I see him every little while. Has been floating around since he left the
match factory and I suppose that he thought he could get most any place he
wanted but found his mistake. He has
been working in two places since but either one was too hard work for him and I
told him if he wanted I should help him do so, and so last week I got him a
place to take charge of a planing mill,
a new one, and he gets along well.
He says that Price & folks are coming here in the Spring, that is
Louisa and her husband. Price is running
an engine and is doing very well. I don’t
know what his father will do when he gets here but Charlotte says they are a
very nice family and very much respected by all that knows them. He is an excellent man and would make a good
farmer. He is very neat and tidy about the
house and garden. You will soon have so
many relatives here that you surely will have to come and see them. And for my part I should be happy to have you
and I think you would enjoy the trip very much.
I must close of the moment in hopes that this may find you
all in good health as I am happy to say that we are all pretty well now, thanks
for the same.
Yours truly,
Edwin
PS – Address same as before:
67 & 69 South Canal Street, Chicago
PS – I had this ready to send off this morning but I had
more news to tell you and I opened it again.
We had presented to us this morning at half past two o’clock a very fine
boy with a full head of black hair and both mother and child are doing
well.
[1]An epizootic outbreak of equine
influenza during 1872 in North America became known as "The Great
Epizootic of 1872". The outbreak is known as the "most destructive
recorded episode of equine influenza in history".[3]
During the late 19th century, the United States still depended heavily on the
use of horse power to survive - in much the same way that most of the world
depends on gasoline now. Horses were responsible for unloading cargo at ports,
transporting goods between cities, working farms, and were also relied upon for
use as emergency vehicles in times of need. When horses became unable to
perform these functions due to the spread of the disease, America suffered -
and its economy came nearly to a halt. In fact, the Great Epizootic of 1872 had
such a dramatic effect on the United States that it is labeled to be one of the
major contributors to the Panic of 1873, an economic crash that took a full 6
years to remedy.
[2]The Great
Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest urban
fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in
American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on November 9, 1872, in
the basement of a commercial warehouse at 83-87 Summer Street
in Boston, Massachusetts.
The fire was finally contained 12 hours later, after it had consumed about 65
acres (26 ha) of Boston's downtown, 776 buildings and much of the
financial district, and caused $73.5 million in damage.[1] At least 30 people are known to
have died in the fire.
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