Dec. 16, 1878 Edwin Benjamin-1833 to John Benjamin-1823
Minneapolis, Minn.
Dec. 16, 1878
Dear John,
I suppose you will be somewhat surprised to learn that l am
here at this season of the year. I wish
to learn something about a note given by Solomon Pendergast to one Eddy of this
place and guaranteed G.W.W. Pendergast and James Chealy for 500 dollars for
three years with a mortgage on his farm to secure the same. Now what
I want is this: I shall discount the
note if I take it and perhaps they would like the chance to do that as they can
get money for a good deal less with that security, that is, it seems so to
me. I would like to learn as soon as
possible as I shall leave here for home again Friday morning as I want to stop
on my way and get home for Christmas. It
will be necessary for me to start as soon as that. Perhaps they would be glad of this chance and
the note reads three years or sooner as though they did not intend to pay the
10 percent only as long as they could not do any better. If you can do this for me and let me know in
time you will confer a favor as I am in need of the money in our new shop and I
want to settle up these old matters that have been standing for some time, etc.
Hoping that this will find you and all yours well, and give
my love to all. Yours affectionately,
Edwin
PS – Address me at this house.
April 24, 1878 Mary Anne Benjamin-1852 to Father and Mother
Chicago, Ill.
April 24, 1878
Dear Father,
I received a letter and the order a week last Friday, but
was not feeling well enough to come when you said & was not ready. Rather I have been anxious not hearing from
home since I wrote a week last Thursday, but have not had an answer yet.
I have been feeling better than I have been for the last two
days. It has rained for the last four days so I have not been able to go
out. My things are at C’s yet. Richard brought one dress with my kee [sic] in that.
I wrote to him about Aunt C. It
__ discouraged so she has not been up. I
have not been able to get the money so Uncle Edwin took the order yesterday to
get the money & get my ticket. I
signed my name on the back and Uncle Edwin he said he could get it. I will write as soon as I am ready to start.
Aunt Frances got word from her sister Jenie that she was not
expected to live so she went this afternoon & Winnie & Freddie.
Hattie had a vacation this week but next week I will be
alone in daytime if I am not able to come, which I hope I may. It raining so much it makes my rheumatism
worse. Aunt went in the rain.
There was a man here the other day that said that doctors
were giving ammonia for rheumatism and it proves a cure. Take six drops in a teaspoon full of water
& take it three times a day. I took
it one morning to taste but it burns so I am afraid of it. It may
be a cure but I would like to know if it would hurt me inwardly or not.
Uncle Edwin has two cherry trees in full blossom. I hardly
think I will start before you answer this letter as I see now it looks as if it
was going rain another night. I [want] you
to know when I start & be there for
I won’t know where to go & besides I can’t walk far .
I must close now .
Uncle has just come to supper.
FYA,
Daughter
PS – You make think it strange me write with a bad
pencil but we can’t find the ink. Hattie
nor I. Freddie has hid it
somewhere. Hattie is going to take it
over to one of the neighbors and direct it.
April 11, 1878 Mary Anne Benjamin-1852 to Mother and Father
Chicago, Ill
April 11, 1878
Dear Father,
I received a letter from you and Ma yesterday evening and
one from Aunt M.A. yesterday morning. I was glad to hear you were all well but Byron
[Albert Byron], he ___ lame. Where is
the rheumatism, in his knees? I am
sorry he is growing so, he might a cripple if something is not done soon.
I have been using some linen cut that Uncle got when he got
his ankles swiled [swelled]. I have used
nearly a little foot. I think it helped
the swelling, but my knees & feet are stiff yet . I haven’t been out of the yard since I
came. I have had to wear Uncle Edwin’s
slippers most of the time. I am feeling
better. I have a better appetite. Aunt F gave me some medicine which I think
helped me from feeling so faint. But I
don’t think I will be able to come before the first of May for I don’t think it
would be prudent for me to come with the rheumatism. I hope you haven’t got the money from Mr.
Belden, for you do not need to get it before a little while before I
start. You spoke of my not getting anything for the children when I came
but get them their shirt things. Got
here would be thought more of and they would cost more there too. I would
so pleased if you would send me a little more, five or six dollars more. I think when you have some butter to sell you
can do well to send some to Mr. Martin for he asked me if you had any butter to
sell when I was there. When I was there butter
was as high as thirty seven cents.
I was sorry to hear of one of the cows being dead. I was in hopes that this winter would pass
without losing any. The grass has grown
so that cattle can get a living. Uncle
E said he saw a man that saw in a paper that you had wheat three of four inches
high when he was up to Minneapolis.
Uncle got home Friday afternoon.
I went away Tuesday night to South Bend . I must write to Ma now.
From your affectionate daughter.
April 11, 1878
Dear Mother,
I was glad to hear from you & to hear that your finger
is well. You must have had a very sore
finger jam. Sure wish I was able to come
to help you, but if I was there now I would only be in the way & a hindrance. I have only washed the dishes five or six
times. My right hand has been swollen three
times & the left one once but they are very weak. It is
just a month today since I was taken .
I have not heard from Aunt C since I came. I have wanted my __ so bad. I wrote to Richard the other day so I will
have it before long I hope. I wish you
would write to Aunt F. She has been kind
to me, giving me medicine.
Yours,
Daughter
April 4, 1878 Mary Anne Benjamin-1852 to John Benjamin-1823
Chicago, Ill.
April 4, 1878
Dear Father,
I received a letter from you and Ma yesterday and was sorry
to hear that you heard from Uncle Edwin that I was so helpless, but I haven’t
been so bad but I could dress myself as yet.
I have had my right hand swollen up once and my left leg swollen so that
I could not put my shoes on for three days.
I have it on today for the first time. I have a corn on my little toe that hurts some. Couldn’t I get some ___ to burn it? I wish you would tell me how to prepare it. I have forgotten I have the rheumatism in my
knees. They are very sore. I hope & trust it may leave them &
not go anywhere else. It is two weeks
today since I first came down with it. I
am so sorry for I had fleshed up so you would hardly know me. I had a double chin but you would be surprised
to see how I have lost. I only wish I had had my picture taken.
You said that Robie wrote to me. I got letters from everyone but Robie &
Louisa. Didn’t you make a mistake;
thought it was Robie when it was Frank?
Aunt Frances got a letter from Uncle this morning from Minneapolis. I am so glad you can get the money from Mr.
Belden to send me for you won’t have go to so much trouble. If I hadn’t taken sick I would have had enough. I am so sorry the most of my calculations are
a filier [sic]. I must write a few
limes to Ma. From your affectionate
daughter.
Dear Mother,
I am so sorry that I am taken sick from home. I haven’t seen any place like home as yet, especially
in sickness. And you musent [sic] worry
for me. When I get strong enough I mean
to start for home. Aunt C has not come
with my things as yet. I am so sorry for
I want to get in my trunk. If I only
knew where to write I would write to her.
Aunt Frances thinks she won’t come at all for she said she wouldn’t carry
them. Aunt C said she would and I know she
will for she will do what she promised.
I think she must have had a time to find a place. I must close for I written more now than I
thought I would when I commenced.
My love to all. From
your affectionate,
Daughter [Mary Anne]
April 2, 1878 Edwin Benjamin-1833 to John Benjamin-1823
Minneapolis, Minn.
April 2, 1878
Dear John,
Yours of March 30th I received this evening on my
return from Stillwater and of course I was not here to answer it last
evening. I am sorry that you should think
that the tone of my letter and Frances’s letter was unchristian-like for I know
that such things are far from my thoughts, and I know too that it is the case
with Frances, and I know that we have been trying to bring ours and other children
that comes within our reach to live and only live but practice Christian
lives. And if we have made a failure in
this, well all I can do, in fact all of us can do, is to take it to the Lord in
prayer. And when he tells me I am wrong,
why there is no person in the world that is more willing to acknowledge it and
confess it, and we’ll try to do the will of my Father and on my own, and if
this offends you, as I said before, I am sorry.
So I will not undertake to say what I should until some future time. But I do ask you to send for Annie and when
she goes to visit anyone again, and to work, I hope the lesson of the past will
be of profit to her. And if I was going
to give her advice, I would certainly do it in a Christian like spirit and
sympathy.
I shall start for home tomorrow and if you should feel like
writing to me and ask any questions about it, I will very cheerfully answer
them in the very best manner possible for me to do so. And I certainly
rather to know more about it before I should say what I now know to be facts,
and I have no doubt but you would be surprised to know all about them.
From yours respectfully,
Edwin
(Address 149 Wilmot Ave, Chicago, Ill)
March 22, 1878 Edwin Benjamin-1833 to John Benjamin-1823
Minneapolis, Minn
March 22, 1878
Dear John,
I arrived here Tuesday morning and left home on Monday
morning. I left my folks sick, that is,
Frances was sick and has been for about 5 or 6 weeks and I have been home
taking care of her most of the time. I thought
at one time that we was going to lose her.
She has grown very thin, so much so that I never saw her so poor in my
life.
I shall be here a few days.
I am going to Stillwater and up on the Northern Pacific RR and will be
back here a day or so.
Hoping that this will find you all well, etc.
Yours, etc,
Edwin
Feb. 16, 1878 H Bacon to John Benjamin-1823
Norwich
Feb. 16, 1878
Dr. J. Benjamin
Dear Sir, I enclose estimate for octagon barn in detail for
your information and consideration. The
prices you can correct to suit your locality; have intended to have them large enough
to cover. The timber price is for all
pine. Since making the estimate I have received
letter from you that you would probably use the large sized plan which will add
a little to the cost.
Many thanks for your kind offers of assistance in getting to
Hutchinson and afterwards. But, my good
Dr., don’t make too many rash promises for you may be held to account, and when
the time comes and you see the promised numbers you have agreed to accommodate &
help, you may wish you hadn’t and conclude to let them go to protest. However, the prospect now is that we shall
brake up here and move out west, and Hutchinson seems to be the objective
point. But shall probably not come all
at one time. Mrs. B has sisters living
at or near Chicago which she wishes to visit, also at Cincinnati. However, we shall in all probability avail ourselves
of your kind offers, in part, at any rate, and will give you an opportunity to
withdraw or renew at your pleasure the balance.
Have been obliged to lay your work by for a short time. Some
friends over in Middleton have a Sunday school chapel on the brain and wanted drawings,
etc., in a hurry as they had nearly enough money raised for the purpose. So you, being a good way off, were put one
side and they accommodated.
About windmills, etc., I do not know much about, but have no
doubt that one could be framed sufficiently strong on the roof of the barn if
so desired, but should think that when the wind blows a 60 mile gale that it would
make things shake up there. Have made a
rough drawing of elevation which I send.
If you use horse forks why can’t they be arranged to work from the
outside (say at opposite sides) having tracked the length between the forks to
run upon it might not be so convenient unloading and would have no cover to drive
under in case of showers, but would save all the rooms in basement (and some
above). I will endeavor to find out more
about the working of the forks. Here we
always have a drive way into the upper story and bays on either side for hay,
grain, etc.
There is a kind of pump
and wind mill made at Hartford, this state, that works on a different plan than
most others for pumping water. The mill
may be placed anywhere most convenient and any distance from the water desired
to raise. I must send & get their
circulars and directions, some explained arrangement which is said to work well
and economically.
Please let me know, now you have the plans, which you will
work upon whether the last one sent or the larger one, also if the arrangement
of stalls in last will answer, and if you make larger will you have more room
behind stalls, or in the center. If we
dispense with driveway there will be more room in center for box stalls, etc.,
and anything else that occurs to you.
Yours faithfully,
H. Bacon
Jan. 23, 1878 Richard Jones-1850 to John Benjamin-1823
South Chicago
January 23, 1878
Dear Uncle,
I received your letter some time ago but have delayed answering
it without any good excuse, but I was glad to hear from you.
I see Annie occasionally.
She looks first rate, is very well, and tries to enjoy herself, but I
have reason to believe that she is disappointed in her reception and treatment
here and I am sorry that I am not in shape to make it more pleasant for her. She is stopping at sister Sarah’s now but I
hardly think she enjoys it. Things are
so different here from what she expected.
I have had a hard time to get along lately. I can hardly stem the tide now. Had bad luck with the mill and now there is
no business at all hardly, but I hope for better times before a great while.
Give my regards to all the family, hoping to hear from you
soon.
I remain yours,
R. B. Jones
Dec. 28, 1877 Mary Anne Benjamin-1852 to John Benjamin-1823
765 Wabash Ave.
Chicago, Ill
Dec. 28, 1877
Dear Father,
Your letter with the two dollars in came which I am very
thankful for. I can tell you I have not
been to Uncle Edwin since I left but I am going Saturday night or Sunday if he
is at home. Aunt C [Charlotte] is going
to Mr. Pease tomorrow. She will know
from them if he is at home or not. If not, I won’t go until he is. I will tell him how disappointed you are in
not hearing from him. It may be that
Uncle never got the letter that you wrote about his business so he will not be
to blame. I know that is very mean to
think that of Aunt F. but I can’t help
it after hearing what she had done.
I got a letter from you yesterday & Louise &
Olive. I believe this has been the longest
I have been without writing. I thought
would wait until after Christmas. Sarah’s
husband got a Christmas tree and Aunt C dress it. Aunt C folks were all here. Lizzie & Martha are working out. Richard, Lizzie, Martha & I took dinner with
Sarah & husband & Aunt C. Uncle
Emely Stanly took dinner with Mary & her husband. Sarah & Mary had each a turkey for dinner
& I cleaned them, the first I ever did & they had an English plum
pudding & in the evening Richard had a magic lantern and showed us all some
pictures & after we all danced & then the tree was stripped of the
presents and Richard had two persons come to play on guitar and violin. So we
had a good time until twelve o’clock. Then
we all retired and I commenced this letter before dinner. But William came to dinner & said that there
was to be a Christmas tree at four o’clock in one of the churches nearby &
he wanted Sarah and me to go so we got ready & went. He is a clerk in a grocery store so he couldn’t
go. I never saw anything so grand. They had a shape of a ship with about two or
three thousand candles all lit up on it & they had the presents around it. There were thirty five classes of the Sunday
school & each class had a banner they paraded up & down the church while
singing with the banners. It was perfectly
beautiful. I want to write to Ma so I
must close.
From your affectionate,
Daughter [Mary Anne]
Nov. 13, 1877 Thomas Gleave to John Benjamin-1823
Flint
Nov. 13, 1877
My Dear Sir,
Your kind letter came duly to hand and I have kept deferring
writing from time to time. I have just
had my photo taken and I now enclose it together with that of my wife and daughter. You see any hair is getting snowy white, and my
face beginning to wear the marks of age.
However, I have good health and that is a great blessing. My wife is not the blooming girl she was when
you last saw her, she was then younger than my daughter is now. My youngest son, whose photo you have is not
so nice looking now as when it was taken.
He met with a gun accident which disfigured his nose a little, but it was a source of thankfulness
that it was no worse. It was not the
bursting of the gun that caused it, it was a double barreled one, and when he
fired one barrel the other went off and the rebounding caused the hammer or
cock to knock his nose and split it to some extent, but it soon got better and
the disfigurement is not much.
We were sorry to hear that you met with such an accident, tho
severe, it might have been worse. In
fact you might have been killed. I trust
you have quite recovered now. Your
daughter too was very ill when you wrote.
I hope she has long since got well and that you all are in the enjoyment
of health.
I hope you have been more fortunate this year than you were
the previous one in escaping the plague of locusts. We in this
country are threatened with the visit of the Colorado beetle or potato bug, but
every precaution has been taken by government, and if he does come he will have
a very lively time of it.
I am glad to hear you have had a revival in your
neighborhood. It is very much wanted in
this country. There is a vast amount of
crime caused principally by drunkenness.
That you will see from time to time by the paper I send you which I hope
you regularly receive. It is sent every
week.
Your brother James was over in Liverpool last week. He is looking well and I should think is
doing well.
One after another of our old shop mates are going to their
long home. You would see that Lou Jones
(Baba) died some months since after a lingering illness. There are not many of your old associates
left and sooner or later we and you will have to leave this world and all we
love. May we be ready to go when the message comes. Will Dawes met with an untimely end; he fell
into a ___ dock at Garston and was either drowned or killed with the fall. Dick, his brother, is living in Flint but he
has had a stroke which has disabled him from working and consequently he is
very poor .
Flint is very much altered, so much so that you would not
know it. The town is supplied with water
from Coed Onn, and gas we have had for more than twenty years. I think I have told you that I have the management
of the gas & water works, altho I am not much of my time at home. I am mostly in Liverpool.
Don’t be long before you write again. Me and my wife will be very glad to hear from
you. With our kindest regards to
yourself and family, believe me to be yours very faithfully,
Thomas Gleave
Some say that my photo makes me look older than I
am.
August 5, 1877 Joseph Garner-1826 to John Benjamin-1823
Holywell
August 5th, 1877
Dear Brother, Sister,
Here is another attempt at letter-writing which I intend
ending. I sent one also to Richard which
I trust will find you all well.
So far we have not drifted into war and I trust will escape
it but there is no doubt it interrupts travel to a great extent causing things
to be very quiet here. I am sorry to find by your papers that the
railway strike is doing you no good but trust that it will be over soon and
trade revive both here and with you.
The two elder boys have gone this afternoon to their Aunt’s
at Holywell and Alfred, Maggie and Ma are now going to church and wish to be
kindly remembered to you. Bagillt seems
to be thriving about the best place in this neighborhood, the employ upwards of
700 men but then there are plenty of shops without these coming to
Holywell. Unfortunately everything
seems to go wrong with Holywell. We are
up to our ears in debt with the market and have not got out yet. Flannel mills do not turn out as good as
expected and our water works have been taken charge of by the bailiffs. But in spite of all I think that trade will
come someday but it seems very long, the best part of one’s live having gone by
.
I trust that you are all well with a plentiful harvest
before you. I do not know which is ___,
yours or ours.
So with kind love to all I remain,
Your affectionate brother,
Joseph Garner
March 26, 1877 Walter Garner-1846 to Richard Garner-1838
Oakes & Griffith
Eastgate St.
Chester, England
Dear Uncle, Aunty & Marian,
Sometime in November, 1876 I wrote you a letter and for a long time I
could not make out what had become of either the letter or you, but my mind was
set at rest on account of the letter by its being returned to me, & on the
front of the envelop was printed these words, “Unclaimed”. How could I not see the reason which the post
office people had for putting “Unclaimed” on a letter which it was nobody’s
business to claim but rather was the business of the post office people to find
out somebody whose name was on the envelope and give the letter to this person;
if they could not find the person whose name was on the envelope, I think they could
find a word more suitable to explain how it was that the letter did not find
its way to the right person. By putting
Unclaimed on the letter they put the fault on the person to whom it is addressed
& not on themselves or on the one that misdirected the letter. But perhaps in America they may have a different
way of distributing letters to what they have in England.
I don’t know whether you were told that M. A. had a brother in America,
but I do not suppose that you could very easily go to see him although he is in
the same country as you are. He is in
California and when I was at home last they had just had a letter from him
after he had not written for a very long time.
I see by the papers that you have changed your king (or what is
something like one). We have still got
the same old Lady to rule & govern us & and she has not as yet exposed her
desire to go & leave her kingdom, & even if she did go there would be
no “lark” in electing one to fill her place like there is in America, as I saw
by the paper that cousin sent over where it said that one man shot another dead
& the other man was shot dead by some other patriotic citizen. They would not allow such fun to go on here,
for some poor man tried to take his wife’s head off with a hatchet & the
police caught him after he had done the deed & this poor man is going through
a performance next Monday (Easter Monday).
The first part of his trick is to be tied both hands & feet, he is
then put in a scaffold with a movable plank under his feet. A rope is then put up around his neck &
he is allowed to see if he can keep himself up without touching anywhere. I am afraid that if he will not come back the
same man as he went, he will be quite a changed man & he will take no more
wife’s heads off.
The Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race came off last Saturday & it
was “dead heat”. The bow oar of the
Oxford boat broke as they were taking the lead so that it could not be decided
who was the winner.
Business has been rather slack lately but Saturday & today we have
been a little more busy than usual. I
hope that you are pretty brisk in America.
Have you an Indians about your place & does that double barreled gun
that made short work of our cat down the Crown Yard come in to give them the
taste of the lead? But I suppose a ball
& not shot would send them to their “happy hunting grounds”. You have no game laws, gun license & all
that bother in America as we have here so you shoot what you like when you get
the chance.
Next Friday is Good Friday & then we will get a holiday. We will also get one on the Monday following
& as the Saturday comes between them I am going to ask it also so as to
have four days of peace next to each other.
I don’t trust that American comes under the Bank Holiday Act does
it? But I suppose that you get the
holiday all the same. We are in that
time of year called “Spring” now & we get to see the sun for a few minutes every
other week or so. We have had a winter
& it was nothing like ought to be.
It rained almost every day & there was only one chance for me to put
my skates on, that was the day after Christmas. I am afraid that those people that want to
skate will have to go to the North Pole or very near it before they can have a
try of their skates.
I have been a very long time in writing to you but I hope you will
forgive after this long letter. I must
thank cousin for his kindness in sending the papers but as I cannot come to do the
same myself as it is rather too far, will you please thank him for me, with
kind love to yourselves, Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle, & cousins. I remain your affectionate nephew,
Walter Garner [Joseph’s son, b. 1846]
Dec. 3, 1876 Joseph Garner-1826 to John Benjamin-1823
Holywell
Dec. 3rd, 1876
Dear Brother & Sister,
On Friday last I received your letter and was glad to find
all well with the exception of rheumatism, troubling one and a terrible down
the cellar troubling the other. The cellar
act in this country we generally attribute to looking after the beer barrel,
but to an American I suppose he must be looking after the substantials of his
next crops, but by now I hope rheumatism has vanished & John’s arm is all
right.
I hope Richard has done well in removing from this country. The trade here is unaccountably quiet with no
prospects of improvement. Indeed, we all
have come to the conclusion that it will not be better until we have a change
in the government.
Mary is getting herself ready to go to Pendre Chapel this
evening. Maggie is busy at the table
writing a letter to you, which I enclose.
Walter is at her side assisting her.
I only wish you could peep in and see us in the old crown kitchen . Richard or Mary Ann will be able to give you a
description of the room.
There seems very little hope of my visiting you. I am afraid my mining ___ has gone to the wall. It was my first trial and I am sure it shall
be the last.
It is not the thing for bad letter writers to give advice to
others but, dear sister, as my eyes are a little more dim than they used to be,
please don’t write across in your next.
I trust you still continue to have the Observer sent. If you do not, let me know in your next. In a week or so I will write to Richard. Remember us kindly to them and accept the
same for yourselves & family. I am
yours affectionately,
J. Garner
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)