Pentz
Butte Co
Calafornia
May 9 91 (
1891)
My dear Sister and Brother
We now write you after a long time and hope this will find you better and the
rest well we all had quite a spell of La Grippe and sore throats after I sent
you the news of our bitter loss now Bob is not able to do much he was taken
with Rheumatism in his hip two weeks ago and it does not get better we have
tried all sorts of liniments but it does not help him at all you wanted to
know all the particulars my dear Sister it is so bitter it breaks my heart yet
to think about it. We are satisfied now that it was La Grippe that killed her
so sudden we have seen so many cases on the papers since that the symptoms
were exactly like hers only she was not regular and she only came to womanhood
two years ago but Miss Freydt said not to mind she was so young it was like
when you lose it at Middle Age sometimes it stops 3 or 4 months we bought her
several bottles of medicine and she had been better that way since last July
but it was just the time it should have come that she did her washing and got
her death chill if I had never let her go she would be with us now oh how I
miss her you can never know and when I think of her down there so cold and
neglected and out of her senses we all home here and knew nothing about it but
looking all day the Sunday for her to come home I nearly lose my own senses and
me she never knew she thought the last night she was with us that she had
found you living down to Pentz and she was in a dreadful hurry to come home and
fetch me down to see you she would take my hands and ask me how old I was what
my mother's name was and how many children I had you must be my aunty and
mother will be so glad I have found you she often says you poor children you do
not know one of your relations it was a wonder me and Bob had not been all
alone when she closed her dear eyes forever. I had been sitting from Midnight
with 3 o'clock Father went and laid down and went to sleep after we had given
her a dose of Medicine after a long time she went to sleep but even in her
sleep she was raving and burning and at daybreak I made some Coffee and called
Bob and told him he had better go for Mr Durban as she was worse I thought
about 7 o'clock Joe Freydt came up and I told him she was very sick he went
down and Mary came up and she said oh she is dying. Bob then flew down 2 miles
and sent another man for Durban a mile further. Father came back to us and Mr
and Mrs Durban and another old lady jumped in a buggy and drove like the wind
and was here about half an hour before she passed away they rubbed her and all
they could but it was all no good she opened her dear eyes twice and looked at
me and Mary and Bess before any of them got here but she did not know any of us
she slept away like a baby without a struggle and I lost my senses too but Mrs
Durban has been a Mother to me she managed everything and dressed her and took
all of us to her beautiful home and Blanche laid in a beautiful Parlour for we
had been waiting all Winter for rain and the Friday she died in the morning
that night it poured down and Saturday it was worse so they came up with their
wagons and took her and me and the two children down to their house and it was
good we went then for the Sunday the roads was got so bad we could never have
have got her out of the Canyon the rain never let up for an instant we sent
word to Tom and Jack Williams and Johnson. Tom got here Friday night but Jack
and Johnson was 6 miles further away than him they did not get here untill we
had left Jack thought everything was so quiet that she was better and that I
had scared him for nothing but when Bob went out and told him she was gone he
could not speak for half an hour they all 3 of them think the world of our
Children if they was our own brothers they could not be kinder they paid half
the Funeral expenses we sent to Oroville for the Hearse but the road was washed
out and when we were all waiting in the Hall Sunday morning for the Minister
and the Hearse word come that it was turned over about a mile below Pentz so 20
men went down and pulled it out it started again and turned over again and
broke the pole so we had to take her in the Wagon after all when we got back
from Cherokee the Water was up to the bed of the wagon in some places in the
road me and the Children stayed to Durbans that night but Bob and the three men
came home. Mrs Durban lost her only Son he was 19 years old, 7 years ago she
has two daughters grown one 34 and one 30 years old they are English people but
been in America 40 years they are rich but not proud, you asked me if it is far
where she is lying it is nearly 9 miles. Bob took me over a month ago and We
planted some of her own Flowers on her that she planted herself she loved them
so Stocks and Pansys that Mother sent out from home in the first seed. Bessie
rode over horseback last Tuesday and took some roses and Lilies she says it is
all growing: it is very hot here now and dry. Dear Sister Jack Williams has
taked Freddie to San Francisco they stayed a week it was quite a journey
further than from Churston to London the first time our boy had rode in a train
or seen a ship or the Sea there was a large English Ship just come in called
the Golden Horn the Captain belonged to Teignmouth and there was a Brixham man
runn away from her the day before Jack got there he took Fred aboard and showed
him all over the ship the Cook was a Scotchman. Fred has enough to tell about
for a year Jack had his picture took and it is exactly like him only that he is
not quite so fat as it makes him look but the features and expression is like
life. I hope you will get it all safe we will get Bessies as soon as we can get
anywhere to get it done she is growing now but she has not seen the change yet
she is past 14 and dear Blanche was only 13 when she first saw it. I think I
will end now with our love to you all and I hope you all are well. Fred has
brought a Cold home with him from the City with our love to you all,
your loving Sister & Brother
R and A S Lyte
been out here 18 years last month
