Letter to Mother from Ruth Lytle in 1838
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(Note by transcribers - There was no punctuation in this letter
and capital letters appeared in the middle of sentences, but not
always at the beginning of sentences or names.
The punctuation that is in this typed letter was added by
Edna Jeffrey Treager and her granddaughter, Jane Clarke Wettstone.
The letter has holes in it so that some words are missing altogether.)
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To:
Mrs. Hannah Everhart
Akron Portage Co
Ohio
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Hannah's Furnace, PA June 18, 1837
Dear Mother,
I received your letter yesterday dated the 1st. My feelings are
easier imagined than described. I feel that I am lost,
the children gone.1 I have no company.
Theres no one but what is cheerful but me.
The Bible is my companion. The garden is my retiring place.
I have weaned david. He has got no better of his bowels.
I am weak. The rest are well. The neighbors are well.
Mrs. C. (missing section of the letter) . . . yet. As to
Nancy,
she is well but they say she is ( missing section)
But fifty a week for hay for . . . asked her about it.
She told me she did not know. I told her if the2 did
not
give her more she must leave them and I would see about it.
She told on mee and she has not been in house this 2 months.
She works like a negro. They have a great many borders.
I wash.
I bake
(symbol or letter of some sort) may the quean is
feathering herself with old frocks, flys in the bonnets
and capes. She has got one frock 16 one 28 per yard.
We did no t get Simpsons house.
Our gardens are fine.
Everyone are trying who will have the best. Mrs. Mee is in bad
health. Dr. Scott attends her.
Robert M whent home it is supposed . . . (hole in the paper)
Isabelle fink was married June to the L to W. Williams.
We have had the United preachers with us but the did not unite
long.
Mrs. Steve. . . has been her once. This to come again his
tech was and the she of the Lord was upon me to preach the gospel.
He told over the ridge that he felt that ther was it door open.
Other was work to do.
Mis s polly She has come to the door. I heard her say she is
not well. The say she looks very bad.
Sally lives with Bettsy C
Tscich is working in the shot peter (saltpeter) flew the course.
Ther former well
T got to work again. S gts 2.5 per month
Silas is study. He has not bin in my house but once since you
went away.
Tom & Jim feely & ann coleman came down yesterday.
The told us that the Simpsons was well. Mrs. C and Mrs Mcdonnel
want to come back. Elizabeth and them fights like forty.
Ephrim Wallace was hear. The family are well.
Rebecca is not Lam (lame) but her back runs constantly.
When it dries up she gets sick and it gethers and breaks.
I hear from Samuel Everhart he is all most blind but is healthy.
We got a letter the other day from the boys. The are well.
Mrs. Burgin is sickly. The live but one mile a part.
I want to go to see them. I don't know whether I will get to
go
or not. When we move out we will be more than halfway.
It won't be more than one hundred miles. If I am spared I will
go out next fall.
Next Sunday I will go to the meeting house. Lytle has bought a
mare for our use.
If I would give way to my feelings I could set down at the foot
of the shrine and pour out my complaints and tell that I feel
that I am an orphan, but oh what that my (?) I should go astray
for I know our heavenly father is ever nigh.
I am making a blue and white quilt. The face is white and then
the leav out (or cut) and sewed on three on each corner.
That
makes 12 of each patch. The middle while the big square blue
(hole in paper). No one nose of it til I am done. I have peaced
the squares and part of the leaves on my he.... (word cut off)
Dose well taggot two cafs.
David can talk.
3
Remembers ther love to you all. H.C. has had mar. . .
(lost word) a harley cry for ther grandmother the say when the
get big the will go to see you.
Nothing more at present time but remains Yours sincerely
Ruth Lytle
I wish Stephen to be very good for you have left all fofloria him.
Lytle ha just now come home from Spruce Creek. The are all well.
What I have told to about Nancy keep to yourself.
4
The original document is held by Jane Wettstone, her great,great grandaughter.
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1 Her son, William Stonebraker Lytle, left home in April to go to the family farm in Rockland, Venango Co, PA . He arrived at noon, May 1, 1837 - from his autobiography. 2 "The" appears often to be "they" The same goes for ther/there. 3 Here it looks as if she is practicing her penmanship with capital letters S, W, C, L , M are all written in the text at this point. 4 This letter is written on green paper and doesn't copy well. It was folded into a packet 2 1/2 " square. Some of the words on the fold lines are either gone or not legible.
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