| Title: | John Hall, Pennsylvania to Mrs. Hall, Armagh. |
|---|---|
| ID | 1308 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Hall, John L/25 |
| Year | 1889 |
| Sender | Hall, John L. |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | McDonald, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Destination | Armagh, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Mrs Hall |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | son-mother |
| Source | D 2041/13: Purchased from J. A. Gamble Esq., 44 Taunton Avenue, Belfast 15. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9311135 |
| Date | 24/06/1889 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Action By Date Document added by C. McK. 05:11:199 |
| Word Count | 1216 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | To: Mrs. Hall [Loughgall?] [County Armagh?] Ireland From: John Hall McDonald Washington County Pennsylvania U.S.A. June 24 1889 McDonald Washington Co. pa [Pennsylvania?] 24th June 1889 My Dear Mamma I suppose by this time you are almost beginning to think all about home has been forgotten by me, but that is not so. I wrote two or three letters home a good while ago and have not had any answer although I am anxiously waiting every day but expect some of them will soon take a notion to drop me a line. As this day has been wet and we could not work I thought to embrace the opportunity and write you but of course cannot give you any very interesting news as anything here would not concern you much. Well there is a young fellow named Scott a Scotchman and he and I have rented a basement in a house here and are keeping bachelors' quarters as we find we can live a great lot cheaper than paying $18 per month for board; it is entirely too much but it is the cheapest one can get around here. We are living very comfortably and quiet in our own house and take turn about at cooking which is sometimes not very hard to do but it is pleasanter than being along with some of the dirty people one has to board with sometimes and will take all you can earn and not be satisfied with it. Scott (my fellow bachelor) is a nice quiet religious fellow and a bit of a musician so sometimes it is pretty lively at other times dull enough, but I expect to be able to pull through the summer well enough. John Keenan & Ada and the children are all in heir usual health. They have moved into another house a great deal better than the one they were living in he #PAGE 2 is getting along tolerably well as this is the season for the harness business. I had a paper from Moses the other day. How is he getting on? He would have a notion to come out here but I would give him a wholesome advice to stay at home for this is not the country that it is represented to be at all. If people could get home again easily as they can come here there would not be so many people in America today. I have seen a good lot of it and have not yet seen any part of it to equal the old Country in anything. Of course people will write home things and put them in a different light & misrepresent everything; but I believe in saying what I know about it. There are dozens in this very town working night & day & saving every cent they can get to scrape up their passages back. In summer you are scorched in winter you are frozen if there comes a shower of rain you can't walk the streets without a pair of gum boots up to your knees. In bed you are eaten alive with bugs, out of bed with mosquitoes, wood ticks & all the different flies that were in the Ark. I have had many a time to get out of bed with flies, bugs & heat and go out to the yard and sleep on a timber pile or a plank and yet was too hot so if you can see any pleasure in living in a place like this I can't and if there was anything for it it would be less matter, but with the help of Goodness I will show it the heel of my stocking as soon as I can and go somewhere else. How is Dada getting along in the Land Courts? I suppose he gets home pretty often to see you I had a letter from Maggie about two months ago she was saying Mr. David Anderson gave her some encouragement to come out here but if she knew as I know how hard she would have to work for a living she would stay where she is of course about all she could do in this country would be keeping boarders and I know enough about that to tell her to not try it here for the half of them go without paying anything and are never heard of more. Indeed I would be sorry to hear of her coming out here or anyone for whom I had any regard unless a laborer [labourer?] as he can do better than he can at home but he is the only one except of course a man with capital and starting some enterprise. Tell Florrie and Annie that I have been on the look out for a letter from them for the last six or seven weeks and if they don't write soon I'll go over and see what's the matter with them. I have been working outside for the last month or six weeks in the sun and am as brown as a #PAGE 3 Mulatto. The weather here has been awfully warm and no rain for a good while till today and it is predicted that we are going to have a very hot summer. I suppose you saw in the papers an account of the Johnstown disaster; it was the most dreadful catastrophe that ever this country experienced in such a manner. It occured by the bursting of a dam which was situated on the top of a mountain just above the town. This dam was made to divert the course of a canal so as to supply towns on both sides of the mountain with water and when you consider that the dam was over three miles long & the body of water lying against it a mile and a half broad & from 70 to 90 feet deep you can have some idea of the force of water there would be coming down on the town in the valley below. The town had 35,000 inhabitants & it is supposed that fully half of that number have been lost, some people have lost every relation they had in the world & most of them all their property. The place is only about 65 miles from here. I saw an account of a railroad wreck near Armagh in some of this country papers and was very sorry to notice amongst the list of the dead the names of a lot of people I knew. I am sure Armagh has been in a great state of excitement about it. I wish you would make some of them hunt up a paper with a full account of the affair & send it to me. I have not got a paper from home for months. I have had a letter from Moses this morning he says he has been ill for four or five days past and was sorry to learn from him that Annie had been very ill for a good while but hope she is all right now. Moses also said that Lytle had come out to this country. I had not heard it before. What part did he go to? I may probably have a chance of meeting him on my travels. This is all I can think of. Hoping you are all enjoying the best of health Your affect [affectionate?] son John. N.B. This letter was begun about ten days ago. |
