| Title: | Mary Anderson Chattanooga Tennessee to Sister Hal, Ireland |
|---|---|
| ID | 75 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Anderson, Mary/33 |
| Year | 1888 |
| Sender | Anderson, Mary (Minnie) |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | housewife |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA |
| Destination | Ireland |
| Recipient | Hal |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | sisters |
| Source | T3258/4/13: Photocopied by Courtesy of GENERAL SIR JOHN ANDERSON |
| Archive | Public Record Office, Northern Ireland |
| Doc. No. | 9411002 |
| Date | 22/11/1888 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT/JW, 10:10:1994. |
| Word Count | 578 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Box 345 22nd Nov. 1888 My Dearest Hal [Henrietta?], The spirit moves me to make an effort to answer today your very interesting & welcome letter, received so long ago! I know you will excuse my long silence - first the inevitable settling of our house, then my illness, & since then such quantities of sewing to be done that I thought I never should get through it all. Just now I have finished all the more important jobs, so must try to get some writing done before finishing the lighter ones. How I have wished for a pair of clever maids to help me these past weeks - If I had yours for instance I should have had all done in half the time - my work was all of a very uninteresting description - not like your dainty dresses, bodices &c - Trousers for the boys, to be made out of old ones of Henry's. Winter coats to be re-made for them. Shirts to be mended - winter dresses & petticoats for Violet, cloak to be made up for her - petticoats for myself - new necks & sundry mendings on Henry's shirts, besides bundles darnings, patchings & alterings I sat that a prosaiic [prosaic?] best? Mamma's letters give me a full account of all your & William's doings - What a delightful Summer you have had I it is very good as well as pleasant for you to see something of society and especially of such good society as there seems to be at Ashford - What you say is very true, that it is half the pleasure of life to have refined & cultivated people to associate with. I fear we shall have very few of that kind - Mr.Dambell our clergyman is a gentleman I had a pleasant visit from him lately - Tho' [though?] 10 years in this country he seems greatly to dislike it, & says "Tho' it doesn't do to say so here, we wd [would?] all go home if we could". His wife however is consumptive and this climate suits her, she called, but I was out. The Southerns are quite different - to the Northerners, & the old ones of them are nice, but the young people vulgar in the extreme. They are a very worthless set. We have mild, pleasant weather here now, tho' rather damp. We have all the doors & windows open tho' there is a fire, which we find pleasant - In the north they have had terribly cold weather, & there was snow in Kansas not long ago. The children are getting on well at school. I went there one Friday on which day they all repeat pieces of poetry - You wd [would?] have laughed to see the Twins walk forward hand in hand, make a low bow & together repeat, their "piece" which was, "Do your best, your very best, And do it every day, Little girls & boys That's the wisest way" And then with another bow they gravely returned to their seats, still hand in hand - Everybody roared it was so comical - They all practiced [practised?] bowing for a long time beforehand. I think it is very good for them to learn to Speak. When you have a leisure hour write to me, Box 345 Such pleasure to me to get letters from home Tell me of all your amusements what are the fashions at home now Here everything looks very fly-away. |
