| Title: | Mary Gibson, Allegheny, To My dear Long Lost Brother |
|---|---|
| ID | 1166 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Gibson, Mary/22 |
| Year | 1898 |
| Sender | Gibson, Mary |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | still keeps her husband's office (steam fitting business) |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Pittsburgh, Penn., USA |
| Destination | unknown |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | siblings |
| Source | Mary Gibson letters from America. Donated by Mr Gordon Douglas, 59 Lisnavar Court, Altnagelvin, Londonderry, BT47 QNE???, N Ireland. |
| Archive | The Ulster American Folk Park |
| Doc. No. | 711005 |
| Date | 04/04/1898 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document Added by JoeMullan, 29/11/2007 |
| Word Count | 1654 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | ALLEGHENY APRIL, 4TH, 1898 My dear long lost brother, No words of mine can tell you the joy I feel at being able to write you. For years I have been under the impression you did not want any news of your sister. May God forgive the woman that has caused us all those years of misery, for I never can. When my dear husband wrote ten years ago and enclosed a letter to be sent to you we got no reply to it and the letter was delivered or else in would have returned to us. In it we said for you to send us your address and we would send you the money for your journey here to us. We waited 6 months and got no word, then I wrote to fathers sister Aunt Sarah Mc Daid of Burt and enclosed a letter to be sent to you. I sent her at the same time three pounds to be used by her in finding you or my father. Well in about a month I got a letter from her telling me her telling me her daughter would like to come here and stating you were living somewhere about Derry. She has sent a letter to our Father enclosing yours also. Who sent the reply I know not, but of all the insulting missions ever penned it was the worst. My husband swore when he read it and flung it in the fire. It nearly broke my heart. It said neither you nor my father wanted anything to do with me as you had told them I was out on the streets in Derry and a lot more to the same effect. Rather a colourless story, dear, as I left Derry before I was sixteen. But enough of the batter part, we can look back on it as a bad dream and try to forget it. ---------------------------------------------------------- Now I will tell you all about myself. After I seen you last I went with a lady to Lisburn, seven miles from Belfast. She was an old maiden lady a friend of Mrs.Waller of Troy. You may know of them. I lived with her two years as a parlour maid. Then I went to Hillsborough Castle, the residence of the Marquis of Downshire in the Co. Down. While there I met my husband. He has been in this country six years and was home on a short visit to his parents who lived on the estate there. I met him the evening he came home on the second of June 84. Well, he was to go back in three months, but it was 9 before he went. I went to England with the family in July and did not get back to October. We kept steady company after that, but I did not want to get married then. Finally we agreed he was to came back here and I would come to him in a year, but I am sorry to say it was over two years before I did come. He sent for me twice and I still put it off. Then his mother died and before her death she sent for me and told me she would die happier if she knew her younger son was married. I left in a hurry then, you may be sure. He met me at New York and we were married that evening in Pittsburg. His Aunts and Uncles were all so good to the little stranger. I love them dearly and in all these long sad years since my darling left me have been my true friends indeed. My husband and two babes sleep in the cemetery here. I have one darling child left, my second, Bessie, 8 years old. Edwin is gone now 6 years. Both of us knew it was inevitable as he had consumption. Out of 10 brothers only 4 remains now. My little Bessie will, I fear, go too. She gets more like her father every day, but I am resigned to give her up. If God wants her, I give her willingly as I had to give the others. If I go home this summer I will take her with me. Her fathers people (at home) in the old country are crazy to get her over there. We would have gone last year but the Dr.[Doctor?] would not let me take her and I would not go over without her. My brother, I am in pretty fair circumstances enough to live well and still a little left. I look after things in general in the office. My husband was in the steam fitting business and I still keep it up, with help, of course. This is only a temporary home I am living in at present. On the 7th of Jan, [January] my own home was burned to the ground and all my furniture. Nothing saved not even our clothes. Some ammonia and whisky exploded in the bonded warehouse across the street and burned the whole square. 32 lives were lost, among them my cousin by marriage, Police Lieutenant John Berry. The insurance people are giving us a good deal of the trouble, but my lawyer looks after all that. Now about ourselves. Dont think I am forgetting my dear new sister. God bless her for making your life a happy one, and my little nieces, oh how glad I will be to see them dear ones. My darling brother, if we had only our mother to be with us when we meet, that dear patient mother. Oh how I envy anyone has their mother to go to in all their joys and sorrows. James can you remember anything about her? I can, and I can also remember the insulting words used about her by the woman our father ( what a mockery that words seems) put in her place, but all the sorrow and misery she has caused us will be to her own loss. I could quite understand her speaking of my sister in nasty terms as I think she never spoke a good word of any one in her life. When I read your description of the scene when you told them of your intended marriage I laughed tho [though?] the tears was blinding me at the time. I could picture it all for my myself. What a time you must have had. May heaven help poor father. My brother, never use an unkind word to the dear wife you have won. Oh, how glad I am your home is such a happy one. We never had an unkind word between us while my husband lived. I shed some of the bitterest tears today I ever shed when I read of the unhappy life you led, and me not knowing even knowing if you were alive. I will keep your dear letter and show it you. I dont think you could read it now yourself. It is blotted with tears, so you can scarcely see the lines, but there were some glad ones too. But I felt bad to see father had forgotten even where our mother rests. When I go home, dear, I want a stone put up to her memory. I will pay all expenses of course. This will always be my home here, but I will feel as if I had another one in Ireland now. And I must tell you that if God spares me to go over it will be late in August before I can leave, for a reason I will tell you of another time. I am so glad you are in a good position, but I guess you deserved it. I will write to Capt. [Captain?] McConnell this week. I owe him a great deal for the trouble he took. I will send him some money also, to do as he pleases with. I was going to write to Derry to try and get your address often, but I did not know who to write too. When Bessie brought your letter to me a short time ago she called. Mama heres another letter from Uncle Jim How true it was, tho [though?] not form the one she meant. I turned sick before I seen it, for I had one from him the day before and I was sure it was to tell me his ship was ordered into action. He is in the American Marines and we are expecting every day the President will declare war with Spain. He was in the Brazilian war and would be home soon now. I will send you his letter to read. He is my nephew by marriage, my husbands eldest brothers son, and he too had a daisy of a stepmother. He often told me he never had a home to I came. He is 2 years younger than me. but Bessie calls him Uncle Jim. She cant [cant] see why she has two Uncle Jims. I have not seen him for five years but you may see him sometime. How glad he will be to know I have found you. It was so hard to not know whether I had a brother or not. Your letter was not half long enough to content me, Be sure and write soon again, but when I see you I will tell you lots more. By the way, let me know if Duke Corscadden that was James, Willie or Robert is still around Derry. I knew them all when I was in Hamiltons on Market St, and I think my brother that when I go home I will see our Father and that, without much trouble if any of them is still around Derry. I know it will take you all week to read this. I could tell you more still, only shame makes me stop now for this is a volume not a letter. From your loving sister, MARY GIBSON, 140 Sheffield St. ALLEGHENY P.A. Document transcribed by PaulaTracey |
