| Title: | H. B. L. [Longstreet?], Cottage, to "My dear Friend" |
|---|---|
| ID | 1636 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Longstreet, Hannah B/32 |
| Year | 1873 |
| Sender | Longstreet, Hannah B |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | middle-class housewife |
| Sender Religion | Catholic |
| Origin | prob. Augusta, Georgia, USA |
| Destination | prob. Belfast, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Allen, Isabella |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | friends |
| Source | D 1558/1/2/245: The Papers of William John Campbell Allen. Deposited by the late F. D. Campbell Allen, Esq., 15 London Road, Harrow-on-the-hill, Middlesex |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, N. Ireland |
| Doc. No. | 9907028 |
| Date | 25/10/1873 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 14:07:99. |
| Word Count | 975 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Cottage. 25/73 My dear Friend. Your kind letter has given me great pleasure bringing as it does such assurances of affection and a renewed invitation to visit you; with promises that your dear children will do all they can to make me happy. The fact that I am now almost entirely confined to one place by weak health, only makes me prize the more, the efforts of my friends to take me away from home, But I must not think ever of crossing the water again or indeed going any where beyond my very short tether. I am glad to hear you have passed the summer so pleasantly. Mr Allen & you must both be stronger than when I saw you. A trip to Port Rush would have then seemed to you an undertaking of some moment. Perhaps the young people will not let you stay at home as much as you would still like. I can't forget how hastily you got back from a merry making, to which Emma & I had almost compelled you to go. I am sure you feel more like going into society now than you did then. It must be such a happiness to go with your girls & live over in them the days of youth. I fancy Andrew James has grown very like the young man, who came to Augusta long, long ago, before you knew him perhaps. We miss Uncle Campbell sadly when we go back to those days, and indeed to any of the years which are passed, for he kept himself always in the centre of our family plans & pleasures & we had grown to feel he was our own Uncle. His interest continued in all the nieces & nephews of my Aunt, up to the day of his death. He had been most anxious I should go with him to Clarkesville, that I might be with him in his last days, but my health would not allow me to think of it. He was there just one month when he died. His remains were brought to the Cottage Cemetery, he having told us the spot where he wished to be laid; and the kind of tombstone he would wish placed over him. When his will was read, the astonishment & disappointment of the whole community extended even to his two prominent heirs. Henry & Robert Campbell both said, they wished the distribution had been otherwise of our Aunt's property. Grace & her brother seemed to think it quite right. Whatever we may have thought, we have said nothing, and the matter after having been discussed by the public a sufficient length of time, has died, out of sheer exhaustion. You enquire if my brother in law is one of the Executors. He is, and the Mr Bean who is mentioned so often, is son in law to my Aunt Mrs Smith. My good Aunt is with me now as a constant companion. She visits her son twice a year, but this is her home. It would be lonely for me without her affectionate care. Though she is seventy five years old, she is the strong one of the pair. My sisters family spend a good deal of time with us one & another dropping in many times in the day. The death of our only brother has made a great change in our family. He was suddenly cut off in his prime of life with disease of the heart and has left a widow & four children. His young son who was in England at school, had to be called home to take charge of his Father's plantation. He is just seventeen, so grown & so sedate we scarcely recognise the little boy who left us three years ago. He has improved his excellent opportunities and brings home many prizes as proofs of his diligence. He has at once taken his place as head of the family and his delicate little Mamma has great confidence in his ability to carry on his Father's business. It is a change from students life to the management of wayward freedom, cotton picking & packing and all such work, but the brave heart fears nothing & bears his burdens manfully, coming home tired, to join his sisters in refined pursuits during the evening hours. He has great taste for music & drawing & is never too weary to spend an hour at the Piano. I don't know if you remember two pretty little girls of my Aunt Carmichael. One of these is the widow of my dear brother. Her home is near Savannah, and my Aunt Emma's son Oswell, lives in the same neighbourhood. Oswell has a family of five children. Emma & Mr Sibley have come this evening from Marietta. I did not, as usual, spend any part of the summer there, but visited my brother's family instead. Emma is looking quite well and her children like Mountaineers. The weather is distressingly warm and we all feel apprehensive lest yellow fever may be conveyed from Memphis to our Southern Cities. It is rather unusual for such mortality to be confined to one place. I suppose the other cities are taking great precautions in the way of purifying &c. My Nephew Collen Ketchum is waiting for cold weather to return to business in N. [New?] Orleans. He is greatly pleased with that City, but we do not like his being so far from us and in such an unhealthy atmosphere. We have just heard of the death of Alfred Cumming a brother of Henry. Mr Allen probably remembers him. My Aunt joins me in kindest remembrance to Mr Allen & yourself. My love to your sister and to your cousins when you see them. I hope you will write again / & very soon/ to your attached friend, H. B .L. [Longstreet?] |
