| Title: | Stewart, Frances to Atwood, Annie, 1870 |
|---|---|
| ID | 4798 |
| Collection | Revisiting Our Forest Home, The immigrant letters of Frances Stewart [J. L. Aoki] |
| File | stewart/80 |
| Year | 1870 |
| Sender | Stewart, Frances |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | housewife |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Douro Township, Newcsatle District, Upper Canada |
| Destination | Oaklands, Ontario, Canada |
| Recipient | Atwood, Annie |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | friends |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 698 |
| Genre | family, illness |
| Note | |
| Transcript | 1870: December 1 To Annie Atwood, Oaklands, Thorndale Rice Lake Plains, Ontario Thursday 1st Dec'r 1870 My Dearest Annie I am sure you must think me very unkind and neglectful in not having written to you during all the long time when you were so ill and under such dreadful afflictions. It seems cold and commonplace to assure you that I often thought of you and intended to write, but I was very poorly, all the hot weather, in consequence of my nose bleeding violently for many days & then a threatening of Dropsy, which altogether exhausted my strength & made me so shaky and weak that I really hated to begin a letter, & I am only now getting some letters answered which have been in my desk for many months. But indeed dearest Annie you & all your dear relations in this neighborhood have been constantly in my mind. I had a letter from your dear Mother some time ago, kind & loving as usual. She still suffers very much from lumbago. But how can she be well when her mind is (as it must be) loaded with anxiety about her two dearest sons surrounded as they are there by dangers of so many kinds. So far Willie had escaped smallpox & as he seems to understand the treatment so well, we may hope he may escape that most wretched of all maladies. I have heard of dear Kate having been at Malone & in Peterboro lately but we seem more out of the reach of our friends than ever as I have not had the use of my own horse for nearly a year past. She was completely used up, poor thing, & just lived walking about the Barnyard. She is not there now & I don't know what they have done with her but she is not able to work at all & so I have not been able to go out much, as you know what it is to depend on farm horses for ladies recreation! Indeed our young horses are so frisky that I don't like going out with them but now sleighing will I hope enable us to have a little more liberty. Our present set of horses are not fit for lady drivers & that is another difficulty as Bessies two eldest boys are always working for Robert & of course we must not take them for our indulgence.... I am now such a bad correspondent my hands tremble so much that some times I cannot write at all. But when I am well I feel stronger & steadier. You know I am very old & have become much more infirm within the last few years and my deafness has encreased so much that I am very stupid. Bessie of course cannot sit much with me as she has not had any servant for three months or more & her family is not small even tho' her two big boys generally take their dinner & tea at Roberts. I am happy to say our darling Kate is better but far far from well or strong yet. She has been staying in town with Louisa for three weeks & came back last Saturday certainly a good deal better but still very far from strong & looking so pale & thin that you would hardly know her. However, she is fortunate in having a very good servant at last. And Caroline Mathias lives with them & helps her a great deal in attending to the children & sewing as well as in household cares & is a cheerful pleasant companion so that Kate is better off now than almost anyone I know. Here I am happy to say we are all well but there is much [very] fatal fever in the country & [more] especially in town. Every day we hear of two or three deaths. We have got an excellent Doctor in our good old Dr. McNabbs place. Dr. & Mrs. Burritt are quite an acquisition to our Society & from poor Kates tedious illness we have become quite intimate & sociable.... Believe me as ever Your Loving Mamma, F. Stewart... |
