| Title: | James & Margaret Carson to their Dear Mother Brothers & Sisters |
|---|---|
| ID | 588 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Carson, James & Margaret/36 |
| Year | 1857 |
| Sender | Carson, James and Margaret |
| Sender Gender | male-female |
| Sender Occupation | landowners, farmers? |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Philadelphia, Penn., USA |
| Destination | N.Ireland |
| Recipient | their family |
| Recipient Gender | male-female |
| Relationship | unknown |
| Source | D 1520/3: Presented By Mr. Thomas W. Carson, 10c Shaftesbury Cross, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9310736 |
| Date | 06/11/1857 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Action By Date Document added by C.R., 26:10:1993. |
| Word Count | 716 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Philadelphia Nov [November?] 6th 1857 Dear Mother, Brothers and Sisters We received your last letter of the 8th October and were all glad to hear that you were well, from the time we received the information of Fathers danger Mother felt very uncomfortable she got sick was confined two weeks became very weak recovered slowly is now in tolerable health but continues to feel weakly Fathers death must have been another afflictive providence to you all as a family you have learned by experience that Human life is not all sunshine cloud has succeeded cloud and the last the heaviest, how little we can know of the ways of providence His way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters and his footsteps are not known But one thing we do know "The judges of all the earth will do right" What cause for thankfulness has his family, that whilst he so faithfully and successfuly [successfully?] discharged the duties of this life, that he did not loose [lose?] sight of the future world, and died at last in the hope of the gospel Mother joins you all in expressing entire satisfaction with her Fathers arrangement [----?] [-----?] You will have learnt before this, the present state of affairs in this country, for some weeks past, trade has been prostrated, business is nearly at a stand still, Money matters is in the utmost confusion, and confidence or credit has ceased to exist, about five or six weeks ago all the Banks in this city suspended [specie?] payment, and such a state of excitement as then ensued you can form no idea of. It would be too tedious to talk of the causes which produce these periodic panics in our Monetry [monetary?] system in this country but without doubt, there is something radically wrong in the management of our Banking Establishments you will see those causes ably discussed in the newspapers, In the present circumstances it would be wrong to ask anything like a money order between Ireland & this place some of the best houses in our city have suspended payment. #PAGE 2 We are satisfied Mothers money is in safe hands where it is, and we think it the better way, to let it remain where it is, for the present. The Banks by suspending payment forfeited their Charter Governor Pollock an extra session of the state leglislature [legislature?] at Harrisburg, and passed a bill freeing the Banks from the penalty and giving them till next April to prepare themselves for resuming payment against that time. What number of them will come out of their dificulties in an Honorable [Honourable?] manner is all an uncertainty. We have succeeded in this country as well as we had calculat [calculated?] upon we are now over nine years in this country and I have been all that time in the same employment, Robert has made such proficiency in his trade that he can provide for himself anywhere, I have often told him that a trade is easily carried, and if he can afterwards do better at anything else, so much the better. John never liked the trade and it does not seem to agree with his health, he has grown tall, but seems delicate, open air perhaps would have agreed better with his constution [constitution?], but the opportunity of being all together [altogether?], was an inducement to keep at the trade Mary and Margaret Jane are healthy Elisa looks weakly Mother begins to talk of the severity of the climate Lacy and Phillips have nearly suspend [sic] work, I have been Idle for some weeks. And it is uncertain when the [they?] will have work perhaps not before spring it is cause for gratitude that we are not depending on the weeks wages, there are thousands of persons in these united states that will have hard times this winter. John and Robert are still at work, limited to nine hours per day, they have already discharged a number of their boys. Would James or George be kind enough in your next letter, to inform us of the price of land in Ireland I mean for farming purposes, Francis Magee sailed from here a week ago in the ship Wyoming for liverpool, the family joins us in love to our [Rokeel?] and Monaghan friends We remain affectionately #PAGE 3 Yours James Carson Margaret Carson |
