| Title: | O'Brien, Joseph Sinton to Greeves, Susanna, 1843 |
|---|---|
| ID | 6138 |
| Collection | The Transatlantic Letters of an Irish Quaker Family_1818-1877 [B. Jackson] |
| File | quaker/145 |
| Year | 1843 |
| Sender | O'Brien, Joseph Sinton |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | clerk |
| Sender Religion | Quaker |
| Origin | NYC, USA |
| Destination | Collins, Lake Erie, NY, USA |
| Recipient | Greeves, Susanna |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | aunt-nephew |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 1053 |
| Genre | correspondence, Grandfather's box, tell her about his job, family |
| Note | |
| Transcript | 1st Mo 3. 43 It is with new feelings and a great deal of pleasure that I have to acknowledge the recpt of a letter from thee commencing a correspondence which I hope will continue until one of us shall cease to exist. Like thy self I am somewhat at a loss for some thing to communicate that to thee would be interesting; like thee I am no politician and have a much more round about way of communicating any thing I wish to; ye: to keep up the correspondence I will write to thee once in a while, but in answer to thy question as to whether it is not fair for me to write two letters to thy 1, I must say I think it would hardly be - although one of thine will be more interesting than one of mine. Thou must think me a poor correspondent for having left thy letter so long unanswered but my excuse is I was waiting to hear from Mother of the safe arrival of that box of things that Grandfather so kindly sent her, which was but a few days ago owing in part to the long passage of the ship it came in, and partly to the delays at the customs house. Mother desires me to say they will be very useful, particularly at this time of the year, and many of which are hard to be obtained where they live; and she hardly knows how to feel grateful enough to Grand father for them and will try and make them last a long time for his sake. Mother was quite well when she last wrote but says brother Thos had had an attack of his old complaint, which has occasioned me a great deal of anxiety as the accounts I had of his health through the summer were very flattering and I had hoped he might yet outgrow it. I was very sorry to hear of Uncle Thoss [Greeves] continued ill health and I wish he could be persuaded to try a voyage to America. I am sure it would be of use to him and it might restore him entirely. I heard of his arrival in Liverpool and an improvement in his health from David Malcomson, who I suppose thou knows is in this country and a nicer little fellow I never met with. I saw him here on his return home in the summer and again when he came back, at which time he spent nearly a month with us. He told me he did not see thee or Grandfather while in Ireland although he passed through or neat Lisburn. We hear from him as often as once in a week and when last heard from was in New Orleans and getting on well. It is now a year since I came here to live and during that time my health has been better than it had for the same length of [time] for several years. Everything was new to me at first and quite different from what I was accustomed to, but I liked my employment very well and I think I have improved some and hope I am none the worse for having come to die city to live. Abraham and his family ate very kind to me and treat me as one of themselves and indeed, were I giving thee the names of my best friends, James Bell and Rebecca Bell would be the first two. A short time ago I met with cousin Phebe Sinton and bet niece Mary Tracey at Abm’s. I suppose thou never saw them, but knows who they ate as well as I could tell thee. Phebe is not married yet and is what we Americans would call an old maid: very lively and fond of a joke and never at a loss for something to say and is as large as two ordinary women. She told me bet Mother was deceased which happened but a short time before I saw her. Her father is deceased also and She lives with her brother-in-law. She spent several days at AB's, but her niece who has other friends in the city and was not acquainted with A.'s family I did not see but a short time one evening in a large company, and therefore cannot tell thee much about her. I also became acquainted with Joseph Beale, who very kindly invited me to make his family a visit who live in the country about 30 miles from this; which invitation I accepted and spent three days with them very pleasantly. They have three daughters, 2 of them grown up and a son about 13 years of age, to whom they have given a good education. The eldest daughter was thrown from a carriage last summer, which hurt her side from which she has not yet recovered. Joseph owns a small farm and his brother-in-law John N. [Nicholson] who lives with him looks after it and Joseph spends most of his time in the city as bookkeeper, going and returning every week. His farm yields him very little and he depends mostly on his own labor for the support of his family. I have never met with or heard of the person thou calls Elizabeth Clarke, neither could A[braham] or R[ebecca] tell me any thing about her; but A thinks if thou had given her maiden name he might have known her. I am acquainted with Thos Richardson: he visits at AB's very often. His office is not far from ours and I see him nearly every day. He is well established here and does a good business. He is not married yet which for a person in his circumstances in this country is a wonder - is there not someone in Ireland he has taken a liking to? He intends going home in the spring and I would not be surprised if he brought a wife home with him. He often gets letters from Lisburn and Belfast and through him I hear from Aunt Jane but seldom from thee or Grandfather. It must be a great toll on thee to attend to all the business thou has to. What a comfort it must be to thee to have Grand father [ends abruptly here] |
