| Title: | Mrs. Michael Bernard Hanlon to "Cousin" |
|---|---|
| ID | 6218 |
| Collection | Ulster Migration to America. Letters from three Irish Families [R.A. Wells] |
| File | ulsterm/21 |
| Year | 1932 |
| Sender | Mrs Michael Bernard Hanlon |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Wichita, Kansas, USA |
| Destination | Ireland |
| Recipient | a cousin |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | cousins |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 849 |
| Genre | family |
| Note | |
| Transcript | From: 133 N. Clifton St., Wichita, Kansas Date: 4 July 1932 Dear Cousin, I cannot quite conceive the idea that so much time has elapsed since we received your nice, long, interesting letter. As soon as I read it I said, "I must get busy and answer it at once," but so many things pop up in our daily life to prevent doing the things we set out to do sometimes. I have been feeling quite poorly with bladder trouble and keeping everything going and quite a number of correspondents to take care of, I have a very busy life. I thought after school closed and I had the twins at home I would not be nearly so busy but everyday finds us just as much so. Lucille (the oldest girl) is working and Delmar (the twin boy) is working in a drug store about two blocks from home. Mary Margaret, the twin girl, helps me, so we are pulling through somehow in this depression. How is it there, is it getting any better? It is still terrible here, but there are in hope if we get a new president of the U.S. things will be better. "But it remains to be seen." Many thanks for those nice pictures of your lovely boys. They sure are sweet looking. I don't have any very late ones of my children, but we must have some snap shots taken before I mail this letter. If not I will send them later. You and your mother are quite familiar-looking, it seems like we should have seen you somewhere. Have you heard from any of the others? We haven't heard from any of your family but you. We had a letter from Theresa Hoagland,[a daughter of Rose Hanlon, Ed.] who said she had heard from you, and was delighted, said she was so anxious to get the second letter. I wonder if she has yet? Your mother looks like a strong young woman yet. Your children must all be very bright. They seem so studious. We all love to see our children progress, don't Today is the big celebration of the anniversary of the day the U.S.A. was declared free and independent, so most everyone is shooting fireworks, firecrackers, and, in fact, doing everything that will make a noise. Do they have anything like this back there? I guess they don't celebrate in such a big way as they do here. We have been away from Camp Creek for about sixteen or seventeen years. We all owned farms in this precinct, but sold them many years ago. Bernard's (my husband) health was very poor so he was notable to farm; it was for selling our place. We live about 350 miles from there in Wichita, a city of over 100,000 people. It is certainly hard to raise a family here without a lot of money. It takes money every time we turn around "you might say." I hope Our Dear Lord will soon see fit to do away with hard times. I fear what may be the outcome of it all, don't you. This winter will be very hard at best. You asked about Kate and Rose. Rose is the oldest of the two girls, and is the mother of Theresa, the one who wrote you. So I know she told you all about her family. Kate's family live in Washington stale. She has five boys all married and two girls dead. One died while giving birth to a baby boy, and was just married one year. The other died at the age of seven years. She has had her share of sorrows like all the rest of us. Bernard is feeling fine now, and looks better than before he was sick, but his hair is more gray. We sure feel thankful we were left together for a while longer. We are a very devoted family to each other, with such a deep affection. I hope your husband will be able to do well so that you can all be together, but it is a great blessing that you have your mother to be with. It won't be so long now until your boys can help you a lot. I imagine the school system is very good there. Have you attended the Eucharistic Congress? I would love to be there, but I guess that there was a very large crowd so one could not see or hear much. Our assistant pastor, Father Cody, went. His parents live in Dublin. He has a brother also a priest, and both went. He will tell us all about it on his return. Well, I could keep on and on and not say much either. It is so warm here; I am most exhausted as I weigh around 195 lbs. Isn't that terrible to have such a fat cousin? I hope it won't be so long until we hear from each other again, and I hope too mat we will meet some day. With fondest love, from the M. B. Hanlon family. |
