| Title: | Minnie Anderson, Blount Springs to Mother, Baltinglass. |
|---|---|
| ID | 72 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Anderson, Mary/22 |
| Year | 1886 |
| Sender | Anderson, Mary (Minnie) |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | housewife |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Blount Springs, Alabama, USA |
| Destination | Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow, Ireland |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | daughter-mother |
| Source | T 3258/4/10: Photocopied by Courtesy of General Sir John Anderson. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9103043 |
| Date | 22/08/1886 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Action By Date Document added by B.W. 17:01:1993 |
| Word Count | 1550 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | pronounced Blunt BLOUNT SPRINGS, ALA. [Alabama?] A.W. KING, Gen'l Manager Sunday 22nd August 1886 My own darling Mother Here we are, safe & well, in Alabama. We left Widula last Monday evening at 9 O'Clock, after Oh! such a wearisome day. The people who bought our home all arrived early in the morning & announced that they thought it wd [would?] be "good fun" to come & picnic in the house that day. They had brought baskets full of provisions & all their rude nasty- children, along with several friends - and they one & all pervaded the house, while we were in the last agonies of packing_ If we locked ourselves in a room they came & thumped on the door, as if to remind us that the house now belonged to them! the heat was something fearful, & you may imagine we were glad to get off when 9 O'Clock came - We got into a Pullman Sleeping car at once, & went to bed, but from that Morning till 3 O'Clock on the following Wednesday when we arrived in Birmingham we were all as sick as we could be, the children & I never ceasing to be deadly sick the eatin [?] time. Harrie little better, but less incapable than I. & the only one able to do anything for our comfort. The heat was something too awful to be described. A fiere [?] couid [could?] blew, & if it had been blowing across the mouth of Hell it could not have been worse - the dust filled our eyes & mouths, & saturated our hair & clothes, & showers of fire cinders from the engine blackend us. It was a purgatorial time, & you may imagine our thankfulness when we got out of the train at B [Birmingham?] . It was delightfully cool there & the streets damp from rain. We went to the Florence House & imetaatly [immediately?] ordered a bath after which we felt ready for tea, the first meal we had retained since leaving Wichita. I & the children had grown very thin & felt weak, the next day H. [Harrie?] looked about for a house for us, & consulted with the gentleman who had been looking for one for us, but not one was to be had for #PAGE 2 rent just then. So H. [Harrie?] brought us all out to this nice & very fashionable Summer resort all hours drive by rail from B [Birmingham?]. It is up in a mountain vally, a small village with mineral springs, a large Hotel with a present 300 people - prittely [prettily?] situated between two hills, surrounded by lovely trees, & having a very wide, shady verandah [veranda?] all round it on which every on sits & walks - an excellent 'MENU' & nice string band which plays during meals, & after tea for dancing - there are some nice children with whom our young ones play, & the quartette are very much admired, everyone remarking "What fine children! Surley they are not Americans with those rosy cheeks". There is a piano, at which the young ladies play & squall. The mountains rise up all round as, rather hills than mountains. Masses of shelving rock picturesquely mingling with the loveliest foliage - trees of all kinds, oaks, beeches & all the English trees, besides many beautiful kinds which do not grow in England all of them linked together by creeping plants of every imaginable kind & color- no flowers strange to say, but beautiful ferns, harts-tungue, maiden-hair, & all the dear old friend growing wild, the first ferns I have seen since leaving home - a great number of pine trees which scent the air deliciously - in fact a lovely place & so cool, never too hot._ The wood rises up just behind the Hotel, & there the children play all day long - they have already an enormous collection of ferns of different sorts curious stones, seeds & berries, & they never tire of gathering others- Oh the delight of it all to them, after the flat hatefulness of Kansas - & to me a perfect feast of beauty. I sit taking in deep draughts of beauty & rest, before begining work again - & I can't tell you what it is to me after two years of hard & ceaseless drudgery - I have absolutely nothing to do, I can hardly realise the fact, After staying with us here for a day & a half H. [Harrie?] started for Pensacols, Florida, only one nights journey from this - He will visit it & some other places before he & M-So [?] decide about the best place to live in. I think I should like Birmingham - it is nicely situated among wooded hills & has some fine buildings, but the general aspect of the place is unfinished, great improvements going on, however, enormous factories, mills, furnaces iron mines & coal mines surround it & the earth all about it, in the streets, on the hills & for many miles #PAGE 3 round is of the darkest red brown color, owing to the iron in it - I think it very beautiful, & the most peculiar & brilliant contrast to the trees & numerous creeping plants - It seems bound to be an important place, but wheither some other spot may not seem better remains to be seen - for my part I don't mind greatly where I am, now that I am out of Kansas - I like the South much better, & the climate is a great improvement. The people also seem better, they look somewhat more 'genteel' & are just a degree quieter- they do not rush at one with open arms, are more ----?, but very friendly when you know them, they are a more respectable class of people, as a rule, being decendants of the old settlers - still they are extraordinary - & not what we admire at all, their accent here peculiar they drawl here mack, & completely drop their Bs while in the North & West the B is pronounced with possible intensity they have a great many peculiar phrases & modes of expressing themselves, anything but nice. still they are better than the Westerns - one sees old people here, in Kansas I don't there is one really old man or woman, I often used to long to see some old people - a few of the matrons wear caps & head dresses which is an improvement on the juvenile fezzes of the Wichita matrons -- Another new element here is the Niggers - all the working class are niggers - & are called niggers not 'colored gentlemen & ladies' they are the servants everywhere, & are scattered all over the country just as the poor people are at home They are kept well in their place & are very obedient, very lazy, good-natured, & good-for-nothing, unless made to work; left to themselves they wd [would?] work none, live from hand to mouth, revel in dirt, laugh, sing & be perfectly happy always. No one here is without nigger servants. So I trust my days of slavery are over. They don't get high wages. I have wished so often that Harrie here to paint some of the lovely hills & trees - one sees many clear streams flowin [flowing?] from the rocks - altogether it is as unlike Kansas as it could well be -- The children are so well & huafey,[happy?] & I believe this little change is just what we all needed. Now I long to hear from you! I shall feel more at home when I do. I got no letter for a week before leaving Wichita, one will be forwarded soon I am sure Write to Post office, Birmingham - He was very well & hungry before leaving this, but very sorry to have to start off on his travels so soon again- #PAGE 4 to have to start off on his travels so soon again- he won't be more than a week away I think. We met a W. Wright, in B. [Birmingham?] who was very kind, & told us of this place, He was from in Ballymoney! A wealthy man, like's part of the year at Pensacola, his wife & children spending the Summer in Tennessee- Would you let Sara see this letter, she will return it if you like - If I write now it will be just to repeat all I have written in this. I shall write to her in a few days Ah how I long for you all I lie awake thinking of you, & wishing you were all here with me, now I should have time to sit & talk with you - Write very soon - good news from Wm [William?] & Harrie, & from [?] [Jean?]. I hope - Loudest of love to you, my own mother, to my darling Pappy & to each dear one - also to Eastwell, Baltinglass & Sheffield - I hope to write to each place soon Your own child Minnie While in B [Birmingham?] H. took us all for a drive round the town in the steam train cars. The children delighted to see [--------?] &c [etc?]_ There are some very nice residences up on the hills about the town - |
