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Dead as a herring
[Owego,
New York] Dear Cutie [Augusta], We have not written to you yet this week but should have sent if we had the time nor have we received one from you. Think we shall tonight. Ma and I are alone today. [Our sister] Mary went over to the village yesterday to visit some of the girls and is coming home tonight… Have you received any seeds from Sarah Young? She said she would send you some of their own raising. They had a quantity of different kinds. I saw Ossy [Griffing] in the [Owego] village the other day. Says he had not heard from you lately. We have not seen any of them on the hill for several weeks. We have been expecting [your mother-in-law] Mrs. Griffing down to stay all day. This [was] some time [ago] but she has not come [yet]. [Our brother] Ralph will be home next week [from Hobart College]. Today their examinations commenced. I hope [our brother] James will not lose his claim. Will not his cabin answer for an improvement? If it is pleasant tomorrow, we are going over for Mrs. Danforth to spend the day. We have been going to do so for a long while. I should've thought you would have been frightened half out of your wits at that unknown visitor. I think we have written you that Melissa Catlin has come back. She has another baby four weeks old. Rhoda does not get better. She is pretty sick now. Mary Searles has written a letter to _____. She writes very well indeed. Says she studies mental arithmetic, reads in the third reader, and writes on the slate. [Most
affectionately, your sister,
Owego
[New York] Dear Augusta, It has been over a week since we have sent a letter to you. We received yours dated 13th last Thursday to Mary. Was glad to hear that you were well. We also sent a letter to you Thursday. Since you received our letter saying where we spent the 4th of July, I do not think you get all our letters. For about 2 weeks after [your sister] Mary went to Brooklyn [New York], we did not have much company. I have written to you on one side of a paper that [your cousin] James [Goodrich] had written to send to his father [Elizur Goodrich]. Last Thursday Sarah and I went up to your Mother Griffing’s. When we got home, we found [my sister] Lucy [Fiddis] and [her daughter] Anna here. They staid till Friday night and after dinner, Em Wheat came down and staid till Saturday night. Sunday Mr. John Taylor came down I suppose to see [your brother] Ralph. Monday our old friend Nelly came down and took dinner with us and Miss Rice called before dinner. In the afternoon [Solomon] Wash[ington] Gladden and his brother [George] visited here. Wash is at William’s College in Williamstown Mass. He enquired about your welfare and how you liked that country. Your [father's sisters,] Aunt Betsy and Aunt Fanny called here Tuesday. Your Aunt Betsy has the asthma very bad. [She] has been quite sick several weeks, but now is able to ride out. Your Aunt Betsy did not feel able to get out of the carriage. Your father was having a nap that afternoon and we all had a pleasant chat of more than an hour. They enquired about you as they always do. Frank and Elizabeth have been to the seaside. They went to the upper end of Long Island. It used to be called Montauk Point. Now they call it Orient. They enjoyed themselves well. Went fishing and bathing every day. Frank gained 5 lb. while he was gone. They were expecting Edward every day. That evening James, Lucy and Anna [Fiddis] came and spent the evening. Wednesday morning, [your brother] Ralph went on the cars to Ithaca. We have not heard from him but we expect to today. Wednesday Mrs. Sarah Conklin and sister Mrs. Charlotte Vandenburgh came in the morning, and afternoon they went down to your Aunt Mary’s. In the afternoon, the big Dutch woman came. Yesterday Mrs. Jacob Catlin and your Aunt Ruth called. They had been up to the carding machine and called on their return. Your Aunt Ruth has been quite sick for 2 or 3 weeks. We have been expecting your Uncle [Elizur Goodrich] all this week but he has not come yet. [His son] Jamie has been over [to Owego] every day expecting he would come on the Express [train] and is going again today. He has written to you but will not let us see it. He says he has written about Mr. Germany. He was walking on the track and was [hit] by a steamer backing down to the creek for water. He was taken up and carried home. This was Tuesday night. He died yesterday morning. We had a letter from [your sister] Mary on Tuesday [written from Brooklyn, New York]. She is enjoying herself well. She sent [your brother] Ralph a very pretty necktie on his birthday. It was silk [and] blue, brown, and white. Mrs. Vanderburgh is living at Newark, New Jersey. She wanted Mary should go and see them [while on her eastern visit]. I have written to her to go if she can. It is only 8 miles from Jersey City [and] costs about 30 cents to go. [Your sister] Sarah would have written to you last night but was too tired. She is very busy [working] on a coat for George Wheat. They are going week after next Tuesday. Last night about midnight we was aroused up out of our sleep by 2 Irish men knocking [on the door]. They wanted to know where Mr. Germany lived. They knew that he was dead and I suppose they were going to the wake. Sarah had a letter from [your brother] James Goodrich yesterday. He writes he is well but has had a wring worm on his cheek all summer. I should think by what he writes, he was at work [hired] out by the day. I wish he would do well. Sometimes I am sorry he ever went west to Kansas. [Your affectionate
mother,
Owego
[New York] My dear Mrs. [Augusta] Griffing, Why don’t you write home it was a month yesterday that I wrote to you and I have not received an answer yet. I expect to stay here about three weeks longer. I am in Owego now. We have had another railroad accident here. Mr. Germany was walking on the railroad and he was very drunk indeed and there was an engine backing down to water and the tender knocked him into the cattle guard and bruised him very much indeed. This was on Tuesday and Thursday morning he was dead as a herring that lived without skying. That is some of my poetry. I am getting to be quite a poet. I can compose a verse now and then. I guess I won’t write any more now so goodbye from |
