There are only four letters from 1874. The first letter was written from Stephen
Goodrich to his sister Augusta, and her husband Rev. James Griffing. The second
letter was written by Carrie Winans, who lived on a farm near Topeka with her husband Henry K.
Winans. The
third letter was written by James to his wife Augusta while attending the
Annual Methodist Kansas Conference in Atchison. The fourth letter was written to
James from his older sister Clarissa [Griffing] Giddings, wife of Rev. Charles
W. Giddings. In her letter, Clarissa refers to the recent death of their younger
brother Osmyn Griffing, and gives all the news about her own children.
Owego
[New York]
February 4, 1874
My
Dear Brother,
It
has been a long time since I received your letter, and I intended to answer it
right away, but May [1] was taken sick and has been sick ever
since and with two baby's on my hand I had not much time or inclination to
write. May is better now and is so she can ride out. The rest of us are all
well.
I
wish you could see Nellie [2]. She is fat and rosey and full
of life, and very quick to learn. The other one we call Mary Francis [3]
after her Grand Mother and Frank Platt. We will call her Frankie.
Frankie
& Nellie Goodrich
[click on image to enlarge]
About
that business of James', it is the wish of all of us that it might be settled up
but we do not wish to cramp you in order to have it done. If you could sign of
your share in the wood lot to us and turn over that note you hold against Sarah
and myself and what I am oweing on that old ac[coun]t, and then give your note
for the balance, I think it might be done without cramping you. Is that note
against Mr. Home -- I believe that is his name -- good? And would you be willing
to assume it towards your share? I find that you have made a mistake of one
hundred dollars in the amount of money that you sent here. You say at one time
you sent $310.00 when it was only $210.00 and lent the other hundred to a man
whom you had promised some money to. Now I wish you would reckon up what is
there and what the interest will be up to February 1st, 1874. We four have had
$88.36 a piece. and there is a note of two hundred dollars and some interest to
be divided up. I have not got the note but think the interest will be about
$25.00 after taking out the taxes on the land. I took out $160.00 of that you
sent me and divided the rest. They were willing I should for my expenses in
bringing in the body of [brother] James [Goodrich] and taxes on his land here
which I had paid. Now you can reckon it all up and see how much it is and how
much it will be for each one and if you will do so, write and let me know. I
think $1000.00 would be a fair valuation for the wood lot now and do not think
that we could sell for more than that now. I did bargain to sell it some time
ago for $1100.00, but Gurd [Horton] [4] backed out so I could
not sell it and land has come down in value since then.
May
joynes with me in sending love. I will send you a picture of Nellie taken when
she was a year old.
From
your brother, Stephen Goodrich
Stephen
Goodrich, ca. 1875
Described as having "mouse colored hair, sandy beard mixed with grey,
blue eyes and a little color in cheeks."
[Click on image to enlarge]
[Near
Topeka, Kansas]
March 15, 1874
[Dear
Augusta,]
Would it not
be possible for you to let the boys keep house and you and [your daughter] Mary
come and stay with us while Brother Griffing is at Conference [in Atchison]? Do
try to come, but don’t overwork to get ready. You speak of [your daughter]
Mary’s deafness. It is sad. [My daughter] Carrie too is quite deaf in one ear
and I think it was caused by scarlet fever. It increases and every winter, a
slight cold produces gathering in the ear and catarrh connected with it. I think
it is a settled disease. It may be inherited but I never noticed it until after
she had scarlet fever.
[My husband]
Harry [Winans] hears from brothers and mother often. He had a letter from Ephe
yesterday. They are well and living at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Ephe has quit
preaching for the present at least and is teaching in the [Iowa Wesleyan]
College. His daughters are very sweet according to his accounts, but if they
have only ordinary ability, he will make good scholars of them because he takes
great pains with them and gives them a good chance to make the most of
themselves. They cannot feel in after years that their father did not care
whether they knew anything or not.
Harry’s
mother is now at Hamilton with Ed’s folks, I suppose. Has good health and
expects to come to Topeka on a visit this month. I do not know how long she
means to stay nor where. She visited around among all the children a short time
in a place and then went to Marengo [Illinois] near Chicago and stayed with a
niece of hers this winter. Write soon and tell me if you will come during
Conference. If you do not have time to write, come along just as you are and I
shall be ready for you. Our love to you all.
Your friend,
Carrie B. Winans
Atchison
[Kansas]
Wednesday morning after breakfast. April 1, 1874
Dear
Cutie [Augusta],
I sit down to
write to you and the children. I arrived last evening safe and sound. Quite a
number of the preachers were on the train. Brother Lawrence and some of his boys
[were on the train too]. I am stopping at a Brother Reasoner’s, a relative of
a student once there at school. Brother Hibbard, preacher from Centralia, is my
chum. Brother Taylor & [William] Knipe are stopping with a family in another
part of the house. The preachers seem to be in good spirits. The Bishop has not
come in yet. Your lunch. – oh how poor it was, but I got along. Will write
more.
Afternoon.
The morning session was very pleasant. Bishop [Edward Gayer] Andrews [5]
made a good impression. The [Kansas] Conference appears small with all the South
part away. [6] I do hope you will
all keep well & that [our son] Johnnie will do his errands aright & take
good care of things. I hope that he & [his brother] Willie are hauling straw
today to feed out with the remaining hay so that the hay will last as long as
possible. It is very pleasant here today and the grass begins to grow finely in
some of the yards and the spring move forward. – James
Bishop
Edward G. Andrews
Table
Rock [Nebraska]
June 8, 1874
Dear Brother
[James] & Sister [Augusta],
I thought when
I received yours in answer to the one I wrote you with regard to [our brother]
Osmyn’s death that I would not be so slow in correspondence as I had been
formerly. It seems as though those of us that were left ought to be more closely
united. If we cannot visit each other, we ought to write oftener and yet I find
myself quite unfitted even for this. My finger joints are so swollen and sore
that I cannot hold the pen and I find I am making bad work with a pencil.
We are all in
tolerable health. [My husband,] Mr. Giddings is better than he was through the
winter and does a good deal of work. I always enjoy the best health in winter. I
melt down as soon as the warm weather comes on.
[Our daughter]
Fanny [Norris] and [her] family are well excepting Clarra who has had every
appearance of consumption. For the past week, she has been gaining and appears
much better. [Our daughter] Lydia [Holmes] is living on her farm and [her
husband] Mr. Holmes [is] in Kansas City. She thinks the expenses of living are
much less here than there and she can be improving her home, which so soon would
run down if rented.
[Our daughter]
Sarah [Smith] and [her] family started for Colorado May 1st. They intended to
pass through Manhattan [Kansas] when they started but found it was out of
course. They passed through Junction City [Kansas]. We had a letter from Sarah a
few days ago saying they were 120 miles from Pueblo [Colorado]. They have gone
for the benefit of Mr. Smith’s health. He was anxious to reach Pueblo by the
sitting of the [Methodist] Conference, which takes place sometime in June. It
seems to us like a foolish or rash undertaking. We can but feel very anxious
about them. I think now how mother felt when we left for Nebraska. So it is that
families scatter – one goes here and another there.
Sarah Amelia [Giddings] and husband, Rev. Lorenzo Waugh Smith
(photographs courtesy of Pat Ostwald and Mike Kiteley)
[Our daughter]
Mary and her husband [John H. Causey] are living with us this summer.
I have not
heard from [our brother Osmyn’s wife,] Sarah Griffing for several weeks. She
is expecting to be [delivering a baby] soon if she has not already. I wish she
would let me have the third little girl. She is a sweet child and was her
father’s pet. The next is a boy. I know not how Sarah will be able to care of
another. She must have her hands full now and I would be glad to help her. She
continues to keep the restaurant, which with two three boarders, ekes out their
living. I wish you would write to her. She needs our sympathy.
I have not
heard from [our relatives in] Owego [New York] in some time. [Our sister] Mary
[Horton] wrote me that Ann Griffing, [our brother] John’s widow, buried her
daughter [Mary I. Griffing] the first of January. I think she was residing in
Brooklyn, New York.
If you ever
think of making us another visit, we would be glad to see you. We are to have a
camp meeting at this place commencing the 18th of August. Can you come? Love to
the children. We want to see them too. Don’t get out of patience with me. I
hope to be able to foot that bill yet. How is Augusta’s health? Would not a
little journey do her good?
Your affectionate sister,
Clarissa [Giddings]
Osmyn Griffing's Gravestone
Section C-5, Steele Cemetery
Falls City, Nebraska
Date of Death: February 21, 1874
[1] Stephen
Goodrich's wife was Mary E. Stiles, born 4 January, 1853. They were married 10
October 1871. Apparently Stephen called his wife, "May."
[2] Stephen
and Mary Goodrich's eldest child, whom they called "Nellie," was Helen
Louisa Goodrich, born 12 July 1872.
[3] Stephen
and Mary Goodrich's second eldest child, whom they called "Frankie,"
was Mary Francis Goodrich, born 23 November 1873.
[4] "Gurd"
was Gurdon Horton, husband of Stephen's sister, Mary Clarissa
Goodrich.
[5] ANDREWS, Edward Gayer, M.
E. Bishop, born in New Hartford, New York, 7 August 1825. He was graduated
in 1847 at the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, and, entering
the Methodist ministry the following year, became in 1855 a teacher in
Cazenovia, New York, seminary, of which he was chosen president in 1855. In
1850 he was ordained an elder, and in 1864 became a preacher in the New York
east conference. Dr. Andrews was elected a bishop in 1872.
[6] In 1874, the Kansas
Conference of the Methodist church split into a Northern Conference and a
Southern Conference.
