1856 Jan. 20 Letter to Sarah Blain (3705) from Elizabeth Magy

The letter is written in ink on paper on two sides of a single sheet. It has multiple folds. Side one is somewhat faded; the bottom of side two is badly faded. The writer is Eliza. A. Magy; the recipient is Sarah Blain (3705).


January the 20 1856

My dear friend,

It is with pleasure that I sit down to inform you that we are all well at present and hoping that these few lines may find you all enjoying the same great blessing. I received your letter on the 19 of January and I was glad to hear from you. I had began to think that you had forgotten me. I was to Emanuel’s today to see his young daughter. It was about a week old. Mary is married and got one child. Her husband is sick and has been all fall and they don’t think hardly that he will get well. Margaret has got two children - the oldest one’s name is John Alven; the other Silvester. Rachel has five children and two of them is dead. The oldest one is named Joseph Wilmington, the other William Henry, the other Sarah Ellen, the other Malitia Jane, the other Lydia..

Crops is very good this year. Wheat is one dollar fifty cents per bushel; pork is four seventy-five per hundred. Father has a 100 and 36 head of hogs to sell and had 900 bushels of wheat to sell.

I am going to school now, but I am the only girl at home any more and I can’t go much of the time.

That wedding at Lumbacks - I think it takes the rag of the bush. Tell Mary Jane McCoy that I wish her much joy and happiness in this world. All of the girls that I know out there is married but you and I. Expect the next time I hear from there you will be married. There was a wedding here last Thursday. It was Mr. Allen Luton and Miss Ellen Lock.

We are a going to build a new brick house next spring. He is a going to have it thirty by forty. We burnt the brick last fall.

Sarah, I do wish that you would come out here next fall to see us. You have a better chance to come out here than I have to come out there.

We had no Christmas and New Year. At New Year I went to school and at Christmas I worked all day. And I was invited to a turkey eating and a singing, but it was so cold that I didn’t go. There is a snow on the ground now, a bout a foot and a half deep, and the ground hasn’t been bare since cold weather.

I must bring my letter to a close for it is a getting late and I must go to bed....get up early and they are all a going to Quincy with a load of pork. So no more at present but still remain your affectionate friend.

from Eliza A. Magy to Sarah Blain (3705)

I send my love and best respects to all your folks. A share for yourself. I want you to send something about your mother (3565) and your uncle William (3562). Write soon.