Grandma & Aunt Dora's View of our Shared Task

Being the "Keeper of the Letters" now I enjoy recognizing some of the feelings of my grandma and Aunt Dora as I read the letter below. This was their shared appreciation of this wealth of family history that Great Grandma Ella Jane and her maternal Aunt Nellie had collected and cherished over the years. Some of them have been previously posted here and others will be in the future.

I was just ten months old when this was written ~ little did I know how signifcant their thoughts would be to me decades later. Now I have the fun priviledge of listening to the thoughts of those long gone loved ones and sharing them with those of you who care ~ enjoy!

Sunday, July 20 – 52

My very precious sister – Two weeks since we reached home. I am beginning to feel myself. Was very weary – it was so hot. I do hope we did not leave you so worn out that you were ill after we left. You know dear, I too felt as tho brother did not take the same interest we did in the vast amount of material that mother and grandmother and Aunt Nellie had worked so long and hard to assemble, led by the guidance of the Holy Spirit without knowing why they should do it. Likewise, you, led by the same Spirit, had protected those things over all those intervening years. It would have been beautiful if we three could have worked together as we two did, but he just did not seem to have our feeling in the matter. Perhaps our Father has given to the women of the present day the urge to keep the records and to receive the blessings for so doing.
I know I have received great spiritual blessing for what we did and you will remember that command to honor our parents has its promise of long days in which to complete the work.
George was wonderful to me. We stopped at Leslie and Ida Atwater’s, drove over the family lot in the Burns Cemetery. Leslie called Aunt Grace Jewett at Chippewa Falls and we all drove up (110 mi) and back the next day. She was able to tell us where to find my father’s[1] grave at Mindoro. We drove past the old Atwater home where I was born, the great-grandmother home tho the house was different. She was a Post and the Kendrick name was the later husband. I also learned that Grandfather Atwater did have other brothers and sisters. Uncle Milt lived close to the Mindoro Cemetery and I remembered visiting there when Mother and I came back from Minn, before she and dad were married and it was at Mindoro I talked over a local phone for the first time. By the way the Skelton and Robinson names we ran across were sisters of G-Father Atwater (Em & Harriet), doesn’t that sound like Uncle John s’ daughters[2]? George said he planned to start a day early as we could have time for any thing I needed to do and he was so wonderful and considerate. We spent 2 nights at Leslie’s and got a really early start July 4th and through La Crosse before heavy traffic started. Ida spoke of the time you called there. They were away and only one or two of their girls and Lenore’s son were there. I can imagine they knew practically nothing about me or my family. Uncle Len passed away 2 years ago. Just walked down stairs and dropped. Since we got home went to the orchard as when you were here, picked and put up cherries and apricots. Last week the Evans family from Winslow Ariz, was in town and here nearly every day. Now I must not start another sheet. More love than I can say for you and love to family. Will write each one soon.
Your sister,
Dora
[1] Elmer Atwater
[2] John Sherwood, Dora’s Uncle, also had two daughters, Emma and Harriet. In 1880 both girls lived at home and their step mother was still alive. In 1900 Emma lived with her father and there was no one else at home. In1920 Emma lived alone. I have never been able to find out if Harriet was married or not. As the 1890 census is mostly missing due to a fire, I don’t know if Harriet still lived with her father, if she was married, or if she and Emma were living together away from home at that time.