Bertha Shares Family News and Local Skeleton in the Closet



Ella Jane Stevens Atwater Sherwood, AKA Julia Eldora Welch

Ella Jane Sherwood, matriarch of our part of the Sherwood clan, was born to Mary Elizabeth Richardson and her husband Evi Welch on the 18th of June 1861and her birth name was Eldora Julia Welch.  Evi Welch died at 22 years of age (of consumption we believe) when Eldora was less than six months old on November 11, 1861.  In March of 1863 Mary Elizabeth married Martin Dexter.  Their first child, Eva Jane, was born in 1865 and lived six months.  Their second child was Ursula who was born in 1866 and their third child was Bertha in 1867. 

Bertha Dexter Tillotson, half-sister of Ella Jane

Their 4th child, Lizzie was born on Nov 11, 1868. Mary Elizabeth and Martin had one more son, Solomon King Dexter, who died as an infant in 1870.

Just days before Eldora Julia turned six years old in June of 1867,  she was legally adopted by her Aunt and Uncle, David Eastman Stevens and Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens.  Rosina Jane and Mary Elizabeth were sisters, David and Jane were ten years married and were childless.  They were generally prosperous, but by no means rich.  The story is told that Eldora's stepfather, Martin Dexter, held her on his lap all night the last day she was with them so that she would always know that she was loved.  Her new legal name became Ella Jane Stevens.

Ella Jane grew up in Wisconsin and Minnesota and a short time in Iowa as well, but mostly Minnesota.  When she was 18 years old she married Elmer Atwater of Wisconsin and they had one daughter, Dora, and then Elmer passed away in a logging accident on a river in 1881.Dora was not quite 2 months old.  There must have been a sense of déjà vu in  Ella Jane's heart and mind as she and her daughter faced the future husband and fatherless just as she and her mother had done two decades before.  A few years laterElla Jane met Will Sherwood in Minnesota (he worked for her parents at one time) and they were married in 1887.  The two of them moved to Kendall, Wisconsin and rented the family farm from his parents.

 

Sometime after they all became adults, Ella and her two remaining half-siblings began corresponding and getting to know each other.  She, Bertha and Ursula corresponded but mostly it was Ella and Bertha. They corresponded irregularly, but always managed to talk about all the relatives and what was happening in the extended family.  Because Ella's adoption has been a "relative placement" all the family connections had remained the same on the maternal side and she often heard news about the Welch or Dexter lines.  Ella's and Bertha's mom Mary Elizabeth passed away July 10, 1879 at 38 years of age.



Mary Elizabeth Richardson Welch Dexter



Ella had a note among all her paperwork that said "My mother died at the age of 38 of heart failure during childbirth."   I have found no record of another child born or otherwise acknowledged at that time. Perhaps the child could not be born quickly enough and they were buried together or it could be a family error in the story.  . 

        Bertha wrote this letter to Ella Jane in 1918 when they both had sons (Bertha's Martin was four months older than George) heading for the conflict in Europe.  Bertha wrote a very newsy letter, mostly about family but some  pretty shocking community gossip! 

March 5 – 1918

Dear Sister Ella and all:-

            I got your letter after it had been over to Uncle Roberts[1]. I read it and sent it all back to him writing him a letter also.  Then he read it and wrote to me and sent your letters back to me.  What do you think of that?


Robert Fletcher Richardson II; husband of Rosetta Dexter
Richardson of whom the post-script at the end refers

 
             I was going to try to go over and help them, but Sylvester[2] had gone into a job with another man to cut, saw, slab and pile 100 cords of wood and the weather has been against them, so they didn’t get it done in time for me to go over.

Sylvester Luther Tillotson, husband of Bertha

We had all the help to board and I being alone, had quite a bit to do. I have had a very hard cold this [winter] which has not left me entirely yet.  Mary[3] also was having a bad time with her ears. She had three sores gather and break in her ear. Then she had a mastoid abscess back of her ear. All the same ear.  I took her to the doctor and he gave her chloroform and lanced it, taking out about one half tea cup of blood and puss.  We had to go back the next day and have it dressed.  She is all right now.  She hasn’t been to school this winter.  Leonard[4] had had a hard cold most all winter.  The older girls[5] are both in Meredith, N.H. They are all well.  Jessie has a pretty cute little girl we think. Sylvester is down with them now.  He will stay and work until he can work on the ground if he likes down there $18 a week, in the woods he can’t get that here.

The Tillotson Girls; L - Gladys, R - Jesse and Mary Elizabeth center in 1912

Well, I think Aunt Eva[6] would remember Lucinda Bixby[7] that lived just below grandpa’s place, it was her.  She was Lucinda Willey, married Frank Bixby after the civil war she left him and married Center Jackson. [They were married Dec 5, 1874 and he died May 30, 1907 of stomach cancer]  She stayed all winter with me and then she went to the village to live with an old man that she was as crazy to have as any young girl could be after a fellow.  She had about $2,000 she signed over to him.  After she did it and she found she had no money of her own, she and her sons found it out they went to see her, and; had a talk with her.  Well when the man that she gave her money to was getting ready to go to put it in the bank in his name she went into one of the neighbors a few minutes then went back and down across the garden and; into the river and was drowned.  It was some time before they found her as they didn’t see her go but they tracked her.  She must have known what she was doing because there wasn’t water above the waist, and hardly above her knees.  [She died June 6, 1917 and is buried at West Topsham Cemetery near Center Jackson.] Well she was a trial. 

Now Ella isn’t it hard to think of our boys going across the water to be a target for the German's. Martin[8] enlisted the 5^th of June. Was at Ft. Ethan Allen[9] until the 26^th of Sept.  From there to Westfield, Mass a little while and the next I heard was to be moved. I got a letter about a month after that he was in England, then got some letters from France.  He hadn’t gone into battle last I heard, which was written Jan. 21. I had one of his letters printed so will send you the letter.  This has been a hard blow for me. You having your only son go must be and; mean a lot to you. I saw Martin several times after he enlisted. He said that he would rather be “led than drove.”  I write and have written to him about every week, sometimes oftener. And the girls every week so I have quite a bit writing to do.  It has been a very cold, hard winter here.

            Will close hoping to hear from you again, remember me to Aunt Eva.  Would like to hear from her. I can remember her. I will just write a few more words as I want to say that I got a letter from Uncle Robert saying that he was getting along fine. I don’t think he ought to live there alone this cold winter with no one in sight, although he seems so smart for one as old as he is.  Don’t Aunt Eva ever think she will come east?  I can remember her when she lived with Alfred Thomas. Guess I shouldn’t know her now. Would like to see you all. I am not feeling very well this spring or soon to be spring.  Susie must be a lady now.  How old is she?  I shall be 51 the 15 of March.  Old enough to be good.                                         Love and best wishes to all.

                                                                        B

[Post Script]

Rosetta Dexter Richardson

 

            Aunt Rosetta[10] was nothing but skin and bones.  She asked me, when I was over to see her after she took her bed, if I thought she had anything to build upon[11].  She said that she had lived her time and hoped Uncle Robert would have as good care as he had given her.  How thoughtful.  I think she was a beautiful woman all through her life.

---

[1] Robert Fletcher Richardson II; born 18 Sept 1832 and died 17Jan 1922. He was recently widowed of Rosetta Dexter (Richardson) referenced at end of letter.  Robert was brother of Bertha’s mother and Rosetta was sister of Bertha’s father.

[2] Sylvester Luther Tillotson, born 4 July 1868 and died 3 May 1954.   Writer Bertha’s husband.

[3] Mary Elizabeth Tillotson (Avery then Bean), youngest daughter of Sylvester and Bertha Tillotson.  She was born 11 April 1908 and passed away Sept 25, 1991. Almost ten years old at this time.

[4] Leonard Tillotson was fourth child and second son of Sylvester and Bertha. Born 15 Nov 1898 and died 10 Nov 1955.

[5] Jessie Naomi Tillotson (Weeks), born 2 June 1892 and died 7 April 1959  and sister  Gladys Eva Tillotson Kimball, born 26 April 1894 and died December 1986_.

[6] Youngest maternal Aunt of Bertha.  Eva was youngest sister of Bertha’s mother, Mary Elizabeth Richardson Dexter.  Aunt Eva was born Evalina Irene Richardson and was first married to Alfred Thomas.  He was apparently prone to domestic violence and they divorced.   She later married a widower George Thompson who was a veteran of the Civil War and was always known to family after that as Nellie Thompson.  She was born in Vermont on 26 June 1847 and died in Kendall, Wisconsin in 8 December 1926.

[7] The 1870 Federal census taken at Topsham, VT,  shows Franklin Bixby, 34, with wife Lucinda, 30, and sons Ira, John and Walter, 13,12, and 10 in dwelling number 81. Bertha’s mother, Mary Elizabeth Richardson (formerly Welch) Dexter and her husband Martin Dexter were dwelling number 80.  Parker and Betsy Dexter, parents of Martin Dexter (and Rosetta Dexter Richardson, mentioned later) were dwelling 82. Joel and Sarah Bixby were dwelling number 83 and appear to be of the age to be parents of Franklin Bixby, so they all lived close together.  Carter Jackson was a household member in dwelling 81with Franklin and Lucinda Bixby and appeared to have a partnership in the value of the property.  Both were listed as being farmers and one had value of $1200 and the other $1400. 

[8] Martin Luther Tillotson, 3^rd child and first son born to Bertha and Sylvester on 2 Aug 1986 and died on 20 Dec 1973 in Waits River, VT

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ethan_Allen

[10] Rosetta Dexter Richardson, late wife of Uncle Robert Fletcher Richardson II had just passed away the month before.

[11] She was contemplating her life in light of the verse in 1 Cor 3:11-15 --   "For other foundation can no man lay, than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ: And if any one build on this foundation, gold, silver, costly stones;
wood, hay, stubble, Every one's work shall be made manifest;
 for the day shall declare it: for it is revealed by fire; yea the fire shall try every one's work, of what sort it is.
 If any one's work which he hath built thereon shall remain, he shall receive a reward.
 If any one's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss, but himself shall be saved, yet so as through the fire."

 

 

WWI Blog Follows 100 Year Old Journey

George Stevens Sherwood

Almost a year ago I came up with the idea for a second blog  that chronicles as much as possible all the postcards and letters of my Uncle George sent home to his family while he was "Somewhere in France" until he came marching home as they say.  He joined the 108th Army Engineers as was part of the American Expeditionary Forces fighting the Germans in the Great War.  The goal is to post them 100 years to the day that he wrote or mailed them.  That blog is dedicated to his experiences in and around that war.  I decided to post part of that information here but to expand some of the family history not elaborated upon there.  A trickle of posts have been done but the wave of missives will begin in earnest in September of this year.  

*     *     *     *     *

George Stevens Sherwood's mother, Ella Jane Richardson Sherwood, had been born Julia Eldora Welch to Mary Elizabeth Richardson and Evi Welch both of Vermont.

Mary Elizabeth Richardson Welch Dexter

Evi died before their daughter was six months old.  Mary Elizabeth later married Martin Dexter and they had five more children two of whom died young (apparently from lung disease - possibly cystic fibrosis). 

Ella Jane Stevens/Julia Eldora Welch was likely taken at the time of her adoption.

Mary Elizabeth's sister, Rosina Jane Richardson (who went by Jane)  and her husband David Eastman Stevens, had no children.  When Julia Eldora was six years old, she was adopted by her aunt and uncle Jane and David.  Her name was changed to Ella Jane Stevens.

 Rosina Jane "Jane" Richardson Stevens

David Eastman Stevens

  Ella Jane Stevens later married William Sherwood and they were the parents of George Stevens Sherwood.   

 

At the same time that he was considering a future in the Army, George's great uncle Robert Richardson was writing to his sister, George's great aunt Eva (known as Nellie).  Robert and Eva were the only two remaining of 8 siblings, and were the eldest and youngest siblings of Jane, George's late grandmother.

Robert Fletcher Richardson II.  This Robert was not a Jr. because the former Robert Fletcher Richardson was his grandfather.  His father was Robert A Richardson

This is Eva (Nellie) Richardson Thompson with her foster daughter Myrtilla.

 



Robert had lived his entire life in Vermont. Eva, born and raised in Vermont, married, moved to Minnesota, divorced, remarried, moved to the Dakota territories, took on the foster care of three children,  moved to Washington Territory (Palouse) and lived there until her husband George  Thompson died in 1914.  In 1915 Nellie as she had become known, moved back to Wisconsin to be near her dear niece, Ella Jane, George's mother. 

When I came across this letter today while working on a future WWI post I realized that this letter did claim its place in the posts dedicated to WWI.  Robert, and his wife Rosetta Dexter Richardson (who added a long postscript) were also serving their country in their own way struggling to keep their farm going when all the young men who might  have helped them were going off to war.  I love hearing the voices as their words of 100 years ago are read, knowing that they had weathered the storms of war before and knew of what they spoke. 
 

1917-0624 – Robert & Rosetta Richardson to Eva (Nellie) Richardson Thompson

Washington, VT, June 24, 1917

Dear Sister Eva[1],
            I realize that I have owed you a letter for a long time but I find but little time for aught else only to do the necessary work on the farm; had had only one days work since last fall.  No help to be hired at any price.
            12 young men from our town have enlisted within a few days, are gone and other are soon to follow.  Charles Henry[2] has enlisted as chemist and mineral expert ready to be called on at any time for government work.  This is a terrible war and peace seems to be a long ways off.  I do not expect to live[3] to see the close of the war, for old people in Vermont are fast passing away. We have had the coldest winter and spring in Vt. that has been known since 1843.  The season is five weeks behind times, a short season unless a late fall.
            Mother and I are fast growing old, cannot expect to stay here much longer.  How are you and do you feel that you are growing old faster than when younger?  Henry’s widow Lilla[4] is expecting to get a pension[5] in a short time. Do you get more favorable news from your pension[6] of late?  Government works slow in all matters of late.  Your birthday is near at hand and hope you will enjoy it and many more.  Please write us often and I will try to answer.     
                                                          With much love,
                                                                        Robert

---

[1] Eva was the youngest sibling of the Robert and Rosina Richardson children.  Robert F Richardson was the eldest of the 8 children, six of whom reached adulthood. 

[2] His son.

[3] Robert F Richardson did, however, live until 1922.

[4] Lilla M Keyes was the fourth wife of Henry Carlton Richardson, Robert F. Richardson’s brother, who had passed away on August 15, 1915.

[5] Civil War pension as Henry Carlton Richardson was a veteran of that war and had been wounded twice. He enlisted on December 2, 1861 and was discharged on July 17, 1865. 

[6] Eva (Nellie) was the widow of George Thompson who was also a Civil War Veteran.

June 24, 1918

Dear Sister Eva,

            I will try to write a few lines to add to Robert’s letter, he wished me to address his letter to you and I take the liberty to write a few lines.

            If I have not addressed it right please tell me how to address letter to you when you write next time. My memory is getting treacherous and I am forgetting how to spell the words, also how to shape some of the letters.  Do you wonder when you think that I shall be 85 years old if I live to the see the 2^nd of next December.  I can hardly realize that Robert and I have lived together 60 years the 9^th of this month.

            I have not been very well for more than a year.  I got through the winter alone but I had a neighbor come in and help me one forenoon and two afternoons this spring.  I have done my washings alone thus far but do not think that I can much longer.

            Henry was home for a few days but is now doing geological work in Vt is to return to Syracuse NY to teach a summer school before the college opens in Sept.  I think he is working too hard.

            My brother Avalyn and his wife spent the winter in California, but are now visiting relatives in different states.  He wrote me that he should be here this week.  Walter Burgin has bought my father’s old farm with much other land; he has two boys grown up to help him.

            Brother Lewis spent the winter in Fla for his health.  His trouble is a leakage of one of the arteries of the heart.  I expect him here in a few days.  He does not think he can ever do any more pastoral work. 

                                    Your loving sister, Rosetta

Please kindly remember me to Ella Sherwood.  I should dearly love to step into her home for a few days visit.  It is raining hard here just now. 

 

*     *     *     *     *



Poem for Nathaniel Healy (1785-1841)

My great-great-great grandmother, Rosina Healy Richardson, wrote this poem upon the loss of her father, Nathaniel Healy, son of John and Mary (Wight) Healy. Nathaniel was born in Washington, New Hampshire on July 10, 1785 and died in Topsham, Vermont on February 11th or 19th, 1841. Nathaniel was a teacher and had taught in Haverhill, New Hampshire, South Hero, Vermont and ended his days teaching in Topsham, Vermont. He only lived to 55 years of age and his daughter, the eldest of ten children, was 33 years old when he passed away. I thought it only fitting on this memorial day to read again her words of loss and love.

While I have found the graves of MANY relatives, the burial site of Nathaniel (1841) and his wife, Jane Tabor (who died in 1870), both of whom died in Topsham, VT, remain elusive.


My Father’s Gone

Thou art dear, little spot, Oh to me thou art dear
For the ashes your bosom contains
Though no willow is placed to shed the soft tear
On the sod o’er my Father’s remains.

Though no Parian marble encircles the spot
Though no ivy entwines o’er the tomb
Still the grave of My father shall never be forgot
While the wild flowers remember to bloom

The leaf that I plucked from the grave where it grew
Is now withered, forever decayed;
So my Father has gone! But affection most true
Shall remember the spot where he’s laid

And Oh may I walk in the steps that he trod
While o’er life’s troubled ocean I roam:
With religion to cheer me I’ll look to my God
And to Heavenward I’ll look for a home.

When this last scene of life shall be acted and o’er
When the cares of existence are riven
When I leave this rough region to wander no more
May I meet my dear Father in Heaven.

R ---

Adoption in the 19th century

Washington, VT, Dec. 11, 1916

My Dear Niece,

I think I ought to write a few lines to send in Robert’s letter. Do you know that when I think of you it is always as the little girl that came by to visit me with Sister Jane. I can see you now as you were then and some of your talk is as fresh as it was the day you were here, and right here I will take the liberty to say that I think your mother done the best thing she could do for you when she gave you to Sister Jane. I could not see at that time how a mother could give away a daughter, but later I could see an over ruling power in the transaction.

You were in the hands of God and he knew best what was for your future good. He never makes a mistake.

I am so glad that you were a faithful daughter, and cared so tenderly for Sister Jane in her last trying days.

May God bless and keep you ever near him is the wish of your
Aunt Rosetta

This letter has a special place in my heart. Great-great aunt Rosetta (wife of Robert Fletcher Richardson II) does not know about "positive adoption language," but she does echo my heart that God does know what He is doing in directing our lives even when things don't always make sense. Since my daughters are adopted, I believe too that God had a plan for them when they came my way and that it was for good for them and even more for me (us).

Ella Jane, born Julia Eldora, the name she had until she was six years old was born to Mary Elizabeth Richardson and Evi Welch on June 18, 1861. Evi only lived a few months beyond Julia's birth. He may have been a wonderful person or not, but he impacted our family in a dramatic if short way. Either his grave is no longer marked, or he was moved to a different cemetery in Vermont, so we can't pay our respects in person. When Julia was six yearsold, Mary and her second husband, Martin Dexter, allowed their childless sister and brother-in-law to adopt Julia who then became the Ella Jane that was known and loved by so many. The picture above was said to have been taken the day of the adoption.

I have love enough for both Mary Elizabeth, my birth great-great grandmother and for Rosina Jane, my adoptive great-great grandmother. I've stood at both of their graves, in West Topsham, VT and Kendall, Wisconsin respectively, and I thank them both for the part they have played in my life. Ella Jane would not have been the person she was without both of them and without all three of the father's that played a role in her life -- her birth father Evi, her step-father, Martin (who held her in his arms all night before they went to court the next day (so they say)), and David who raised her along with Jane.

I look forward to meeting all of them someday at the restoration of all things.

A letter from Dora while in Vermont

I'm so excited about finding a new distant cousin that I'm running around in circles wondering what I should post next! As I have been very random recently, this is a good trend I believe.
In honor of finding (nearly) a descendent of Aunt Dora, I am posting a letter from Dora to her mother from 1904. To my new cousins perhaps surprise, Dora was engaged then to a cousin Albert Richardson at that time. Have never figured out what happened so that they didn't get married, but it all worked out years later when she met and married Guy Lindsey -- partly because of a hotel fire. But I'm getting ahead of myself :-)!

But back to Vermont (and to the fun of being able finally to share her letters with her great-grandchildren). All her earlier relatives were from Peacham, Topsham, Groton and other nearby Vermont towns. She had gone up there to teach school for awhile. . .here is one of her letters home:

Peacham, VT, Sept 27, 1904

Dear Mother,

I will write you a few lines to let you know that I survived my operation and am getting on nicely. I have just had six inches amputated from the length of my hair and did not take ether strange as it may seem.

Why don’t you write to me? Don’t you know that I have worried nearly crazy about you. Not a line from any one for three weeks. Or are you so sick you could not write? If you can’t write, have some of the rest write. Just a line, for you know how anxious I am over my dear mother. Did you think dear that I would not come to you if you needed me? No, indeed. Only that if you were not so sick that you really needed me that I had better stay here awhile. I have looked every night for a letter from you and have put off writing hoping to hear from you.

I have written to grandma all about Mrs. Ferguson and how sick she is and she will tell you about it. I keep pretty busy but also keep pretty well. My stomach has not troubled me for several weeks. Every one is very kind to me. Mrs. F asked me one day what young people I knew and when I began to innumerate she exclaimed, “Why you are in the cream of society.”

I will have to tell you about the “Thank You” social given by the C. E. last night. Perhaps you can use the idea there. Each girl was requested to bring two aprons, preferably kitchen aprons. After the ice was broken by a game or two, every lady and gentleman was requested to don an apron and the fun began. Every time any one speaks to you or you to the, you must precede the reply by Thank You. For example, if I ask, “How are you feeling this evening, Miss B.” she replies “Thank you, I have a bad cold.” And I say “Thank you, I am very sorry.” If any one fails to say thank you the party to whom they are speaking gives them their apron and goes without. Every ones object is to get rid of their apron and not get another one. At the end of an hour judge and police take their places and every person having one or more aprons on his person is fined two cents each for them. Of course some will have several and some none, but you may be sure there is no lull in the conversation.

The played the vacant chair. As many chairs as players are placed in a circle. There is one vacant chair and one person in the middle. Each person is responsible for keeping the chair at the right filled, hence when A slips into the vacant chair at his right, B slips into A’s and C into B’s before the person in the middle can get it. If B fails to get A’s chair when it is vacated before the person in the center takes it, B must take his place in the Center. As Sue Williams said, the boys like to play it because sometimes the girls inadvertently sit in their laps and possibly the girls like it for the same reason.

Albert and I have not been to St. Johnsbury yet but will go tomorrow if it is a fair day.

It is time for me to fire up and get supper. I wish you could taste the dandy cake I made this morning. “Self-praise.”

Do you all write to me now. You little people let me know how mother is won’t you? And mother, you may as well tell me just how you are for I shall know anyway.

Oh, how I should love to be with you all. And yet I am happy and contented as anyone could ask for haven’t I my boy? The boys are both very good to me. A lady whom I met not long ago herself the mother of two young men, said to me, “Your cousins seem always to think of you first in every thing and they always speak so loyally of you that I know you exert a refining influence over them." She could have said nothing to please me more.

You will pardon me if I am conceited in writing such things.

Oh, my Supper!!!!

Love to each more than I can tell of heart yearning.
Dora

Retrospective on 1871

Rosina Richardson to Rosina Jane Stevens. Rosina Richardson lived in Vermont; her daughter and family had moved to Elgin, Minnesota.

East Topsham, Jan 9th, 1872

My dear Children,

Yours bearing date Jan 2nd is before me and I hasten to reply, am sorry you are not feeling well, also sorry for David’s head. We had hoped he had fully recovered from his injuries last spring, hope all are better now.

The year 1871 with its many memorable events has passed as have many, very many before it, to return no more forever. Yet the scenes that have been enacted in the great drama of life will be indelibly imprinted upon our memories, how much of joy or sorrow has been our lot to bear is but known to ourselves. It is a true saying that “each heart knows its own sorrow”. It is well it is so ordered. Why should we reveal to man our griefs and heartaches? Would they alleviate them? Would they truly sympathize with us? Would they mitigate our sorrows? Surely not. Then let us lay our burdens at Jesus’ feet. He has a balm for every wound. He will bind up the brokenhearted. He is the great physician of souls, having suffered Himself he knows how to sympathize with us in our afflictions and He will never leave nor forsake them that put their trust in Him. He is ever ready to bestow upon us every needed blessing. Where upon earth can we find so true a friend both in prosperity and adversity. Earthly friends may cling to us in the sunshine of prosperity but let clouds arise and adverse fortune overtake us and where are they? They have deserted us for those upon whom fortune has been more lavish of his gifts and we are left to struggle alone as best we can. The dearest earthly ties may be severed and those we have trusted most prove false, then let us be thankful we have a Haven of rest to which we can flee amid all the storms of life. Joy and sorrow are ever in our pathway through this vale of tears. Still let us ever be thankful to the Giver of all good for our many blessings and strive to be reconciled to the allotments of pain, in silence bearing our trials with Christian firmness, trusting in God always “who doeth all things well” and if we are faithful we shall in God’s good time moor our bark in the Haven of rest where all is peace and joy ----.

Our healths are not very good this winter. My cough is better “old age is creeping on apace” and we feel its effects sensibly. How I wish I could see you. The time, oh so long since you left home. When, oh when shall I have that blessed privilege? “Echo answers When.” Our friends in this place are usually well. Eva’s health is better. We spent Christmas with them, had a Turkey and Chicken supper, plumb pudding and various other fixings. Eva says he’s very pleasant since that time. So don’t worry your precious life away, but hope for the best.

It has been quite sickly in this section of late. Canker Rash is prevailing and in very many cases proves fatal. Quite a number of children have died. There have been a number of aged people in our town that have died recently. I will mention J F Teague, Amos Farland and John Lang, father to James Lang. A Mrs. Smith, wife of Henry Smith (son of Bud Smith) died last Friday leaving a young babe. She had not been married a year.

We have had very cold weather this fall and winter snow is quite deep. We had a letter from Nat’s folks recently. All well. Julia wrote Henry talked of coming after his children. Said she hoped he would not take Carrie. Mr. Kasson's* folks want her adopted by law so she can inherit their property. They are very fond of her. Why don’t Henry write. I wish he would write oftener.

Give love to them each – I want to see you all more than I can express,

Your mother as ever,

R. R.


Jane, I received our magazine last Tuesday; will send it to you soon. Much love – all write – write often – to all.

Just received a letter from Br. J (Joseph Warren Healy), he sailed for Europe this 6th of this month. He paid all he owed for dear Mother’s board. Please remember us to Mr. Wight (or Mr. Wright’s) folks.

How many changes!

* Carrie was adopted by Mr. & Mrs. Kasson.  I couldn't read the name in this letter, but later found a clipping of the funeral of Mrs. Kasson.  Carrie married Ambrose B Mitchell.  Her sister Cora was not officially adopted but grew up with Nathaniel and Julia Richardson.  Family members always knew where they were and would talk about the two girls periodically but without the details I needed to be able to find them for the longest time!!

Jane Tabor Healy, wife of Nathaniel Healy

It's fun doing old geneology stuff and looking back in time. Today I was looking at the 1870 census and there she was, the oldest relative for whom I have personal documentation (a letter from her daughter to family talking about her death). It's amazing to look at those old census sheets and see the name of a family member. There she was, 84 years old, with death coming in just a few more months, but as yet unknown to her. She had to have a general idea, however, because she was up there in years. She was my great-great-great-great grandmother, born in 1786. She lived until 1870. Her daughter, my great-great-great grandmother only lived another 19 months after her mother died. My great-great grandmother, her daughter, lived until 1912 and her daughter Ella until 1925. My father was two years old when she passed away. I feel that I am reaching back in time, hearing their voices in the old letters I've come to own. They were strong and hearty women, strong physically and strong in faith in the God who had always proven faithful to them. What a heritage they given me, handing it down over the years and the generations.