1885-09-16: Sarah D Ganoung – Helen A Wood

ADDRESSED TO: Miss Ella Wood, Mansfield, PA, Care of Mary E. Wood
FROM: Sarah Owen (Mary E. Wood’s sister), Odessa, New York

Odess Sept 16th 1885

Dear Ella & sister
Leib I will try and answer your letter that I recived in July and shant blame you if you feel provoked at me but Ella if you could see all I have to do I was picking beries all through July and then my other work got all behind and I was tired out and have staid tired ever since We milk six cows this summer and it makes lots of work for one to do alone I told Mate what you said about her coming out She said she did not know what to tell you I want her to come if she possibly can I want you and your ma both to come before it gets cold weather so we cant get enywhere

The letter is addressed to Helen (Ella) but the specific target audience changes here. So far Aunt Sarah has been addressing her niece with things like “you and your ma.” Here it switches to her addressing her sister, Mary, with some news of Mary’s son George and his wife Chloe and then a few shared acquaintaces,then the discussion of their mother’s tombstone an finally the mention of their brother John (who moved to Michigan).

We was over to Georges last week Chloe has got her carpet move She has got over fifty yards & it is nice but she never will get it made and down in the world She had only 2 widths sewed together and she has had it more than a month They have got lots of apples and they had pears & plums They will have a nice lot of grapes I bought a half bushel of plums of them George says he wants to come out there this fall if he can He works like a dog all of the time I have not heard a word from Uncle Arad since he went away from here Leib you wanted to know about Min Kellogg She is alive yet but very bad I have been to see her since I got Ellas letter Doc Kellogg wife was buried yesterday Mrs Wickham and me went to the funeral

There are two Min Kelloggs, a stepmother-daughter pair living relatively nearby in Hector, NY. Given that we have shifted to Sarah addressing Mary, I choose to reflect the elder Min Kellogg here. She would be a peer to them and they have spent far more time in this part of NY than Helen ever will. Mrs. Wickham is a neighbor. The 1880 census shows Owen family near many Wickhams. It will take some doing to figure which one is the right one.

Dora Hagar was buried last Sunday It is quite sickly around here now with fevers Leib I have got ma’s tomb stone and got it all sat and fixed up good I went to see it yesterday I want you to be sure & come out this fall before it gets to cold to go enywhere I want you to go up to the grave yard while it is nice weather I have not heard from John in some time Now dont wait as long as I have for I want to hear from you if you only write a few lines to let me know how you are I was afreid that hot weather would kill you I shall have to close My eyes hurt so I cant write eny more this (time) Now do write soon From Sarah Owen to sister & Ella
Give my love to Charleys folks

Chose Charles Smith over Charles A. Wood here because 1) the letter is from Sarah Owen who doesn’t have a need to do a laundry list of Mary Wood’s children and 2) Charles A. Wood never married so he didn’t have “folks” while Charles Smith has a family unit and does live in the general area.

Ella I have had a line from Mate this morning She is coming home the middle of next month and is going to work for Mrs Burge this winter comence the first of November I want you and your ma to come while she is home.