FROM: Emma Redding, postmarked Mount Sterling, Ohio
Dear sister i will answer your kind and welcome letter which found us well and i hope these few lines will find you all the same. i have got a nice boy. he is as fat as a little pig but he haint feeling very well now. we had him out to much while ma was sick but now she is at rest with the angels. She was beried week ago yesterday. Hellen if i could only die as happy as she did that is all i ask. on wednesday before she died the preacher was there and she Shouted nearly all the time he was praying. she called us one by one to her and told us she wanted us all to meet her.
Editor’s note: Online date for death of Mary (Knapp) Stage is Nov 4 1891. This letter is dated Nov 8 1891 (Sunday). That means she was buried Oct 31 1891 (a week ago yesterday). The preacher would have visited on Wednesday, Oct 28. John Stage wrote to Bert Stage on Oct 31, 1891 and barely mentioned his wife, but I already had questions as to whether they were living together. The math doesn’t work. She died sometime between Oct 28 and Oct 30, 1891; I am splitting the difference with Oct 29.
i have tried to live a better life for nearly a year and if ma is in heaven i hope i will meet her but that we dont no. wel i have got my foot nearly broke. i was to the Docter and he sed one bon was mashed down but haint quite brok. it will be 2 weeks a monday evening and i havent walked eny till today and i hafto have a stick. how is your ma and the children?
i wish i could see all of you. have you got eny rats out there? if you haint i will ship you a car load. we have lot of them hear. we have rosa whiting working for us. Aunt Hellen was to see me one day a uncle Charlie maid out i to eat one meal but soon as he ate he went away. i dont no why they dident com enymore before he went hom. i suppose they thout i wasent deasent. hellen som of them told them who John belong to and i suppose that is the reason why they dident com. i havent ben to Clara since last January. they was hear 2 weeks ago today. they was wel. what is Birt adoing?
Well i will bring my letter to a close for it is time to go to bed. Good By from Emma R to H Stage