December 4, 1876
To: Luke Keith
From: Sarah Keith
Sarah is writing to Luke who is visiting relatives in Perry, New York, filling him in on things at home and also about their grandson, Claude, who is lonesome in their new home.
Mondy Moring half past ten.[1] All able to eat our rations this morning.[2] Last week had Jim[3] put straw in the cellar window. This moring Ethen[4] is fixing boards in the window. Kept Jim home to draw the dirt to bank up with. Brown[5] has gone to the Burg with that box (that stood on our stoop) full of things and eatibles for the Brown family[6] in Chicago. Brown butcherd last Thursday. Mr. Flanders[7] has been quite sick.
Hank[8] get on the cars at 22 street. Claude[9] knew him. He stuck to him all the evening. He is very lonesome.[10] He watches to see Hanks car go by. It passes the house every 90 minutes. She[11] says they are only a short distance from the Lake,[12] have a good view of it from their windows. Thinks they have a very pleasent place. Says Louese[13] has not changed any except a little taller.
Did not snow any last night, quite pleasent to day. Write soon.
[Unsigned, but it is Sarah’s handwriting]
——-
[1] The letter is undated but from other letters from the same period of time it appears to have been written on December 4th, 1876
[2] Assume she is referring to her sister-in-law, Alfleda, and their son, Ethan, who, according to her December 2nd letter, had been sick
[3] Their son, James Clinton Keith
[4] Their son, Ethan Keith
[5] Their neighbor, Ambrose Brown, who was also the father-in-law of their daughter, Nancy (Keith) Brown
[6] Their daughter Nancy’s family
[7] Joseph Flanders, their neighbor in Comstock, Michigan
[8] Their son-in-law, Henry Brown
[9] Their grandson, Claude Keith Brown
[10] Hank, Nancy & Claude had just spent the last two months living with their families while Hank was making plans for them to move to Chicago
[11] Their daughter, Nancy (Keith) Brown
[12] Lake Michigan
[13] Their daughter, Louese Keith, who was attending school and living in Chicago with Sarah’s brother & sister-in-law, Hiram & Katherine (Atcheson) Crawford Jr.
Letters & Diary Entries From the 1860s through the 1890s 