November 26, 1908
Louise (Miller) and Fidelia Wright
Dear Cousins,
It is unnecessary to say that I was very much surprised and pleased when Esther telephoned me yesterday that a letter had come from you who for so many years had been an unknown quantity to all of us your Yankee friends and relatives. It is so long ago that some how I heard you (Fidelia) had gone to the state of Washington for an extended visit. And it is so many years, so very many, since I know anything of Mary or of Louisa and their families that I hardly know where to begin in a narrative of events.
Of Celia we used to be informed semi-occasionally until at last came a newspaper notice of her death.
The years have indeed rolled on rapidly. I well remember to going out of your family from the old home so near to my own at Roberts Meadow. Altho more than 60 years have passed and no one now living there (with one exception) ever knew a member of the Wright family, yet the cellar walls & the Lilacs now go by the name of "The old Wright house site". Strange names have been associated with the house. Strange tongues spoken in it until many years ago it fell down, rotted away and only memory recalls the outlines of the house, the foot bridge, the dam, the old wheel in the cellar. Even you may have lost the details. It has been in late years a fad of mine to make some study of our genological tree and of the deeds and records connected with the different divisions of land at one time or another owned by our family or families of our connection - -From the year 1700 to the present 1908 - 208 years our people have been identified with that part of New England - I have been able to follow back the various steps by which we ______ from Wales in 1630. Many hours - yes days have been taken up in this study. What I have written is in a chaotic condition yet some of it is typewritten for me by my youngest son Sylvester Edwards, who boards at home but works in the office of the N.Y. Central R.R. in Springfield.
It is now 7 years since I left Roberts Meadow as a home. About 1872 the town took the brook which runs so near the old homes for reservoir purposes and as time went on and microbes and bacteria took an active part in the minds of people the authorities said "you must get out of this". As a result we had to bow down and go. The three boys being then at home and being fairly well myself and out of door life appealing to our tastes, I bought a small farm in Easthampton. Still retaining the land some 65 acres of it at Roberts Meadow but without buildings. They being demolished at once. The big Elm tree however was allowed to stand as it does to day.
Well we had been in Easthampton less than two months when I fell on the side walk at 5 o'clock one Sunday morning breaking my hip. Thus showing the folly of early rising on a Sunday morning.
A summer of leisure followed. Being well strapped down the bed became hard and unwelcome. My surgeon was successful in pulling my leg out to near normal length and in due time I was walking again with little limp. My pride was sufficent to keep me going, but the injury was such that no one past sixty years need expect to fully recover from it.
Well I got out in time. My oldest son James Benjamin remained with us a year or two but being by nature a mechanic, steam engineering attracted his attention. He is now employed in that capacity at a mill about fifteen minutes walk from my house. He is married and keeps house. Has a son James B same.
It is to be hoped we may not lose track of each other again. There are very few now left of our near relatives. Of the younger part or generation you have enlightened us now.
I had little knowledge of the family of Louise. They seem to be well scattered over the west.
Perhaps you have not heard of the death of John Bates the past summer or spring. His oldest son followed soon after leaving a family. John lived here many years. Was in business, but of unfortunate habits himself tho a generous, good hearted man. There are several daughters with his widow lift. Nat Bates to married at a late age. He lives in So Hadley. Employed at Mt Holyoke College. Was thought unwise in the choice of a wife by both his brother and sister. Isadore died unmarried some years ago. Augusta (Mrs Cooley) lives in Springfield in poor health. Has a married daughter also in the same city. Of Cousin Penninnah Judd, she lives in Augusta Maine. Comes here usually annually for a few weeks visit. She has been a generous cousin to our family. She paid the college expenses of my son Sylvester on account of his name I assume, since that was her fathers name.
I have said that my wife had a brother in Iowa. Previous to last October (1907) there was two of them residing in Mahaska County of which Oskaloosa is the county seat. These two brothers went west more than 50 years ago. The eldest had never been East. He was near 80 years old and in ill health. My wife an only sister now living he wanted to consult as to disposal of his property and sending for us we went out there in September remaining a month or so.
At the time I did not know with certainty if any of my relatives were living in Minnesota.
We canvassed the subject without result and came home - stopping with a friend in Ohio a short time. We went out over the Rock Island R.R. returning over C.B.& Q. I now am sorry we did not have the pleasure it would have afforded us to go up and visit Louise at Fairabault. My wife has now an interest in the 320 acre farm in Iowa. The brother now living at 74 years is a bachelor and able to look after the property at present. What the future has in store for us is uncertain but if we live it is not unlikely we may be called that way again.
There are many other things I would talk about if I could see you or Either of you would be a welcome sight in Yankee land again. I need not add further to that I'm sure. (They tell me dinner is ready which of course call a halt for now.)
We too have variour articles of furniture come down from the Elder part of the family. The fact that you have saved in all your moving an article of your mothers used at Roberts Mead. is remarkable. Of course in our case it is not so strange. I have the family Bible of our Great Grandfather Nathaniel Edwards 3rd besides many other things connected with his tavern.