Letter 29 & 30
expanding production
Charles F. Lincoln to Lucius Lincoln
Summer Hill, April 10th, 1853
Dear Brother,
I received your letter of the 29th of Mar. Friday night and as we are in a great hurry to get a buggy I take the earliest opportunity to answer it. We have nothing to go to meeting in but our large carryall that we carry cheese and brooms about the country in. It is so large and clumsy that we don’t like to ride in it. I was in hopes to have got a buggy here as soon as the roads were good this spring. I wish you would send word to Mr. Rice as soon as possible after you receive this and have him fix me up one and send it as soon as he can as it will take about a month to ship one here. I would like to have one made to track 5 ft. and 2 in. from center to center of tire. I would like to have the body made as wide in proportion and painted all one color, with iron axletree and the shaft put on with a hinge instead of being made stationary to the axletree. Please get Mr. Rice to send it. Direct it to N.L. Look, Fincastle, Va., care of W. & G. Gwathmey, Richmond. Mr. Rice knows better how to get it through Boston than I do, I don’t know as it is necessary to direct it to anyone there. I suppose that if it is directed as above that the railroad company will forward it on to Richmond. Mr. Rice knows better about it than I do for I suppose he sends a good many.
You wished to know what I am doing and what I intend to do. I commenced making cheese last Monday. We have 29 cows this spring. Only 14 of them have got calves as yet. I don’t know whether we shall buy any more cows or not, but probably not unless we have better grass than we have got yet. We have got a sow and 7 shoats, 6 or 7 months old. the sow is the best I ever saw. She has raised a litter of 8 pigs twice a year ever since I came here. Loomis would hardly take 25 dollars for her. Our black boy smashed his thumb all to pieces about a month ago, so he has not done much of anything since. He got it caught in the gear wheels of a cutting-box and drew it clear through, so I have had to plow a good deal of the time this spring.
We shall have about 75 acres of corn and broomcorn planted this spring. About 20 acres of the corn we have let out on shares. The rest we shall work ourselves, 35 acres of it we shall put in broomcorn. We have sowed 13 acres in oats and 7 acres in wheat and will finish plowing for corn in about four days. We have got a seed drill that we sent to N.Y. for. It will plant corn, broomcorn and all small garden seeds. It cost $14., and if it works well it will pay for itself in a short time. If the weather is good we shall begin to plant in a week or two. The drill makes a furrow, drops and covers the seed as it goes.
I have not got all the brooms made yet. Should have made them last winter, but did not have quite handles enough and had to send to N.Y. for more. We made 2,000 and have got brush enough for 3 or 400 more. We have sold them all for the cash without much trouble. I took a load of 500 the first of March to Buchanan and Lexington, was gone not quite 3 days and sold them all for $2 and $2 1/2 per doz., so as I got the cash for them all I think it will be a good business when we get well started. Captain Breckenridge has just built a new sawmill and he is going to get some circular saws and a turning lathe. So I hope we can make our own handles, but unless we can make them pretty fast it will not pay for we can get them from N.Y. here for a cent and a half apiece. I want to get 8 or 10,000 made before our brush gets ripe in the fall, so you see I have got a plenty to do for the cheese will keep me busy until 10 or 11 o’clock every day. Cheese sells well. We could have sold twice as much as we made last year if we could have had it through the winter.
Has Ellen got back from West Boyleston yet? Tell her she must look sharp among her beaus, for she has had so many she may get cheated yet. But I am sorry you can not find anyone to suit you yet, for I should rather have a pretty girl to ride to meeting in that carriage with me than 2 or 3 like Aunt Lucy (if you have to have her but I hope you will not.) I will leave the other side of this sheet for Sarah. Accept this with much love to all from your afftn. Bro. Charles.
Monday Morning Apr. 11
Dear Mother and sisters,
I must thank you for the long letters we have received from you within a week or two and I do hope you will not let us wait so long for any again. I wonder if Janette ever received my letter that I wrote some three months ago, for she has not answered it. We had a visit from brother Josiah Look two or three weeks ago. He came to look at some land in Pulaski Co. which he thought of renting, but it did not suit him. Loomis had a letter from brother Samuel last week. He says Mr. Avery will start with his family in May for Va. I presume they will go to N.Y. first and attend the World’s Fair and then with Mr. and Mrs. Capwell come to Va. Samuel will come in July. I presume some of them will get out to see us if not all.
I have braided all the No 2 leaf and about half of the No. 3 and hope to get it done in about two weeks more. If I don’t I must leave the rest and go to sewing for Laura and I have hardly a decent dress to our backs. The No. 2 leaf made 104 hats. It cost between 3 and 4 dolls. to get it here. It came by Adams & Co’s. Express.
There has been a great deal of sickness here, mostly pneumonia and very ?aral. A good many have died with the measles (which has been prevailing for some time), especially colored ones. Old Mr. Gaunt (you remember him do you not Mother?) died 3 or 4 weeks ago. He had been to town and got drunk as usual, came home and while sitting by his fire was struck speechless. This was Friday evening, he lingered until Sunday morning at 4 o’clock and was buried at four the same evening. Mrs. Wilmer, Mrs. Breckenridge’s sister, is very sick and last week we heard she was dead, which proved to be a false report. The last we heard from her they had a little more hope of her recovery.
You ask if we have much company. We have had but very little since Christmas. Last week we had a carriage load who had broken down and could get no farther. There were two ladies, which is the third time I have had the privilege or trouble of entertaining any since we have kept tavern. I believe we calculated our tavern keeping brought us about $150 last year.
Lucius, Charles wishes me to tell you that since writing this he has concluded to write to Mr. Rice so that he can get the buggy as soon as possible. You don’t know how I want it should get here. I have ridden on horseback all that I have been this spring.
Hark! A rap on the door. Enter the Misses Harvey and Miss Catherine Peck. They have come to spend the day and it is well I have got this so near done, though I meant to have written a little more on another piece of paper but must leave it till another time. I will write to Olivia before long. Love to you all,
Sarah.
Letter 31
inviting ellen to join the enterprise
Summer Hill Aug. 28, 1853
My dear Mother and Sisters,
Your last kind letter was received in due season, but took us rather by surprise as it is a little unusual for you to answer our letters so soon. In imitation of your promptness, I take the first opportunity which has presented to reply. We are all well and doing well. The fine rains we have had the last two months have so improved the grass and broomcorn that Loomis and Charles are quite unprepared to think very seriously of Ellen’s proposition. They feel pretty sure of making a thousand dollars worth of brooms, and cheese enough to make expenses. But should they decide to change their location they will be more apt to look South for another than West. Not because we are particularly fond of a Slave State however, but because the business they are engaged in is so much more profitable here than in the West. Then besides there is a home market here at high prices, which can be kept up for several years unless others engage in the business. Which would not be the case at the West where so much broomcorn and cheese are produced. Brooms which can be sold at $2.00 and $2.50 per dozen here would have to be sent to an Eastern market and sold at $1.25 and $1.50 and cheese at 6, 7 or 8 cts. as the case might be.
The place near Christiansburg which Charles wrote you had been offered them for sale, they intend trying to rent or take on shares with the owner. They think it is in every respect a place that would just suit them. The railroad runs through it, so that if they make so much as to over-stock the country market the surplus can easily be sent to Lynchburg or Richmond. But Charles was saying yesterday that the broomcorn looked so encouraging he was getting out of the notion of leaving here. He says he would like to buy that Land Warrant if there could be any others to be bought with it, or he will buy it anyhow if Mother will take that land of Mr.
Pike’s. But, Mother, I would not sell it at present, out of the family I mean. If Ellen and Russell Taylor talk of getting married and going to the West to live I think Ellen had better buy it, by all means.
But, Ellen, I want you should come to Va. again before you settle down for life. Charles says if you will learn to make cheese the Yankee way, and will pluck up courage enough to come out here alone, he will pay your expenses and give you two dollars a week to make cheese next summer. You could bring down some leaf and have a good deal of time for braiding besides. Now can you do better than that? If you will come we would get some merchants who go to N.Y. for goods to hunt you up there and escort you the rest of the way. Let us know very soon what you think about it. The merchants go north in Oct. I suppose you will want to see Lucius married first, but tell him to set an early date. If it is deferred long I am amazingly afraid we shall hear those intermeddlers have broken off the match. Now Lucius, while I think of it, why can’t you take both Ellens and make a flying trip to Va.? Stop at the World’s Fair and see all the sights &c. Come, you have stuck so close to old Petersham all your life, I know it would do you good to see some other part of the globe. As for the hole it would make in your pocket never mind that. Open your heart, purse and pocket and let us behold your face here. You will never regret it, my word for it. I am thinking there would not be a more convenient time to leave your business and I know you could not give that little girl of yours a greater pleasure than taking her on a bridal tour.
We have had the pleasure of a visit from our Kentucky friends, Mr. & Mrs. Avery and their children. They stayed with us a little more than a week. They spent two weeks at the Alum Springs in Rockbridge on account of Mr. Avery’s health, which is rather delicate. When they left us they intended to stop a few days with an acquaintance of Mr. Avery’s in Rockbridge and then proceed to Father Look’s, where I suppose they now are. Brother Samuel, we expect, will visit us in the course of two or three weeks. We hope Father and Mother may come out this fall, but it is rather uncertain. Mother poor old Mrs. Peck died three or four weeks ago. Her health has never been good since her sickness that fall you were here. It is generally healthy about here now I believe, though there have been a good many cases of dysentery though not fatal. What distressing accounts we have of the Yellow Fever at New Orleans, thousands dying in a month. Mr. Medley has bought a farm in Tenn. and moved there.
Ellen, have you started that leaf yet? If not please get me an ounce or two of while skain thread and put it somewhere. I shall enclose in this ten dollars with which I wish Mother to pay herself the interest on that note for two years, the remainder for last year’s leaf. As it will not quite pay both, the balance you will please charge in the account of the other leaf, which I will pay for before long. I wish I could send gold for it, but am afraid to lest the letter might be lost, but the Bank of Va. is just as good as gold. What in goodness does Janette have so much of to do that she can’t find time to write us a short letter? She got herself into business certainly, getting married, not to be able to write a letter in a year. I am glad to hear Cousin Emily has so good an opportunity for teaching and hope her health will permit of her taking the school. Give my love to her and tell her I will write her some time in reply to that nice long letter I received from her at Wilbraham. How is Ellen Gower? I hope she has recovered her health. My love to her and Susan and to all my other acquaintances and friends.
We have been and are still having all the watermelons and muskmelons we can eat. I wish some of you were here to help us. How does the Dr.’s fruit orchard come on? Do you have plenty of fruit? We have plenty of apples in an orchard about half a mile from here, but no other fruit. Olivia do you make all kinds of preserves? This is the most famous country for preserves you ever heard of. My old black woman is laying by a much larger supply for her next year’s housekeeping than I am simply because I have no fruit, while her husband brings her all she wants for preserving and drying from his master’s plantation. They are a very thrifty couple. I’ll warrant not half the families in P. have half the luxuries laid by that they have. Oh, how I want to see you all. Can any of you tell me when I shall? But this page is nearly filled and I must close. Much love to you all.
Sarah
New York World's Fair
Ellen encouraged to stop at the World's Fair at Bryant Park in New York, featuring the Crystal Palace and industries of all nations.
Letter 32
new house in christiansburg
Dear Mother, brothers and sisters,
Having just got “Little Sister” asleep, I take the first opportunity which has presented itself for the last two months to reply to the kind letters we have received from you during that time. Yours, Olivia, mailed Sept 23 came to hand in due season; the leaf arrived the week after, all in good order. Ellen’s and Janette’s letters from West Boylston were received some three weeks since, and I must say that I was truly thankful to hear from Janette “in propria personae” after so long a time. Olivia’s dated Nov. 13 was received last Tuesday eve. 23 ins. You must consider this sheet an answer to all these letters as I shall not find time at present to answer them separately. For to say nothing of that little “responsibility” in the cradle, who takes up no small share of it, we are about making preparations to move at Christmas, and what with that and various other duties you need not expect to hear from us again until finally settled in our new home near Christiansburg, Montgomery Co. It is not the place of which I wrote you in my last letter, but is situated about three miles from the railroad and two from Christiansburg. It belongs to a Mr. Montague, and Loomis and Charles have rented it for 10 years. The house is small and very indifferent compared with this, which is the greatest objection I have to leaving here, but I reckon we can get along with it as there are thousands of Virginians better off than we are who live in worse ones. At any rate Loomis and Charles have great expectations, and say it doesn’t make any difference what sort of house they live in for a few years. Indeed if all their expectations and anticipations are realized I expect they will be millionaires ten years hence. In case they should be I mean to try to borrow money enough to go to Mass.
A Mr. Lane is going to move in here as soon as we leave and will carry on the place in company with Mr. B. He talks of doing wonderful things raising tobacco and corn. He is going to clear off several acres on the hill and put in tobacco and means to raise 80,000 plants, 4,000 bushels of corn is the least he calculates on, and wheat without measure. He is going to build a paling fence around the house and improve the place generally. I suppose, Mother, if you were to come here two or three years hence it will look vastly different from what it did two years ago. I would like to see it myself, though I don’t care about seeing Mr. Lane for he is one of the most disgusting men I ever saw.
Charles gave up making his thousand dollars worth of brooms long ago and consequently his visit home, but he has talked as though he had more than half a mind to go anyhow, if we had not been going to move. It would have given us all great pleasure to have been there on the 23 and 24 inst. But we did not get the letter until 4 o’clock, and as we had a house full of hog drovers we could not get ready in season. I hope the wedding was not deferred on our account.
Charles went to Christiansburg last week with a load of plunder, Loomis will go again next week. We shall sell some of our furniture if we can get a fair price for it. I don’t know where we could find room for all our things in the little house. We shall have near neighbors up there. Mr. Montague lives but a few rods off and there are other neighbors in sight.
Friday Noon, Dec. 2. I hope I shall get this letter ready to send by the mail boy tonight, but if I don’t you must be patient. Miss Sarah, Jr. demands so much attention that I hardly get time to do anything. She is a nice fat little thing and will be two months old the 10th of this month. She was just as old yesterday as little Sammy was when he died. She has a thick suit of dark hair which was as black as jet when she was born and is now in the back of her neck. Her eyes are very dark blue - (her face white). On the whole she is rather pretty. Her name is Sarah Isabel, Olivia, Sarah Bell for short. Laura is very fond of her. She is making great calculations about going to school with her. This morning she said, “ Ma, I want you should take a piece of corn bread and piece of meat and roll them up in a piece of paper for Sarah Bell and me to carry to school.” If you could see me it would not be necessary for me to tell you that I am well, as you can not I will assure you of the fact, Loomis, Charles, Laura and baby likewise. Miss Emma Medley staid with me a few weeks and helped do my fall sewing. She went home last Saturday. I have braided but 6 or seven hats, the leaf is very good, but most of it is most too short to begin men’s hats double, which is the greatest fault I have to find with it. I don’t expect to braid much until after Christmas.
Brother Sam’l. visited us about the first of Oct. They all returned to Ky. two or three weeks ago. Has George Gale got home? I saw in one of the Tribunes the other day among the names of returned Californians that of G. Gale. The places of their residence was not mentioned.
Charles is very busy making brooms. The handles they sent for last did not arrive till a few days ago, and now he is hurrying to get them made before Christmas. He makes a hundred a day with old Mr. Williams to sew them, when Loomis has something else to do that he can not. He would write half a sheet to send in this were it not for that. I am sorry Olivia did not get Elizabeth’s card in season to enclose it. I don’t see why E. did not send it straight to me. I wrote her some time in the summer that she must be sure to write to me again before she changed her name. Do some of you write very soon and tell us about the wedding, Thanksgiving, and everything else. Give our best love to our new sister and tell her and brother Lucius that we wish them a long life and much happiness. We should be very happy to hear from them and much more to see them. Ellen (Miss Ellen I mean), if you will not come to Va. I hope you will get married before I go home so that I can see all the new brothers and sisters at once. I believe Charles has given up the notion of being married at present. When you write to Janette tell her that I will write to her some time between now and next summer, if nothing happens to prevent. Cousin Emily also, but they must not wait for me, Janette owes me two letters anyhow. Is Aunt Lucy living across the road yet? How is Aunt Prudy? Olivia, I must thank you for your long letter, and it contained so much news too. It does one good to hear all the particulars. The money for the leaf I will send sometime, I take it for granted you are not suffering for it or I would send it now. Charles has just come in and says I may tell Ellen that he will write to her before a great while. Lucius, Loomis says he will write to you if you will to him. From your afftc. Sarah A. B. Look.
TO: 1854
