1877 Letter from
[David] Henry Stickney to his brother, Cashus
Stickney. David Henry Stickney
would have been twenty-three and a half years old, Cashus Stickney twenty,
Loren Armintus Stickney
nineteen and Will Stickney about
16. Their father,
David B. Stickney about forty-seven years old.
Three by five and a half to six inch
envelope. Return address
“Beaver Mill, Wisc. July
23rd” written vertically up left side of envelope and over
the top of a green three cent stamp in upper left
corner. The envelope is addressed
to “Mr. C. Stickney/Orange
Station/Wis.” Two round
postmark style imprints are on the front of the
envelope. The first simply says,
“MISSENT.”
The second is a post mark,
“
The letter is on one piece of 8X10 inch folded
writing paper that is lined in faint
blue. The front panel has an
embossed head about ½ inch square in the upper left corner about an
inch from the top and half an inch from the left
margin. The letter is transcribed
below with some editorial comment in brackets. The cursive
writing is well formed and appears to be written by an individual at ease
with pen and ink.
Punctuation and capitalization are
minimal. Transcription is exactly
as written except for bracketed comments.
Beaver
Well Cash I thought that I would write a few lines
to you to let you know that we are all well and I hope this will find you
all the same I looked for you up here but supposed that something happened
that you could not come but that is all right Mint [Loren
Armintus Stickney] and I are getting along first
rate with the haying We have
got 12 tons in the stack What
is you and father doing now Write
and let me know Cash [page 2] I will tell you what that I want you to doe
for me I want you to take fathers
rifle to lisbon and get the lock fixed and then
take the rifle and bullet maker to Mr Nichols and
tell him to bring them up to me and to bring me up a half a pound of powder
and a box of [two unreadable words—looks like ‘males proof’]
caps so that I can have them next week when he comes up on
Mon Cash if you will doe that
for me I will pay you well for it and tell father if he will let me take
the rifle that no one but myself shall handle it and that I will give him
a deer skin I could kill a deer
every night for I have got a lick in 60 rods [page 3] of the
house now Cash send it up to
me next week with out fail for I want to gett a
deer damed bad
Cash tell father that the black berries will be ripe in about to
weeks tell him to be
shure and come up for we shall look for him and
he shall have some venson to eat if he will
lett you send the rifle to
me Cash there is lots of rats
and mink on this creek whare we are
haying Mint and I found a mink
nest with young mink in it Friday or dan [probably
a dog] found it rather and the old mink whiffed dan
in about to minutes she was the
worst darned thing to fight I ever saw
she would fitch on to a man as soon as a
dog [page 4] well Cash I can not think of anything more to
write
write soon as you get this and come up soon
as you can tell Will [perhaps William Stickney] to come up
to now Cash send the rifle to
me for I would rather give five dollars than to not get it send it right
of soon as you can get to town and I will pay you for your trouble and
time
Write
Soon
Contributed by Sherry
Martin
[email protected]