Letter: Margaret Flanagan to James Smith, October 13 1882

SMITH, MATHEW, MOORMAN, MORMAN, FLANAGAN, COCHRAN

Posted By: Beth Johnston (email)
Date: 11/18/2001 at 10:04:14

This is one of several letters to James Smith and his wife Rebecca "Jane" Mathew Smith. James moved from Fountain Co., IN to Marion Co., IA in 1854. On 4 Jul 1854 James married Jane, who was a daughter of John Mathew and Lucinda Moorman or Morman Mathew. The Mathews had moved to Marion Co. from Ohio. James and Jane moved to Union Co., Oregon in 1864. This letter is from Rebecca Jane Mathew Smith’s sister, Rhoda Margaret Mathew Flanagan. Rebecca Jane had died in 1875 so the address on the letter is only to James Smith.

The year of this letter is illegible, as is the postmark on the envelope. Because it was addressed to James Smith in Summerville, Union Co., Oregon, the letter had to have been sent after 1864. In the letter Margaret talks about her daughter’s marriage having taken place over two years ago; Marion County, Iowa marriage records show Frances Flanagan’s marriage to James N. Cochran on September 9, 1880, thus dating the letter to 1882.

Columbia Marion Co Iowa Oct the 13 18[82]

Dear brother & family I take this opportunity to write you a few lines to let you [k]now that we are all in tolerably good health at this time and hope the same of you all we have not heard from you for so long that i thought i would try and write to you for i would like very much to hear from you all i have been so crippled with the rheumatism that it is seldom that i can hold a pen in my hand to write--

the friends is well as fare [far] as i [k]now father is not very well at no time any more he has something like the rash [end of page 1] which is very disagreeable he suffers a good deal with that and his side he is living with Martha [Margaret's sister, Margaret Mathew-Bates-Waymond] and her husband is a very good man and he is kind to father--

we have had very light crops for two years it was very wet in the spring and then turned dry wheat was almost a failure and corn not very good but there will bee enough for home use but our flour will have to be shiped mostly

frances is married and lives [with]in a mile and a half she has been married over two years they have one girl about 18 months old our other children you never seen we have 5 and four of them [end of page 2] is boys and one girl she is eleven years old one of the boys is 17 and the next is 13 and the little boys is 7 and 3 years old--i want you to write and tell me a bout all of your children and how many ther is at home with you yet and what the youngest ones names is i would like to see you and the children (end [and] so I will) but if i cant see you i would like to hear from you--we are living in one mile east of Columbia knoxville is improveing very fast since the cars come there they have two roads there the rock island and the CBQ

i will quit by asking you to write if you please and oblige your sister as ever Margaret Flanagan to James Smith

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Note: Rhoda Margaret Mathew married William P. Flanagan 11 Sep 1859, Marion Co., IA