Letter to Minnie Stilwell from Mary M. Pinch, Feb. 1879

The envelope with this letter has no stamp, no postmark, no return address.  Based on the information in the letter, I suspect it was one of five letters sent together.  The writing is very pale and hard to decipher.  The envelope is addressed to Miss Minnie E. Stilwell, Metomen, Wisc.

Here is a transcription:

                                                 "So. Natick, Mass, Feb. 1st     1879

My Dear Girls,
     When I awoke this morning my first thought was of the letters I had promised to write to you on the 1st of Feb. 1879 and I have been thinking all day of your dear selves.  If I only had the time I would be glad to write to each of you, but I am very busy these days and I must condense my five letters into one big one, which I hope to hear from you at once.  I shall be very glad to hear from each of you and heal all "The Plans and Prospects" was that the way the contract read?  I was sorry not to have seen you all once more before starting for my new home, but you know I had Mrs. Mattice's company by starting when I did.  I went with her to Buffalo N.Y. and then branched off on the "Erie R.R." to visit my friends in Southern N.Y.  The whole Journey to Walton was as pleasant as a long tiresome journey could well be, for I had no care at all having had my trunk checked from Milwaukee to Boston and so with only myself and the usual big box, little box, band box and bundle, to care for I was quite comfortable.  I spent four or five pleasant days in Walton and then moved on for Home.  The last days ride was almost as long as all the others put together.  On the principle that "heat expands" I was nearly suffocated all the way from Albany to Boston and to add to my trials, Mr. Pinch did not meet me in Boston as I had expected for he attempted to meet me in Floringham and failed, owing to a change in car time, when it was too late to go into Boston.  So all forlorn I found my way to a hotel where I spent a most miserable night.  The heat was so oppressive I was obliged to sit up by the window all night long.  In the morning, I sent a telegram to Mr. Pinch and that noon (?) I had the pleasure of meeting him and some of my new friends.  I can assure you I felt immensely relieved to be through all my journeyings and at home, too.  How good it seemed.
     All the way out from Boston I reveled in the beautiful sights which were constantly presented to my eye.  I suppose there is a part of New England more beautiful than that between Boston and South Natrick.  There is so much wealth that has been poured out upon the country that in the summer it seems a very Eden.  As I rode from Wellesley to So. Natrick in the coach for we are two miles from the R.R. I had a chance to see still more of the power that money holds over nature.  I could only think of the stories my father had told me of the nobility of Ireland.  This was true not only of one residence but of some half dozen.  I wish I could take you all with me over those grounds for they are open to all who wish to visit them.  We would go to Wellesley College too, and you would feel as I did the other night that it was like being educated in a palace for one to attend school there.  Well I must stop or I won't get to the parsonage at all, our gay summer birds are flown away to Boston now that the snow has come and spread its mantle of equality over pleasure grounds and potato patches.  I like our people in So. Natrick very much.  I liked them from the first.  They were very cordial and made me feel at home among them at once.  Of course they are not unlike western people in many ways.  They speak the same language both of heart and tongue and I have no doubt that I shall be a full fledged Yankee if I live here many years.  the town itself is very old.  It was originally the Indian village where John Elliott labored among the red-skins and an old oak occupies the center of the road near our church under which tradition saith that Elliott taught the Indians.  He has a monument in a little park here and a number of headstones mark the resting place of noted Indians.  Harriet B. Stowe too has written a story about the place "Old Town Folks" is the title;  her husband Prof. S. lived here in his boyhood in an old brown house where we often visit.  Cousins of his live in the old place.  The Charles River too about which Longfellow has written a pretty little poem, affords us much pleasure in its beautiful curves as it winds its 72 miles to Boston out of the straight fifteen by R.R.  We boat a great deal.  All the young ladies row.  We came to our parsonage house in Aug. and have been house-keeping since.  I like it very much.  The house is about twice too large for us and our two cats.
     Feb 4th.  You see my dear girls that I didn't get through on the 1st.  I was too tired or too busy I've forgotten which now, but my intentions were good, my second purpose to write to you according to agreement was all right.  Mr. Pinch is away to a ministers association today so I have the time all to myself.  I don't particularly enjoy such days for it is lonely enough for two folks in this big house.  We have near neighbors however who have five nice children.  Sometimes we borrow them to charm away the silence.  I have a mission  band of children who meet at the parsonage very two weeks on Sat. aft.  They are going to have a tea party by and by and a fair.  they sew and knit and do fancy work besides studying about missions; we are studying up Turkey now; the children are quite interested in it too.
     I wish you might all come to see me.  You must all write to me and tell me about your home life and your plans for the year.  We hope to visit Wis. one year from next summer then I hope we may all meet once more.  My health has been very good indeed since I have lived here except through the very hot weather "Dog Days" they have named them.  I have thought much and often of you all with the kindliest feelings.  I am glad that you were "My Girls" for those four months, though another might have done more for you than I was able to do.  Give my love to my other boys and girls and to your parents.
     With very much love to you - Addie, Cora, Edie, Minnie and Louise.
                                                   I am as ever your friend,
                                                               Mary M. Pinch"

So I did a little research on Mary Pinch.  Here is what I found:

She was born Mary Ann McAssey or McCasey in May 1847 in New York.  On 27 October 1877, she married Pearse Pinch in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.  By the 1880 census, they are living in So. Natick, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts.  Mr. Pinch was a minister and the family seems to have moved around a lot.  In 1895, they were in Emporia, Lyon Co., Kansas.  In 1900, they were in Greene Co., Missouri.  In 1910, they were in Huron, South Dakota.  They had seven children: Ruth, Esther, Anna, Thomas, Alice, William, and Margaret.  When Mary died, they were living in Glendale, Maryland and Pearse was the pastor of the Congregational Church in Herndon, Virginia.  She died 14 July 1919 "after a short illness."  She was 72 years old.  I have not found her burial location.  Her husband, Pearse, died Dec. 22, 1929, after being hit by a taxi in New York City.  He was 78 years old.  He is buried at Holy Trinity Cemetery in Prince George's County, Maryland.  Several of his children are also buried there, so it is possible that Mary is there but without a tombstone.