Letter: Fannie Ireland to Minnie Stilwell, July 15, 1882

Please see this post about Fannie A. Ireland for discussion of this letter and other information.

Letter addressed to: Miss Minnie Stilwell, Ripon, Wisconsin

Postmark: Camanche, Ioa., Jul., 13

“Comanche, Iowa

July 15, 1882

Dear Cousin Minnie,

            My Saturday’s work is done, but yet a little time remains before dinner and I know of no pleasanter way of using it than by commencing a letter to you.  I have not done very much but I am somewhat tired.  I guess I must be getting lazy.     Your letter bears date of  June 20 and it seems as if I had been very negligent but I have written to Blanche since that and I suppose you got the benefit of that.     Warren’s letter and the kind not of Uncle Lonson’s were both received last Saturday and were read with genuine pleasure.  It is certainly very flattering to me that you all seem to remember me so kindly.  I shall always have cause to be glad that I listened to the voice of my good grandmother and accompanied her on her visit to Wisconsin.  My trip and my may kind loving friends whom I there met will never be forgotten, and I live in hopes of having some of visit me (sic) in order that I may feel free to “come again.”

            Comanche is very pretty in the summer time, but is quite dreary in the winter, and I think if some of you were to come now we could make it pleasant for you, at any rate we would do our best.     I was in Clinton Thursday afternoon and saw Auntie for a short time.  She was well but Uncle was not able to leave the house but he was better yesterday and was attending to his business as usual.  Auntie and a friend of ours from Clinton were down last week and spent the day.  She brought me your last letter to read.     I made me another new dress and will send you samples of it.  The plain pink is my skirt and the plaid is the polonaise.  My friends all tell me it is pretty and very becoming, which latter is the most essential part.  We have had so little warm weather that light dresses are scarcely needed at all.  The season has been quite remarkable for cold and rain but we live hoping that a change awaits us.     Our farmers are getting discouraged about their hay, some of it is rotting on the ground and it does not cease raining long enough to cut it and put it away.  Last evening I had a very enjoyable boat ride.  We crossed to the Illinois shore and hunted turtle eggs on the sand banks.  I presume you will say “a rather undignified pastime for young ladies and gentlemen” but if you have never indulged in it do not censure us for it is just lots of fun.     You say your cherries are plenty.  How I should love to be there just to keep the birds out of the trees.  I am very fond of them and this year they are very scarce.  Dinner is over and we today had our first cherry pie, we all considered it quite a luxury.  I wish Aunt Mary could have had some of our currants, we had quantities of them and they were unusually large and nice.  I should have sent her some but was afraid they would spoil.

            On Tuesday evening of this week, the ladies of the M.E. Society gave an ice cream and berry festival for the benefit of their church.  It was in every respect a success and was enjoyed by all who attended it.  The attendance was large and they did better than they had hoped financially.

            And the “Glorious Fourth” is past and we celebrated in a most sublime manner.  There was no general celebration here but each one followed his own inclination and the majority of our people seemed to pass the day happily.  There were numerous private picnics, family gatherings and we indulged in the former.  Few couples of us young folks went to the old Camp ground and there enjoyed ourselves in the orthodox manner.  After supper and just as we were preparing to go home, one of our girls fell from a hammock and broke a collar-bone.  She was taken home immediately, the bone set and now she is doing very well.  The boys had provided quite a lot of sky-rockets and Roman candles and these we had after we came home.  The Fates seemed against us that day because as they fired off the first rocket it frightened a man’s team, it broke loose and ran away.  Some set out at once to find it and after looking all night found it the next morning, after it had gone through the country in grand style.  We were all rejoiced to find that the team was not injured at all, but nevertheless these two accidents put a damper on the day’s happiness.  But even with these we were more fortunate than you for Warren reported two lives lost.

            Minnie it will never do for you to sit quietly down and see some other girl walk off with J.R.  Go to work in good earnest, lose no opportunities and I see no reason why you should fail.  But you must treat him different from what you did Mr. Kellogg or any girl in the neighborhood could beat you.  If you really want him there is no reason in the wide world why you shouldn’t have him. 

            You ask me about Mr. Hosteller.  I have not seen him for some time but hear from him just as usual.  He is one of my very dear friends and as such I prize him very highly.  For two years I have known him well and I know that he thinks a very great deal of me but if you are imagining he will ever be a cousin of yours you are very much mistaken.  He is a man of excellent principles, good morals, no bad habits, generous to a fault, kind and thoughtful and very amiable, and very well off in a worldly sense, but after all he does not exactly suit me.  He has honored me by asking me to share his life with him but I with thanks, declined, and both of us being rather sensible, we remain true friends.  He tells me he hopes to marry an Eastern lady in the fall and if he does I shall be the first to send him hearty congratulations.  There now you know just how we are placed and you need give yourself no further trouble about the matter.   Our Roy is still the pride of our home and hearts.  He keeps well and grows until he is becoming quite a boy.  At last I have had my pictures taken, but such a time I had.  Several days when I tried it rained and then the proofs did not suit me but my final trial was made last Thursday and those are to be printed good or bad.  The artist got mad and I (your cousin with the heavenly disposition got mad too) and then we did have a good time.  I will send them up before very long.  The girls join me in sending love to you all.  They often express a desire to see and know you.  Minnie  I  must close now and go about my sewing.  Write to me often and tell me all about all my friends.  Remember me particularly to Uncle Hiram and his family and Charley and Nettie.  Does Belle forget me?  I hope not.  I will write to Edie and Warren soon but tell them not to wait for me.  My kindest love to Uncle and Aunt and if (sic) fact all of you.  Yours as ever.

Fannie A. Ireland."

So from the letter we know that Fannie is a cousin of Mary Elva Stilwell. She mentions Mary's parents as "Uncle and Aunt."   She also mentions "Uncle Hiram" who is likely Hiram Stilwell, brother of Mary Elva's father, Lonson.  That seems to indicate that Fannie's mother was a Stilwell.

I found a Fannie A. Ireland living in Comanche, Iowa who married Abram P. Hart in 1883 in Clinton, Iowa.  Fannie was born about 1857.  I suspect this is the correct Fannie.  I think she is probably the Fannie Hart who died in 1920 and is buried next to Abram P. Hart in Green Mountain Cemetery, Boulder, Colorado.  Some other researchers give this Fannie's mother's name as Mary E. Cady.  Everything else about Fannie fits what we see from the letter, so I suspect this is the right person.

Once again, "J.R." is mentioned.  This must be John R. Jones, Minnie's future husband.  Since they didn't marry for another ten years - after J.R.'s first wife died - it seems Minnie burned a torch for him for a long time.

I had never seen anything about Minnie and "Mr. Kellogg."  Her younger sister, Edith, married Judson Kellogg in 1884.  I wonder if Minnie was involved with him first?  Or perhaps with another Mr. Kellogg?  Judson had a brother named Lewis.  The family lived in Ripon, Wisconsin which is where Minnie and her parents lived.  A mystery that may or may not ever be solved.

The others mentioned are all siblings of Minnie: Warren, Edith, Nettie and her husband, Charley and daughter, Belle.