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Mama Margaret sends news of the whole family - even Papa Charles - to Will in the Philippines.
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Canton, O.
April 25, 1904
My dear son,
I don’t know whether I will get this off on the boat that sails Sat or not, but I have been waiting and looking for a letter from you on the Sheridan, but have now given up, I thought it would be for Alma and she would send it on here. I received a letter from her today and card from Laura. They are well and busy.
Fred took a walk up the race a week ago Sunday to hunt some moss for Alma he failed to get the moss but got poisoned pretty badly. He has been using your remedy - sugar of lead until Saturday. Dr. Fraimfaller told him that soda was better. He finds it pleasanter to use and is getting better.
The cars are running on South St. now out to Prospect there South to Cedar and West to Harrison Ave. We have such nice large cars now especially on the Akron and Alliance lines.
Eva is still spending her time with her music except a little house cleaning once in a while. She is going to sing tomorrow night at an entertainment at the Odd Fellows Temple. I wish you could hear her now. It is almost a year since you left us and how few letters you have written.
Papa has a regular tenement house now. There are four small families now in the house. There is a young married couple have the east room upstairs. Mrs. Paine and her daughter the other two. Then another newly married couple the parlors, and a man and wife and little girl in the basement. He gets $8.15 a week and he pays all gas bills, both fuel and light. He seems to be well pleased with his plan of renting. So he is getting along all right. He wants to begin studying on his Problem again. He has not done anything at it for a long time. I will now send this to office so it will go out today. Please write soon and oftener you don’t know how I long to hear from you. Good by.
Your loving mother.
April 25, 1904
My dear son,
I don’t know whether I will get this off on the boat that sails Sat or not, but I have been waiting and looking for a letter from you on the Sheridan, but have now given up, I thought it would be for Alma and she would send it on here. I received a letter from her today and card from Laura. They are well and busy.
Fred took a walk up the race a week ago Sunday to hunt some moss for Alma he failed to get the moss but got poisoned pretty badly. He has been using your remedy - sugar of lead until Saturday. Dr. Fraimfaller told him that soda was better. He finds it pleasanter to use and is getting better.
The cars are running on South St. now out to Prospect there South to Cedar and West to Harrison Ave. We have such nice large cars now especially on the Akron and Alliance lines.
Eva is still spending her time with her music except a little house cleaning once in a while. She is going to sing tomorrow night at an entertainment at the Odd Fellows Temple. I wish you could hear her now. It is almost a year since you left us and how few letters you have written.
Papa has a regular tenement house now. There are four small families now in the house. There is a young married couple have the east room upstairs. Mrs. Paine and her daughter the other two. Then another newly married couple the parlors, and a man and wife and little girl in the basement. He gets $8.15 a week and he pays all gas bills, both fuel and light. He seems to be well pleased with his plan of renting. So he is getting along all right. He wants to begin studying on his Problem again. He has not done anything at it for a long time. I will now send this to office so it will go out today. Please write soon and oftener you don’t know how I long to hear from you. Good by.
Your loving mother.
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1.
Canton, O.
April 25, 1904
I can't tell if the date is April 25 or April 20. Barbara thought it was April 25, so I'm going with that.
2.
I have been waiting and looking for a letter from you on the Sheridan
I think the Sheridan must be the USAT (US Army Transport) Sheridan. You can see a picture of it here:
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-43000/NH-43723.html
Title: USAT SHERIDAN, 1892-1910
Caption: SHERIDAN was built in 1892 for the Atlantic Transport line as MASSACHUSETTS and was acquired by the Army with her four sister ships in 1898. She was wrecked off Barnegat light in 1910. Her sisters were LOGAN (ex-MANITOBA), SHERMAN (ex-MOBILE), and GRANT (ex-MOHAWK).
I had never heard of Logan, but I checked, and found that John Logan (1826-1886) was, like Sheridan, Sherman, and Grant, a Union general in the Civil War. Rabbit holes are so enticing.
3.
I thought it would be for Alma and she would send it on here. I received a letter from her today and card from Laura.
Alma is at Oberlin, and Laura is doing Deaconess work in St. Louis.
4.
Fred took a walk up the race a week ago Sunday to hunt some moss for Alma he failed to get the moss but got poisoned pretty badly. He has been using your remedy - sugar of lead until Saturday.
I have trouble with Mama Margaret's handwriting here. A race can be a strong current of water, which I find surprising here, but I can't see what else it would be. And I think it was moss that Fred was looking for, but I'm not sure.
As for Sugar of lead: Googling got me this in a blog:
Sugar of lead, or as it’s called in the 19th century medical literature, saccharum saturni, is lead acetate: Pb(CH3COOH)2. It was once prescribed for intestinal troubles, an odd choice, since one symptom of acute lead poisoning is an upset stomach. Lead poisoning is also known as painter's colic.
A commenter said:
My grandmother would send my father to the drugstore for fifteen cents of sweet lead to treat their poison ivy.
5.
The cars are running on South St. now out to Prospect there South to Cedar and West to Harrison Ave. We have such nice large cars now especially on the Akron and Alliance lines.
More trouble with Mama Margaret's handwriting.
6.
Papa has a regular tenement house now.
Mama dutifully tells Will the news about his father, her ex - Papa Charles. I need to check on this, but I think there were two back-to-back houses, one on Eighth Street and one on Ninth, and maybe Mama Margaret got one and Papa Charles got the other in the divorce. Papa Charles wasn't contributing any money to the family before the divorce, so I guess he was no longer teaching. He got a small disability pension from the government, and renting out rooms would supplement that. I don't know if Papa Charles is living in the house, since he was living in Alliance for a while.
7.
He wants to begin studying on his Problem again. He has not done anything at it for a long time.
What problem? I don't know.
Canton, O.
April 25, 1904
I can't tell if the date is April 25 or April 20. Barbara thought it was April 25, so I'm going with that.
2.
I have been waiting and looking for a letter from you on the Sheridan
I think the Sheridan must be the USAT (US Army Transport) Sheridan. You can see a picture of it here:
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-43000/NH-43723.html
Title: USAT SHERIDAN, 1892-1910
Caption: SHERIDAN was built in 1892 for the Atlantic Transport line as MASSACHUSETTS and was acquired by the Army with her four sister ships in 1898. She was wrecked off Barnegat light in 1910. Her sisters were LOGAN (ex-MANITOBA), SHERMAN (ex-MOBILE), and GRANT (ex-MOHAWK).
I had never heard of Logan, but I checked, and found that John Logan (1826-1886) was, like Sheridan, Sherman, and Grant, a Union general in the Civil War. Rabbit holes are so enticing.
3.
I thought it would be for Alma and she would send it on here. I received a letter from her today and card from Laura.
Alma is at Oberlin, and Laura is doing Deaconess work in St. Louis.
4.
Fred took a walk up the race a week ago Sunday to hunt some moss for Alma he failed to get the moss but got poisoned pretty badly. He has been using your remedy - sugar of lead until Saturday.
I have trouble with Mama Margaret's handwriting here. A race can be a strong current of water, which I find surprising here, but I can't see what else it would be. And I think it was moss that Fred was looking for, but I'm not sure.
As for Sugar of lead: Googling got me this in a blog:
Sugar of lead, or as it’s called in the 19th century medical literature, saccharum saturni, is lead acetate: Pb(CH3COOH)2. It was once prescribed for intestinal troubles, an odd choice, since one symptom of acute lead poisoning is an upset stomach. Lead poisoning is also known as painter's colic.
A commenter said:
My grandmother would send my father to the drugstore for fifteen cents of sweet lead to treat their poison ivy.
5.
The cars are running on South St. now out to Prospect there South to Cedar and West to Harrison Ave. We have such nice large cars now especially on the Akron and Alliance lines.
More trouble with Mama Margaret's handwriting.
6.
Papa has a regular tenement house now.
Mama dutifully tells Will the news about his father, her ex - Papa Charles. I need to check on this, but I think there were two back-to-back houses, one on Eighth Street and one on Ninth, and maybe Mama Margaret got one and Papa Charles got the other in the divorce. Papa Charles wasn't contributing any money to the family before the divorce, so I guess he was no longer teaching. He got a small disability pension from the government, and renting out rooms would supplement that. I don't know if Papa Charles is living in the house, since he was living in Alliance for a while.
7.
He wants to begin studying on his Problem again. He has not done anything at it for a long time.
What problem? I don't know.
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LINKS TO OTHER RELEVANT PAGES IN THIS WEBSITE
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- WILL: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- ALMA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- FRED: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- LAURA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- EVA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- MAMA MARGARET: DOCUMENTS ----- Outgoing
- PAPA CHARLES: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
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