Searching for Susan

Edwin receives Susan's letter the same day she mailed it and answers immediately.

Acton Mon. Evening Sept. 3, 1866

My dear friend,

I thank you for the pleasure your good long letter gave me this evening and can hardly believe that anything I can write will give you the satisfaction I derived from reading yours and examining its contents. The pictures I think are very fine and I am perfectly satisfied with the result of the day's experience in that line. I think it is very easy to come to the decision you have in regard to mine but yours are all very good and I hardly know which to call the best but if I were to make my selection think I should choose the largest of the card pictures as nearest the original and for this reason should prize it the most. The vignette is very good and is usually my preference. I feel much interested to see the larger size and shall hope to do so the next time I visit you which I hope may be before many days - not merely to see the pictures, I would not have you think though it is pleasant to look at the pictures of friends but I always thought there was more satisfaction in meeting face to face.

My brother and wife are planning to go to Brighton, Boston and Chelsea to be gone two or three days and I shall be obliged to wait another week I suppose before I shall have the pleasure of meeting you. They go down with the team and expect to have a nice time visiting friends. I am boarding with them a few days, mother not being well. She had a severe attack of cholera morbus Saturday night and was not able to sit up any yesterday but today is better and I think will get along without any further trouble. My brother and family took dinner with me or perhaps I should say I took dinner with them at my house yesterday as usual.

I provided the usual bouquet for the pulpit. I have thought of you many times today and felt sorry that you felt it to be your duty to be shut up in the schoolroom this warm day with the prospect, I think, of more of the same sort. I suppose if I should advise you to "slight your work" it would be of no use as I understand it is not your way of doing things.

I was glad to learn of the continued prosperity of the church at Danvers and of the pleasant addition.

I return the pictures, though I am sorry to part with them. I mean the ones that are marked to be "returned" and if it is not too much trouble you may leave an order for a dozen of the smaller size of mine and I will call for them when I am in the city.

Please give my love to your sister and say to her that I am obliged for her invitation to visit Southworth's this week but I have so good a supply of tin ware that I think it will not be necessary to accept at present.

Please give my regards to Miss Brown and tell her to be as easy as she can with you this warm weather. And now I must bid you good night again hoping to hear from you soon and that you will excuse this hasty letter I remain very affectionately yours etc.

Edwin

Edwin refers to Susan's sister Mary, who is the wife of her brother Charles. It's interesting to note that the term, "in-law" never occurs in any of these letters. These relatives by marriage are always referred to as brother, sister, mother or father. Until we realized this, it was very confusing. Equally confusing was the reoccurrence of some of the more common first names.

Edwin and his brother John share work responsibilities at their family shoe business as Edwin is unable to meet with Susan when John is travelling. Otherwise, he seems to have an abundance of free time. The mail is a little slower this week as it is several days before Susan responds.

Lynn, Thurs. afternoon Sept. 6th 1866

My dear Friend.

I was not disappointed yesterday, on my return from school in a letter from you; I felt sure I should find one. And now having finished dinner & entertained company instead of correcting a package of compositions I am going to spend the time in letter-writing and do you care if I write yours first?

This is a lovely day, such as one cannot help enjoying & if you were here, we would take a view from "high rock" which is very pleasant today.High Rock is a hilltop in Lynn, Mass. that offers a marvelous view of the city, the Atlantic Ocean and Boston beyond. A tower topped the hill earlier, constructed in 1847, by a widely popular musical group of the time. The Hutchinson Family Singers were a politically active abolitionist group that travelled the country, singing to large crowds, combining music, satire and comedy. In 1865, in celebration of the end of the Civil War, the tower accidentally burned. A new tower was finally constructed, but not until 1904. The iconic structure still stands today.

Our school opened very pleasantly and I enjoy every day of it. I have copied for you an order of exercises so that you can see how we are employed during each hour. My recitations are very interesting & noon follows morning so quickly that I hardly notice the flight of time. I thank you for remembering me, I did not think I wanted school at present, with such weather as we had on Monday; but my fears concerning the heat were needless. Notwithstanding the many things in school to take up one's attention I have many times thought of you and wished you could spend a day in my recitation room; though it might not be very entertaining to you.

I think, one week ago today we were in Boston; & I do not know but I shall have to go again to replenish my stock of "tin-ware;" the demand is great just now. If you have any difficulty in disposing of yours, you might forward them to Lynn High School and I am quite sure they would soon disappear.

I received a letter from home today, for which I was very grateful. It seems a long time since I was there I was strongly tempted to go today, but would not listen to the temptation, for I ought to stay away one week, but I do not forget that the day after tomorrow will be Saturday.

The "Home" to which Susan refers is Ipswich, where she grew up and where her father still resides. She mentions little of him and as we learned earlier, there seems to be a problem with him that is an embarrassment. Perhaps it is a mental health issue. The situation was serious enough to cause Edwin's brother James to suggest his brother drop Susan as a potential wife. She continues her letter.

A blind pianist came into school today and gave us some very fine music. I asked if he played "Variations of Home, Sweet Home" and he gave it to us in a way you would have enjoyed hearing.

The geranium was very fresh when I opened your letter, and although I have been pressing it, is not much wilted now. If I could paint something like that, how much I should delight in doing it. I do not believe you would advise me to slight any of my work; I think the caution should come in the opposite direction for I think I cannot be too faithful I was taught "Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well." I know that is your doctrine, too.

What do you think of the speeches and course of our beloved (?) Andy Johnson? Particularly that one made at Cleveland? I become so vexed in reading them, that I do not know how to express my indignation. I feel as if I would like to "pitch him out" of the house once occupied by Abraham Lincoln.While Susan was never able to vote in her lifetime, it didn't keep her from expressing her political opinion!

I hope to hear that your mother is quite well by this time. You did not tell me in your letter if she was suited with the articles which Mrs. Fletcher sent her.

I have not been to Black's to order any pictures, possibly Charles will do the errand & he will be happy to do yours also. The day has been so fair that I imagined your brother starting on his visit to Boston etc. I suppose you have double duty when- he is away. I hope if convenient for you I may find a letter on my return from school Monday. And now I must bid you good night & look a few minutes at my lessons for tomorrow. Hoping to see you soon - I am,

aff. yrs. - Susan

Finally, we have Miss Smith signing her first name too!