Townfoot, 17 May 1883

A long newsy letter about health, mainly, and the wearying wait for letters from America.  In two places Marion is writing Aunt Agnes's messages for her.

Townfoot
Sanquhar
17th May 1883

My Dear Friends

It is now a long time since I wrote to you or got a letter from you. Aunt has been talking about you all so often this some time past that she told me just to write to you and say that she takes such wearing fits that she would be so pleased to get a letter often some times she says she is sure Uncle John would not know me now. 

I hope this will find you all in good health. Aunt has been wonderful well in health but she is failing she went away to Hawcleughside to help them to set potatoes and she is come home quite done out poor body she is so willing to work but she cannot Tam did not want her to go but she would go and try Tam & his wife and family are all well they have another addition to their family on the 17th of March they have two sons and a daughter now, Samuel, Tam, and Mary. I am not getting any better the doctor says I am weaker this last two or three weeks I feel it myself. Aunt tells me she thinks me more helpless every time she lifts me to get the bed made, but it is God's will and I hope he  will give me grace to be content with my lot whatever way I may be 

I may also tell you that my sister Sarah died on the 18th of April and has left three little ones which is likly to feel the want of their mother very much she has been ill for a long time her trouble was consumption there is many a different trouble we are afflicted with and all our afflictions are sent for some end if only we can see what for my brother James has had a sore time with typhus fever among his family his wife was worse than any of the children she was not thought to get better but God has his own ways of working she is getting better but very slowly she is able to sit up but can walk none yet James was nurse himself for two months but it was a blessing. He kept well himself for with eight children and their mother lying he would have plenty to do.

Uncle William and his wife and family are all well uncle is still working in the woods now I think I have told you about all our friends. We have had very cold weather this spring till this week it has been a little warmer they tell me that grass is far back yet. Tam is still with Mrs. Slimmon work about here is very dull and provision is very high. How are you getting on with your new business I hope you are doing well Aunt bids me say if she was only within reach she would go to th [torn paper] with you and she would keep you from wearing for altho her legs and arms are failing her tongue can wag yet and tell John if I had him between me and the door when I take a wearing fit for a letter he would think me as good at speaking as ever now I have written her story as near the way she has told me as I can now I am getting tired but hoping to hear from you soon and with kind regards to you all every one and all other friends I am your Affectionate friend Marion Brown

Townfoot, 17 January 1883

 Marion Brown, "helpless as ever," and four years into a phase of not being able to walk, reports on the winter weather in Sanquhar.*  She's also very grateful for a gift from America, and concerned about Aunt's ever declining health. (Spoiler alert: Aunt Agnes will live almost another twenty years from when this letter was written.) Mention of the men in the family knitting socks around the fire, in the old days; and the mention of swine curds, of course.

*Given the date, I was kind of hoping this extreme weather might be an echo of Krakatoa, which created worldwide weather havoc when it exploded in 1883--but that wouldn't happen for another few months after Marion's letter was written.  Nope, just the usual rotten winter along the Nith.

Townfoot
Sanquhar
17th January 1883

My Dear Friends

I write to let you know that I received your very welcome letter all right give Uncle John my kind regards and say to execpt my best thanks for the present he sent me I can not write in words the gratitude I feel in my heart for his kindness to me as the saying goes a friend in need is a friend indeed, and I hope you will always have plenty and may God give you a blessing and good health for what in this world can we enjoy if we have not health.

I was glad to see from your letter that you was all well when you wrote and I hope this will find you still enjoying the same precious blessing. Aunt sends her kind regards to you all and many thanks for your kindness you are to tell uncle John that she has got a pair of new clogs of the money he sent but she can not get them so neat now as when uncle Joseph and him used to be knitting stockings at the Bogg fire for she is bothered with corns. She was just telling me she thinks she sees them and hears them talking, poor body there is not so much difference of her to look at but her strength is failing and she is much stifer, I have to tell you she would not join the waggon with you but she could milk the cow and make you swine curds yet but she is a little slower in the step now as when you saw her. 

I hope you will get on well with your market but you must have patience and give it a fair trial a person cannot get on all at once, you have pretty long hours but there is always a something so we must just put up. We had a very severe snow storm here Aunt saw Mr. Kennedy of Brandley one day and he told her he had never seen so much snow it was three days before they could get a cart from Brandleys to William Halberts and there was four men working all the time it was not on that road alone but round the whole district there was a complete block up Tam could not get to Wanlockhead with the carts for more than a week and two days there was more than fifty men from Wanlockhead working on Mennock road to get it cleared but the thaw came very mildly which was a good thing if it had come quickly the melting of so much snow might have done great damage. 

I am glad to be able to tell you that Tam and his wife and two boys are all well in the meantime. Uncle William and his wife & family are all well my Sister Sarah is very poorly from what accounts I get there is no hope of her geting better her youngest child died on Christmas morning. I don't feel any better as yet I am lying in bed as helpless as ever but I am very thankful I have the use of my hands it is four years next month since I could walk any and I have suffered a good deal in that time and God alone knows how long I have to lie but I must just hope for the best and leave the result in God's hands he knows what is best for us. 

now I must stop with kind regards to you all in which Aunt and all the rest joins Aunt says you are to write sooner hoping this will find you all well I am your affectionate friend Marion Brown

Tower Cottages, 26 April 1874

This is a dreary spring letter! Everyone at Tower Cottages has been sick with colds, Marion Brown has "not the same spirit" since they moved from the Bogg,* Aunt is dreaming of James Bryden having an ill relation, and many in the neighborhood have died recently. But... the weather has been beautiful, and Marion is grateful to be feeling better.

*The difference between the Bogg and the location of Tower Cottages was quite striking when we visited Sanquhar this summer. The Bogg has a dramatic setting, hilly, with a grand view even on a stormy day (called "outstanding panoramic views" by the rental agency these days). Tower Cottages has no such view, but as Marion says, perhaps the nearby walking is more pleasant.

Tower Cottages
April 26th 1874

My Dear Friend

I have no doubt but you may think it strange of me always being so long in answering your letters from this place I don't know how it is I have not the same spirit. However puting all that aside I hope this will find you and all friends well when it reaches you. We have all had a very bad turn with cold. Tom was worst but I think the warm weather is going to make him better we have had beautiful weather for the last two weeks.

Aunt was bad to but to tell the truth she is so much of her way that she does not feel herself at all. I have to tell you from her that she wakened dreaming about you this morning and she thought that both you & her was at the Bogg again and you was going to carry a woman in from the door that was not well and she can send you nothing very brights this time but perhaps she will have more to say next time and she hopes you will not be long in writting after you get this and let us know if anything has been wrong with any of you that she started to dream.

I have had a very bad turn myself but how thankful I ought to be that I am so much better and can move about again. there has been a good many deaths around us this spring both old and young

This will be a beautiful place in summer there is a glen goes up past the house and with trees and flowers it is quite a pleasure to take a walk along the side of it. Uncle William and all his family is quite well uncle is often asking for you. give my kind love to uncle John and Joseph and all friends not forgetting yourself and Marion and how well I could like to be beside you. now I must stop and beleive me to be your Affectionate Friend

Marion Brown

be sure and write soon and let me know all the news and if you ever hear about me getting married now. M. B.

Tower Cottages, 5 March 1874

A chatty letter to James Bryden. Marion reports the news (Tom Scott's job at the quarry, a new baby for uncle William, the death of her uncle Adam Brown), and her uncertainty about the future--she still hopes to go to America, soon, but does not want to leave Aunt. She didn't like being part of her new cousin's naming ceremony at church; she has to walk a ways to meet the postman from Tower Cottages, and the new setting also makes her more "weary" for a letter.

Tower Cottages
By Sanquhar
Dumfries Shire
March 5th 1874

My Dear friend

I have much pleasure in answering your kind letter and I hope this will find you and all friends well when it reaches you Aunt is in moderate good health and Tom is keeping better I have had a very bad cold but I think I am on the way of getting better.

Tom is working in a quarry close at the house and what shall I tell you uncle Williams wife has another daughter and I carried it to the church on Sunday the first day of March to be named and I can tell you I would rather have been some other where for I did not like the job. However some body had to do it and I have got over it. I don't know how I have to answer your question as to going to America I could like so well to go myself and the only thing that keeps me is I do not like to leave Aunt and I can asure you if I do come I will bring anything you give me the order for and I will let you know in plenty of time to send me the money and I think I could get over velvet for a jacket without putting it round my body below my sark and I am sure we would have many a happy day together if we was spared to meet, many a time when I am sitting thinking I remember the time when uncle John used to dress me with ribbons and tell me to walk through the house with a prim mouth, but time is very uncertain

I have lossed two uncles my Grandmother and my father in less than a year. You can tell uncle Joseph the first time you see him after you get this that Adam Brown my uncle died on the 28th of Feburary and was only a week ill it was inflmation that was his trouble and it was the same with my father but I hope they are all happier as we could have made them here.

now you must tell Marion that I meant to have written to her before this but with one thing and another I am behind but I hope you will excuse my indolence and if we ever meet I will pay up for want of letters with my tongue and if ever we do meet you know we will have many a queer story to turn over. now I must stop for it is near post time and I have a good bit to go to meet him with kind love to you in which Aunt joins I remain your affectionate Friend Marion Brown

PS be sure and write soon after you get this for I weary more here as I did at the Bogg goodbye and God be with you all M. B

Aunt bids me say that you are to tell uncle John if he has not a letter away he is to write soon M.B.

Tower Cottages, 11 January 1874

The change Marion Brown has feared is her new reality as this letter posts. The Brown/Scott household is no longer living at the Bogg, but closer in to town at Tower Cottages. Tam Scott, still recovering from his illness (probably tuberculosis), is working in a wet quarry and feeling the effects. Aunt is considering emigration to America--where she might live near her brothers and their families--and Marion Brown is hopeful. Marion wants to go to America, but won't leave Aunt behind. Meanwhile, Marion's grandmother has passed away at Carronbridge, and she traveled to be with her family there for a week. The new year passed with little notice in their new home.

Tower Cottages
January 11th 1874

My Dear Friend

I know you will be thinking me long in writting to you but when you know all the ups and downs I have had you will forgive me I hope this will find you in good health and I am glad to be able to say that we are all in moderate health in the meantime altho we all feel a great change to what we was used to at the Bogg. Aunt has been very bad with a sore back this some time for a week she was not able to cross the floar but she is rather better this two days past. sometimes she thinks she will go to America and then she thinks she cannot go. Tam is working in a quarry close at the house but he is not agreeing very well with it for he gets himself wet often and he does not do to be wet since he was ill. I would like very well if Aunt would make up her mind to go to America for I would like to so well to be there but the only thing is I would not like to leave her poor body she is so much off her way that some times she is quite stupid and if I was to leave her she has nobody but I would like so well if she would go give Marion my kind love and say that I am going to write to her some of these days. We had a very quite new year we scarcly knew the difference. I think I have little more worth writting at this time and you must not take my example but write soon and let me know how you are getting on my grandmother died after the term and I was away at Carronbridge for more than a week now I must stop and with kind love to you in which Aunt joins I remain your very affectionate friend
Marion Brown
Tower Cottages
By Sanquhar
Dumfriesshire
Scotland

PS be sure and write soon M. B.

Bogg, 31 October 1872

The last letter surviving from 1872, a fall report delayed until news of the next year's rent was known. Aunt's cheese production has suffered from sick cows, and the landlord says he won't raise their rent this year in light of that--but the threat of future rent increases remains.

The weather is wet and an uncle's hay isn't up. And a neighbor has died suddenly. "Mr. Hyslop Cleneries" probably means "Mr. Hyslop who lives at Clenries," a nearby house. There was a John Hyslop living at Clenries who won an award from the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in 1872, for a "cheviot tup" (a kind of breeding ram)--maybe it was him? "Ten hours illness" seems to be a phrase that often refers to cholera, and there were cholera epidemics about this time (1873 in the US, 1872 in India).

This letter includes a rare reference to Marion's own siblings (her sister Sarah is marrying in London soon). And a not-so-rare reference to Marion's dreams of seeing James Bryden back in Sanquhar, offering to take Marion away to America.

The Bogg
October 31st 1872

My Dear Cousin

You will be thinking I am not a woman to my word at all when I am so long in writing after sending you word that I would write last week. I would have written but Aunt would not let me till once we got our first lot of cheese away and then I could send you word whither Mr. Kennedy was going to make the rent more this year or not so he was here yesterday and he said seeing as the cows had the disease last spring he would not ask any more rent for another year. we got 115 cheese away last week but they were not near so heavy as they were last year. There is a want of thirty stone and that is a good deal. Aunt thinks she will can make up a few stones yet but we had no turnips and the cows are greatly failed. Uncle William has had a very bad time the weather has been so wet that he could not get his hay up and I don't know if it is all up yet and it is past the time of the year for hay wining[?]

I am going on and writting and never asking how you are. I hope you and all friends beside you are well how is your Jeamie getting on I was dreaming about him the other night I thought he was come to take me away to America but when I wakened it was but a dream but I must say I was quite disapointed when I wakened and did not see him many a time we talk over the fun we had when he was here and you can tell him that I could dance a polka with him now I have to tell you from Cousin John Glencross that he is wearing very much for the card you said you would send him he is not getting very strong yet but is better as he has been.

We had a very sudden death beside us last week you can tell uncle Joseph he knows who it is. his name is Mr. Hyslop Cleneries he died in the ten hours illness this is his funeral day. I have some thing more to tell you my sister Sarah is going to be married in about a fortnight after this but she will be married in London so I will not be at her marriage her intended husband is a Jewler I have never seen him so I dont know what he will be like.

Aunt sends her kind love to you and you are to be sure and write and let us know how you are all getting on there was a spree at Brandleys last night and I suppose it was a very merry night there was above forty at it and Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy danced till the last I had a busy day getting them all dressed for it but I was not there I waited at home and was housekeeper. now I must come to a close and give uncle Joseph and aunt Marion my kind love remember me kindly to John Johnstone and Sarah and also your father and Jeamie Bryden not forgetting your own dear self from your affectionate friend Marion Brown

PS be sure and write soon M. B

Bogg, 11 April 1867

Another letter on black-bordered stationery this week--different stationery, the border is wider, but it still means a death reported. This time it's Aunt Elspeth, another resident of the Bogg (not sure how she's related to the rest just now). The Miss Kennedy mentioned as living at Brandleys is probably Mary Kennedy (b. 1848), who would eventually marry a doctor named Hyslop. Robert McWhir, who was mentioned in the 1865 letter, reappears here. Marion is still 23 at the writing of this letter, and makes no mention of her own health status in this letter.

Paragraph breaks and links for dialect words added.

My Dear Uncle

I lift my pen to write you a few lines to let yo know how things moves about the Bogg. perhaps before this reaches you you will have heard that there is another blank made in our home, Aunt Elspeth got her journey finished here on the 24 of March she was only a week close confined to bed but she was very weak for a long time before, it was water that was her trouble in the end the cough and the breathing was very hard for some time but it was much easier nearer the end

Dear uncle we have had a great deal of trouble at the Bogg within this last two years but such is the way of this world. All things decays and goes away and man is compaired to A flower that blooms in the morning and is withered at night and that may show us the uncertainity of our time here, we don't know how soon we may be called from this to another world where there is no change all is either happiness or misery.

Dear uncle Aunt Nannie is thinking you have forgot us altogether you have been so long in sending us a letter she wearies more since she was left alone. I may say alone for we have A big house but death is makeing it empty but we ought not to pine at what God sees fit to lay upon us but submit willingly and say 'thy will be done.'

I may let you know what is going on about the Bogg the cows is begun to calve and you know from that that the work is fairly commenced for another year there is twelve cows calved but the queys is very scarce we have only three yet and we have two litters of pigs one has 8 and the other has 7 and one of them is so ill natured she will not let the pigs be beside her so you see the swine is as thrawn as ever yet. As for the hens Tom Scott has great work with them he is always wanting his mother to get some new kinds for he thinks the old ones is not very good he is a great man among beasts of all kinds he has three pets and they have all lambs and he can scarcly get sleeping about them I think I have given you an account of the most of things but we are going to be rather scarce of hay--which is not a very good thing but they think they will get through. I may let you know what the people is thinking about doing at Brandleys this year. Mr. John Kennedy is going away to South America he sails on the 21 of this month and it will be an empty house at Brandleys for there will be nobody but Miss Kennedy and her papa left. And Robert McWhir is going to leave at Martinmas and he has been a long time among us

[no signature, may not be the end of the letter]

Bogg, 25 July 1866

This week's letter is written on black-edged stationery, which nearly always means a letter reporting a death in the family. Marion, age 23, still in bed, is writing about the death of her uncle James Glencross (1824-1866), brother of her letter's intended reader, John Glencross in Pennsylvania. James was heading the household at the Bogg, and doing the outside work before he fell ill from a "belling throat" (badly infected throat and ear)*, and died from "congestion of the Brain." This untimely death required some family rearrangements--another uncle, Joseph, will come stay a while to work and head the Bogg household as well as of his own family.

This is a six-sided letter, and I've inserted minimal paragraph breaks where they seemed necessary (Marion rarely breaks up her writing with punctuation, let alone paragraph breaks, but a little spacing does help in the reading).

*A bealing throat is mentioned in this 1827 letter by Thomas Carlyle; there's also a passage in Amelia E. Barr's 1886 novel The Bow of Orange Ribbon, where a character is mentioned "making a plaster for black Tom's bealing finger." The word "bealing" was noted in use in Appalachia as recently as the 1920s, used for the same meaning Marion uses it here (see Carey Woofter, "Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia," American Speech 2(8)(May 1927): 347-367).

Dear uncle I take the pen to write you A few lines to let you know how we are getting on and I have sad news to tell you this time but as God sees fit we ought to be willing to submit to his will for he knows what is best for us for I had little thought that the first letter I was to write to you was to inform you of uncle James's Death for although he was not very strong we little expected we was to lose him so "soon"

he was not very strong the whole Spring and he took A bad cold about two months since and he was just getting A little better when he took A belling throat and after that he had congestion of the Brain which is A very dangerous trouble and the Docters said it proceeded from A sore ear he has had for A long time he was confined to his bed for three weeks and I think the most of his pain was past before he took the bed for he never complained of any thing scarcly after he took the bed but one great blessing we ought to be thankful for that he was sensible to the last but it is A sore trial for we never was left without A head before and he was like A father to every one of us and I was to give you Aunt Nanies compliments and say she losed one head and now another but she thinks this is the worst and it will be the worst for us all and we are very lonly for he had always A cheerie word to every one.

I may let you know how things is to go on for me A while we had Mr. Kennedy over on Monday and he thinks it is best for Aunt Nanie to go on with the cheeses till Martinmas and uncle Joseph is to come to stop with us and look after the cows and out door things for we could not get on without A man to stay in the house with us and he is not very strong he was away in the North draining an he came home to the funeral and he is not fairly railed yet uncle Joseph family is all well just no and so is uncle Williams we had him here two weeks the time uncle James was ill, as for myself I am still confined to bed but I think I am A little stronger than I was in the winter all the rest here is wonderful and the busy time is commenced and when one has plenty of work it helps to keep up the mind they commenced the hay today and we have George White and my Brother James to mow it this year again and they will be very busy for A while all friends and acquatinces is well as far as I know but we dont know how soon A chance may come

give my kind regards to Marion and I hope by this time She is quite strong again for we heard she had been very ill since you last wrote kind regards to yourself and all inquiring friends pleas write soon and let us know how you are both getting on and I will add no more remaining your affectionate niece Marion Brown

now uncle uncle James had A line in the Bank and uncle Joseph says you have to send home word what claim you have and if the money is lifted you will look to him and not the Bank for your share of it and you must write soon and let him know yours, MB