Bogg, 6 October 1873

More bad news: Cousin Tam Scott, the only man in the household, recently released from Dumfries jail, is now quite ill with lung and heart troubles (sounds like tuberculosis). He "spits a great deal of blood" and cannot work. There are lasting hard feelings related to his "tousel" of a Wilson girl, too, because his uncle Joseph is married to a Wilson. Marion, meanwhile, is experiencing speech impairment again, and taking "galvanic shooks" for them. (Soon after Marion describes her recent bout of speechlessness, she says of the family controversy with the Wilsons, "there is no use saying a word." S0 Marion Brown finds herself both literally and figuratively unable to speak effectively.)

But in America, the Glencrosses have a new house (probably an addition to the core building on Helen Street); Aunt imagines having a "crack" with emigrated friends over "auld lang syne affairs," and Marion dreams of dancing on the Glencross's new floors.

The Bogg
October 6th 1873

My Dear Cousin

I was very glad to see your letter for I always weary to hear from you and I hope this will find you and your father and all the rest of our friends well when it reaches you. I am sorry to have to tell you that Cousin Tom has not been well for the last six weeks and is not much better yet the Doctor says that his heart is bad and his left lung is infected and he spits a great deal of blood at times he takes very little meat and the doctor says he is to take every thing that is supporting and take care and not get himself wet and he has not to work any but the worst of it is he is not able to work any however I hope he may soon get a little better for Aunt thinks so much over him and no wonder for I may say he is her all.

We have got all our hay in but we have a great want this year they have been at the hill gathering bent every day that was dry but it has been very wet weather the whole summer through our potatoe crop is wonderful good but we have very few turnips. so I doubt the cows will not fare so well. Aunt has a good lot of swine this year there is seven that she is fattening and ten little pigs to sell.

now I think I have given you a pretty fair account of all the things about the bogg. You will have had a busy summer getting your hew house set in order but now when it is finished you will have plenty of room and I could like very well to be over to the house heating and I can tell you I would dance a good gig to help to dry the flower. I was five weeks that I could not speak but the doctor gave me Galvanic shooks that has done me good and I hope I may keep well now for I was feared when it came on this time for the last time I was bad I could not speak none for twenty three months however I ought to be very thankful that I am a little better.

I dont know what Rob Wilson would mean to send word to Marion to come home again but she is never content where ever she is and uncle Joseph will be the more of a fool if ever he comes home with her for he was just kept in misery with her here and I suppose it will be much the same with her in America. However quiteness is best and there is no use saying a word.

Aunt sends her kind love to your Father and your self and wishes you both good health to enjoy your new house and the first time you see Mrs. Law you are to give her Aunts kind compliments and say she would like very much to have a crack with her over auld lang syne affairs now I hope you will not be long in writting after you get this letter and let us know how you are all getting on and with kind to you and your Father I remain your loving Cousin
Marion Brown

PS. give James Bryden and all other friends my kind love M. B.

Bogg, 14 September 1871

Disease and harvest work are the main topics here: Aunt Agnes and cousin John Glencross have both been ill in recent times as Marion Brown writes this letter. Aunt, however, is so hard-working, "she will make cheese till she falls into the whey tub." The crops have also been diseased, both the potatoes and the turnips, but they hay was plentiful and Aunt made a lot of cheese in its season.

Dear Uncle

You will be thinking I am long in answering your most welcome letter and welcome it was for we was wearing very much to get a letter from yourself altho we was always hearing how you & Marion was getting on when uncle Joseph wrote that did not satisify us for many a time both Aunt & myself wondered what was come over you However we was very glad to see from your letter that you was well and I am happy to say this leaves us in moderate health but I think Aunt will do as you said in your letter she will make cheese till she falls into the whey tub she has not been so strong this summer she is often troubled with a pain in her back and when it comes in she can scarcly walk and it is a queer house when she can not go about in her useal way but I hope she will keep well if it is Gods will without his help we can do nothing and we ought to be very thankful as long as we are in a moderate state of health.

I must begin and tell you what is going on about the Bogg all the hay is in now and Tam tells me there is as much as was last year we have two as big stacks and the shed filled and those big ricks so I think what ever is wanting there will be no want of hay the potatoe crop is not so good in some parts they are mostly gone with disease our potatoes are diseased to but not so bad yet as some of our neighbours is they tell me the turnips is not very good either they are going with that finger and toe disease so I think the hay will be the most plentiful crop we have. the cows has been wonderful good this year Aunt thinks her cheese will be heavier this year as they were last year. and for pigs Aunt has not so many this year she will have three ready to kill about Martinmas and one breader she thinks will be a good one and another breeder she does not know what it will do yet there is a disease among swine here just now and a great many people is lossing there swine out and out

I have to tell you from uncle William that he has been at Brandleys in harvest they have all the corn cut but none in yet uncle Williams wife & family are all well at present my father and Brother and all the rest of our friends here are all in moderate health.

Cousin John Glencross at Carmacoup has been very bad he has had inflammation of the lung and liver he was very bad for six weeks but the last letter I got from him he was a little better and able to sit up an hour or two. You are to tell uncle Joseph that we got in all our hay in three days there was five hourse one day and four the other two and you are to say from Aunt that she was well served for forkers she had three young men and one married one John Laing Samuel Ballingtyne Robert Hannen these were the three young ones and Thomas McGeachan and you are to tell him from Tam that the day the five horse was on Robert Hannen and him was very hard kept for there was just three forkers at the stack for three at the field and by the time they were at the head of the stack Tam was begun to spell uncle William had to keep the stack for James Hunter was among sheep.

now I will stop as I am going to write a piece to Marion so I will say goodbye remaining your affectionate neice Marion

be sure and write before long you don't believe how Aunt wearies to hear from you M. B.

Bogg, 23 December 1869

This week, the fourth and last letter from 1869. It's an eight-page letter that starts with a note written by John Glencross's brother William Glencross (set in green below), whose spelling isn't quite as standard as Marion Brown's. This letter features several voices, in fact, because Marion takes dictation (set in blue below) from Aunt Agnes (John and William's sister), and relays a message from uncle Joseph (their brother) as well. There are also reports about Helen's mother (that's John Glencross's mother-in-law, Marion Glencross's maternal grandmother, living near Dumfries--John wanted to send her money, but Marion Brown doesn't have the right address yet), and John's son John, a shepherd living in Scotland.

This letter features one of the loveliest passages in the letters, in which Marion Brown urges John Glencross to take care of his teenaged daughter's education--"for it is the best fortune you can give her to make her a good scholar." Marion Brown reminds her uncle that anything can happen in life, but learning can't be taken away; and that her own circumstances would be very different if she had not learned to read and write.

John Glencross and other American friends sent gifts to Sanquhar for the holidays--a check for Aunt Agnes, apples for Marion (who confesses a love for roasted apples). In return, Agnes has a progress report on John's long-promised trousers, and Marion sends a photo of a kinsman.

"The Bogg" Dec. 23rd 1869

Dear Brother it is not often that i write you but as i am just hear at present i will let you know how i am geten on and i am very happy that i can inform you that we are all in good health at present and hops that you and marrion are still enjoyen good health it is a blessen we cannot be to thankful for his goodness to us for god is a bountiful giver and may each one be mad gratful receivers from his hand

i most asuredly owe my kindest love to you for the gift i received from you may gods hand be a round you in all your doings i have bean doen nothing since we came home but a month of winter weather will work in and then we will to the hills again in health permit there is nothing doin about sanquhar so we must just wate a little the days get out a little

as our friend marrion is just watin to give an account of the bog cows and swin i will bid you and all friends goodnght Wm. Glencross

Dear uncle you see I have got uncle William started to write a bit this time but his hand is shaking very bad and I will take the pen a little. I am very glad to be able to tell you that we are all standing the winter pretty well at "the Bogg" as far as it is gone yet which is a great blessing for when we have not got health we cannot enjoy much. I must surely send you my very best thanks for the present you sent me it was so kind of you to mind me among the rest of our friends bu as I say many a time our heavenly Father always provids for the helpless for it is now five years since I could do anything for myself and I have always been well taken care of and I hope God will guide you and give you plenty as long as you are in this world to need it. Aunt Nany was very proud of her present to she is getting very frail now just scarcly able to go about but very contented and happy Mary is wonderful well she is able to go about and do the turns up and down the house

now I will tell you about Helens Mother she is left Dabton and is living with an old lady near Dumfries. she is very healthy and comfortable it was my grandmother at Carronbridge I got the account from and I sent away one letter and I have not had the right address for it is come back to me again but I will do what I can to find her right address before I send away the money.

now here comes Aunt from the byre and she says I have just to write down as she speaks to me. I have to give you her compliments and say that she got the check chashed all right and uncle William came home just the day before I got your letter and he went to the bank with her and she is very proud over her Christmas gift and she will have a good cup of tea over it. And she has visitied none this two years and no saying but you may be the first she will set out to see. and the web she was expected you to get your trousers of is ready now and if well she is expecting to get you a pair with Turnbull in the spring for the tailor was telling us he was willing to take any thing we liked to send.

Now comes an account of the live stock the cows did very well in the forepart of the summer but they all took the Murrain in the end of the harvest and the milk went entirely of them and we had a bad time of it for they were kept in the house for six weeks and never got out not even for a drink and it was very hard work to carry water for so many of them but we had two very willing girls and it was astonishing how we got on now for the swine department I have sold three fat ones one was twelve stones and the other two were somewhere about thirteen stones each and I got seven and eight pence a stone. and they paid my three summer girls at the term and I have two to kill yet and I had two litters of pigs and I will have fourteen of them for sale and they will average about thirteen shillings each so you see I have been very lucky with my pigs now I think I have said my share of the letter so with kind love to you and Marion I will say good night from your sister Agnes---

When I told uncle Joseph I was going to write he said I was to tell you they were all well and he is going to write to you some time and he is very much obliged to you for your kindness for it came in very good stead this winter weather.

perhaps you will have heard before this reaches you about the loss of some of our old neighbours there has been a good many sudden deaths lately James Slimmon died very suddenly about a month since and James Hunters wife died about a fortnight since she was just a week ill and never neither spoke nor moved all the time she was ill. death is never a stranger just showing us that is left that this is not our resting place.

it is a good while since I had a letter from Cousin John I tell him he is very lazy at writting for very often I write him two for one. I have got two cards to send to you one of uncle John Wylies which I will send this time and one of his son Roberts which I will send next time if spared to write again.

give Marion my kind love and tell her to be anxious at the school for it is the best fortune you can give her to make her a good scholar for when once learned no one can take it from her and no saying what we are to need if uncle James had not made me a moderate good scholar what would have become of me now when I have to write every thing I want to say but when she is at school you will have more to do but when one has moderate health they are busy

I had nearly forgot to say that our turnip crop did very well this year but the potatoes were not so good and we had no corn Aunt thought she would be as well without it and she got her oat meal from Mr. Kerr Whitehill and very good meal it is.

you must give my kind love to David Williams and tell him I was very proud over the apples he sent me and if I was with you I could nearly live on apples for I am very fond of roasted ones. I think if I was over among you I would be useful at times to altho I can neither walk nor speak I could sew on a button or knitt a stocking as need might require. Maggie Williamson has not been very well she has had a bad turn with her head but it is a good thing she is getting better again so you may tell David I am just waiting for an account of his marriage some day. now uncle I hope you will excuse so many blunders in this letter for my head gets very stupid at times so with kind love to Marion and yourself and all enquireing friends I remain your affectionate neice Marion Brown

please write soon and a happy new year to you all