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.

Live Greetings from Sanquhar!

We visited Scotland in August as a family, and spent five days in Sanquhar (my first time there). It's a fine burgh, with beautiful surrounding countryside. Here we are at the Bogg, where Marion Brown lived (photograph by Iain Hutchison, who kindly gave us the complete Marion Brown Tour on a rainy chilly day):
There's a mailbox near one of Marion Brown's in-town addresses that still has "VR" on it--for "Victoria Regina"--so it's been in use since Marion's lifetime. Seemed only right that I should also send something to my American kin from that box. (I made a set of Marion Brown postcards before we left, in preparation for this.)

We saw Marion Brown's tombstone (shared with Tam Scott and his wife), and Aunt Agnes's tombstone (in the most forlorn cemetery ever--outside the town of Wanlockhead, nowhere near a church, haunted by many sheep), and several others' as well. We were also in Sanquhar for the 100th Riding of the Marches--a grand parade and field day, with great bands.

Tower Cottages, 12 February 1874

A newsy letter, punctuated with some rather shocking news. An acquaintance in the neighborhood has murdered her newborn. This story is mentioned almost in passing, as it relates to the troubles of Mr. Kennedy their old landlord. Marion fully expects to go to America here, or so it sounds--she's making plans with James to carry some things across. Tam is working again, but not strong and prone to "thinking fits" and low spirits.

Tower Cottages
Feburary 12th 1874

My Dear Friend

I received your very welcome letter in due time and was glad to see from it that you was all well when you wrote. I hope you have got a letter from me before this reaches you at least you ought to have got one and uncle John to. we are all in moderate health in the meantime with the execption of having the cold we have all had a turn of it but is on the way of getting better. Tam is working in a quarry close at the house when he is able but he is never so strong as he was he has never got over the turn up he had in summer he takes thinking fits and gets low spirited over it all that can be said to him you say that if I come out in spring you want me to bring you out some things I will only be to happy to do so and if Aunt would only concent to take the road I could be quite pleased for it has been my desire for a long time to be in America the only thing I would not like to leave Aunt. but we will see what turns up in a month or two.

the way Aunt left the Bogg I was very sorry for her but Mr. Kennedy has got more matters to talk about as what he said to Aunt you will remember Katty Hunter at the Bridge that you and me when to see well she has had a child since we left and has murdered it so he can take a look at that for a change but just to tell the truth Aunt is better away from the Bogg as to stop and him always grumbling about our some thing else.

you must give Marion my kind love and say she must excuse me for being so long in writting to her for I have been away nursing since I got her last letter uncle William has got another addition to his family both Mother and daughter was doing well when I left uncle is working in the woods just now. now James I think I must draw to a close give my kind regards to all that asks for me and the same to yourself from your affectionate Friend
Marion Brown
Tower Cottages by Sanquhar
Dumfriesshire
Scotland

PS Be sure and write soon I weary more here as I did at the Bogg 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.

July 2: Happy Birthday, Marion Brown!

Marion Brown was born on this date in 1843. Her correspondent Marion Glencross Bryden had a daughter Helen on July 2; and Helen Bryden Marsh's great-grand-son Chris (my cousin) was also born on July 2. So it's the family birthday.

July 2 also marks the second anniversary of the Letters from Sanquhar blog, because I started it on Marion Brown's 165th birthday. So happy two years. Got plenty of letters to cover several more years, at the rate I'm going.

Bogg, 9 October 1873

This is the last surviving letter dated in 1873. Health problems still dominate the news from Sanquhar: Tam Scott is still down with the illness he contracted in Dumfries Jail; his mother Aunt Agnes is aging and her family wants her to give up "the cows" and take it easy. James Bryden has offered to pay Marion's expenses if she wants to travel to America, and she thanks him for the offer, but says she cannot leave just yet, with the household in such low times. Still, Marion imagines dancing in her uncle John's "fine house" in Pennsylvania. (Marion Brown doesn't mention her own health, but it must have been somewhat improved for her to be away from the Bogg visiting her own grandmother.)

The Bogg
October 9th 1873

My Dear Friend

It is with much pleasure I write to you to let you know that I received your letter in due time. Altho it was a day or two after it came here before I got it as I happened to be away seeing my grand mother when it came however I am here at last and I hope this will find you in moderate health but I am sorry to tell you that Tom has not been well for the last six weeks and is not much better yet but you will get full particulars about him from Marion as I wrote to her last week. all the rest of us is about our useal way Aunt is just going on her old way but has not been so strong this summer but to tell you the truth she has two much to do if she would only give up the cows but she will not consent to do that.

I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer to think that you are so kind as say that you will send me money when ever I like to take me across but I cannot send you word this time when I may come for as Tom is not like to be strong I dont know how things may turn up if he does not get better soon and altho he was better I know he will never have a day's pleasure after what has happened. for he cannot get above it.

but perhaps I will can tell you next time I write to you I have got a letter from my Brother in law since I began to write telling me that my sister Sarah [h]as a son and you can let Marion and uncle John & Joseph know. I think I have not much more worth writting I am glad to hear that uncle John has got such a fine house if ever I am spared to come to americe I will dance a good jig in some of the rooms now I must conclude

give Marion my kind love and execpt of the same to yourself and dont be long in writting for we are always proud to see your letters I remain your loving friend
Marion Brown