Letter from Edward H. and Sarah Denison on marriages, Francis, and California

[?] September 29 1850

Dear sister Mary, we received your letter mailed at your finally settled home with much please and were much rejoiced that you had at last like Noah’s dove, found rest for the [sole’s?] of your [?]; but regretted to hear that you also should be subject to that dreadful penalty [pain?] which so few escape, but anxiously hope that e’er this that a mothers love, and a mothers joy, is your reward.

I will not fill up a particle of this sheet with excuses uninteresting but will just say I am now impressing the first opportunity for a long long time and also that I am seated beside little Franse’s cradle with my paper in my lap as the only chance I can have to write at all. My family number is besides day laborers occasionally of which 6 are railroad boarders but we hope [er?] the week is through to bid them a joyful adieu as the cars have for 2 or three days settled by us through our peaceful quiet valley making our mountains and hill resound and resound with the shrill neighing of their [?] steel Eve and also our neighbors enjoy our [?] quota of health with the exception of Mrs Henry Stevens formally Mary Ann Perry She was taken in a fit [or?] [eathis?] eons congestion of the brain one evening in January last at an evening singing school, was brought home in an almost senseless state and remained so for a number of days but finally regained her mind but not so her strength and health, it is with great difficulty that she can walk and she probably sits up about as much as I did when you left, her nervous sister has sustained the greatest shock they were married some 3 weeks since very much to the amasement of the unthinking and the astonishment of those who have not the hearts to appreciate heavy anxiety immediately after the ceremony they started for Saratoga and by easy stages accomplished the journey in four days

[Thas?] one of the big weeks in bastleton as the anual cattle show and fair comes off and also the finishing of both the white hall and Poultney railroad takes place far as the village of course these will be a deal of rejoicing today nothing of [?] consequences how pleasant it would be if your self and yours could be with us how snuggle would hide ourselves a way from the confusion and talk over the past and plan for the future but that may not be now if ever for us

We were glad that you should in so many words in your letter to Cousin Henry say you were not unhappy for some have the impression had gone forth both among your own and the friends of omissions, as well as those who oppose such efforts, that you regretted having embarked in such an enterprise nor that you repented your choice of a companion, but that the trials and self denial were more than you could well bear for we can now appeal to your writing and an answer to [enemies?] We were desirous that no such feeling should exhibit more fore the sake of the cause than your own sake much as we deplored that.

It’s bad taste entirely to not embark on the frail fickle sea of matrimony among the bachelors and maids [among?] the number is James Adams [?] miss [woolsen?] all the world agreeing with him that he has a fine lady for a wife Mr H Guswold to a miss [Basset?] Tombson to a stranger besides a host of others Dr Perkins is to be soon to be soon to [?]’s wifes mother Edwards writing says I must close by subscribing myself

Your sister Sarah

Dear Brother and Sister Lyman

In common with the rest of the family I will contribute to make up a family letter + yet when I reflect how long time has passed since I have written to you I am almost ashamed to write but my only apology is a general one – an aversion to writing + after all I highly prie this means of holding conver[sations] with departed friends I am happy to learn from your writing that you are as well supplied with the absolute necessaries of life as you are for in the general rush for Callafonia + the general [rays] for golde –the consequent neglect of agriculture amid such an unprecedented increase of population I have expected to hear of much suffering + starvation – you know that from the first I doubted the prosperity of our AHMS endeavoring to sustain a mission West of the Rocky mts while at the same time our more contiguous states were in so much need of help. But not withstanding my private judgement in the ease I sincerely hope + pray that you may succeed in the object of your mission + may you have the pleasure of seeing the work of the Lord [?] in your hands

so many of our acquaintice have gone to California that the territory west of the Rocky Mountains seems much nearer to us than it formerly did + when the Rail Road is completed from us to you we shall then be neighbors again is if we live to see it accomplished the cars now run past us [?] in a day so if you come to see us you can get off in our [turnabout?] by the way we are not very well suited with R Roads for this one has split our farm fatally our friends are much as they were + look much as they did when you left except the wear + tear of time + trials. By the way Bro I did not tell some large stories of Oregon productions? Or does your observation confirm the truth of trees 15ft through 300 high + wheat I cannot tell how much or does the western breast of mother earth yield, atlas all about the same as the one that we have been wont to derive our nourishment from in short have you [?] in stature any [send?] you first trod the soil of old [harper’s? Pauper’s?] coast? I trust you will answer me in this + please to add as much other matter of interest as may come within your observation + may the Lord bless you + keep you from all evil + when you have done with the toils + cares of earth + all things shall fade from your vision. May you be revived to everlasting h[?]

Accept this from your brother

EH Denison