ADDRESSED TO: Mrs. A.J. Stage, Mansfield, Tioga Co., Pa.
FROM: Emma Redding, postmarked Mount Sterling, Ohio
November 8th, 1891
Dear sister i will answer your kind and welcome letter which found us well and i hope these few lines will find you all the same. i have got a nice boy1. he is as fat as a little pig but he haint feeling very well now. we had him out to much while ma was sick but now she is at rest with the angels. She was beried week ago yesterday2. Hellen if i could only die as happy as she did that is all i ask. on wednesday before she died the preacher was there and she Shouted nearly all the time he was praying. she called us one by one to her and told us she wanted us all to meet her. i have tried to live a better life for nearly a year and if ma is in heaven i hope i will meet her but that we dont no. wel i have got my foot nearly broke. i was to the Docter and he sed one bon was mashed down but haint quite brok. it will be 2 weeks a monday evening and i havent walked eny till today and i hafto have a stick. how is your ma3 and the children4? i wish i could see all of you. have you got eny rats out there? if you haint i will ship you a car load. we have lot of them hear. we have rosa whiting working for us. Aunt Hellen was to see me one day a uncle Charlie5 maid out i to eat one meal but soon as he ate he went away. i dont no why they dident com enymore before he went hom. i suppose they thout i wasent deasent. hellen som of them told them who John belong to6 and i suppose that is the reason why they dident com. i havent ben to Clara7 since last January. they was hear 2 weeks ago today. they was wel. what is Birt adoing?
Well i will bring my letter to a close for it is time to go to bed. Good By from Emma R to H Stage
Notes from the peanut gallery:
1) That would most likely be Renzo Redding.
2) Mary (Knapp) Stage.
3) Mary Elizabeth (Ganoung) Wood.
4) Tessie Viola and Nellie Avis.
5) Charles E. and Helen (Colegrove) Stage.
6) Family secret time. Emma Stage was the mother of John Emerson Stage (b. 10-21-1889). John Emerson Stage was adopted by Clara Angeline (Stage) Willoughby and her husband, Andrew Thomas Willoughby. John's natural father was apparently from a quite well-to-do family (as we'll see in later letters when he provides $). However, he was largely absent during John's youth. This man, name unknown, never produced any other male heirs. Later in life he approached John to offer an inheritance in exchange for taking his name. It has become something of a mark of family honor that John declared something to the effect "you didn't give me a name when I needed one, I won't take it now."
7) Clara (Stage) Willoughby.