ADDRESSED TO: Miss Ella Wood, Mansfield, PA, Care of Mary E. Wood
FROM: Sarah Owen1 (Mary E. Wood's sister), Odessa, New York
Sept 16th 1885
Dear Ella & sister
Leib I will try and answer your letter thant I recived in July and shant blame you if you feel provoked at me but Ella if you could see all I have to do I was picking beries all through July and then my other work got all behind and I was tired out and have staid tired ever since We milk six cows this summer and it makes lots of work for one to do alone I told Mate what you said about her coming out She said she did not know what to tell you I want her to come if she possibly can I want you and your ma both to come before it gets cold weather so we cant get enywhere We was over to Georges2 last week Chloe3 has got her carpet move She has got over fifty yards & it is nice but she never will get it made and down in the world She had only 2 widths sewed together and she has had it more than a month They have got lots of apples and they had pears & plums They will have a nice lot of grapes I bought a half bushel of plums of them George says he wants to come out there this fall if he can He works like a dog all of the time I have not heard a word from Uncle Arad4 since he went away from here Leib you wanted to know about Min Kellogg She is alive yet but very bad I have been to see her since I got Ellas letter Doc Kellogg wife was buried yesterday Mrs Wickham and me went to the funeral Dora Hagar was buried last Sunday It is quite sickly around here now with fevers Leib I have got ma's tomb stone and got it all sat and fixed up good I went to see it yesterday I want you to be sure & come out this fall before it gets to cold to go enywhere I want you to go up to the grave yard while it is nice weather I have not heard from John5 in some time Now dont wait as long as I have for I want to hear from you if you only write a few lines to let me know how you I was afreid that hot weather would kill you I shall have to close My eyes hurt so I cant write eny more this Now do write soon From Sarah Owen to sister & Ella.
Give my love to Charleys6 folks
Ella I have had a line from Mate7 this morning She is coming home the middle of next month and is going to work for Mrs BURGE this winter comence the first of November I want you and your ma to come while she is home
Notes from the peanut gallery:
1) Sarah Owen nee Ganoung, b. 1835 d. 1887 m. Samuel B. Owen
2) George is thought to be George J. Wood b. September 19,1851 d. June 30, 1920, son of Mary E. WOOD.
3) Chloe is thought to be the wife of George.
4) Uncle Arad is Arad Smith b. July 4, 1800 d. November 2, 1889 m Margery Ganoung. See Joyce M. Tice's Tioga County website for more information on the Smiths.
5) My money says John's a relative. I offer that because non-relatives seem to get last names. Since it's one Ganoung sister addressing another, he might be a sibling. This is the earliest letter and the only one from Sarah Owen. "Uncle John" is later mentioned as having died in Michigan in a letter from Mate Wood to her mother, Mary E. Wood.
6) Charley could be Charles A. Wood (Mary E. Wood's son). It just doesn't sound right, though. As with item #5, the relative theory is in play.
7) Mate is Mary A. Wood (b. 8-18-1853), daughter of Mary E. Wood