Graham Letter - John Graham 1855

On April 21, 1855 both Joseph Graham and John Peart signed affidavits declaring their intent to become citizens of the US. Such an affidavit constituted an affidavit for an alien to hold property. John Graham's next letter to brother Joseph arrived not long after. Durham Record Office Ref D/X 1035/11 Burnt Hills May 19 1855 Dear Brother I now give you an Answer to your letter which I recived on the 13th of May which was a very welcome one for I had looked for one ever since Christmas, and expected one every day, For the letter which I recived from you the last September told me not to write Again till I recived another from you. For Dear brother I should to have written to you three months ago to infrom you of my sisters death the Wife of Thomas Milburn. For it makes me very sorrey yo have to write such sorrowful news as I will this time have to write to you, For that Great God that made all things did not make mens life to be long in this World for we must all humbely submit ourselves to his Allwise Judgment and Provedance. Who is our duty to allways be ready to meet him at His Will. For after given birth to her tenth Child which is a fine litel girl and is in very good hielth and all of them is in very good hileth at presant and is dowing very well but it is the greatest misfortune that ever came to Tjomas Milburn And the greatest loss that ever came to his Famiely. Tow of the Childern you know died long before you left home and Eight is livin yet. She gave birth to the Child on the 9th of January and she got very good maens until the 23th. We all thought she was getin the best means she has done for a long time. But she has been subject to swollen legs when baring child and her leg never got beter this time as it ought to have done and the Black Erysipelus* took place and the Doctor never could stop it progress which soon ended in Mortefication and death. She died on the 30 of January after eight day secever sickness. Or ells you might have seen boath Thomas Millburn me and our Famielys and perhaps sum more of your brothers in America this summer but Thomas thinks he will have to stay a bit longer now till his Famiely get a bit older before he can thak such a step. And my Brother William has been very poorley this Winter he never got strangth enough nor clear of pains in his back as he ought to have don which has ended in an Abcess that is a great rot on the small of his back. It begoun to rise about the last of December which soon lade him of work and he has work no more since for it keep grawing gradually larger till it got Almost as big as a mans Head and then the Doctor tought it time to lancet it and on the day a quart full was taken from it and more or less has been taken from it ever since but it runs very little now and is nearly mended but I think that if it had all been Kept it would have fild four quarts, but he is a bit better now and I hope before I have to write again he will be mended for the doctor says it was fine Heilty matter and he is not dangerous. But you may depend upont he is a very thein man but he has always been abel to walk about he has never been bedfast. Well Dear brother I was up at my Mothers this week when her see your letter and she says she would like to see you again and she sends her greatest wishes and respecks to you, and your Daughter Jane Anne says she would like to see her Father but she says she would not come to America to see him, you may come to see her. She is very well in heilth and as for all the rest of the Famiely is in very good heilth. Well brother you are wanten to know how Christopher geten along with farming** well I think he is dowing very well with farming. He has a good stock of sheep he has more now than when you left home. I think he will have between 50 and 60 sheep and he has a good Horse and he only has one cow now, he has had to sell one cow this spring for want of hay but he is going to bay another in her place. He has a stirck and a calf And he has a good crop of Lambs and he has the land in very good trim, in fact he is doing very well with farming. Well Brother a aman in this Countery has to be very skillful about Farming for you have nearly Duble as much rent to pay every year as you can make of them. And you may depend upont that we have very hard times. Stock is as high as it was in the last letter I send you and flour has risen to 3s per stone, mutton is 7d per lbBeef about the same. Potates is 8d per stone. Bacon is about 10d per lb and in fact it is the hardest times that I ever saw in my life time. But thair was the best pays in this Country the last year that has been for a long time which was a great Blessen to all the Countery. The above letter is not signed. There may have been more, but this does not seem likely. The letter is in John's handwriting and on the stationery which he usually used, a folded sheet providing for a four-page message. He usually stopped at the end of the fourth page, and the above letter just fills the four pages. *It is very likely that this was a streptococcus infection ** Christopher, Joseph's brother, is a lead miner and is farming on the side.