Graham Letter - Jonathan Graham 1857

There is no year given on this next letter from Jonathan, but its content and that of the preceding letter leads to the conclusion that the year is 1857. Durham Record Office Ref: D/X 1035/17 Killhope September 2 Dear Brother I now find it my duty to write to you to answer your letter which I received the latter end of July and I am very glad to hear that you are in good health and doing weell for good health is a great blessing to us all for I told you in my last letter that my mother and Joshua and famely had all been poorly but they are all got better again and we are all in good health at present and dear brother I have neglected writen to you but we were Just commenced harvest when your letter landed to us and we had a fine harvest and a bout an average crop of hay and we had a very dry summer we had very little rain up to the presend and liven is still high but corn is rader (rather) on the decline flour is 2s 4d per stone beef and mutton is about 7d per lb butter the same wool is 12s and 13s per stone and clothing is very dear and we are all doing middling in the mines. There will be sum pays amoung us but I will tell you more about that in my next letter and we are all getten on a bout and the famly at large has increased since you left home and is likely to increace and I told watson Peart what as you told me and he sais that they have answered all the letters they have got from John but if he has not got one before this letter lands to you there will be one very soon after and dear brother I would like to have net with you this back end but my brother Thomas sais that if I will wait till the next spring he will come with me and so you must please to write me and an answer back as soon as you get this letter an tell us what an a crop you had and so on and tell me wheder you flit or not this winter so I have no more at preasant and my mother send her kind love to you an wife* happen you will have long life and happeness and I wish you the same So I remain your dear brother Jonathan Graham * Hannah had joined her brother John in America on 1854 or thereabouts. It is interesting to speculate as to why she went to John rather than to her sister Margaret. Of course, there could be many reasons, but one wonders whether she came to John to be near Joseph. There is no way to know. In any case, hannah and Joseph were married in America, probably 1857. Their first child, Mary Elizabeth was born January 9 1858. Two years later on July 6 1860, J William their second child was born. Hannah and Joseph had only two children.