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June 2, 1839My Dear Son Having an opportunity to send I'll just write a line or two though I have nothing particularly interesting unless to tell you that I have had another severe attack of the rheumatism but I got over it very soon confined to my room 3 days only. I have got a clever little girl eleven years old Olive Packard sister to Mrs. Hagar she helps me nicely about chores etc. & goes to school. C. has bought him a horse cart Sat. He fill & rigg'd them on to the ox cart & puts on both horses he has gone away with cart & horses to work out his part of an additional tax of $200 on the middle or Brownville road (mount hunger uncle Jim calls it)- J.M. & E.W. are gone up the interval in thier boat (they caulk'd & tar'd it yesterday) to hoeing corn beans etc. took thier dinner with them so I am quite alone today. My health is not so good generally this summer as it has normally been I suppose I have work'd too hard. you will wonder why I let Lucy go. I do need her at home some but I thought it would be for her advantage to be there a while as she will enjoy many privileges for improving her mind and manner which she could not have here I hope she will rightly appreciate them. I wish you to write to her and give her some of your Sage advice. If it is not very sage if you do the best you can I dare say it will do her good & you no harm. I charge you to give my kind regards to Mrs. Harlow tell her I sincerely sympathize with her in her bereavement & that tho' many years have pass'd away her kindness and attention to me when a stranger are fresh in my memory & my son see that you are particularly attentive and kind to her possibly being a very old lady she may be childesh and ? on some things notwithstanding see to it that you always treat her with defference and almost fillial regard and whoever else in the family is neglected by you take care that she is not. you may perhaps wonder at my saying so much on this subject - but you will not if you live to be old. Young people are very prone to forget old people I think they do not generally know or realize a thousandth part of the inconvenience & distresses that old people suffer. I enjoin the duty upon you in this instance more particularly to cancel the obligation I feel for her goodness to me when I was about your age. You say you shall be a farmer. that the professions are very full etc.etc. nonsense & never mind - dont be discouraged this is a wide world we live in - aye and a great deal of ignorance and darkness to be dispeled by the light of knowledge and truth there are now a great many well educated amiable devotedly pious young men wanted yes! really needed now even in New England and ten times as many more in some other parts of our own Country to say nothing of the nations that sit in darkness & the shadow of death. And then think how greatly the number will be increased before you can become such an one- think of these things I say and go ahead - climb a long what if the ascent be very steep and the Summit hid in the clouds every try and every step brings you a little nearer to it - besides if you should let go now even is nt it possible that you might fall so far as to dash your brains out Look up my Dear boy & "dig,, cheerfully on with all the helps you can get till you are five & twenty or so and then follow farming or any other "honestcalling,, that you prefer and I shall be satisfied. but you'll say whats the use of latin & greek for a farmer - well! what if it is of no use but to learn you to climb or dig (just which you choose to call it) I fully believe it wont be labour lost. I am sorry you did not have a Cap in the first of the season you might have get you one C. could let you have a little more money enough to get your Books, but if you have not got one and think it is best to wait till Ann comes let me know and I will write to her to get one or you may write to her. I want to know when your vacation commences perhaps we can manage it so that Ann will arrive at Bangor just in time to come home when you do. how does the frock coat answer your purpose - if it is best for you to have a new Coat before winter it will be best to get the cloth if we can so as to have it cut out at Bangor before you come home & perhaps have it made here - if we send to have Ann get cloth for one we ought to write soon & I dont know what to do about it.
Title
Metcalf, Anna Mayo Stevens Rich (mother) (also from siblings), to Isaac Stevens Metcalf, Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1838-1840
Creator
Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, 1822-1898
Date
1838-1840
Place
United States
Subjects
Bowdoin College
,
Brothers and sisters
,
DuQuoin Coal Company
,
Illinois Central Railroad Company
Description
Use the link to the finding aid for a fuller description of collection contents that explains the use of the name and subject terms appearing in this catalog record.
Summary
Correspondence, writings, diaries, and journals documenting family and rural life, as well as early business correspondence and records, and a few photographs, all pertaining to Isaac Stevens Metcalf and the Metcalf, Furber, and Putnam families. Family correspondence was used to keep all of the branches of the family in touch with each other when family members moved away. There are many instances where multiple family members wrote on one letter to one or more other family members, and some people even wrote "family letters" that were intended to be shared amongst parents, siblings, and the like. Topics of family correspondence tend to be related to religion, daily activities on the farm, weather, and the news of friends and relatives (births, deaths, sicknesses, etc.) Business records of Metcalf's pertain to land ownership, railroad engineering and construction, and running a coal mining business. The mid-19th century business records also document tax payments and some reports including labor and payroll expenses. There are a few drawings and sketches from Metcalf's tenure as division engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad. The first accession of these family papers was a donation of the letters between Charles W. and Albina Rich, given by Grace Leadingham, Charles Rich's granddaughter. This gift was facilitated by Keyes D. Metcalf, 17th child of Isaac Stevens Metcalf.
Biographical/Historical Note
Railroad engineer, farmer, and businessman of Maine, Ohio, and Illinois during the second half of the 19th century. Isaac Stevens Metcalf was born in Royalston, Massachusetts, on Jan. 29, 1822. His father, Isaac Metcalf, had married Lucy Heywood in 1810; she died childless in 1820. In March 1821 he married Anna Mayo Stevens Rich, the widow of Charles Rich, by whom she had had three children (named Charles, Elizabeth Anna, and Almeida). Isaac was born to Metcalf and Rich, followed by Joseph, Lucy, and Eliab. Isaac Metcalf (father) died in Boston in 1830, and the family relocated to Milo, Maine, where half-brother Charles had purchased a farm. Isaac Stevens Metcalf lived there with his mother and siblings, preparing for college and working on the farm until he entered Bowdoin College as a sophomore in 1844. He graduated there in 1847, having taught school while studying engineering. He surveyed and built railroads in New England until the spring of 1850, when he became a division engineer on the southern section (near Centralia, IL) of the Illinois Central Railroad. Metcalf worked closely with the Chief Engineer, Roswell B. Mason. Metcalf remained on the job until the line was completed to Cairo, IL, in 1855. While in central Illinois, Metcalf purchased land and with his partner Chester A. Keyes laid out the railroad town of Du Quoin, which was officially dedicated on Sept. 20, 1853. On Jul. 5, 1852, he married Antoinette ("Nettie") Brigham Putnam, the daughter of prominent New Hampshire minister John Milton Putnam. The couple had twelve children, three of whom died young. They settled in Elyria, Ohio, in Nov. 1856, to be near Metcalf's half sister, Elizabeth Ann (also known as Ann Elizabeth), and more family joined them within the next ten years. Metcalf and family lived in Elyria for over 41 years, farming and running a flour mill while Isaac Stevens Metcalf maintained business interests in Du Quoin, Illinois (real estate and coal mining). Antoinette died Aug. 14, 1875, and three years later Metcalf married Harriet Howes. That couple had six boys. Harriet Howes died of pneumonia Dec. 7, 1894, and Isaac Stevens Metcalf died Feb. 19, 1898, age 76. A more complete Metcalf genealogy family, focusing on the children of Isaac Stevens Metcalf, is available in the Special Collections Department information files. The genealogy was compiled by Keyes DeWitt Metcalf, 17th child of Isaac Stevens Metcalf.
Extent
10.8 linear feet (20 boxes and 1 oversize folder)
Format
Business records
,
Correspondence
,
Diaries
,
Genealogy
,
Invoices
,
Manuscripts, American
,
Personal narratives
,
Records and correspondence
,
Sources
Archival Collection Title
Isaac Stevens Metcalf papers
,
Midwest Manuscript Collection
Rights Status
No Copyright - United States
Newberry Open Access Policy
The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to
these terms and conditions.
Contributing Institution
Newberry Library
Link to Catalog
View finding aid
|
View record
Call Number
midwest ms metcalf Box 3 Folder 74
BibID
821787
Size
3138px × 5099px 91.59 MB
IIIF Resource Type
Canvas
Filename
998217878805867_mms_metcalf_box_03_fl_74_004_001.tif
Unique Identifier
NL11FF8G
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