UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL
CENTER FOR LOWELL HISTORY1
WRITTEN BY EDWIN R. BROWN2
AND BARBARA WEEKS BROWN3
TO AUNT POLLY BROWN4
Lowell5
Oct. 8th 1868
Dear Aunty
I take this opportunity to write you a few lines to let you know how I am getting along. I am getting along finely. I got a letter from you a short time since and I was much pleased to hear from you. Glad to hear that you are getting along as well as you are. About your invitation to make you a visit this fall I should like to go very much and feel some what disappointed. But my circumstances are such at present that I do not think we could go this Fall. I am in hopes that it will be so that we can go in the Winter For I want to go very much. I am much obliged to you for the tidies that you are going to send us and I wish it was so that we could go and get them. It is very pleasant here this fall. There has been some cool weather and the frost has nipped the green things. There was a great deal of rain last month which was very bad for potatoes. I suppose But the prospect is the is a plentiful crop all over the country. So there will not be much chance of a famine. I expect we shall hear some glorious news next November when Grant will be elected President by an overwhelming majority. I must
1 Transcribed by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Lowell History.
2 Edwin R. Brown b: 7 Aug 1840, Winslow, ME; parents: John Hanson Brown and Sarah Copeland; employed 1868: oiler - Boott Cotton Mills; married 1868, Lowell: Barbara Weeks b: Nova Scotia.
3 Barbara Weeks b: Nova Scotia d: 1874, MA; parent s: John and Catherine Weeks; married 1868, Lowell: Edwin R. Brown.
4 Aunt – Polly Brown b: 1815, ME; residence 1870: Hallowell, ME with her sisters.
5 Lowell, Massachusetts.
congratulate you upon the way that your state of Maine showed her loyalty in the Sept. election. I hope all the rest will do as well. Then perhaps we shall have the unalleged pleasure of seeing traitors hanged or otherwise punished as their crimes deserve. My Wife is getting along finely. she has been unwell for the last two weeks and has not done much work. She works on the street at Vest Basting. She will probably go to work again the last of this week. I have a hard time to keep her from working all the time. The Dr. said that she must not do any work until she got well But she is not easy unless she is at work at something. so I have to keep reminding her once in a while. I do not think that working in the Mill agrees with her. She will not go to work in the mill again very soon unless she is obliged to. Girls make Better pay in the mill than they can anywhere else. Many of them earn their Twenty dollars per month besides their board. Barbara did intend to go to work on The Lowell Corporation in the Carpet weave room where the girls make from 40 to 60 and 70 dollars per month besides board but we thought that health was preferable to wealth so she did not go. Albion 6 is getting along well now he has not had any sickness to keep him from his work for a long time. Albert7 was here to see us about a month ago. He stop’d here one hour fifty seven minutes and three seconds and left for Manchester 8 and that is all I have seen of him since I was down there last Fast day I should have tried to have had him stay longer but I thought he might be tired and wanted to take a stroll into the country. So I let him go without as much urging as I should have used had it not been just as it was, I did not have a chance to ask him any questions
6 Brother – Albion Heywood Brown b: 26 Apr 1849, Winslow, ME; parents: John Hanson Brown and Sarah
Copeland; employed Somerville, MA, 1870: Stockbroker; married Boston 1900; Rosie M. b: 1872, MA.
7 Brother – Albert Brown b: 1833, ME; parents: John Hanson Brown and Sarah Copeland. 8 Manchester, New Hampshire.
about his visit but if his health will keep good he will do well at the business he is attending to now. I do not want him to be disappointed in all his undertakings by poor health as I know something about it by experience but nothing compared to your knowledge. If I am well I would like to be well enough to get along in the world if not I will go to some asylum the State Prison for instance. I think that Wilber9 is getting along finely and if he has his health he is all right. Albion got a letter from him a short time since. He was well but was getting a little tired and wanted to take another ramble as when Albert was there. Barbara and I would like to go and make you a visit this fall. We should enjoy it so much. We have changed our boarding place since I wrote you before. We have got an excellent place now. We have also changed our rooms. We have two rooms now they are up two flights and it is rather hard work to climb them. I shall get a tenement this Fall if I possible and try keeping my house and see if it will not be cheaper than boarding out. My health is good and is most of the time. I have not left off my work on account of sickness since I have been in Lowell but my sheet is getting filled and perhaps Barbara will write some so with Love to all and a large share yourself I will close.
Edwin R. Brown
9 Wilber Brown b: 1847, ME; parents: John Hanson Brown and Sarah Copeland. Lowell, Oct. 8, 1868
For Aunty
Dear Aunt Polly,
Edwin has written a letter to you and I think I will write some to. I want to thank you for them tidies and I would like so much to go and see you but that pleasure is denied us. This fall and we will go as soon as we can make it convenient. I have been trying to write you a letter for some time but thought I could not say any thing on account of not being acquainted. We are quite comfortable now we have a cook stove in one of our rooms and I think of doing our own washing and that will make it two dollars a week (month) less for board. We have paid twenty four dollars a month so far. I have been quite unwell the last two weeks am feeling quite well now commenced work in the shop to day got along real well and don’t feel much tired the bell is just ringing half past six and Edwin has not come in yet Oh Aunty he is just as good as he can be I am so happy. I can’t say half as much as I want to I will write more Next time
[written on side of letter]
My love to Aunt Patience10 and a share your self
P.S. my love to Aunt Hannah,11 from your neice Barbara
10 Patience Brown b: 1820, ME; employed 1870: Cotton Mill - boardinghouse keeper; residence 1870: Hallowell, ME with her sisters; residence 1880: Cambridge, MA caring for Edwin R. Brown’s children.
11 Hannah Brown b: 1817, ME; residence 1870: Hallowell, ME with her sisters.
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL CENTER FOR LOWELL HISTORY1
WRITTEN BY EDWIN R. BROWN2 AND BARBARA WEEKS BROWN3
TO AUNT POLLY BROWN4
Lowell5
Oct. 8th 1868
Dear Aunty
I take this opportunity to write you a few lines to let you know how I am getting along. I am getting along finely. I got a letter from you a short time since and I was much pleased to hear from you. Glad to hear that you are getting along as well as you are. About your invitation to make you a visit this fall I should like to go very much and feel some what disappointed. But my circumstances are such at present that I do not think we could go this Fall. I am in hopes that it will be so that we can go in the Winter For I want to go very much. I am much obliged to you for the tidies that you are going to send us and I wish it was so that we could go and get them. It is very pleasant here this fall. There has been some cool weather and the frost has nipped the green things. There was a great deal of rain last month which was very bad for potatoes. I suppose But the prospect is the is a plentiful crop all over the country. So there will not be much chance of a famine. I expect we shall hear some glorious news next November when Grant will be elected President by an overwhelming majority. I must congratulate you upon the way that your state of Maine showed her loyalty in the Sept. election. I hope all the rest will do as well. Then perhaps we shall have the unalleged pleasure of seeing traitors hanged or otherwise punished as their crimes deserve. My Wife is getting along finely. she has been unwell for the last two weeks and has not done much work. She works on the street at Vest Basting. She will probably go to work again the last of this week. I have a hard time to keep her from working all the time. The Dr. said that she must not do any work until she got well But she is not easy unless she is at work at something. so I have to keep reminding her once in a while. I do not think that working in the Mill agrees with her. She will not go to work in the mill again very soon unless she is obliged to. Girls make Better pay in the mill than they can anywhere else. Many of them earn their Twenty dollars per month besides their board. Barbara did intend to go to work on The Lowell Corporation in the Carpet weave room where the girls make from 40 to 60 and 70 dollars per month besides board but we thought that health was preferable to wealth so she did not go. Albion6 is getting along well now he has not had any sickness to keep him from his work for a long time. Albert7 was here to see us about a month ago. He stop’d here one hour fifty seven minutes and three seconds and left for Manchester8 and that is all I have seen of him since I was down there last Fast day I should have tried to have had him stay longer but I thought he might be tired and wanted to take a stroll into the country. So I let him go without as much urging as I should have used had it not been just as it was, I did not have a chance to ask him any questions about his visit but if his health will keep good he will do well at the business he is attending to now. I do not want him to be disappointed in all his undertakings by poor health as I know something about it by experience but nothing compared to your knowledge. If I am well I would like to be well enough to get along in the world if not I will go to some asylum the State Prison for instance. I think that Wilber9 is getting along finely and if he has his health he is all right. Albion got a letter from him a short time since. He was well but was getting a little tired and wanted to take another ramble as when Albert was there. Barbara and I would like to go and make you a visit this fall. We should enjoy it so much. We have changed our boarding place since I wrote you before. We have got an excellent place now. We have also changed our rooms. We have two rooms now they are up two flights and it is rather hard work to climb them. I shall get a tenement this Fall if I possible and try keeping my house and see if it will not be cheaper than boarding out. My health is good and is most of the time. I have not left off my work on account of sickness since I have been in Lowell but my sheet is getting filled and perhaps Barbara will write some so with Love to all and a large share yourself I will close.
For Aunty Dear Aunt Polly, Edwin has written a letter to you and I think I will write some to. I want to thank you for them tidies and I would like so much to go and see you but that pleasure is denied us. This fall and we will go as soon as we can make it convenient. I have been trying to write you a letter for some time but thought I could not say any thing on account of not being acquainted. We are quite comfortable now we have a cook stove in one of our rooms and I think of doing our own washing and that will make it two dollars a week (month) less for board. We have paid twenty four dollars a month so far. I have been quite unwell the last two weeks am feeling quite well now commenced work in the shop to day got along real well and don’t feel much tired the bell is just ringing half past six and Edwin has not come in yet Oh Aunty he is just as good as he can be I am so happy. I can’t say half as much as I want to I will write more Next time [written on side of letter]
My love to Aunt Patience,
10 and a share your self P.S. my love to Aunt Hannah,11 from your neice Barbara 10 Patience Brown b: 1820, ME; employed 1870: Cotton Mill - boardinghouse keeper; residence 1870: Hallowell, ME with her sisters; residence 1880: Cambridge, MA caring for Edwin R. Brown’s children.
1 Transcribed by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Lowell History.
2 Edwin R. Brown b: 7 Aug 1840, Winslow, ME; parents: John Hanson Brown and Sarah Copeland; employed 1868: oiler - Boott Cotton Mills; married 1868, Lowell: Barbara Weeks b: Nova Scotia.
3 Barbara Weeks b: Nova Scotia d: 1874, MA; parent s: John and Catherine Weeks; married 1868, Lowell: Edwin R. Brown.
4 Aunt – Polly Brown b: 1815, ME; residence 1870: Hallowell, ME with her sisters.
5 Lowell, Massachusetts.
6 Brother – Albion Heywood Brown b: 26 Apr 1849, Winslow, ME; parents: John Hanson Brown and Sarah Copeland; employed Somerville, MA, 1870: Stockbroker; married Boston 1900; Rosie M. b: 1872, MA.
7 Brother – Albert Brown b: 1833, ME; parents: John Hanson Brown and Sarah Copeland.
8 Manchester, New Hampshire. Edwin R. Brown
9 Wilber Brown b: 1847, ME; parents: John Hanson Brown and Sarah Copeland. Lowell, Oct. 8, 1868
11 Hannah Brown b: 1817, ME; residence 1870: Hallowell, ME with her sisters.
