Lowell Mill Girl Letters

Lowell⁴ April the 27 1834

Respected Friends

As I cannot have the privilege of seeing and conversing with you as I could wish I devote a few moments to inform that I am well and hope these few illiterate lines will find you the same I am 21 years old today and feel as independent as Jacob Mills Mr Reed informed us that you had a little Gal⁵ I expect she can smoke a cigar as quick as any of you  I want to come into your house and eat a whole cheese and drink a gallon of cider and smoke a week and tell up some of my great stories I keep with Huldah yet we are as good friends as ever, there is every thing in Lowell that any body could wish for even Red Ribbons of all colours [----] dippers of all sizes Give my love to Mr [James] folks tell I want to see them very much indeed if there is any thing that would be pleasing to me it would be to see you all if there is any body that is got to be so big that they cannot inquire after us Give them a dollar and charge it to James Rice the Hatter I hear Mr Wilby and Mary Ann Wedgwood has done so I expect Mary Ann will crack up her leaders give my love to Esther tell her Huldah⁶ takes snuff yet kiss that baby forty times for me I remain 
Your friend          Abigail Lovering 

  ^{1 Abigail Lovering born 27 Apr 1813, died 21 Oct 1882. 
  2 Huldah B. Currier born 1812, Sandwich, NH; parents John and Hannah Currier; married 1836 in Lowell: Rev. Daniel G. Holmes  
    born 1812, NH; residence: 1838-1840 – Lowell; 1847-1860 – NY; 1870-1880 – Chicago, IL. 
  3 Abram Guptill born 1808, ME; Susan b: 1813, NH; employed: miller; residence 1850-1870: Wolfeboro, NH. 
  4 Lowell, Massachusetts. 
  5 Martin A. Guptill born 1834, NH; parents: Abram and Susan Guptill. 
  6 Huldah B. Currier.} 
  
  
 

                                  Lowell⁷ April 27 1834

Respected Friends

Agreeable with your request and my own inclination I now devote a few leisure moments to inform you how I prosper but I expect your little Daughter has engrossed your mind so much that you have almost Forgotten your friend Huldah we have had so much dull cloudy weather here that I am rather dull and homesick and if I could Just be permitted to call on you this after noon I  should enjoy myself very well But as I am deprived that privilege I hope you will favour me with a letter as you receive this I like Lowell very much it is a very busy place and The Girls earn a great deal of money and some spend more than they earn after I came here I became acquainted with a girl that knew Susan and all her folks at Concord⁸ that being her Native place I took much pleasure in informing her how pleasantly you were situated and I was happy to tell her that I thought you enjoyed as much domestic happiness as any two I ever saw if I could see you and your little Girl how pleasing it would be I would kiss her a thousand times I expect she is the prettiest little thing that ever was I want you to consider her as a great Blessing don’t think so highly of her for the object of our affections are sometimes removed by the relentless hand of Death and we are left to mourn There  are many things that I should like to write but Abagail⁹ has got into such gale of laughter that I shall 
stop writing for the present and hope that you will write to me as soon as convenient

                                  Yours in haste H[uldah] B. Currier

  ^{7 Lowell, Massachusetts. 
  8 Concord, New Hampshire. 
  9 Abigail Lovering.} 
    

Mr and Mrs Guptill the other girls have written the news and I would merely say that I am well and hope that you are enjoying all the happiness that falls to mortals  I am very well contented and wish you much joy with your little daughter Give my best respects to Mr Libby and [Rowgh] tell them to rouse up their Dickey and not so high but that they can Spit over them

                                 Eliza Jane Lovering 
  
  
Mrs Guptill you pleas to give my love to Mr [James] folks and Mr Halls folks tell Ellen Jane I want to see her and Mr White tell Ellen Jane I left some factory cloth at their house and some other things perhaps she has found them give my love to Esther and the girls that take the trouble to inquire after I have formed an 
acquaintance with Mary Ann Reed and I think that she is as good girl as I want the year round

                             H[uldah] B Currier 
 

[on cover]

Mr Abram Guptill 
Great Falls 
Somersworth 
NH

[Postmarked] 29 April Lowell Mass