Joslin Family :: Grandma Responds to Irwin's Letter

If you haven't already done so, you may want to read the post Joslin Family :: First Contact before continuing. In that post, my grandmother corresponds with Edith Wessler and makes contact with her 2nd cousin, Irwin Joslin. Their correspondence continues... This letter was typewritten. It has been transcribed as written including spelling and typing errors. Click on the image to view a larger, readable version.

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Box 27
North Webster, Ind. 46555
March 21, 1969

Mr. Irwin Joslin
1002 E. Tripp
Peoria, Ill. 61603

Dear Mr. Joslin,

I was so delighted to receive your letter of March 3rd as I had been hoping to hear from the Joslins in the west. I have so many interesting things to tell you of the family, that I hardly know where to begin.

You were right about the birthdate of your grandfather as my records show that he was born January 2, 1852. Then the record shows that Luther Joslin married Dorothy Elliot in 1876. Now may I make a suggestion? Could the above named Dorothy Elliot have died and your grandfather married Phoebe Dorcas some time later? I notice that your father, Virgil was born Feb. 1891. That is 15 years after the marriage record I have, I am having a copy made of the letter written by Andrew Joslin on Feb. 7, 1895 and sent to my grandmother. I will send this to you as soon as I can.

Now I shall tell you some of the things I know about our family, other than that which Mrs. Wessler has told you. The Goodrich family tree has been researched by a member of the family and it seems that they were from Wales and the line was traced back to several Kings(?). This is not of much interest to me as I expect some researcher made some money for this. However, the family was very interesting after coming to Indiana in 1834. They were of the first settlers. Abagail and her husband James Joslin had several children by that time. Lysander was 9 years old. He married Lydia Robison in Aug. 1843. They were both 18 years old. In the next 24 years they had 15 children. Now this was a big family by any standards and I know where the family lived and it was very poor land. They did not prosper financialy as can be understood. By 1877 four of their children were married and five had died. That year they took the 6 remaining children and went to Kansas. I have letters from them written in 1890 and 1894.

My grandmother kept in touch with Eliza, who died in 1885. Her decendents are in Iowa. She also wrote to Roxie Parkinson (their husbands were half brothers) and Madella Quillan and Ida Dressier. I have some old letters from these. Robert Quillan the author and columnist of the 30's was Della's son. Please ask any questions that you would like answered and I shall do my best to help.

Grandma Mellisa Brubaker had two sons, Charles Romain b. Aug. 1872 and Hale b1886. Charles Remain was my father. Hale died when only 25 years old and had not married. I have a brother William Hale Brubaker and a sister Jane Jacobs. I was born 1902, my sister 1903 and Bill 1905. I Have 5 children, 17 granchildren and 7 great-granchildren.

I do hope that you can come to Indiana some time. I know of only one Joslin family here, besides my family and that is the decendents of Lysander's sister, her granddaughter and I are very close friends. I shall send the copy as soon as I can.

Very sincerely yours,
[since this was grandma's carbon copy, there was no signature]

=+==+= Some Notes Regarding the Letter =+==+=

The confusion over Luther's wife was partially because the bible record stated that Luther had married Dorothy Elliot. Apparently grandma had not seen the Whitley County marriage record (Bk2 p521) which gives her name as Phebe D. Elliott. Also, in Irwin's first letter to grandma he simply wrote his grandmother's name as Phoebe Dorcas and my grandma interpreted that to mean her maiden name was Dorcas. Irwin's father, Virgil, was the fourth child of Luther and Phebe. Their first two children came rather quickly then there was a six year gap between the second and third as well as between the third and fourth child. Their fifth (and last) child was born two years after Virgil.

James and Abigail come to Whitley County in 1838 and they were among the first settlers in the county. That makes Lysander about 13 at the time rather than 9 years of age.

The sister of Lysander's that grandma mentions in the last paragraph was Emily Eliza Joslin Long and her close friend was her 2nd cousin once removed, Gladys Burnworth Moore, who was only 4 years older than grandma. Gladys was one of the "girls" that grandma played cards with on an almost weekly basis for many years. I don't recall ever having met Gladys, though my mother knew her too, so it is possible. I attended a Burnworth Family Reunion in the summer of 2005 after tracking down Gladys' two sons who live in Columbia City. One of Gladys' nieces, who also happened to live just two blocks away from me at the time, compiled a history of their branch of the Burnworth family. They knew that Emily's parents were James and Abigail (Goodrich) Joslin. She graciously loaned me her book so that I could make a copy. It was chock full of family pictures and obituaries, a real treasure!

Other posts in this series:

• Joslin Heritage Tour
• Joslin Family :: First Contact