Rootstown August the 28th 1865==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==
Dear Friends at Home
It has been some time since I have written to you and I must say that it is too bad that I have not written before now but I hope you will excuse me as you are not very prompt about answering my letters. besides I have not been very well this summer so it has kept me buisy to keep around and do my work untill lately. my health is better than it has been in a long time.
We have had work folks last week and are going to have them part of this week. we are having our cellar dug out and walled over. it has been so bad we could not keep anything in it this summer. but after it is finished it will be a good cellar. Were are going to have some plastering and papering done in our kitchen this week. It has been real inconvenient for us to have it so but after we get it done it will look so much better. then you must come over and see us. We have had a cistern dug this summer but it has been so wett ever since that we could not get it dry enough to let the water run into it untill this week. It cost us about 15 dollars and holds over 30 barrels of water.
We were down to Lydies last sunday. she has gone to house keeping and has taken two boarders. I think she appears more cheerful than she did. But I feel sorry for her to keep house alone. She stayes alone nights. that is after the girls go home. they are some of the school girls and do not stay only untill friday afternoon.
Marvin has got home and is now sick with the fever. He has not been to see Lydia but once since he has got home. I do not think that they are very good to Lydia since Myron is dead. I am real glad that she has spunk enough to go away from them although it must be lonesome to live alone. I suppose they think she is out of the family now. she need not look to them for any accommodation at all. well enough of this. perhaps Lydia has told you herself.
When we were down to Randolph we came home by Mr Parsons and called in to see Pheby and the baby. it is four weeks old and she named it Jenny Strong. they are pleased all most to death over the baby and are just as good to her as they can be. Olive Honeywell has got a boy two weeks old. her folks feel awful bad about it. it is Monroe Allens. he has gone out west and wont Marry her.
you asked me if I had seen Juliann since she has got home. I have not seen her to speek to her. she went by here since but I did not know her untill she had got passed so I could not speek to her and we have no way of getting down their. We had a wedding in town today it was Delia Collins and Henry Demming. they are going to Conneticut on their wedding tour.
It is just one year ago to night at 8 o’clock that we were married. how time passes. it does not seem so long to me. it will be one year next tuesday that you started for the west. can you hardly realize it. Georges Father and Mother are coming out here next month.
I had a letter from Mary last week. she has been sick and has not been able to come down here but said she was coming down next Saturday. Winnie is stoping with us awhile. her school has been out two weeks. I am glad you are having fruit out their we have not had any thing but what we have to buy. we had a few huckleberries and had to pay 20 cents a quart and 15 cents per quart for blackberries. so we thought it would not pay to buy very many. we have cabbage to eat and have had a first rate garden this summer. well I dont know as I have any thing more to write this time. write soon and I will write again. Good bye. Remember George and I to all. Sarah Greene.
Sarah is writing from Rootstown, Ohio to “friends at home” in Locke Township, Elkhart County, Indiana – a “home” where she has never lived, but it is considered to be “home” because that is where her parents are living.
Sarah's health had not been good in recent months due to her pregnancy. Her first child would be born on September 27th.
Lydies is Sarah's sister Lydia Collins. Marvin is probably a brother of Lydia's deceased husband Myron Collins. I think she was living near Ravenna (in Portage County) at this time.
Based on Sarah's statement that it will be “one year next tuesday that you started for the west” we now have a time frame for when John D. Berlin and his family moved to Elkhart County, Indiana! Sarah and George Greene were married on Sunday, August 28, 1864 and if they left the following Tuesday, it would be August 30, 1864.
Mary is the other sister of Sarah's that stayed in Ohio when their parents moved west. I believe she was living in the town of Ravenna.
Winnie is probably a relative of Sarah's husband. Sarah and George would name their youngest daughter Winifred.
See The Berlin Family :: List of The Letters for a complete listing of all of the family letters.
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