Ella McKinnon to Annie Carlisle Jan 5, 1905

Mapleton Minn

Jan 5^th 1905

My dear Cousin

I have waited a good while before I answered your letter twas not because I forgot about it, it was just because I was too lazy. I spoke about it times enough but when I should have written I would get a lazy streak on and would put it off until another time so tonight I thought about it & did not stop to read awhile but went at the writing

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and now that I have begun I don’t hardly know what to write about.

We have had a fine winter so far there is some snow but still there is no sleighing what little snow there is, is all in drifts that is the f___ of living on the prairie if the wind blows only just a little the snow drifts A week ago last Tuesday that was the 28^th of Dec. we had a regular old time blizzard it was white all day and if the snow had lain still there would not have been very much. Jake said in the woods where it did not

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drift any there was not 4 inches

How was Christmas & New Years with you? Santa Claus visited here and left a good many tokens not very expensive ones but just remembrances we had a Christmas tree in the Church for the S. S. we do every year We go to the Congregational church. Our children all get something for each other and for us & I have to get some thing for each one but my husband only gets me something he says he can never pick any thing so he does not

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Did your mother get my letter I wrote I meant to have written it so she would get it her birthday but I did not get at it until the day so I thought she would like it just the same How is she this winter

I don’t hear from the folks in Ill very often so I cannot tell any thing about them I wrote a while ago but they have none of them answered my letter. I cannot tell any thing about Uncle Henry or Uncle Wirt for I never hear from them I have written but they never answer my letters so there is no use in my writing when I never hear from them

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Well my other sheet got full if I did not think I could write much when I started.

I have such a small corn on my little toe tonight I can hardly sit still and I don’t like to pull my shoe off yet

The children are all reading or trying to but when they get to talking as they do some times it is hard to work trying to read or write.

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Ray my oldest boy is in Wisconsin with Elizabeth he went down there a year ago just after Christmas and has not been home since and wrote awhile ago that he would not come this winter

Myrtle the oldest girl went up town the other evening and while crossing the street slipped on ice and fell breaking a ligament in her foot so she is laid up for a few days she does not step on it yet it was done Monday night the Dr bound it up (and she had to stay the night)

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he told her she would need to keep it bound up for 2 weeks if it got loose he would have to fix it up again her foot would sprain if he did not. It is not very sore

Well I cannot think of any more this time only my husband had his back catch him last night and he can hardly get up out his chair. the rest are well with the exception of slight colds

Well I will close this now hoping this will find you all enjoying good health

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Wishing you many more Happy New Years if it is a little late

I remain

Your affectionate

Cousin

Ella L. McKinnon

For more see:
Carlisle - Wisner Letters
Family of William Wisner
Descendants of Maryetta Wisner
Descendants of Sarah Ann Wisner

McKinnon, Ella Hall (Mapleton, Minnesota) to “My dear Cousin” [Sarah Ann Camfield Carlisle]. Letter. 5 January 1905. Digital Images 1-4. Privately held by Apple, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Snowville, New York. 2008. [Carlisle Family, Box #1, Correspondence, 1905, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]