Martha Hall Fairman to Annie Carlisle June 19, 1887

Hainesville June 19^th 1887

Cousin Mine,

You will doubtless wonder who is writing to you and will go to the end of the letter for the author. let us see if that will tell you anything. It has been so long since I heard from you I do not even know if this will find you but I am going to venture one letter then if you do not wish to write pretend you never got it. It seems so bad for mother to lose trace of her only sister. we have written twice at least since we have heard and then your mother was not well when we last heard but feel sure you would have written if she were

page 2

not living.

I will not write very much now but if you want to know anything of us I will tell you in my next. I will tell you of myself, Martha. I am at present living in Hainesville a grass widow. I was married last December to a widower with seven children, perfectly awful is it not yet I do not feel badly at all. I have no cause to regret this marriage. The oldest child is a girl 23 years old and the youngest a boy of 8 years. 3 girls and 4 boys one of the boys has is the station agent on the C. B. & L. R.R. Southwest of Chicago the remainer are at home although Mabel expects to teach this winter. My husband G. H. Fairman is a merchant but has now gone to Nebraska to go

page 3

into business out there if he is successful we will go there sometimes.

Father and Mother are away on a visit for the summer.

Myrtle is a dressmaking going from house to house.

Now I will close hoping this will reach you and you will send a speedy answer To your cousin.

Mrs. G. H. Fairman

Hainesville

Lake Co

Ill


Martha finally married. I do not have an exact birth date for her, I know only that she was born between 1854 & 1857, so she was close to 30. The Illinois State Wide Marriage index has the date of her marriage as 30 Novenber1886 so that must have been when the license was issued. She married Gallio Hamilton Fairman who was born 23 August 1840, the son of Hamilton Royal and Celestia (Warren) Fairman.


I had to look up the term "grass widow." It refers to a woman whose husband is away for a long period. There is a long gap in the letters after this one. I have no idea if Annie answered Martha's letter or not but I hope she wrote to offer her congratulations.


For more see:

Carlisle - Wisner Letters

Family of William Wisner

Descendants of Maryetta Wisner

Descendants of Sarah Ann Wisner




Fairman, Martha Hall. (Hainesville, Illinois) to “Cousin Mine” [Sarah Ann Camfield Carlisle]. Letter. 19 August 1887. Digital Images 1-3. Privately held by Apple, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Snowville, New York. 2008. [Carlisle Family, Box #1, Correspondence, 1887-1888, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]