Mapleton Minn
Jan 15th 1912
Dear Cousin
Well Christmas has come and gone and we are all as well as usual and I have my washing done for the week but they are still out on the line as they are frozen so hard we cannot take them off without breaking them in two so we left them out for tonight. Ella is at home with me this winter the two youngest go to school and Myrtle is out in Dak. She is a dressmaker and gets lots of work out there and good pay at it too.
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Belle is out there teaching they are near together but not just in the same place. They both like it out there pretty well.
We have had pretty severe winter weather ever since New Years there has only been two days that the thermometers went up to zero or above. we have considerable snow but not so much as we have some winters but it always drifts so that makes it so disagreeable.
Oh I must thank you for that pretty card you sent me I got several but that was the prettiest I believe Santa was good to me this year alright
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I sold a good many of my old dishes because I wanted a whole set alike so I got them for Christmas from my husband Belle gave me a food chopper just what I wanted all the time then I got 3 hdkfs a pretty little plate & a small bon bon bowl I think they call it and a silver pie knife and Elizabeth sent me a linen doily the and a picture. The linen in the doily was a piece that grandmother Hall spun the flax and wove the cloth so you see it is a pretty old piece of cloth then Elizabeth crocheted an edge around it of this silkolence thread so it is very pretty
We are nicely settled in our new home now since we got through building and it is very comfortable in it.
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And I like it a good deal better than at least ever thought I should I never liked in in town and now I would never go to a large city to live this is large enough for me we keep two cows and a couple of ponies and about 25 chickens I would not like it to buy every thing like that eggs are generally so high in the winter that one would not have them very often
I have not got my quilt that Aunt Sarah Ann sent me quilted yet but am going to try and get it done this summer & I am going to piece several more this winter yet will make them on the machine, I have them all cut out so it will not take long to sew them together on the machine
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And I want to sew a lot of carpet rugs I have already torn up. I did that last winter so as not to have so much to move over I will have to get them out I will take them on the machine too as they get away faster. I do not know when I can get them woven there are not many here that does such work now
Ella is taking up tatting this winter but she don’t care so much for crocheting but she says she is going to learn. she has just made a sofa pillow made out of velvet pieces and made it an oblong with one of those large cords around it it looks good for what she had to make it of I think
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Well there is not much news here this winter seems as if it was so quiet still there is never much going on here to interest a stranger just to read of it
Give my love to Aunt Sarah Ann. and remember me to Tamerson & Mr Carlisle although I never saw them I thought Tamerson was coming out to visit us after Belle was there but I did not see her and now I don’t suppose she will come.
Well I must close
With love and best wishes to all
I remain yours
Lovingly
Cousin Ella
I have not located Myrtle or Belle on the 1910 census. I have tried various searches in both North and South Dakota without any luck. I wish Ella had been a bit more specific!I find the various crafts that Ella talks about interesting. Sarah Ann would have been in her 90s when she sent a quilt for finishing to Ella. I would love to know how much of the work she did herself. I remember having rag rugs but they were always store bought. I wonder why Ella didn't crochet them if she didn't have a loom? I can picture the pillow that Ella, Jr made I think.
Tamerson Carlisle married Harry Binns in 1910 so I doubt that she ever made the trip to visit Ella and Belle.
For more see:
Carlisle - Wisner Letters
Family of William Wisner
Descendants of Maryetta Wisner
Descendants of Sarah Ann Wisner
Margie's Ancestors - McKinnon Pictures
McKinnon, Ella Hall (Mapleton, Minnesota) to “Dear Cousin” [Sarah Ann Camfield Carlisle]. Letter. 15 January 1912. Digital Images 1-6. Privately held by Apple, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Snowville, New York. 2008. [Carlisle Family, Box #1, Correspondence, 1912, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]
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