Sarah Ann Camfield, 18 Feb 1881

Noble Center Feb 18 1881

Dear Children
I suppose you are anxcous to know that we are wel as usual Father was laid up 2 weeks he seems as well as ever now or better than for sometime past
I am as well as I ever expect to be I feel as wel as ever I did if I dont do any thing very hard or lift any thing I ma doing my work washing and all it is hard work but get along very wel now dont make only 5 or 6 pounds of butter per week now
it snowed more last night than it has at any one time before this winter and is still snowing and the sun shines is not cold nor windy did you get the magazines

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how do you like your new home and is it a village or what you spoke of a dancing hall and no postoffice within a mile and a half that seems singular we thought you was on a farm
we had bad luck with our fat cow and big Calf I told you about in my letter we expected to get $50 dollars for them had been offered $48 but would not take it butchered them they was diseased some way we could only sell the hind quarters of the calf so we only got $31 for both
the tallow is not tried yet it will probably fetch 3 or 4 more I am drying aples they froze in the cellar so they will rot as soon as they thaw am drying to save them the pottatoes froze and my plants

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Frank Graves and wife and baby was here and spent thanks giving evening and we promiced to go there but have not been there yet their Boy was 2 years old in august his name is Carl Frank says Mary is as slim as a rail you know how fleshy she used to be
we have a niece of old Boils for a neighbor she is 20 years old and maried awidower with four Children the oldest 16 was married the first of January she is about as big one way as the other and has but one eye

all this time
write soon
I should like to see Frank and hear him talk tel him Grandma did send one picture to him S A Camfield


They were able to sell diseased beef!? I'm glad they got the money they needed but a bit revolted at the thought.

For more on the Graves family see the Biography of Luther Graves.

Mr. GRAVES was married the second time, April 27, 1853, to Miss Joanna, daughter of Benjamin SELLICK, who is now deceased. He was a mason by trade, and the family were at that time residents of Coldwater. Of this union there have been born seven children; Frank, a farmer of Burr Oak Township; Emma, at home with her parents; Daniel, who is farming in Burr Oak Township; Minnie, who died at the age of two years and nine months; Mary, Maude and Mabel, the latter of whom was twelve years of age Oct. 14, 1888. The GRAVES property consists of 160 acres of land in a highly fertile condition, with good improvements. The proprietor is industrious, frugal, and in good circumstances.

On the 1880 census Frank Graves is shown with wife, Addie, and son Carlos so I assume the Mary mentioned in the letter was his sister.

I believe that "old Boils" was George Boyles, who owned quite a few parcels of land in Burr Oak according to the index of the 1872 Atlas of Saint Joseph County.

For more see:
Camfield Family Letters
Descendants of Sarah Ann Wisner
Michael Camfield


Camfield, Sarah Ann Wisner. (Noble Center, MI) to “Dear Children” [Anna Camfield Carlisle]. Letter. 18 February 1881. Digital Images 1-3. Privately held by Apple, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Snowville, New York. 2008. [Carlisle Family, Box #1, Correspondence, 1881, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]