Ella McKinnon to Annie Carlisle Aug 11, 1907

Mapleton Minn
Aug 11th 1907

My dear Cousin
I have waited to write to you to see if I heard any more about Uncle Henry’s death. I wrote to Herman and he said that was the first they had heard of it but the 4th of July they saw George Wisner & his wife & they had a paper same as you did and then I wrote to Uncle Wirt and he won’t answer my letter or at least he don’t so I wrote 3 or 4 weeks ago and have not heard from him

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I think he might write but he never would write to me since I was married he got spunky at me just before I came out to Minn and never would write Auntie used to write once in a while when she was alive but he never wrote me of her death

We have had a funny summer one week it will be cold and nice and the next it will be hot and showery. the week before last it was almost cool enough for a frost then last week was

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two warm for comfort & now to night it is cool & nice well it has been all day. I hope it will stay so until the harvest is over for it is hard work any time

Well I will have to quit until the little ones get to bed for I cannot write while they are all talking so much & so fast

Small fruit was quite plentiful here this year and some say there is lots of apples a few of our trees are pretty well loaded but not all of them

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Oh dear it will soon be school time it hardly seem as if there has been any vacation because there was so much I had planned to do and I have not done a single thing that I had meant to do I wanted to do some visiting and I have not been to a place and now I have some dresses to make for the girls & my self one beside other work. I have a pile of calico pieces I meant to have got pieced up into quits and I have not touched them yet

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maybe I will get more time when I am all alone again.

We have begun to cut the grain some have quite a little cut but did not rush any the men cut a while Saturday afternoon but it will be ready all at once so they had to begin with it a little bit green. It will not take long to get it cut if it keeps cool.

Well I will have to stop and write a few words to my boy Ray. So Good Night.
Ever you Coz Ella

Ella and Annie's uncle, Henry S. Wisner, was born 21 June 1826 in Onondaga County, NY and died 26 May 1907 in Eau Claire, Eau Claire County, WI. His brother, Marshall Wirt Wisner lived in Eau Claire so I guess that is why Ella had sent a letter to him.

Rose Camfield's letter to Annie in October 1906 indicated that Henry was expected to visit family in Indiana and Michigan but none of the letters tell whether or not he actually made the trip. At that time he was living in Lake County, IL. I don't know why he was in Eau Claire, WI at the time of his death.

I assume that the "paper" that Ella refers to had something to do with Henry's estate as he never married. It was not included in the file with the letters.

I sympathize with Ella, the summer does go by too fast!

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. 11 August 1907. Digital Images 1-5. Privately held by Apple, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Snowville, New York. 2008. [Carlisle Family, Box #1, Correspondence, 1907, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]

School's Out for the Summer - Again!

Summer here is a very short season and I am doing my best to enjoy it! I was called back to work to cover a summer school route :( and I've been filling the rest of my days with time outside in the garden or spending time with my six grandkids. At two and three the youngest pair are a handful! The four oldest are loving the Blast Into The Past program at The Pratt House Museum.

I had done well getting a letter posted every other day and then just couldn't keep up. There has actually been some genealogy research completed here this summer. I've been trying to track down records for the McKinnon's as I transcribe letters and also working on finding out more about my Graham ancestors now that some of the information found in other letters has broken through that brick wall.

The rest of you certainly have been busy bees this summer! I'm doing my best to try and get caught up on all that you have written.


Blogging Friends Forever

I ashamed that both Miriam and Bill honored me with the Blogging Friends Forever award and I'm just now getting around to thanking them.
I see that this award has already zipped through the genea-blogging community, or at least my corner of it so I would be passing it on to those who have already received it. Unless there is a new visitor here from another part of the world that I'm unaware of. Any lurkers out there?


Facebook & Genea-Blogger Group Games

I think I'm one of the very few that has not signed up for Facebook and the Genea-Bloggers group. I can't handle another distraction right now, I can't keep up with the four blogs I have! Maybe in the fall I can complete Bootcamp and figure it out. The thought of joining kind of makes me cringe based on what the kids at work have said. However those that have written about joining seem to have had a mostly positive experience. I'm also discovering new to me blogs through connections others have made on Facebook.

While I watch the Olympics coverage from China I'll also be following the Genea-Blogger Group Games. There are some tough categories. Unlike the TV coverage I'll be able to play along with the GBGG as the official competitors shame inspire me to fix some source citations, organize my desk, get current with my backups and maybe commit an act of genealogical kindness.

And hopefully I'll be back to transcribing letters here very shortly too!

Ella McKinnon to Annie Carlisle June 5, 1907

Mrs. Annie Carlisle
Buchanan
Mich

Mapleton Minn
June 5 1907
My dear Cousin
As Belle was writing to Tamerson I thought I would write a few line and put in with hers. I do not know who wrote last but was thinking I did so have been neglecting to write but lately I thought I would soon but I have been so busy and would be so tired I would not feel like doing so. the two oldest girls have been away all winter & the others in school. that is ended now & all at home but Myrtle she will not be home all summer

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I think she don’t intend to at least unless she cannot stand the work she is at.
We have had a very late backward spring the grass has not been so the cattle could get much until now I think they get enough now. I have not been out in the fields this spring yet I generally go before this time but I have been so tired when it came Sunday that I did not feels as if I could walk and any other day I did not have time. we have built a horse barn this spring beside our other work and the men are now at work for the small calves so you see it goes all the time on a farm.

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It was so cold _all not stormy but frosty & the ground kept so cold I did not get my garden in very early so I have not had anything out of it yet it grows so slow since it came up. It is cold tonight for June I should not be surprised if there was a little frost again I hope not we have potatoes & beans up in the garden so if it freeze they might get nipped our potatoes did once a few of them but they have come up all right again & are growing fast.

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I have 26 little turkeys but only 15 little chickens as yet but I have 12 hens setting on hens eggs one on goose eggs + an old turkey on 19 turkey eggs you had better come & see me Thanksgiving and you can have a piece of Turkey
I am not all through with my house cleaning yet because I could not do it alone so I had to wait for some one to help me and we have just got our washing & ironing done for this week so I will try & do some cleaning now & finish next week.
Well I cannot think of any more this time. only give my love to Auntie and tell her I will try and write to her soon

top of page 3, upside down

Love to yourself and write soon
From your loving Cousin Ella

(in ink and a different hand)
ans June 13.

Myrtle and Belle were the two oldest daughters. I wish Ella said where they'd been or what jobs they'd had. I know that Belle did teach school at least for awhile. I have not found either girl on the 1910 census yet. Eldest son Ray was living in Mapleton, MN in 1910.

I have not tracked down John Albion McKinnon in the 1910 census as yet either. In looking for him in various records I may have tracked down some of his descendants with the last name Bjorkley and hope they find these letters. I found a seven year old email address for one of them and hope it is still good.

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 June 1907. Digital Images 1-4. Privately held by Apple, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Snowville, New York. 2008. [Carlisle Family, Box #1, Correspondence, 1907, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]