Sarah Ann Camfield, 22 March 1881

Noble Centre Mar 22d 1881

Dear Children
we are we as usual and hope you are the same I have been looking for a letter from you for some time altho you did not owe me one
I sent you 2 magazines and the next week sent 2 table Cloth I sent Rozy the same and thought you would both write and let me know as soon as you got them and have not heard from either of you so I began to think you had not got them I would like to know if you have not I must set the postmaster to hunt them up
I suppose I ought to have written when I sent them but I was so busy and I thought it would

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make no difference you would get it all the same

there is no news to write we stay rite here and every one stays away Mrs Bogardus was here the 11 and 12 of november and there has been just 2 wimmen in the house since we went to Frank Grave and stayed about an hour and a half I went to 1 of the neighbors and stayed an hour and have been to the Doctors twice for medicine and would see his wife for afew minutes that is all the company I have had so you can guess whether I am lonesome any or not I cannot read much in the evening and you know something about

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how much company Mike is

I think we wont have any peaches this year I think the bud are killed and I think the trees alsow
I have written to Rosa this after noon

write as soon as you can

from your affectionate
Mother

S A Camfield


sent the table Cloth
March the 1st

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March 25 1881

I sent this to the office wednesday Father goes to the office every wednesday and saturday I did not seal it so if he got one from you to fetch it back so I will send it again did not get one from Rozy so he sent hers I would write anew one but am not feeling very wel
we have a hired man now comenced work yesterday at $15 per month



I'm happy that Anna sent her mother a letter before this was sent.

Sarah always seems lonely. Various relatives remember Mike differently but it appears from this letter that Sarah didn't find him much company. They seemed to move so often that I wonder why they didn't move closer to either Anna or Joseph.

For more see:
Camfield Family Letters
Descendants of Sarah Ann Wisner
Michael Camfield
Henry Bogardus, Shirt-tail Cousin


Camfield, Sarah Ann Wisner. (Noble Center, MI) to “Dear Children” [Anna Camfield Carlisle]. Letter. 22 March 1881. Digital Images 1-4. 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.]

Memories on Monday - Christmas 1978

In 1978 I had been married for just over a year and decided I'd like to play hostess for both of our families. I was living in a tiny apartment near Tipperary Hill in Syracuse. I was making turkey and all the fixings, his family was bringing their favorite dish and Mom was bringing dessert.

Christmas morning dawned white. Very white. It had snowed all night long and there was at least a foot of snow in the street. But this was Syracuse and 12" was a lot to get all at once but the plows would be around. I put the bird in the oven and tried to make sure that everything was perfect.

The plow drivers had other plans. Many refused to go in on Christmas and with the few trucks that were out our side street simply was not a priority. I don't think that the families could have gotten out where they were either. My husband and I had a very nice meal - alone. Our families did not have the traditional meal that year, having to settle for what ever was in the cupboard along with what they had planned to bring.

In the late afternoon we trudged through thigh high snow and walked the three blocks to the home of friends where we spent several hours playing RISK.

Not the best Christmas ever but certainly one of the more memorable ones. That Christmas still holds the record for Syracuse's snowiest.

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.]