Dear Daddy – The Farm Letters

Dear James,

We received your letter and package Friday. Am glad you are well. The fine weather continues every day but it gets cold enough to freeze water in the washbasin at night. The head of your axe almost flew off yesterday, the screw broke out. So I’ll let the heavy splitting go. We’ve used one row of wood in the shed. When we had so much snow we couldn’t split wood outside.

We all feel pretty much let down by your not coming until the end of the month. I saw Mr. Wrightly yesterday about the Shaw place. He says there are 80 acres in it. 40 cleared and 40 in pasture. No large trees but small stuff growing up. He wants $1600 for it and anyone who sells it can have what they get over that; $600 down and balance in 5 to 10 years. Taxes $50 per year. That is what he says. Last summer I inquired just out of curiosity and was told he asked $1400 for it and it is not a full 80. There is some question about the boundary between him and Jenson. I also heard that he will bear watching and he foreclosed on the place once. The 80 acres north of us is owned by a land company and a bank in Park Rapids has charge of it. 140 acres in a swamp but there is some good timber and one cleared field. I heard it was priced at $1000. The farm east of Henry Vokes is an 80; 40 acres on one side of the road and 40 across, I think you can get a list of State-owned farms that have been taken over by foreclosure from the bank or maybe the county agent.

We won’t need any more supplies until the 25th except laundry soap. I haven’t a speck left. The lemon powder is fine for dishes and thank you for that. We thought a pair of rubber boots would make a nice birthday present. I’ll send the outside measurements of his boots and you’d better get a size or 1/2 size larger, that is if you think that is all right for a present.

We’ll each write to you again Sunday and hope we hear from you real often. With love, Martha

Dear James,

I had to look most everywhere before I found any paper to write to you tonight. I have a Dr. and Dentist living at our house now, Ruth is the Dentist and John is the Dr. I had one tooth pulled today and tomorrow I have an appointment to have my teeth cleaned and I had to take Betty June to the Dr. for stomach ache and then I had a finger that needed to be wrapped up, and I am suffering from heart trouble and need to see the Dr. at I0 AM about that. I invited them to supper tonight and asked them if they would like to room and board here and they said they’d like to so that’s that.

I started to knit tonight but one of the needles fell into the cellar thru the crack in the floor so I decided to stop, write to you and then go to bed. I wrote to the A and P and to Washington D.C. for booklets on raising chickens. I think you have done very well to get such nice checks. John’s birthday comes the 12th, what shall we do about it? We haven’t decided what to get yet but will let you know what we think he’d like soon. I know he wants an angel food cake so I shall save eggs for that. It takes 11 eggs, and you might get some small candles too, blue ones if you can. We’ll hide the packages and make him hunt for them. The children had a pillow fight Monday night and the blood blister on John’s finger broke open. He didn’t know it until morning and I had to wash all the pillow covers.

(Thursday morning)

The temp was almost zero this morning but the sun is shining bright and it will be a fine day. I won’t send your laundry until Friday as there is a lot of mending to do and Ruth wants to send you some candy. The children measured each other by the door and each has grown almost an inch. They send you lots of love and kisses and good wishes and hope the time will fly until March 25th or thereabouts. We’ll be seeing you. Martha