Transcription
CATALOG NUMBER HF 3041 D
OBJECT NAME Letter
DATE September 26, post-1834 death of Cadwallader Colden?
AUTHOR F. C. (Fanny Colden) (Frances Wilkes Colden?)
RECIPIENT Emma Nicholas (Maloney)
MEDIUM Paper, ink
PEOPLE Aunt Colden (Maria Provoost), Dr. H[owell’s?], “Mrs. Colden (Mrs.
Rhind’s sister), Mrs. (Charles) Rhind, Mrs R[apilje? Unrecovered], David Colden, Ann Hoffman Nicholas, Matilda Nicholas Whitman, Ogden Whitman, Julia Hoffman, George Hoffman, Josiah Ogden Hoffman,
PLACES Hamilton, Hudson Square, Newburgh, Saratoga, West Point,
Boston
EVENTS Cholera (not 1832),
Addressed to:
Miss E. Nicholas
Care of Professor Whitman
Hamilton
[O-n-e-i-d-a- crossed out] Madison County
Hudson Square, Friday
I hope, my dear Em, you have not quite renounced / me _ you have been so long without writing that I am afraid / you have not cared as much as usual about hearing [^from me] but / as I am past the age of being affronted at young ladies / laziness, I shall tell you a little of ourselves, and make en - / quiries [crossed out ^ which with these repoaches] I am sure, will soon bring me a letter _ Your / Aunt Colden has been spending her summer between Dr. H[>owell’s?] / + Newburgh, where she has comfortable lodgings with a Mrs. / Colden (Mrs. Rhind’s sister) and she has been very well + [crossed out] / enjoyed the country extremely _ she did not find her home / at Mrs R[apilje’s?] agreeable enough to tempt her to remain / longer, and we are looking for rooms near us for her, which / she will come to town + take possession of, as soon as we can / find any. The whole style of living at her sister’s was so / different from what she has been accustomed to, and / her temper not a conciliating one, that we thought / Mrs C. would be far more independent, and friendly / feelings more likely to be kept up, if she had separate / lodgings, and I dare say it will suit Mrs. R better too _ David
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Is his right hand man, and has the management of / his property _ selling lots etc. on which his fortune / principally consists _ he has less ready money that / any rich man in town + tho he feels the inconvenience / of it, yet has hitherto been unwilling to sell his land _ / he does now however, + David has full employment in attending to it _ and seems to have both his Uncle + Aunt’s / entire confidence _ Thos ‘ this is not much to us at present, / yet I think it impossible that Mr. R _ will not give him / a slice of his immense estate when he can no longer / enjoy it himself, at least it is a brighter prospect for / poor David who has had such pecuniary difficulties to / struggle [crossed out] with for 5 or 6 years past _ You see, my dear Em, / I take it for granted you are interested in us _ I am sure / too your mother will be glad to know her Aunt + / cousin are getting on _ I shall expect in return to know a / great deal about your household _ I have not seen an / individual this summer who could tell me anything / of your concerns, except your grandfather two days ago, / [^from] whom I was sorry to hear that poor Matilda has had / a very sick child _ I trust she is quite free from anxiety / now, as I think he said her little boy was upon the / recovery _ He told me Julia + George had both got home /
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George much reduced from a very severe bilious fever he / had had but I dare say you will hear from Julia + / indeed I know nothing more, for I only say Mr. Hoffman / for a moment in the street _ David was sick for a fort - / night this summer too, a sort of bilious fever _ He never / was obliged to be in bed, but kept the house and was / very [?weak] after so went to Saratoga for a week / where the waters quite cured him _ since that we / have spent two or three days at West Point with the / [?DrRhamas] and are going next week for ten days to / Boston _ so you see we are in the true spirit of [jainti? Unrecovered, page torn] /
We have not moved in the country this summer, a [page torn?]
Have had Cholera all around us, but we have neither / suffered ourselves nor have we lost anybody wer cared / about _ There have been many more cases + deaths than / the papers have reported + upon the whole, tho’ the / number [ ^ altogether] bears no comparison with 1832, yet the pro - / portion of deaths is as great a melancholy proof that physicians have not as yet made much progress / in the [crossed out] treatment of it. I meant my dear Em / to send you a winter frock, but as I find there is nobody / going to Hamilton who could take charge of a parcel / I have enclosed $15 and beg you will make choice of one yourself /
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I will not send you such paltry proofs of my regard of Uncle [Rass?] lengthens my purse, dear Emma, in the / mean time you must believe that the shortness of it alone / permits my following my inclination to offer you the use / of it freely _ goodbye, remember me kindly to all with you / and believe me affectionately yours F. ColdenTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
