Martha Lickely talking about family life on the farm to William Likely Page 1
Name/Title
Letter dated March 1856 from Martha Lickely ?
Entry/Object ID
000136
Tags
Martha Lickely
Subject
March 2, 1856
My dear friends,
I will try to write a few lines to let you no how we are getting along and where we are. We are in the far west a surprise but it don’t seem so to me yet. We are to our new home and we are all well at present. We came here the 20 of January. We stayed ten days in Michigan and we had a hard travel for it was very cold weather. I can tell you for I don’t think that I ever saw such cold weather before in all my days but now it is getting more pleasanter and things begins to look a little better. We have bought a yoke of oxen and built a log barn to put them in and the first of the week they are going to get another yoke. We have bought a plough and a new stove and now we are getting rails to fence the farm with.
Jason is home a helping his papa now. Uncle and Ned died and they are trying to get things ready to work to spring and stayed in this spot one week. We live in sight of rail road and houses and on the flat but hills all around it is thick settler but we can’t see many of them by the bluffs out. I expect we will like it in our new country. It is some wild here. They have the very fever and poor health and his daughter has got the fever now and Melton was sic too but he has got well. He went to work the next week after we got here at his trade and came homesick. So he stays home now untill the weather gets warmer and then he will go off again for they have got to get the mill done by the first of April. We can’t keep him home much for he like his trade the best.
it is 40 miles from madison to where we live by land and a bad road to travel it was eight weeks before we got our goods and then we got Win pest to come and get them it cost us one hundred and fifty dollars to get there wen the rail road gets through it wont cost near so much to come here tell sam not to come until the rail road gets to richland then it will be cheaper to traveling for still you cost something to come here you must write for we want to hear from you all and you must tell us how gramma ma and gramp papa is got a long this winter for we want to hear from you very much we have been looking for a letter we want to hear we had we dont no how to wait i cant tell you much about the country yet you will have to wait until warm weather comes and then you will hear from us again we had to stay four nights on the road we could not go very fast because the weather was worst but we got here safe tell Mr. millard we like it out here and we have meeting every two weeks the preacher has been to see us he lives in muscoda he was tedious to come down and see him but i have not been out since we came here it is six weeks to day since we commence to keep house we would like to have you all out here it would be so nice to run over and see you but we need not talk you must pull up and start for the west but dont start until winter for warm weather is the best no more.
papa and nelson and bill and ben and my self sends our best respects to you all.
Martha A Likley
Direct your letters to muscoda, Grant Co. Wis
