Creator
Katie M. Graydon
Recipient
John Muir
Transcription
Elm Knoll, Aug 20th, '72 [Tuesday?] Aft. -
[in margin: A friend of Papa's a Mr Connely, has just come home from the Yosemite. We asked him all about you, he said he thought he saw you but was not quite sure whether he did or not. Did you see him. I expect if you did you did not know who he was.]
Dear Mr. Muir,
I received your letter last Wednesday, and was very glad to get it. The flowers were as pretty as they could be and made the letter smell so sweetly. I thought the larger blue flower smelt a good deal like penny royal. I wish you and Merrill were here to help us enjoy our peaches and grapes. We have had a great deal of fruit this summer, -
[in margin: I wish you would write often, and send me flowers, because I dearly love them & I am going to study Botany this year. Papa & Mamma send their love to you, & Merrill. I wish you would stir Merrill up & make him write, and you write soon again. Katie M. Graydon]
this vacation, and I do not have any time to read while I go to school. Do you remember that day you were out at our house and we went over in the woods to get flowers and ferns? Well the woods have been sold and out up in to lots, and a very handsome Orphan Asylum has been built. A great many of those beautiful trees have been cut down too. I saw a piece of yours in the Scribner not very long ago.
[in margin: 906]
Strawberries - currants, goose- berries - raspberries, black berries, apples, pears peaches, grapes, and melons, besides our vegetables. We have a splendid orchard, it is young, but it is bearing a good deal this summer. I think you would not know it out by our house now, at all. We are nearly in the city limits, and it has grown very rapidly. We expect aunt Kate and Janet home next week or the week after. Aunt Julia and Charles stay until October. School begins in about two weeks. I am going to the High School, and not the University where Janet
00608
will go. I am so sorry not to be with Janet, but it is so far from our house that I never could get there in time in the mornings, unless I would stay with aunt Kate. I have been away from home so much in winter that I want to try and stay at home this winter. I have just finished "Dombey & Son", Have you ever read it? I liked it [underlined: very] much. I am reading "Rob Roy" now. I have not read near as much this vacation as I wanted to. I thought I would read "Bancroft's History of the United States", but it is so long and I did not get started in time to finish it.
Elm Knoll, Aug. 20th, '72.
Dear Mr. Muir,
I received your letter last Wednesday, and was very glad to get it. The flowers were as pretty as they could be, and made the letter smell so sweetly. I thought the larger blue flower smelt a good deal like pennyroyal. I wish you and Merrill were here to help us enjoy our peaches and grapes. We have had a great deal of fruit this summer, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, and melons, besides our vegetables. We have a splendid orchard. It is young, but it is bearing a good deal this summer.
I think you would not know it out by our house now at all. We are nearly in the city limits, and it has grown very rapidly. We expect Aunt Kate and Janet home next week, or the week after. Aunt Julia and Charles stay until October. School begins in about two weeks. I am going to the High School, and not the University, where Janet will go. I am so sorry not to be with Janet, but it is so far from our house that I never could get there in time in the mornings, unless I would stay with Aunt Kate. I have been away from home so much in winter that I want to try and stay at home this winter. I have just finished "Dombey and Son." Have you ever read it? I liked it very much. I am reading "Rob Roy" now I have not read near as much this vacation as I wanted to. I thought I would read "Bancroft's History of the United States," but it is so long and I did not get started in time to finish it, this vacation, and I do not have any time to read while I go to school.
Do you remember that day you were out at our house and we went over in the woods to get flowers and ferns? Well, the woods have been sold and cut up into lots, and a very handsome Orphan Asylum has been built. A great many of those beautiful trees have been out down too.
I saw a piece of yours in the Scribner's not very long ago. I wish you would write often, and send me flowers, because I dearly love them, and I am going to study Botany this year. Papa and Mama send their love to you, and Merrill. I wish you would stir Merrill up and make him write, and you write soon again.
Katie M. Graydon.
[Folder marked "Katie Graydon's first letter, and one 8 yrs. later 1872 & 1880"]
906
Location
Elm Knoll, [Ind?]
Date Original
1872 Aug 20
Source
Original letter dimensions: 18 x 22.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Graydon, Katie M., "Letter from Katie M. Graydon to John Muir, 1872 Aug 20." (1872). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1470.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1470
Resource Identifier
muir02_0877-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 02, Image 0877
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyright status unknown
Copyright Statement
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Pages
3 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
