Creator
[Joanna Muir Brown]
Recipient
Mary [Muir Hand]
Transcription
(4)
[in margin: Walter was up at Kansas City last week which is within about a hundred miles of Crete [Neb.?] He went to start a lumber yard [illegible] and made very satisfactory arrangements.]
spring for a fresh drink and I did wish you could just have been with me for an hour at least I am sure your eyes would have feasted on the quiet beauty, there is a little stream running through a ravine from the spring eastward and on either side are ferns and flowers and beautiful trees, sometime you surely must come and spend a winter with us and stay until about May or June and then we can all go North and stay a little while with you would not that be fine?
[in margin: A long time ago [illegible] brought in some beautiful wild violets and told me to press one for Annie and so I send it now but it did not press nice They have as deep a color as pansies. We have beautiful flowers here. Mrs. Sackett may consider herself well off to have escaped so easily, that was shamefully careless. Give them my congratulation and remember me to all our friends. I believe I promised to write to Mrs. F[illegible]ell and I must. We are quite anxious to know about our house Is any body living in it?]
Jefferson Ark. Apr. 25. 82.
Dear Mary: -
Your splendid long letter which I had looked so long for came last night. I had been nursing you through the measles so long that I was exceedingly glad to hear of your much improved health. I had [illegible] the times and Badger very carefully for accounts of measles patients but all I could ever see concerning you was that you were [entertaining?] Mr & Mrs. [illegible] which I know you would enjoy if you were at all
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well, I scarcely think you can quite understand the comfort your letter gave me, I went to sleep with a quiet gladness in my heart, which this mornings light has not dispelled. Dear little Wheler, he would not need his hood and jacket on to go out to play here. We are enjoying the most delightful weather which I ever experienced, it is just magnificent, neither too hot or too cold, the woods are richly clad in dark glistening beautiful green and fairly jubilant with happy birds. This is a prettier place than I had even thought when I came
[3]
and I believe we can make a pleasant home here, at first I think I was only trying to like it but now I begin to feel contented down in my heart. Surviving March the weather was too warm to be comfortable and what with the spring weather which you know is always trying and the change of climate, I was languid almost beyond endurance, I am sure I was as much dead as alive, but I have got over that now and am getting up quite a good appetite again and fell quite cheerful, I have just been down to the
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is not able to do anything of that kind but then his restless spirit never forsakes him, He says that he can do more good in Hamilton market than in any place he ever was and that he must go back for he is only happy when employed. We have tried to reason with him and tried to make it pleasant for him here in every way we could but you know how it is, he is [illegible] again and so forgets that he is not able to get along the way he used to. What can we do? We are hindering him for the present by telling him that it is inconvenient to give him his money but of course that will not last long. Mary I cannot tell you how grateful Walter and I feel to you for your promised visit to our little grove, and the interest you take in it yourself. it is next to going there ourselves and to know that it is all right is a great comfort. You ask if I am coming to Phillips this summer. We hardly know what we will do yet, but a very cool season is prophesied by the old settlers and if it is comfortably I would be glad to avoid the fatigue of traveling [so?] we will see. Many kisses to little Wheler and yourself and love to Willis
Affectionately J. [illegible]
[5]
[in margin: We will send the piece of the chair right off. I believe I never told you about our furniture. It came through better than we could have hoped though the big chair which had so much [illegible] It will have to be sent to town for repairs but it can be made all right. I should have thought that [Willis' summer nest?] and "Interior" would have kept it all right, but it didn't]
You ask about Walter and his business, He says tell Mary we are getting along first rate now and that in a few days we will have a little locomotive to draw in the logs from the woods and that you must come and take a ride, the road being about a mile in length at present, He wishes me to enclose this excursion ticket for you. So be sure to come and get the good of it. When we first came here we had rains which were unusual even for this
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place and the mud was so deep as to make it very hard to make any headway at all, and as he had not got things into very good working order it was pretty bad, and then of course bring obliged to fight it out alone it was harder but he got through the tug bravely and no doubt will get along finely now I assure you he needs both his legs and his wits to keep everything going right, there are so many departments to be looked after. Before another rainy season comes he will be ready for it so that it will not [illegible]ly affect him.
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You ask about Father and I have plenty to say about him for Walter and I are severely perplexed about him, He does not find the employment he anticipated and so is becoming restless again and I really fear he will go once more to Hamilton, there are no colored people close by excepting those employed by W. and of course they are busy from the time Father gets up in the morning until nearly his bed time so of course he finds little opportunity to talk to them and as they were the ones he intended to work among he is discontented, the truth of course is that he
Location
Jefferson, Ark.
Date Original
1882 Apr 25
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Joanna Muir, "Letter from [Joanna Muir Brown] to Mary [Muir Hand], 1882 Apr 25." (1882). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 701.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/701
Resource Identifier
muir04_0819-md-1.pdf
File Identifier
Reel 04, Image 0818
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
John Muir National Historic Site. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Pages
4 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
