Ripley Texas May the 31

                Mrs Mary F Elliott

Dear sister and family

I will try this eare to answer your kind letter I received some time ago one thing and other has cawsed me to neglect untell now we are not well the baby is not well Georges health is no better he has ben working to much for his strength the children has ben having chills again but is better they are getting along very well with the crop about ready to lay corn buy and have choped oats most of the cotton had to plant part of the cotton over we had such a late cool spring every thing is later than usual the bugs killed the wheat and oats in Texas some places cant tell there has ever ben any oats planted had to plant in cotton and there will be so much more cotton than there would have ben We dident have any wheat and very few oats

there is lots of fruit now if nothing hapens to it later

I have a good garden and have had peas and potatoes for some time my cabbages is late will soon have beanes large enough to eat

I havent had very good luck with my chickens I had about 300 hatched but have lost good many have some large enough to eat havent many goslings and had good many ducks hache but they all died I dont raise Turkeys cant have any luck with them We are talking about selling out and leaving this part of Texas George is going out west of hear to look for a hoe we have such bad health hear we are going to try to find a healthier country I want health more than money and we have neither I wanted to go away from hear 2 years ago and George never was satisfied hear but I wanted to stay and would want to stay yet if we could have health Inever new people to have chills all the winter before like they did this winter before and are still having them Mary Brother Williams daughter Lela is married she married the 12 of this month to Walter Stewart of new Boston where she was teaching I guess he is all right she thinks so he is cashier of the Bank at that place I never met him I intended to go to the marrieg but Ethel was hear and her baby was sick and I didnt go George and Ola and...

 

 

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rest of letter missing

 

*The year is approximate - a guess based on Lela Marshall Stewart’s son’s birth year (Austin Stewart was born in 1902). The latest the letter could have been written is 1901, and the earliest perhaps 1900, when the U.S. Census places Lela living at home with her father, William Osker (Oscar) Marshall. Once we ascertain the year of Lela Marshall’s & Walter Stewart’s wedding, we will be able to secure the date.