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| Title | Letter to Cromwell Anson Jones, 7 July 1881 |
| Creator | Jones, Mary Smith McCrory
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| Description | Letter from Mary Jones, wife of the last president of the Republic of Texas. |
| Transcript | Sour Lake July 7th, /81 My Dear Son Yesterday I got off a few lines to you & L this morning received a welcome postal & newspapers from you. This is the busiest place you ever saw, one meets with something new all the time. Then too bathing sleeping drinking & eating helps to fill up the day & when night comes one feels sufficiently fatigued to sleep. And you must be tired to sleep in this old shell of a house where you can hear every sound that is made all day & all night too. But I am comparatively comfortable. PJ Willis is here and doubtless you have heard of his having bought out all the claimants some of 40 years standing some needed improvements have been commenced already, such as cleaning up & filling up filthy hog holes round the kitchen. A new cook, and more & some better servants. I can see quite a change already - Miss Carree Bryan and Mrs. Hardenbrook came yesterday and were glad to find me here - as there was no room empty Mrs Goodnight took one & I the other for one night & day. Each of us had a bed & a cot in our rooms, so it was little inconvin -ience to us - People are sociable, meeting and enquiring after each other's health like old acquaintances An old old Texian has asked to be introduced to me today I don't remember his name; he had heard that I was an old Texian Oh these wonderful waters, and the many different diseases being cured by them all the time, you would ----------------------------------------------------------------- be surprised to see people here now walking about who when they came here had to be carried & laid in the bath &c & helpless as a babe - There are different waters for all the different diseases Cant you come over even a week here would do you so much good Poore [sic] Sallie & Gaston how I wish they could come - I regret I did not bring Ell he would enjoy the bathing so much & I think it would be of service to him Board is forty dollars pr month Tank fare too & from the depot [i.e. deposit of?] $1.50 cts each, forty pr month includes use of the water Yesterday I received a letter form Sallie written the day before Sam went up to Willis asking me to send Elliot up to stay with her, I hope Sam will leave him with her or send him over to me Willis intends putting up a large Hotel by an other season & making other necess -ary improvements, he says he will at once make what improvements he can to make people more comfortable this summer I am told all the houses leak fearfully - It is sandy soil here and rain is needed to lay the dust. A few days before I came it had rained enough to lay the dust - What is to become of our dried up country. I feel like I had better be saving money to go to Egypt to buy bread with How often I think these things - We have no Vegitable [sic] or fruit here, that is but very [word(s) lacking] and that is mostly canned fruit ------------------------------------------------------------ Melons sell high Figs sell at five cts. pr do -zen, Milk a dime a quart, We get some butter milk for dinner and sometimes sweet milk Tomatoes sell three large ones for a quarter It its too warm to write as no breeze comes through our tear of rooms Direct to care of Sour Lake Hotel as I do not know yet who will be put in charge Stanly has had charge but is not here now Yours in love Mary Jones I think two weeks here will answer my purpose, or at any rate I don't feel that I can stay any longer |
| Date | July 7, 1881 |
| Genre | letters (correspondence)
|
| Subject (Name) | Jones, Mary Smith McCrory
Jones, C. Anson
|
| Subject.Topical (LCSH) | Jones, Mary Smith McCrory, 1819-1907--Correspondence
|
| Subject.Topical (Local) | People--Individuals--Mary Jones
|
| Subject (Geographic) | Sour Lake, Texas
|
| Original Collection | Mary (Mrs. Anson) Jones Letters, 1858-1900 http://archon.lib.uh.edu/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=306 |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Original Item Location | ID 1970-003, Box 2, Folder 59 (1881 Correspondence) |
| Use and Reproduction | This image is in the public domain and may be used freely. If publishing in print, electronically, or on a website, please use the citation button above. To request higher resolution images, please use the Request High Res button above. |
| Digital Collection | Mary (Mrs. Anson) Jones Letters |
| Digital Collection URL | reformatted digital |
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