Auburn Sep 30^th 1845
My dear Son,
I recieved your good, long letter
Saturday morning — I am always pleased to have
you write unreservedly as you may be assured
that nothing you do, say, or think can fail
to interest me — I am glad you find Chemistry
an agreeable study — you will find it useful
in time to come — I received a letter from
Fred last Wednesday — he said he was
not very well and rather homesick — He
is obliged to walk to the old College three
times a day to attend recitation which
being half a mile distant according
to his calculation he thinks is not very
pleasant — I shall feel anxious about him
until I hear again he has been so subject
to ill turns, until the last year, and has
always had such careful nursing that
I fear he will feel the change more than
he imagined — I was unwilling to have
him enter College so early preferring to
wait until his health should be more
firmly established — he was impatient
to go so I gave a reluctant assent
He says he has nothing to read and wishes

to take a Newspaper — A letter came to
Clarence post marked Waterloo which I sent
him — he writes me that the letter was
from a female correspondent but anonymous —
He recounts various acts of insubordination
of the students — says there was at one
time a rumor that he was suspended
but without foundation — a young man
by the name of Wheeler has been suspended
— the number of students since last term
has diminished some 10 or 12 and since
the commencement of the last year 20 —
this is not favourable to the institution.
I think the young men there spend more
time in devising and executing mischievous
pranks than in any other College with
which I am acquainted —
Your father returned from Batavia Saturday
night — Mr and Mrs Cary are boarding with
Sarah while some alteration is made in their
house — Grandpa , Willie, Sister Fanny and I
all went to Aunt Clara's to tea last Friday
I believe we all enjoyed our visit very much
— When I came home I found William Henry
Miller from Michigan — he is a son of Uncle
Lewis Miller — is quite an intelligent young
man but feels much that want of an education
is 22 years old — thinks some of coming

here to attend school next Summer — He was
very much disappointed to find you gone.
At one time he wished to go to West Point
but after I gave him some account of the
discipline he thought it not so desirable
as he once fancied — His brother and Sister are
married and his father has a second
wife so that he feels rather lonely —
He returned to Romulus with Clara Miller
on Sunday — Last night Lewis Miller
(son of Elisha Miller) came to Aunt Clara's he
is quite low with consumption — has a wife
and child in Romulus — wishes to go to the
South — I fear it is too late for him to be
benefitted by change of climate. Horace
Cook is not brought to Auburn yet — he is
getting along very well — Ann Robins
was married this morning at ten oclock
has left Mrs Miller who is in a state
of unparaleled dispondency — Ann's sister
takes her place — she brought me over
some wedding cake — Ann and her husband
have gone on a wedding jaunt somewhere
to be absent a week — I believe no one
was invited to the wedding — Mr and
Mrs Bronson were at the Presbyterian Church
Sunday — Mrs Bronson appears once again
in gay colours —

I have another letter from Fred in which
he says he is well and appears in good
spirits — Willie and Sister send love
I am glad you intend writing to Fred
Your affectionate
Mother
Cadet Seward
N.Y. Military Academy
West Point
AUBURN N.Y.
OCT 1