Letter from Frances Adeline Seward to William Henry Seward, Jr., January 12, 1866

  • Posted on: 13 December 2021
  • By: admin
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Letter from Frances Adeline Seward to William Henry Seward, Jr., January 12, 1866
x

transcriber

Transcriber:spp:meb

student editor

Transcriber:spp:rmg

Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive

Institution:University of Rochester

Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections

Date:1866-01-12

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Letter from Frances Adeline Seward to William Henry Seward, Jr., January 12, 1866

action: sent

sender: Frances Seward
Birth: 1844-12-09  Death: 1866-10-29

location: Washington D.C., US

receiver: William Seward
Birth: 1839-06-18  Death: 1920-04-29

location: Auburn, NY

transcription: rmg 

revision: jxw 2021-06-23

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Page 1

Washington
Friday 12th Jan/66
My dear Will,
I was delighted to re-
ceive your letter of the 9th
it came to me yesterday.
Since I have been at home
and known how much
too hard you worked,
I have kept a very full
sense of your want of leisure
and I do not ever wish
to tax you to write to me
when the pressure of your business
makes the time hard to find. It
was thinking of that which made

[top Margin]
Aunty sends love.
After very cold
days – we have
now charming
weather.
have a window
wide open while
I write.

Page 2

me tell you I would take a
printed circular whenever you
had not time to write a
letter — and I really mean it —
for one of those forms in
a bank envelope addressed
by you would show me that
you were well and attending
to business — and tell me itself
how cares prevented your
writing. As I have a
great deal more leisure than
you have — I shall keep on
sending you letters to tell
you how things go on here.
I know I have little
need to say how great is
Page 3

the pleasure it always gives me
to have a letter from you. I only
wish you to know how thoroughly
I appreciate the reason when
you cannot write.
I hope you succeeded in getting
Harriet
Birth: 1807 Death: 1888-08-20
to come. I was very sorry
Jenny
Birth: 1839-11-18 Death: 1913-11-09
has such trying times with
cooks. I hope Fanny
Birth: 1848
the nurse
has not been sick any more.
So the Palmyra bank is
fairly begun. I thought it not
unlikely that Capt.Knowles’s
Birth: 1827 Death: 1909-08-12

courage would give out, if you
did not embark on the enter-
prize. I trust it may prove
successful, and that Mac-
Page 4

Dougall’s
Birth: 1839-09-14 Death: 1914-05-24
absence will not put too
many additional cares upon
your shoulders.
That is very amusing
which you write me about
the people who “would
have liked to join the excur-
-sion.” After seven days we imagined
the party enjoying the delights
of Santa Cruz. Gus
Birth: 1826-10-01 Death: 1876-09-11
thinks
we may look for their return
about a week from Sunday;
but it seems to me that, if
Father
Birth: 1801-05-16 Death: 1872-10-10
can make up his mind
to stay longer from
Washington, they will linger a little
among those beautiful islands —
Page 4

three days is so very short a time
to spend on shore.
Poor Catherine Huson
Birth: 1825 Death: 1898
! It is
very good — just like you — to
send her that additional $25.
It is enough to discourage one with
human nature to see how her
brothers leave her to others to
support. Kate Barrett
Birth: 1837 Death: 1878-04-08

wrote that she heard she was
sick — and I wrote a day or
two since to inquire. I do
not see what is to become of her
& her children.
Aunty
Birth: 1803-11-01 Death: 1875-10-03
continues to get better —
Yesterday she spent the morning
in Fathe Gus’s room. Today
she sits reading the papers in
Father’s room. Her cough is
still bad — but not so severe
or frequent as she had been —
“You are getting well now,” Dr Norris
Birth: 1828-03-09 Death: 1895-11-10

tells her. Though she says she
shall have a cough all winter.
Sometimes she gets a little despondent but
Page 5

the doctor cheers her up. She says she
should go down stairs today if it
were not Friday — and she will
go tomorrow.
Yesterday Mrs Peale
Birth: 1814-03-08 Death: 1889-02-03
took Mary
Grier
Birth: 1839-09-05 Death: 1930-06-04
about to morning receptions.
They met many celebrities and
seemed highly pleased with the
day. Mrs Peale dined &
spent the evening here. Israel
Washburne
Birth: 1813-06-06 Death: 1883-05-12
was here last evening
as pleasant as ever. He asked
all about you.
I repeat your kind request about
health — do always let me know
just how you are. If you are
well I am delighted — and if you
are not well I always want to
know of it. My cough is better
I do not much think it is whooping
cough — nor does the doctor. It gives
me but little inconvenience compared
with what it did. In all other respects
I am far better than when I left home —
rarely troubled with neuralgia — and
very much stronger. Besides a drive I
got my walk two or three times around
the square —and can keep busy & about
the house like other people. Love to Jenny &
the children
x Birth: 1862-09-11  Death: 1921-10-05  Birth: 1864-11-10  Death:  
. Ever very affectionately your sister. Fanny