March 20th, 1911

Here's another letter from Amy that she sent to her sister with some more money. You can tell she misses Annie, terribly. She encourages her to write her back a few times.

Amy also mentions that Matthew starts his new job as proprietor of his own garage. The next letter that will be featured here will be on his stationary!

If you notice, Amy's pen dies while she writing the second page of the letter and switches to pencil. You can see marks at the bottom of the front side of the page, where she might have tried to get the pen to work again. 

 

(This is a second. I received it last week with £5)

(Something underlined twice, looks like "omme".)

March 20th 1911

Union St

Marshall

Mich

U.S.A.

Dear Annie

Just a few lines. Hope you are keeping well. I am sending you some money as I promised you must write back as soon as you get this.  We are sending you 24 dollars. That is £5 in English money. I will send send more as soon as we get an answer from you. Don't forget to let us know how much we owe you. Tell Ethel we will send her some as soon as we can. Matt started in his new place this morning. If he gets on all right we will soon be able to pay you both. We got a letter from Scotland the other day and they told us you had not had any visitors in all winter. I was so sorry but I hope you are pulling-along all right.

Dear Annie, we have named the baby Maraget after Matthew's sister. She is dark and she is very good.

I must conclude now as Matt will be in for dinner in a few minutes. With love from all I remain your loving sister Amy

XXX

And that is our address. Write soon.

March 8th, 1911

Amy's writing to her sister after the death of her son, John, and the birth of her daughter, Margaret. I don't know if Amy was the stoic type and tried to mask her emotions in front of her family, but what seems to start out as "just a line" grows into a six-page letter. Amy pours out her her feelings of grief and guilt over her son's death, who it seems probably died from the concussion from the fall, rather than diptheria, as I had sided with the doctor, previously. But once the doctor made his diagnosis, the family was quarantined and the consequences were traumatic, to say the least. It sounds like the city tried to be as civil as they could about it, though.

It sounds as though Amy didn't even want to go to the U.S. in the first place. After her initial experience there, I can't say that I'm surprised. She tells her sister that no one wanted to let her stay with them, but then adds that Matthew's family in Scotland offered to let her stay. Whatever the reason was, she decided not to. She also becomes very pasionate about promising her sister that she will pay them back all the money they have borrowed. Not only Annie, Jack and Ethel, but also another relative, Aunt Lizzie. I don't know if Amy was aware of everyone Matthew was asking to borrow money from, or just how much. Most likely, she did, or at least had a very good idea.

Again, I am taking liberties and adding punctuation where I feel it's absolutely necessary. You can read the letter if you'd prefer to read Amy's writing. I realize that the letter in the previous post did not show up. I thought maybe it was just my own computer acting up, but I've fixed it and you should be able to read her first letter now.

March 8th 1911

Mrs. Matthew Nelson

112 North Eagle St

Marshall

Mich

U.S.A.

(I hope you are having plenty of visitors in and have not been worrying about us.) 

Dear Annie,

Just a line to let you know we are still living. I had a little daughter 21st Jan. I expect you got my postcard to tell you I had lost my Son. It was so sudden he was he was only in bed from the Thursday and he died on the Saturday morning about 1/2 past one. It was such a blow to us. The doctor said he had diptheria as well as the fall but he had no such thing. He hardly knew himself what was wrong with him. He had tonsilitus, but Matt was talking to another doctor and he said the fall killed him when he was in bed. It was all oh (on?) my head and they buried him like a dog. They would not let us go to the funeral. We all had to stay in the house for 14 days. (We) dare not go out the door for fear of being arrested. If you have anything catching in the house here they keep you all in and won't let any one come and see you till you are better. They put you a telephone in and you have to phone for everything you want and they put your things outside and hurry away as fast as they can as if you had the plague.

Dear Annie, I will try and send you some money on the 17th if I can. We have had bad luck since we came, what with Jack dying it cost me 50 dollars* to bury him. You have to pay dear for everything here and Matt had a accident on Saturday. Knocked some of his teeth and that cost me 10 dollars*. I would have sent you some now but I have only got a dollar* to carry me through till the 17th. Matt gets his pay once a month. If I had of been able to have stayed in England we should have been able to have paid Jack all his money, but it took it all for our passage. Nobody wanted me so I had to come with Matt and I did not want to stay in Scotland, although they begged me to.

Dear Annie, you need not tell Aunt Lizzie our address. I will send hers as soon as I have paid Jack and Ethel. I shant rest till I have paid you both every penny of it back. Will you send wordhow much it is we owe you all together. Send the letter to the above address. It will find us, but you must put "Mrs. Matthew" on the envelope as Matthew('s) aunt('s) named Martha and she will think it is for her. We are in a house of our own but the postman won't bring letters to us till we have a mail box and put it at the end of the street. We have a nice house in its own grounds and we only pay six dollars* a month. Matt has to go 12 miles to work every day and 12 back. We are up at 1/2 past 4 every morning but he is leaving there about the 16th of this month. He has got a situation here in Marshall and he will get 21 dollars* a week.

I must conclude now with love from your loving sister, Amy XXXXX

Write soon!

I did not get any death cards.

I could not afford them.

I have Nellie under the doctor.

*$50 in 1911 would be about $1137, today.

*$10 in 1911 would be about $230, today.

*$1 in 1911 would be about $23, today.

*$6 in 1911 would be about $137, today.

*$21 in 1911 would be about $478, today.

October 20th, 1908

This isn't the happiest of letters, and I imagine it was rather annoying for Annie to read. This was written by Matthew about a year after the last one. It sounds like maybe Matthew hasn't paid anyone back yet, and the consequence is that Annie and Ethel are not get along anymore. In the letter, Matthew is trying to assure Annie that everything will be all right... later.

It looks like Annie and her family have moved. I'm guessing their new residence is on Craven Street, but I'm not certain (it looks like a "C" but it could be a "B"). I'll have to map it on Google to see what I can find. I just discovered google maps (especially the satellite and street views) for myself, and it can be pretty exciting.

Also, I'm wondering why Matthew is even writing to Annie, given where she now lives. As far as I can tell, Matthew and Amy are still in Liverpool, so I don't know why they corrosponded by letter. I'm glad they did so we have the history, but why didn't they just speak in person? Maybe Liverpool is a very large city and they lived at opposite ends? Or maybe Matthew, Annie and Ethel had been keeping this matter private from Amy all along and if Annie and Matthew spoke in person, Amy was bound to find out? Maybe this was just how the Nelsons and Ludlams talked about difficult situations?

20/10/08
24 Craven St
Liverpool


Dear Annie

Just a few lines in answer to your letter. I was very sorry to hear of the trouble between Ethel & you. I have written to her and told her I will pay heras soon as I can. I was going to send it last month only we were negotiating for a larger place as our business is getting too large for our old place and as we have taken over a much larger place we had to buy some more machinery but we will soon make up as we are very busy at present and expect to be still busyer.

It is a bit of an uphill job to gather together a business like ours and be out of our money for 2 & 3 months and us having to pay ready cash for all the material we use but we know that it will all come back to us in time as it still keeps on increasing so that is not a bad sign.

In fact I have not had a Sunday off since I was at Grange. If we had a bit more ready cash we could employ more men but as it is we have to do it ourselves for a bit.

Amy & the Kiddies are all well
hoping your lot are the same
I remain your loving
Brother M. Nelson

October 2nd, 1907

Well, Ethel loaned Matthew the money. This letter is to Jack, but it seems that it's also intended for Annie to hear. So even though Matthew asked her to keep the previous letter private, it was understood that Jack would know about it, too.

It's nice to see that Annie was starting her own business. Does anyone know what she did? Since Amy knew how to make lace and was able to train girls on how to sew, do you think it was something like that? Perhaps that was a Ludlam family trade?

Not how Matthew brings up that he's working on an invention. From what my dad told me, he remembered hearing that Matthew had a bunch of patents for inventions and ideas. It would be neat to find out just what he invented, and if any of them went into production.

Also note that Matthew writes in big run-on sentences in this one. I take that to mean he was really excited. My dad told me he'd only had a sixth-grade education, but I love the fact that he spells his words correctly.

(Edit - Thank you, Char, for telling me how to do the "£" sign with my keyboard!) 

Oct 2nd 1907

236 Litherland Rd

Bootle

Dear Jack

I don't know how to express my thanks to you in letting me have this money but it is a necessity at present but it won't take long to get on a proper footing and I thought you could have got Ethel to lend me it as I knew Annie wants to go into business as soon as she gets a chance.

I have now got the plans for about £200* worth of work for a new invention and expect to have a lot more for the same firm and unless we get that new Lathe we will have to refuse some of it or else take it in and let it out for some other firm to do and take the risk of them doing it right and I thought if I could have managed to get a Lathe of our own it would soon pay for itself. I was once thinking of going to a money lender but they charge so much on it that they would soon sum up an account bigger than the loan. The gentleman I am intending buying the Lathe and some other tools off is giving up business as he is getting too old to look after it and he says he will introduce us into his business if we can take the tools he has left and they are worth about three times the price he is asking for them, if you can manage to get Ethel to lend me some I will let her have some back as soon as we get a draw on this job.

Hoping to hear from you per return belive me your affectionate brother

Matthew Nelson

Love to Annie and the Kiddies

So it seems he's asking for even more money. The dude is good.
*£200 would have been $312 in US money. Today it would be closer to £4350, or $6800.

September 30th, 1907

Here is another letter from Matthew to just Annie. Times were tough, as I'm sure many of us can relate to, and he was asking to borrow money from her again. He actually asks Annie to ask Ethel, and I'm afraid I don't know who Ethel is. I'm thinking perhaps this is another one of Amy's relatives, but I could be wrong. It seems as though our family was very close and numerous. It sometimes gives me a hobbits-of-the-shire vibe. Although, there was an Ethel who was married to a cousin of Matthew's (also named Matthew) in Ireland, but again, I'm not sure. If anyone has any information, feel free to leave it in the comments section.

If you'd like to read the letter on you own, here's how you do it: the first page is first, obviously. This letter is written on greeting card-style stationary. On the open page, read the right side first, then the left. Finally, the last page is last. It may sound obvious, but it took me a while to figure it out and I kept thinking Matthew was feeling very stressed when he wrote this. His letter does evoke a sense of humility and he doesn't want to ask for the money.

Sept 30th 1907
236 Litherland Rd
Bootle

Dear Annie
You will think it strange me writing again so soon but it is a necessity, and I thought that you could help me out of the difficulty, as I don't like to ask off anyone else. I have had to refuse about three weeks today all because my Lathe was too small to do it on and I expect there was more to follow that order and I don't want my partner to think that I am short of cash we really want a bigger Lathe and also get the Telephone in as it means a lot to have the phone in a place.
So I thought you might ask Ethel to lend me 30 pounds* and I would give her more on it than she would get in the bank as the rate we are losing work now for wont of the necessary tools we would soon make them pay (for) themselves.
So I hope you will be able to persuade her to let me have the loan as my partner can get as much as he wants as his father is fairly well off, and in a good business as well and if he had to supply the money to get these tools they would be looking down on me as not being equal to them.
Hoping you will be successful
I remain your ever loving brother
M. Nelson
P.S
The Kiddies and Amy are all well
Keep this as private as you can

So, obviously I'm taking some liberties revealing this letter that he wished remained private. It reveals a lot about Matthew's insecurities at the time, but times were hard for everyone.
*£30 then would be somewhere between  £642 - £770, or $1000 - $1200 U.S. dollars, today.

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