November 14th, 1911

This letter is from Amy to Annie. It seems that her and Matt's mission is to get Annie and Jack to the U.S. as quickly as possible. It's funny, because Amy talks about what an easy decision it was for their family to pack up and leave in the beginning of her letter. How quickly she forgets that she didn't want to leave England, originally.
We learn a few things in this letter. Jack, it turns out, is deaf. We don't know how deaf, or if it only affects one or both of his ears. We also find out that he's a big guy. Bigger than "the tall men". Amy suggests the reason her sister and brother in law might not want to leave England is due to Jack's insecurities. Whether that was the case or not, I don't have the proof.
We also learn that Amy is a very spiritual woman. My dad had told me before that Amy used to read tea leaves. I'm not sure if that's what she's referring to when she tells her sister that she hopes her "fortune comes true", or if she just hoping Annie and Jack make more money. In a very sad part of the letter where she mentions that John died a year ago, she tells Annie that he used to see him every night after he died until Margaret was born (who she calls "baby").
Finally, I originally thought the "stock" that Amy writes about in the letter was money stocks, but I think she's writing about live stock. But in a way, buying local cows can be considered an investment.

 

Dear Sister

Just a few lines in answer to your letter. We expected a letter from you last week but of course it takes time to think thinks out. Not like us, we made our minds up all at once, but we have got on all right. So far we landed on the Monday and Matt got work the end of the week and now in business for himself. Of course it takes a lot to make a stock. Most of what they have made has had to go out on the place and buying stock but we shall feel more of the benefit next year. Of course they don't run the car here in the winter as there is too much snow. It has been snowing here since Saturday night. Of course we have not got much of a home together yet but you can't get everything all at once. 

Dear, I do hope you will come. I could hardly wait till I got in the house & open your letter. It was too cold outside & read it so I had to wait. But I was disappointed when Jack had not made up his mind. It won't matter about his deafness as long as he is a good worker. I think Jack thinks he is deafer than what he is. No, (at) his size, Matt says he can do twice the work a some of the tall men. Matt says he would not have to plough but if he did any time, you just sit on the seat and the horse does the ploughing. You only have to drive. We had our ground ploughed and it seemed quite easy but this was only a small plough. The horse pulled it and the man just guided it straight. Jack would not have to hire for twelve months unless he ... of course if he does not care to take it, Matt could try and get him something else in the meantime. Matt says Mr. Lewis is a very nice man. He does not rush them. Tom work(ed) for him for a few days. He said he is very nice. I don't know how many men he keeps, I forgot to ask Matt before he went to the Lodge, but I will ask him when he come back.

They don't think so very much of Sunday here. You can go to a theatre here on a Sunday. Of course you could go out to work as well. It is about 1/2 an hour's walk from town but you can go in a few minutes in the car.

(Have you heard anything about my watch? I would like you to bring it with you if you come.

I expect Luoise will be jumping sky high when she knows you are thinking of coming.)

Matt will get to know about the fares. I don't know whether it is only through farmers you can get cheap rates. I know it is cheaper to get tickets sent from here because Tom sent a ticket to one of his pals just before we came out. You won't have to pay any duty on your bed clothes. You can bring quite a lot with you. You could get some ... like we did and you would be surprised what a lot you can pack in them. You are allowed so much for each one. Our baskets was not opened at all and we were not asked what was in them. I am so sorry you will be having such a hard time again this winter. We know what it is to have hard times so we can feel sorry for you. We brought all our bed clothes with (us), of course we had not got as much as you. 

Dear, there are no mines near here. There is about 18 milking cows. Matt says he only want a man to look after the stock. I expect Matt will write again. I don't know what other stock he has, I forgot to ask him before he went out. 

Dear, I do hope your fortune comes true for I am longing to put my arms around you and give you a good big kiss. I think it is a six-roomed house.

Dear Annie, I'm so pleased the children are getting on so well. They will be quite a help to you. It is 12 months since this coming Saturday that my boy fell down those stairs. I feel as if I can see him now with that big cut in his forehead. He would have been quite a big boy now if he had been living. I feel as if I must write about him, it seems to ease my mind. Nobody knows how I sit and think about him. I used to have him with me every night till baby came but I have not seen him since.

Dear Annie, we had quite a storm here, Saturday. Such wind I thought it was going to blow the house down. Thundered and lightened and oh it just teamed with rain. It was quite warm on Saturday and just before midnight the snow came on. It was a drop I can tell you, freezing as well. I tell you I was jolly cold in bed. I had let the stove out for it had been so warm through the day. 

Dear Annie, the church people here are very nice. There is always some of them coming to see me. I have not been since I had baby christened. I have not been able to go since baby has been so cross since she started to cut her teeth. I don't know what to do with her. She does not half cry, she squeals. Raises the dickens! You can't hear yourself talk when she starts.

I think I have told you all and will get Matt to write in a day or two. I got your letter at noon 14th. 

From your loving sister Amy Write soon XXXXX 

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.

Moving to the United States

In 1910, Matthew and his family moved to the United States. From what my dad has told me, they stopped in Canada first, because they had family there. Then they settled in Marshall, Michigan. I don't know the exact date they left England, but I can tell you it was in the early part of the year. The next letter I will be posting is the first letter I have written by Amy Nelson. Her hand writing is very difficult for me to read, so my transcription will probably have a lot of "..." in it.

I'm going to spoil her letters (the second one is also by Amy) and tell you what I have figured out happens in a short amount of time.

• 
  
  Amy writes the address that she's writing from on her letters, whereas Matthew puts the address he's writing to.
• 
  
  On January 19th, 1910, the family was some place called Green Lane.
• 
  
  Shortly after the family arrived in Marshall, their oldest son John fell down some stairs and hit his head. He died two days later from complications from his head wound.
• 
  
  The doctor who examined John said he had diptheria. It is my belief that he probably fell from the stairs because his illness made him faint or dizzy, but it's possible horseplay was involved.
• 
  
  Once the doctor made his assessment, the family was quarantined. They were not allowed to leave their house to hold a funeral for John.
• 
  
  On January 21st, 1911, Amy gives birth to a daughter, Maraget.

Diptheria - Google Health

Update: I Googled Green Lane, and the only location that came up was Green Lane, PA. Although, it is possible that there was another Green Lane in Canada or somewhere else that has since been renamed. This could mean that the family actually left England in 1909. Maybe they spent Christmas in Canada? I'm not sure how safe it would have been to travel the Atlantic from November to January. Either way, I don't have any letters (as far as I know) that explain what happened. If anyone has any information (again), please feel free to put the information in the comments.

October 6th, 1907

It looks like Annie and Jack were able to get the money to Matthew, quickly. His writing is quite enthusiastic, and I think if life was like a musical, he would've broken out into song and dance after writing this.

The thing that confuses me is the mention of Harry and Maggie. According to the Nelson Genealogy (by Doreene Derr, Jeanne Kipker and Linda English), Matthew and Amy didn't have a son named Harry. Yet it sounds in this letter that they very much do. Also, they had a daughter named Margaret, but she wasn't born until 1911 in Marshall, MI.

My dad suggested that Harry might be Harry Wilson, a nephew of Amy's. He would be the son of Louise ("Aunt Louise" of Laugh-In fame, who's letter I have as well). It's possible that Maggie could be Harry's sister, and the two were spending a week with them to play with their cousins John and Ellen (although Ellen wouldn't have even been two years old yet).

October 6th 1907
236 Litherland Rd
Bootle


Dear Annie & Jack

I can't express my thanks to you for your kindness in sending me the money and hope it won't put you to any inconvenience by doing it, but I hope to soon be able to repay it back. I was out today looking for more work, at a friend of my partners, and I expect to get a lot of work from him. And we are giving in an estimate for a job tomorrow and if we get it there will be about £400* worth of work in it so don't forget to pray hard for it to come our way for it would give us a good kick along. Things are beginning to look a bit brighter now of course we can't expect to get on all at once in a new business as it takes some time to get known but if any one gives us a job to do we are certain that they will come back with more as any work done by us is done in a first class way and we do it at a reasonable price we don't want to make big money all at once what we want is to get a good connection and do a class of work that recommends itself. Harry seems to be going on very nicely he seems to be taking his food very well only he varies some days. He will eat more than others but he can't keep still a minute and we do have a time in the mornings with John and Harry trying (to see) who can sing the loudest and I have to threaten them with the cane if they don't be quiet, but he is very little trouble, far less than Maggie only him and John keep telling tales on one another.

Thanking you again for your kindness and hoping you are all well as we are at present

Believe me your Loving Brother

XXXXX Matthew Nelson
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Okay, so maybe he wasn't the Nelson who was inclined to singing, but he could probably do a decent shuffle step with a cane and hat.

*£400 in 1907 would be about £9,100 or $14,180, today.

Matthew Nelson

Matthew Nelson was a Pisces who was born in 1879 in New Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the oldest of fifteen children (twelve of whom survived past infancy). He met his wife, Amy, while working in Donegol, Ireland. He later traveled to work in Liverpool, England, before the family moved to Marshall, Michigan in the United States. This probably means that he accumulated one heck of an accent.

(No, I am not a professional genealogist.)

Matthew was a professional mechanic and craftsman. He was able to make tools. He met Amy Ludlam in Donegol while they were both working to set up a knitting factory. Amy was born in Leicester, England in 1884 (she was a Taurus, in case you were curious). I don't know too much about her, but I do know she was also a woman of skill, and could make lace.

Matthew did what he could to find work and start a business while they lived in Scotland. Amy gave birth to two children there and gave birth to a third in England. By that time, Matthew was working in a mechanic's shop in Liverpool, but his ambitions were greater. In 1910, the family moved to Marshall, and Matthew got a job at an auto shop. He soon opened his own shop and was successful. He also had the first car in Marshall and gave people rides to those who did not (as a service, of course).

One horrible experience the family had to endure was the death of their oldest son, John, shortly after they arrived in Marshall. I have a letter that speaks about that incident, so we'll cover that in a future post.

Matthew and Amy had five more children after arriving to Marshall. In an ironic and sad turn of events, Matthew was struck by a car and killed on Halloween, 1943. Amy survived him until her passing in 1970.

If I am incorrect in any of this information, please let my know in the comments and I will amend it.