Amanuesis Monday is a daily blogging prompt from geneabloggers.com which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Amanuensis Monday is a popular ongoing series created by John Newmark at Transylvania Dutch.
Below is a letter to my great grandparents, Charles A Cubbage and Maine Swank Cubbage, from Charles' brother James L. Cubbage and his wife Annie.
May 17 1908
Valencia
Dear Brother & Sister
I got your letter the other day and was glad to heare that you all was well as it found us in fair shape. wee had a letter from George W and he said he wood be out in 2 ore 3 weeks. dave sent me 3 of his girls faces and GW sent me his on a post card. how is mag & minnie. I was fishing yesterday but the rain sent me home be fore I got far. I only got 8. the farmers is not done sowing oats some is and planting corn it has been weet fore 3 days. my potatoes is coming up and the onions looks fine. the fruit is no good but I think the apples is all right yet the ground was white with snow the 1 day of may. that fixed the peach cherry plumbs & pairs. the times is no good a round here. dose your mother stay with Cas [Chas] and his wife. you ought to git the old man to write when you are busy. I have lots of time but to lazy. I will be looking fore the kids faces this week. the country is getting nice and green. annie has a [or 9?] little chicks out & a nother hen to be out on next Saturday. what is chas doing. he never has anything to say tell him to wake up and say something. hoping that this will find you all well and working from
JLC
&
AEC
Good bye bye
write soon
Valencia Pa
This letter was found in the Cubbage Family Bible. James and Charles were two of the six boys born to James and Barbara (Black) Cubbage in Butler County, PA. They had three sisters, all of whom died before 1908.
I love this letter because it tells much about their lives as farmers. In 1908 James was living in Valencia. I believe he had the family farm that belonged to his parents, who had died in 1906 and 1907. Charles was living in Swissvale, PA with his wife and children and working as an iron worker at the blast furnace. The other four brothers had moved to Ohio, Texas, Montana and Washington. The letter mentions a letter from "dave" which would be brother Jacob David Cubbage, and his "girls faces." I would love to see those pictures! The letter also mentions "George W" which would be their brother George who was living in Montana at that time. I wonder if he ever came back to Pennsylvania to visit.
The letter also mentions "mag & minnie" which could be either Maine's sister Margaret, and Charles and Maine's four month old daughter Minnie. It could also be Maine's brother's wife Minnie and daughter Margaret, who lived next door. They all repeated the same names generation after generation!
My favorite part of the letter is when James says "what is chas doing. he never has anything to say tell him to wake up and say something." I am guessing that he really addressing the letter to Maine. I am so thankful to have a family record like this, as it adds so much more color to the pictures I've pieced together of these ancestors.
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