GREAT 1839 LETTER FROM SILVER CREEK ILLINOIS

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Very lengthy, 3+ folio pgs letter, approx. 7-5/8" x 12-1/2", (longer at bottom than shown in the 1st scanned image with this listing), datelined at Silver Creek, Illinois, April 22, 1839, from Marion Snow, to her sister, Miss Malvina M. Snow at Rochester, N.Y. At the top of the letter, her Father, Loring Snow, has added a brief letter. Folded letter has "Silver Creek, Illinois" manuscript postmark, and manuscript "25" rate. A very scarce postmark. Great content in this letter from this Illinois pioneer family. The Snow family moved from Poolville, NY, to Illinois in the late 1830's, settling in Silver Creek, w they lived in a log cabin, until they built a frame house in the early 1840's. At this time, Malvina Snow remained in Rochester, w she taught school. The Snow family were acquaintances of the Guiteau family in nearby Freeport, Illinois, w their son, Charles Guiteau was born during this time - the same Charles Guiteau who grew up to be the assassin of President James Garfield in 1881! Includes (from Marion Snow's letter): "I received a letter from you last Tuesday, and need I say that it was hailed with pleasure. I should have answered it before, but have been very busy preparing to teach a district school about 10 miles from home. I have $2.00 a week and my board. I would not think of leaving home, but necessity compels me. Ma will have to work very hard if I go away. You ask me if the society in Freeport is good and if I ever go t The society is good, very good indeed, and I have had repeated invitations to visit t and should be glad to, but my clothes are so poor that I cannot do it. I do not go in society at all, although I have invitations to. All the companions that I have is a couple of ignorant Dutch girls that visit me sometimes, and I do the same. They cannot write a single letter, but are rich. In the fall, I shall earn something so to get some things with. The people are quite dressy, very much so for new country.... Our prairies are green once more...and the spring work half done. You say that John says get the Indian pony ready for we will take long rides when he comes to Illinois. I will have it all saddled and bridled by the time he gets , but I have two questions to ask. First, does this John Hutchinson see the letters that you get from home, for I surely will not write if I am to have my ignorant compositions and scrawling school girl's hand exposed. Second, who is this John Hutchinson that seems as if he was a very intimate friend of yours, and what does he want to come to Illinois for if he is well off. He had better stay w he is, than to come in hard hearted Illinois to live. If it is you that he wants, he had better stay away, for he cannot get you. Why do you not marry Hurrington. Perhaps you will say I think it will be an honour to have Senator Hurrington for a brother-in-law, but is not so, for it would not better me any your marrying him, but I think you might be happy with him, for he would make a kind affectionate husband, and what more can you expect in this world. You certainly will not find love, that kind of romantic love that you fancy you must possess or not be happy in the marriage station... Really, I have been writing to you as if I were an elder sister and you a younger, but forgive me if I have stepped out of my place. If you was to marry, I should be deprived of your kind advice, and be left like a wreck upon the ocean to be drived about by every blast of wind without a beacon to guide me... I am expecting every moment that my employer will come to take me to my school. I dread it, but it is all for the best, or it would not be so. In school I am to employ my time the best way I can with 10 or 12 children on their alphabet, and out of school, I am to kill time the best way I can. Do not say a word to Pa...that I think I shall be homesick, for they think I am well pleased with it. Sister, it seems as if you do not intend to come home to Illinois. I know that our real home ... read more

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