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Collection

Anne Dickson Porritt family letters, 1849-1859

8 items

This collection is made up of eight incoming letters to Scotland-born Anne Dickson Porritt and her husband David Porritt in Bury, Lancashire, England, between 1849 and 1859. They received letters from siblings who emigrated from Scotland and England to Buffalo, New York, and Janesville, Wisconsin. Their correspondents shared their perspectives on immigration to the United States, cynical reactions to liberty and equality in a slave-owning and class-divided society, labor (farmers, joiners, carpenters, etc.), industry, wages, child rearing, hired servants, land speculation, and other subjects. Letter-writers include A. W. Dickson (1 item, Buffalo, New York, 1849), farmer Eliza Cross Dickson Bleasdale (2 items, Janesville, Wisconsin, 1855 and 1857), and John Dickson (5 items, Janesville, Wisconsin, and Leeds, England, 1857-1859).

This collection is made up of eight incoming letters to Scotland-born Anne Dickson Porritt and her husband David Porritt in Bury, Lancashire, England, between 1849 and 1859. They received letters from siblings who emigrated from Scotland and England to Buffalo, New York, and Janesville, Wisconsin. They shared their perspectives on immigration to the United States, cynical reactions to liberty and equality in a slave-owning and class-divided society, labor (farmers, joiners, carpenters, etc.), industry, wages, child rearing, hired servants, land speculation, and other subjects. Letter-writers include A. W. Dickson (1 item, Buffalo, New York, 1849), farmer Eliza Cross Dickson Bleasdale (2 items, Janesville, Wisconsin, 1855 and 1857), and John Dickson (5 items, Janesville, Wisconsin, and Leeds, England, 1857-1859).

See the box and folder listing below for detailed descriptions of each letter.

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1849 March 2 . A. W. Dickson ALS to Ann [Dickson Porritt]; Buffalo, [New York].

4 pages

Box 66, Small Collections, Folder 22
Appreciation for the package they sent. Would be glad to see them come to America. Learned to make Gent Pantaloons, receiving 3-8s per pair. Took two rooms and went to work housekeeping. Had no money, so sold the goats; hopes to make money during the summer as winter is the "dull time." Mentions Akron, Ohio, but praises Buffalo as a good place to live. Description of Buffalo history, industry and transportation, hunting and fishing, climate, and schools. Hopes for newspapers to help connect her to home. Her father[-in-law?] is good man and is glad his family moved to America. The children are in school; the oldest, John Smart Wall is in Liverpool and is finishing an apprenticeship as a draper.
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1855 June 3 . E[liza] C[ross] Bleasdale ALS to [Anne Dickson Porritt]; Janesville, Wisconsin.

4 pages

Box 66, Small Collections
Typhoid has made her very weak. Provisions are expensive and labor is also high. Wages of sowers and farm laborers. "hired girls can scarce be had at any price and they can command any wages and they are as saucy as blind cats no one keeps a girl that can do without." "I often wish some of the poor in england were here," but when they do come to America, they get too independent. Immigrants should bring money or they will end up poor in the Eastern states. Annabella is always low-spirited as "she did not get the right kind of man." Would like to hear from Agnes. Bleasdale has breakfast at 6 a.m. and never later than 7 a.m. Has 12 acres of wheat, oats, Indian corn, potatoes, beans, cherries, and peaches. Friends immigrating to the U.S.
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1857 September 7 . Eliza C[ross] Bleasdale ALS to [Anne Dickson Porritt and Agnes]; Janesville, Wisconsin.

4 pages

Box 66, Small Collections
Wishes the family would move to America. Harvesting two weeks later than last year; description of harvest thus far. Unusual remarks about her four children, stating that two of them are black and two are white [NB: they are all Caucasian]; uses a derogatory racist epithet. Wishes for family updates. Would like her and her recipient's mother to see the boys "running wild here in the Woods gathering Nuts, Plums Crab Apples Grapes & lots other wild fruit"; they do not wear shoes or socks and their feet are like leather. Snakes. Lost a cow calving. Injured her right hand. Jane and Ellen are horseback riding in fine clothes. Would like father to send newspapers.
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1857 December 1 . John Dickson ALS to [Anne Dickson and David Porritt]; Janesville, [Wisconsin].

6 pages

Box 66, Small Collections
Mentions the financial panic, stating that "there has been so many banks broke that people have lost all confidence in them and in each other" and that he is glad that his recipients did not come out at this time. He will stay and wait for trade to improve. Lumbering is more profitable in Janesville than farming. To be successful, a farmer needs sons to work without pay. Wheat is selling for a price that doesn't cover the cost of growing it. People pay more for fencing their property than for the property itself. Long and heavy winters. Thanks for the quality blankets; Yankees use "comforters" and think they are great, "but they appear to be a most prejudiced people."
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1858 March 20 . John Dickson ALS to [Anne Dickson and David Porritt]; Janesville, [Wisconsin].

6 pages

Box 66, Small Collections
Family and correspondence updates. Trade is improving and more houses are expected to be built in Janesville than there will be workmen to execute. Skilled workmen are scarce. Criticisms of the real America versus its ideals. "America is cried up as perfection whereas there is nothing real about them. Their liberty their equality and everything is all sham. They boast of liberty and keep slaves and take the part of the most despotic nation against the most free. They boast of equality but let anyone travel on an American steamer and he will see a specimen of their equality. While those who can afford to pay for it are lodged in gilded cabins and fed like princes those who cannot afford to pay for such luxuries are treated worse than I ever saw the poor Irish treated in England, and I have seen this done myself not merely to foreigners but to native Americans. They are a very proud people and an American aristocrat would as soon think of marrying a workmans daughter as an English nobleman would think of marrying his cook." Extremes in American dress. Endorses everything that Charles Dickens said in his "American Notes." "There is nothing here made or sold that is what it pretends to be and a man no more thinks of doing his work according to contract than I think of flying." Land speculation, particularly in western areas is lucrative and there will be much work available for joiners, plasterers, masons, and blacksmiths in the coming years. To succeed in America, one needs "energy and push." Eliza's husband is not a successful type, letting others go before him. "Eliza is a ten times better man than he is..." Encourages immigration because wages are good. Offers travel suggestions, especially encouraging her to bring a couple of gallons of water. If they can stand the heat of the summer and cold of the winter, they would do well to move to Janesville.
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1859 October 11 . John Dickson ALS to Anne [Dickson Porritt]; Leeds, [England].

4 pages

Box 66, Small Collections
William Coates would tell her that all is well in Leeds. Trade is pretty good and the railway company will be building an immense hotel at the Wellington station. A Leeds firm is providing the architects and Dickson thinks they May get the work. Hopes David has constant employment; sorry to hear of their difficulties. Updates on friends. Has not heard from America.