Anne Dickson Porritt family letters, 1849-1859

Start Over Collection Anne Dickson Porritt family letters, 1849-1859 Date range Unknown

1 collection found

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.

Top 3 results in this collection — view all 8

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.

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.

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.

Search

Search Constraints

Search Results