Box 205,
Deerwood, Minnesota,
April 11, 1924
Dear Cousins:
I have four days left to get this letter to "Headquarters." I think
I'll manage to get it there on time if none of you bother me. I would
not care though if some of you did step in on me and bother me, I'd
sure be glad to see some of my father's Cousins, not just some of you, but all of you.
I received a "reminder" from Cousin Will Selph yesterday, telling me to hurry up with my letter. I've been thinking about writing this letter for a long time but do you know, I think it's rather a hard job to write to sixty or seventy people all at once. I'd rather write just one letter at a time. I wrote to my sister Mary yesterday, and to my Aunt Helen, (mother's youngest sister) out in Shelton, Washington, and it was not any job at all.
I think my brother Edd must be at Shelton or Tacoma now. They left Montana1 on the first of April. I hope he will write a big long letter and tell us what he thinks of the Coast. He will be able to go and see Cousin Lee and Georgia2 and Cousin Edd and all the rest of the folks that live on the Coast. I wish I could step into his shoes for a little while. Maybe they would not fit me, but I would manage to keep them on.
We are very busy folks here in Deerwood now. "Spring" is a month earlier this year than last. We have been hurrying to get things done up so we can get our crops in early. We have not had much rain yet, and we did not have very much snow during the winter, so we may have another dry summer and that means hoe and cultivate to kill the weeds and hold the moisture. We are planning to set out a big patch of raspberries. We can manage them all right by cultivation. We tried ever-gearing strawberries for two years, but they need irrigation to make them bear, and we are not fixed to do any irrigating.
I have some Parcel Post baby chicks coming next Tuesday, the 15th. I sent to Zeeland, Michigan for some Tom Barron English strain White Leghorns. This winter, I have had sixty-five White Leghorn pullets to work with.
1. Edd and his family sold their ranch because of his eyesight. They moved to WA because relatives they'd known back in Brainerd, MN had previously moved to Tacoma & its environs.
2. He later joined Georgia in her flower growing business.
I raised them last summer. Last month those sixty-five pullets laid 1340 eggs. This month they are doing still better. I'm getting an average of sixty eggs per day3.
We have in our community here a "Farmers Club", or as we call it, a "Community Club". We have two Townships in our club. There is supposed to be a Farmers Club in every Township in the country. We have a County Agent who would be hard to beat. He works with all his might for the farmers, and we have a man in our Deerwood Bank who is almost as good as the County Agent. He is what you would call a good "mixer." He steps right out and attends all our meetings. He lectures for us on different topics of interest to the farmers and he is also an auctioneer. Very seldom he charges for anything he does, for the farmers. He says he wants to help put them on their feet. And I guess you will all agree with me that the farmers need all the help they can get. What I am aiming to tell you is this -- we are organizing a Poultry and Egg Association and expect soon to commence shipping our eggs out to you folks in "New York." So if you get a carton of nice fresh eggs that has printed matter upon it telling you it is from the Deerwood-Aitkin Poultry Association, you will know that "I" helped to produce these eggs.
This summer all you Cousins can think of me as I am hoeing weeds, picking berries, feeding chickens, and peddling my produce in my "Little Old Ford." I also sell milk and cream. I say "I" because it is "I" who does the peddling. My "better half" objects to doing any peddling. I find that men are seldom any good at peddling anyway.
I suppose I am in for a scolding now when it comes to not having some pictures ready to send along with this letter. But I'll tell you what to do, -- just leave a little corner someplace in your book and I'll send them later on. You won't be out much because I am the homeliest black sheep in the family. I'm something like George Buck's wife, -- I've had to eat bread crusts and scraps all my life and I weigh almost one hundred and eighty pounds (180) as the result4.
I hope we will get lots of nice long letters this time. We will have a whole year to read them in. And I was thinking that maybe if some of the Cousins
3. As some of you know, back then, and for many decades before, farm wives coud sell their eggs to the general store and keep the proceeds as ther peersonal spending money.
4. Carrie is referring to George Buck's last letter, in which he wrote: "Well my family is large. You think I mean large in number but what I really mean is that Anna, my wife, weighs one hundred and seventy‑five pounds (although she is trying to reduce by eating only what the children and sometimes the dog won't eat in addition to her usual three meals a day)."
have a little spare time and will write me an individual letter I'll surely answer. I like correspondence, don't you?
And if any of you happen along in the vicinity of Brainerd,remember our house number and call in and we will try and size each other up and get acquainted. C. H. Congdon has been due to make us a visit for a long time. He used to come often, but his visits are now few and far between.
Seems as though I cannot end this letter without bringing "Pa" to mind. When I go to the cemetery next month to plant a flower on his grave, I'll plant a few tears for you all you Cousins and think of you all in his behalf.
With kindest regards to all the Cousins, I am.
Copyright © 2002, 2013 Wm. B. Thompson. Commercial use prohibited.