Copy of letter written on paper 12 1/2" x 15" - Blank side had
Iddo Hanson  Stafford post office - Monroe County Ohio and the date
1842 - apparantly wrltten to him.  It was signed "John Williams, West
Grove, Fay County, Indiana and dated Aprll 3, 1853.
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Respected Brother & Sister - I sit down this evening to inform
you that we are all well and hope these lines may find you so with
joy we got your letter today to hear from you they people in Jay County
are all well as far as I no except Eneas Lewis wife she has they
consumption and not likely to last long there has been two deaths in
this neighbourhood this winter one was of they consumption and they
other was a little boy that got scalded to death a few days agow he
was about six years old wheet in they ground looks well altho thr's
has been a heard winter here wheet is worth sixty cents here corn
forty oats 33 1/3 cents potatoes twenty five cents stock hogs three
dollars and sixty cents yearlin cattle selling from seven to ten
dollars milk cows worth from fifteen to twenty five dollars horses
selling from fifty to one hundred fifty dollars
We have had nice weather for they last month cattle can now
make a good living in they woods land here is worth from two to
forty dols per acre
I no some eighty acre lots not far from us that can be bought
for two hundred dollars General price of land in they wood is about
six hundred dols per quarter improved land is very hy according to
land in they woods we are going to have a rale road close by us
leading from Cincinnati to Ft. Wayne it goes by richmond winchester
camden Bluffton it will be about two miles from us they surveys and
levelers past threw here a few days agow a running threw houses and
Barnes stables and everything elce that come in they way they are
bound to run a strate line from one town to another this road is to be
lett out in sixty days last week I sold sixteen bushels of potatoes
and today I sold thirty bushels more and they man is to be here after
them in they morning and we have lots of them yet if you want a load
come soon before they are all gone
There is lots of they rappings in this county there is a methodist
meeting held regular every Sunday it is two miles from us there is a
methodist woman out here that is a grate ministor they are all
westleanes

No more this time
John Williams
(This consumed half of one side of the papor)
(On the other half - in different hand)                                .
Respected Brother and Sister I sit down to finish this letter
this is six day just after dinner and John is ahiching up the horses
to finish plowing for oats he has three ocres sowed and five more
nearly ready to sow he has six acres plowed for corn and I have got
lots of gardening done I will tell you what I have got planted  I have Beans and onions Beets and parsnips carrots and radishes peas and
sallett and cabbage seed sowed and I am going to plant some potatoes
this evening
Iddo thee needent think we have nothing to eat here in the hoosler
state for we have plenty of everything that a new country could have
I well tell you what good things we have to eat I will tell you what
I could give you for supper if you were here I could give you wheetbread
corn bread and buckwheat cakes an punkin pie and fried ham and fat
midlin Dried venison and butter and chicken and potatoes cabbage and
crout an parsnips an pickles an Beets stewed apples an peaches and
grapes and currents tomatoes and elder berrya an pumpkin butter
and stewed punkin tea coffee and chaltletts with plenty of home
maid shugar and cream in it and we get lots of milk now and we have
two cows that will have calves before long and we have one yound calf
now just four weeks old yesterday we have thirteen head of hogs and
four head of cattle and I dont now how many chickens we have for we have
a lot of them we get lots of eggs I have nine dozen to send to town
this evening we get nine dozen in eight days we have one punkin yet
that has kept nice all winter and we have two barrels of dried punkin
yet and we have twelve hundred cucumber pickles yet now if you dont
believe what I have rote you will have to come an see for your selves
and Iddo thee mustnt forget that we have a little boy here by the
name of Iddo Mannoah and thee must fetch him a nice dress for he is a
fair beauty and fat hearty and mischieveous the other two children
has growed so thee would heardly know them Clarkey Jane says she
remembers her uncle Iddo for he called her Cracker Jane so no more at
this tics but remain your sister

Louise Williams to Iddo and
Mary Ann Hanson

Original of Above is property of

Mrs. F. B. Chapman (Geneva)
Daughter of Louise Hanson
Daughter of Isaac Hanson
Brother of Edward Iddo Hanson
Father of Alfonso Hanson