Pittsford Oct. 16, 1845.
My dear Martha
I am grieved & ashamed that you have not yet received a letter from home. We do love you & think of you often but I believe have been waiting for one another.
We were very impatient before your letter arrived & I hardly dare ask myself how long it is since that came[.] It was very pleasant to hear from you always when you were away but I feel now that we can sympathize more perfectly perhaps than in the days when you knew not how to care as I did & thought in your ignorance, that Persis & Helen were as dear to you as my husband was to me. You was [sic] not to blame - you knew no better. Now you know & I trust will never cease to know what it is to love one person better than all the rest of the world & that too with out depriving any of your friends of the places they previously held in your heart. Mattie dear I am willing you should love your husband ever so much better than you do me but I beg you will not love me any the less. That you will (after you keep house) write quite so punctually as you used to I cannot expect but I hope you will not so neglect using the pen as to feel writing to be a burden. As for me my writing waxes worse & worse as you will readily acknowledge, & I seem to have no power to prevent it.
Mr Pease was dismissed by a council called at his request last week. He is very unwell now. His throat troubles him. I think his anxiety & excitement occasioned it. There was a donation party at his house yesterday. Mrs Pease had a nice black Italian silk given her & [...] smaller articles such as [...] gloves host &c Mr Pease had some presents.
Mr Swift came very unexpectedly last Thursday. I did not expect him to come for me at all. He has now gone to Burlington & Cambridge. Will probably return here next week. We expect to set out for N Hampton on Monday Nv 3d your birthday. Charlotte goes with us to stay a year. We expect to take a girl also. C. is to help take care of Edward & do some other things about house & sew the rest of the time. We pay her expenses there & back & give her fifty dollars for the year. I have so much help in order that Mr Swift may be relieved as much as possible from family cares. He will have as much as he can do as a pastor & preacher. His congregation numbers I believe from 800 to 1000 & his church 500. The call was unanimous[.] He is to be installed early in Nov. The Newbury people were sadly disappointed that Mr Swift went to N.H. Word was sent to Mr S. that every man would have voted for him. Elizabeth is more comfortable. Sits up some. Yet I suppose they have no hope of her recovery. She has been much worse since you left.
Miss Lyon & Miss Whitman & Pres. Hitchcock & wife made us a visit after you left. They left Thursday morn. & the same day I rode to Fair Haven with Uncle Safford & the next week Aunt took me through Benson to Arwell where I took a boat for Burlington. I staid there & at Cambridge nearly two weeks. Father went to Cambridge for me after he returned from Brooklyn. I am now getting ready to go to N.H. I am not due to sew much. Eddy is so heavy that taking the care of him has consumed my flesh & strength faster than I have gained it. He can almost walk now it is already less care, than he was.
We expect to go immediately to housekeeping on our arrival at N. Hampton. There is a cooking store belonging to the house. Mr Swift selected carpets for the two front rooms & left them to be made & stoves to be put up & the houses to be cleaned & some furniture to be brought there before our arrival. We hope our boxes from Chilliette [?] will also be there. We leave our cabinet at the west except one bureau. It is to be sold when it can. Our parlor chairs are sold I suppose for the same we gave for them.
Your silver came some time since. It looks fine & is marked handsomely. I have sent my spoons to have Swift marked on the upper side of the handle. I want a long, full & minute letter when I get to N. Hampton. O by the way if you will go to Mt Holyoke to school now I shall be happy to have you pass your vacation with me. There is not a Pittsford girl there this year. Anna Hodges is there. David & Mary are expected home to spend the winter. I saw none of the Burlington people when I was there but Prof. Benedict & wife, Dr. Marsh, Prof Pease's wife & Dr & Mrs Spooner. Others called but I did not feel well & kept out of sight. I was so sick at Fairhaven that they called a physician. I feel much better now but have not much strength. Olivia is as usual. Betsey Leonard Trowbridge is there & is quite an assistance to O. Her husband is in N York she supposes. He is intemperate & worthless & she cannot safely live with him. Mr Tufts teaches in Castleton Sem. We expect a visit from his honor soon. Frances has commenced to write you several times but has her hands full. She will write very soon perhaps in a week. She sends a great deal of love. Lots to Mr Curtis, & to yourself from your aff sister
Write very soon.