Rutland, Mass.
March 6, 1900My dear Susie:-
It has taken a good many failures to teach me to write 1900, and I may make more.
Perhaps this is your vacation, still I presume not yet.
It is snowing hard - a regular March storm. I almost wish it would make nice sleighing. We have had so much more rain than snow that it has hardly seemed like winter. There were bad washouts during both big storms, so that no trains ran on the Mass. Central for three days and it seemed so strange without mail all that time.
Miner wrote that the brook on our street was higher than it was ever known to be before. Mr. Dunham's cow stable had eight inches of water on the floor and he had to take the cows to our barn for a few days.
I expect Mother and Miner will come and visit me this week. I rather expected Miner before this but he had delayed for one reason and another. Father has had the grip & is not yet very well. Mother & Miner were not feeling very well at one time but seem better now.
You may have heard that Mr. Kyle has been asked to resign and he is to leave B in a few weeks. They have already secured a new minister - a Mr Clancey. I feel glad that there was not a long period of candidating. I only hope the man will be a good pastor for we need one sadly.
There have been several deaths in B. this winter. Ira Brown - Jonathan Webber Needham Moulton and Mrs. Davenport.
I was talking with Katie Locke last evening. She is in Ward C. I am afraid she is not gaining very fast. Her sisters and brothers are all in Providence.
Perhaps you knew that Katherine Dunsmore was in Rutland last summer for her health. She gained wonderfully in one month and went back to her work in Philadelphia. She wrote me last week that she feels nicely this winter. She was pretty poorly last summer.
I hope you will be careful and not get run down. It is too bad to get malaria, I trust it may not return in the Spring. I often think that one in good health does not know how to appreciate it, but it is easier to keep it than to regain it.
Elsie wrote to me last week. She seems to enjoy her new home very much[.]
You would enjoy going to hear Mr. Job preach, I'm sure.
I hope your father has wholly recovered from his fall.
Olin wrote just after New Years that he had been having the malaria. He was all worn out & overworked. He was feeling better and I hope he has wholly recovered now. He is planning to come home in June for a good visit and expects to be able to attend the 5th anniversary of his Amherst graduation. I shall hope to be at home then and we can all have such nice times together.
I am feeling quite nicely now. I have just re-read your letter and am glad to find that I was mistaken about your having malaria. You simply said it was prevalent. I had labored under the impression that that was what you had in the Fall. A heavy cold is bad enough[.]
Washingtons Birthday was one which we shall always remember. We had a masquerade party which was very commendable for the ingenuity shown in dressing. Our pictures were taken in costume. We had some nice "boys" among them. It was simply our ward. The other wards had no celebration whatever.
Your affectionate friend:-
Lilian M. Booth.[The town B that Lilian mentions is Brimfield, Mass. Jonathan Webber died Mar 2, 1900 in Brimfield. Needham Moulton died Feb 2, 1900 in Brimfield. I saw mention that Ira Brown lived in Brimfield in census records, but I could not locate details of his death. Lilian's brother Olin Royal Booth was born in Union, Conn. and went to Hitchcock Free High School in Brimfield like Susie did. Miner is also Lilian's brother. Their parents were Melvin and Emily (Copeland) Booth.]