[Some paragraph marks added for ease of reading.]Conneaut May 18th 1850
Dear cousin Caroline
Your letter of last Nov now lies before me unanswered & not for want of regard for you is it so, be assured, but for want of convenient time &c for writing. I suppose you have heard long before this that I am married again & have thereby increased my cares in some respects, & in others lessened them, it is now more than three months since my name was made H. Farnham & I have not as yet been sorry. I think that I can do some good here & so long as I think that I am doing good I shall be contented & measurably happy for I know that there is injoyment [sic] to be obtained in no other way but in doing good or well, to be conscious that I am adding to the comfort or happiness of any oen gives me pleasure, & is sufficient renumeration for all my toils & cares[.]
Caroline I would much rather see you & then I could tell you my store more to my satisfaction & to yours too no doubt[.] Sufise [sic] it to say of our family at present we have only ten members in it seven children a hired girl Mr Farnham & myself, Emily seems to enjoy the childrens company very well once in a while something goes wrong but nothing very serious she makes more noise than all Mr F's children put together. Emeline Flagly keeps our school this summer we have a good school we send four girls & that leaves us quite alone through the day except the babe [?] two years old last sept [sic] & I think she is a sweet child I can but love her, she has just come in to ask me if she could go out doors & kissed me & run [?] again.
My health is good, Fathers family have their troubles Elie is no better & I fear that he never will be & Aaron has written home his troubles which I think are more agravating [sic] if possible than any thing else that has happened to us he writes that his wife has proved to be a worthless onconstant woman & is so intimate with other men that he has seen her as he wrote in the very [?] fix now he writes to his parents to know what he shall do for he thinks that he cannot put up with all this & they have written to him to bring home two of his children & two thirds of his property & leave one child & one third of his property with her & let her go[.] I hope he will do so & I am glad that he has principle enough to resent such treatment & I feel as though it was cruel after what he has done for her to save her from wim [?] disgrace in time[.] It will make mother a great deal of care & anxiety to have Aaron & his children added to her cares for it seems now as though she had all that she could get along with Father's mind is no better & he had a fall from a colt not long scince [sic] that has laid him up some time he is about now & works some he has finished his house at the vilage [sic] & it is very convenient but I do not think that they will ever move there &c[.]
Aunt Rowena is very pleasantly situated her house is now very pleasant since she has moved & fixed it up she has had a letter from Uncl[e] Henry Sanford & he tells her that Simeon & Pearl talked of going to California cousin Ps health being poor he thought it might improve it Aunt wrote to S & Uncl[e] both telling them she did not want them to go & could not bear the thoughts of it but what the result will be I cannot tell as we have not heard yet[.]
Cousin Harriet Wood is now a widow[.] I have not seen her yet since Woods death I saw him three weeks before his death & he was so much distressed that he could not visit much we should have gone to the funeral but we did not hear of it untill [sic] the next day after his burial. H mooved [sic] home the next day after the funeral Sarah is comming [sic] down to spend the summer at their [?] fathers her husband is going west to look [at] a place for he has sold out I suppose you have heard of Uncle Chesters marriage I have not seen her yet but those of our friends that have think that she is a very good woman[.] Cousin Esther came down on a visit this last winter with Amelia Clark & Emily Wright she was well then and is now but will not be so long as we suppose Aunt Julia is going up there before long she has sent her goods she is going to live with Esther[.]
Mrs Jones of Erie & her Brother William Steele were here this Spring on [...] they all came to see me Mrs Jones told of her visit with [...] in Conn &c Dr Raymond was married not long since to Mary Gipson [?] Edward Wright to a Miss Doty of Conneant Penn Louis Wright died about two weeks ago leaving a young daughter which she gave to Sally Wright & Sally will be a good mother to it Grandma is well & I think she has enjoyed an unusual degree of health the past winter Guilford was home to day & told me to send his respects to you he is now preparing for a journey out South & West in search of a place whom he can settle & go into his business[.] I feel sorry to have him leave but I suppose it will be best for him and Lydia is living with Rufus Hutch he lost his wife last winter & I think she will live there[.] Horrace & Mary are in Wisconsin she and Elvira is at Fairfield. Julius was here last winter & made a long visit that he should settle there he looked healthy & well he expressed a great wish to see you before going[.] I was at Uncle Osborn's four weeks ago & things were all as well as usual there & I have quite often from there as Stephen Robinson works there his summer. We have preaching here all of the time by Elder Moulton[.] There is not so much visible interest in the things of riligion [sic] at this time as in [?] some former times however some interest &c
Yours &c
Harriet FarnhamTuesday morning 21st of May & it froze close in the yard that were wasted yesterday as hard as they could be we have had a very cold & backward spring so far I have not seen your father for some time I have heard that he has given up the idea of getting married again at present but I do not know true it is I expect Guilford will take Miss Helen Lyon for his bride if nothing happens new he spends a good share of his leisure time there I am told I am very sorry that you could not have visited my uncles in Mass & if you should go back there. I hope you will visit them I hope you will excuse all thre you may find improper in this sheet knowing that this is the first letter that I have atte[m]pted to write since I came here &c
My sheet is not large enough to write all that I would like to write I expect to see you next fall, & then we can get along faster in telling the particulars I want to know very much what the difficulty was between you & Mr Osborn do write & tell me all about it do Caroline