Relatively Speaking

The twenty-story Whitehall Building, named for Peter Stuyvesant’s seventeenth-century house that had been located nearby, was constructed in 1902-04 and designed by the preeminent turn-of-the-century architect Henry J. Hardenbergh. This highly visible site at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, overlooking Battery Park…

The back of the first postcard.

Dr. Kelso’s Residence, College Hill, Callicoon, NY. The Kelso family is often mentioned in the Austin family letters and Great Aunt Aida’s 1881 Diary.

Madison Square showing Metropolitan and Flat Iron building, NY.

Old Cider Mill above Eldred, NY.

Note about this letter.

My great Grandfather William Henry Austin and his brother Aruna Augustus Austin married (half) sisters Mary Ann and Phebe Maria Eldred. [Well, Henry married Mary Ann and Augustus married Maria.]

Great Grandma and Grandpa Austin had 10 children and Augustus and Maria had 12 or 13 children. In 1850, the Aruna Augustus Austin family moved to New York City. My cousin Melva has shared with me a number of letters Mary’s nieces wrote her and this is one of them.

Aruna (deceased at the time of this letter) and Maria’s daughter Antoinette Augusta (born 1842), nicknamed Net and married to Henry Clinton is the authoress of this letter.

I think this letter was probably written sometime after 1867, at which time Mort (my grandfather) would have been two and Ida 6 years old. It doesn’t explain why Henry Ladore (1 year old in December 1867) was not invited however.

New York April 4th

Dear Aunt Mary,

I received your very very welcome letter last week…

You do not know how much I have changed and how homely I have grown. I am afraid you will not like me as well as you used to, but hope to see soon.

I have quite a delicate letter affair to settle with you, so I will be about it at once and to come to the point at once is to inform you that Phebe Maria, Antoinette Augusta, Adelaide Eliza, have got it all arranged for you to come down with Uncle Henry when he comes back. You are to bring little Ida and Mort and as many more as you can.

Should you say one word about not coming you will be arrested by four policemen hired…at your expense and will be brought by force at will…One of the police that will have charge of you looks and acts just like a certain person that I wrote to you about before, so you will know what kind of company you will have.

You will all be made to swallow two bottles of machine oil, 1 box of blue pills, 1 paper of pins, 2 of needles, 1 bar of yellow soap, 3 spools of cotton, five yds of rag carpet.

Then for dessert you are to swallow one of Aunt Effie’s geese whole. Of course it won’t have many feathers, but the little fin feathers and think what a long neck they have to say nothing of the unmentionable. It will be very hard to do.

Well, I guess you will think I have lost what little sense I had.

Ida says tell little Ida that she is cleaning her play house and getting it all ready for you. Addie says and so do I that you need not expect to see our green eyes up there this summer unless you do come. Tell Emm the men that I have to deal with have no hearts. They have only a gizzard and I can’t make any impression, not even a little dent.

Be sure and bring little Ida and Mort with you. Don’t say they have got nothing to wear for that will make no difference. we have got a machine and will make good use of it while you are here. It is getting late and I must stop. This will tell you all when I see you next week.

Much love to you all,
Net

don’t fail to come

Augustus and Phebe Maria Austin’s Children mentioned:
Antoinette Augusta (Net)
Adelaide Eliza (Addie)
Ida

Henry and Mary Austin’s children mentioned:
Little Ida (Aida)
Mort