Chester’s December 31, 1869 letter continues I wish you a happy New Year ’Tis New Year’s day my thoughts go back To Lumberland’s unbeaten track. If I could go where doth my mind Or even as the listless rime? At … Continue reading
Did Emma ask for teaching advice? In this next letter Chester answers her last letter with a poem. Who is Billy B.? I wonder if he is a made up person. Walton December 31, 1869 Friend Emma, Your note I … Continue reading
Rules of Etiquette When You Write In Chester’s letter to Friend Emma on November 29, 1869, we learn that Chester is teaching in Walton. Emma has given him rules of Etiquette when he writes to her. Are they sweethearts, even … Continue reading
On October 29, 1869, Chester answered Emma’s letter. She had asked him when he would be in Lumberland. Apparently, there had been a problem before with Hina (possibly Henrietta, Emma’s oldest sister). Chester asked about his Halfway Brook students, many … Continue reading
The Letters of Chester Beers to Emma Austin, 1869–1878 Emma Austin continued to write to Chester. They correspondeded off and on through 1878. Even though the Civil War had been ended only thee years in November 1868, there is no … Continue reading
When school was done in March 1879, Chester, now age twenty-seven, returned to Walton, New York and continued to farm. Emma Asks a Math Question Emma Austin, now eighteen, wrote Chester. She asked for help with a math problem. The … Continue reading
“Is that the new teacher?” Children and adults whispered the question as Chester Beers, six feet four and one-half inches tall, stepped into the Lumberland Congregational Church, on Sunday, November 29, 1868. Chester, age twenty-six, was a farmer from Walton, … Continue reading
Halfway Brook Village in Lumberland hosted quite a number of teachers in the 1860s–1870s, as Libby Kyte mentioned. Edith Emogene or Emma Austin, as she was called, had attended school in New York City, and stayed with her Austin relatives. … Continue reading
1866 Halfway Brook Village School On July 29, 1866 Tina Austin, in New York City wrote her cousin in the Village (Halfway Brook/Eldred). Dear Cousin Emma, So you are going to School in the village? Do you like it as … Continue reading
Parents in Halfway Brook sometimes sent their children to school to live with relatives, as Libby Kyte mentioned in the last post. At some point there was an Academy in Monticello. Mary Ann Eldred (later Austin) had lived with her … Continue reading
