Friend Ida,
Yours of the 5th is at home to which I shall write a line or two.
I don’t know whether I can come to Sullivan or not if I do I can not come until the last week in Aug. and shall be obliged to make a short stay.
I hope to come but business before pleasure so do not be to certain of seeing me in haste.
Remembrance to all. Write often. Yours Truly, Chester Beers
Walton, September 29, 1878
Friend Emma,
Again I take my pen in hand and express myself with the same broken phrases and irregular script which has characterized my letters for the last ten years that being about my first experience in letter writing and you without doubt have had your share of these unreadable papers, but with your permission I’ll add one more hoping to hear from you quite soon.
So thinking that the above may answer as an introductory I shall try and apologize to Ida via you for not making her that promised visit then close.
Of course I had reasons for not coming and hope she will accept them which were—poverty, business and the fear of Maria* which grew more terrible as the time for coming grew near.
To please and entertain you I might speak of the weather, the change of seasons and the foliage the coming of winter etc. and probably should remind you of all these did you live at the equator or one of the poles.
But as it is the sun shines and you feel its rays the leaves drop and you see them fall, frosts appear chilling blasts are felt and summer has gone.
I have been attending teacher’s Institute and had a pretty good time I believe. Had an introduction to state Sup’t Gilmore. I shall have to teach next winter again.
How is Bec** getting along does she have many beaux. Has Ida gone back and Lon to the West?
How is your health? You can tell that which you wanted to when you write.
Write soon. Yours truly, Chester Beers
P.S. Remembrance to your folks and love to Maria
* Maria was Emma’s sister.
** Bec was Rebekah Eldred, Emma’s cousin.
Previous Posts
1. Is that the New Teacher?
2. The Math Tutor
3. Chester Beers to Friend Emma, Correspondence Continues
4. What is the News? October 29, 1869
5. The Merry Laugh of the Village School
6. Teaching Advice in a Poem
7. I Would Not Wait for Erie’s Train
8. 1870 Highland
9. Mrs. Prindle’s Soliloquy
10. February 28, 1870, What Is the News?
11. Who Teaches in the Village, April 1870
12. Fair Hagan’s Pool, June 1870
13. Shades of Night, 1870
14. Deposit, New York, 1871
15. Dear Father, January 1872
16. Emma Attends Albany Normal, March 1872
17. Lumberland Schoolhouse, 1872
18. Verdant Meadows, June 1, 1873
19. I Have Been Very Busy, August 30, 1873
20. 1874–1875
21. 1876, A Challenging Year
22. Impossible To Be Your Friend, 1876
23. The Old Schoolhouse, May 1876
24. Centennial 1876
26. Save Your Patience, June 1876
27. More 1876 Centennial Images
28. Old Acquaintance, February 1877
29. New York Visit? 1877
30. Fall 1877
31. Letter to Miss Aida Austin, October 1877
31B. Aida Receives Another Letter, December 1877
32. School, January 1878
33. Not Always in a Humor to Write, July 1878
