"Such a Hard Pain"

Today's post comes from Suzi, with my thanks! Suzi writes:

A copy of this letter was found in the Chester family file at the Hobart Historical Society Museum, Hobart, IN. The letter writer appears to be Harriet Lovisa Hanks Chester (1836-1878), the second wife of Henry W. Chester of Ainsworth, IN. Harriet and Henry were married in 1866. The date on the letter appears to be Sunday, April __th,¹ 1872 and was written to her friend,² Alice. Harriet refers to the ages of her children which would correlate the year 1872 with the information on the family in the 1870 census and her son Charles' birthday in November of 1871. It is difficult to read in some places due to damage, but I have done my best to transcribe it. It is a very soulful, poignant expression of the feelings of a young woman, wife and mother in rural Indiana in the 19th century. She would have been in her mid 30's when this was written and would have two more children before her death in 1878. I believe that the "Lucy" she refers to was her sister, Lucy M. Hanks Spencer (1850, 1860, 1870 Federal Censuses). They were about 2 or three years apart in age. Lucy married Orsemus H. Spencer in Lake Co., IN in 1867, and by 1880 he is remarried and living in Kansas. I believe she was his second wife, as in the 1870 census they are listed along with two sons, ages 13 and 11, which were most likely his children by a previous marriage. So Lucy most likely died between 1870 and when this letter was written. As of this date I do not know who "georgy" was.

Harriet Chester Letter 1872 by AinsworthIN

(Suzi did 99% of the work in preparing the following transcription, but I also went through it and added where I thought I could; since I was less cautious in guessing at words, any errors are probably mine! Blank line = illegible word; question mark = uncertainty.)

Sunday, April __th, 1872

Dear Alice

I received your letter(?) dated Feb.(?) __ and most heartily thank(?) you for writing, why did you __________ I did not want(? wait?) to hear(? bear?) ______ ______ I have thought of you often and wondered if you ever thought of me I have not written to my friends as often as I should, but it has not been want of affection but of health, and it makes me hurt(?) every time I __________ I am sorry you have been sick ______ ______ family(?) gone(?) _______ you are lonely to to bad your family are all broken up have your Mother and Losica(?) forsaken you all together I wish I could see you Alice I could give you some advice that might be useful

Now it is June 2(?) and you(?) … [page 2] to write if I want to, now Alice I have got more to do then a woman had ought to have with my health we milk five cows and henry has to do all the churning and all the heavy work I can not lift my babe and I have not lifted a pail of water in most two years, henry has bought me a sewing machine it was 85 dollars but I cant stand it to sew more than an hour at a time, if I could have had it when I was well I would enjoyed it so much for I think a great deal of it and I like to have all things orderly and sewing done up in season

Now it is June 30 and I will try to finish this but it is hard work to write for I have such a hard pain in my right side with evry breath I draw Samuel Fullers(?) family live in the house with us they have been here since March Janes(?) has three chrildren her health is not [page 3] rearl good her youngest is a boy 18 months old and my youngest is a boy 7 months old and just as smart and pretty as georgy³ was we think there never was another such a boy the girls are five and three and very near of a size I have been making them some white lace hats I trimed them in pink flowers and green grapes and corn collord riban and I have made me one of white tarlton and black edging, we are having verry warm weather now so warm I can't write decent and it has been verry dry but yesterday we had two nice showers and it looks like rain now, Jame(?) has gone to meeting I could not go for I cannot ride in enny but the easiest wagon there is, and ours is to hobart getting repaird henry is verry patient with me more so then I should think one as stout and healthy as he is could be father and mother chester lived with us awhile after they sold their farm but now they have built a house just in [page 4] the next yard so we three familys make quite a setelment of our own I wanted to see Jane for a long time before she came for I have felt verry lonely since dear lucys death and I want to see you alice and I hope that you have learned in your short life that afflictions though they seem severe in mercy oft are sent. I hope that you have chosen the good way the only way to get to heaven, never let the troubles of this brief life worry you but ever sing we'll stand the storm it wont be long we'll anchor by and by,⁴ now alice I _____ set(?) the day for more then one year ___ write to your father I do want to hear from him so bad and pa too and I have waited so long now that I don’t know where to write now do write and tell me and I will write if not more then one line(?), you are single(?) come and see me …[The rest of the line is illegible. The letter resumes at the top of page 4, written upside-down] … all inquiring friends dont fail to write this from your affectionate Aunt(?)

Harriet L. Chester
Henry W. Chester

____ ____ ____ ____ [four illegible words, circled]

_______________________
¹ Sundays in April 1872 fell on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th; what Harriet wrote looks like "20th," and of course it's possible she did not have a calendar to hand and got the date wrong.
² Or possibly her niece.
³ I don't know who Georgy was, either, but I can't help theorizing! Perhaps he was another child, born to Henry and either this Harriet or the first Harriet, who died in infancy. A little boy named George lies in Chester Cemetery under a stone that describes him as the "son of Henry & M.E." Chester — according to earlier readers, that is; the stone itself is now weathered beyond legibility. According to those earlier readers (in the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society's compilation), little George died August 15, 1860, aged two years and two days. Beside him lies his sister, Olive, listed in the NWIGS compilation as the daughter of "Henry & M.E." Chester, but looking at the stone itself (and it's even more clear in person), I'm inclined to think the "M.E." is more correctly read as "H.E." — which could be the first Harriet, though I don't know what her middle name was — and thus I'm inclined to think that one initial on George's grave marker was misread as well. However, the way our letter-writing Harriet describes "Georgy" sounds as if she knew him herself; and since the 1860 Census found her in New York State, I don't think she could have known the little boy in Chester Cemetery, assuming the date of his death was read correctly. And that's as far as my theorizing has got me.
⁴ These words come from a hymn, "We'll Stand the Storm."

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(Click on image to enlarge)
Harriet Lovisa Hanks Chester's grave marker, in Chester Cemetery.