Metuchen January – 1868

Dear Cousin Sarah

It is some six months since I received your welcome letter inclosing your mothers picture which we highly prize?

it is deposited opposite your fathers in our picture album we expect to receive yours and your sisters in your next according to promise which I hope will be very soon after you receive this for it is my desire that we correspond hereafter at least twice a year

I hope my cousin Calebs health is better than when you wrote but old age brings on infirmities. I hope this will find you all in comfortable health  I am thankful to inform you that my health is good yet, my wife is comfortable in health   Charles is well he is learning the carpenters trade at Metuchen of his own choice he comes home Saturday night goes on munday morn.  he pays at the rate of 5 dollars per week for his board receives 1 ½ per1 Day wages I think he will command journey mens wages in 12 -14  months hence which is 3 dol per day the present time. It would have suited me much better if he had turned his attention to farming but learning a trade is a very good branch of education, his employer is doing a good business in buying  Lots and building houses for sale at Metuchen and Charles presant intention is to speculate the same way     he will be 21 Mar 30 he is ½ inch taller than me 127 lb. wt.  I am offering my farm for sale with a view to living easyer and nearer church I only wish land enough to keep a horse & cow. But farms are slow sale here there is so many more sellers than buyers emigrants generaly go into the interior where they can buy land so much cheaper farms in this vicinity sell for 90 to 120 dollars per Acre I hear that wages are generaly about 20 percent or more lower this winter except carpenters theirs keeps up in consequence of so much building going on in all parts of the country I think there is about 1 thousand emigrants on an average lands every day

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Which would require 100 houses every day alowing 10 to a family. Land in Metuchen and vicinity is worth from 250 to 1000 dol per acre according to localaty I think their is about 100 houses building in Plainfield and vicinity my cousin John Smith is offered 5000 dol for his house and garden he asks 5500 if he sells he will build a brick house on another lot he owns property is very high in the vicinity of S York? Within 1 or 2 hours of railroad travail [=travel] as rents and tax are so high their that merchants prefer paying daily fare in the cars and living with their families in country towns. Our currancy here is all paper about 40 percent below par I have not received one dollar in silver or gold for produce since 1862 we have 5 – 10 – 25 and 50 cent papers all below 5 is copper it answers as good a purpose as gold solong as government credit is good which I hope will always be the case, but I am sending you two newspapers every month which will inform you more than I can in a letter I receive a paper from you sometimes which I love to read I should dearly love to see you all and my native land once more but never expect to. So I must content my self with hoping to meet you whear parting is no more. My Bro William & his family are getting along about the same as when cousin William was hear his son is at boarding school in Connecticut state his daughters both at home Bro Amoss is married to his third wife his daughter Emily was married last summer in June to a young man by the name of Tuft formerly clerk in Amoss? store     farming is very good here as America appears to be the corn market of the world surprising to me how the price of farming productions keeps up in such a great farming country as this their is great improvement in agriculture within a few years but all we can have in this world is food and raiment.  Charles paid Thos Jackson a visit at cristmass they were all well his sons are single at home his daughter is married has 2 children they are doing a large business he received a letter from you a short time since building is as brisk at Reading as here I understand Thos has sold a many lots for building purposes

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I am glad to hear that you are teaching school I hope you will try to instill religious principals and moral responsibilities into the children there is a great responsibility rests on school teachers they should always be experimental Christians having a good understanding of the scriptures their is great improvements in schools here within a few years they are mostly free my school tax is 9 dollars per annum   Our township is 6 miles square we have 8 district schools they are mostly taught by females we generaly pay a minister? Some 70 dol per annum for superintend them,      he examines their teachers and distributes the money proportionally the teachers receive from 70 to 100 dol per quarter there is generaly plenty of aplicants we have a large excess of females here since the war so many men killed & wounded. There is a great deal of suffering in the South yet in consequence of the devastation made by the war and will before many years to come. We had a wet summer now we have a dry cold winter about a foot of snow the thermometer down at zero frequently as we go north it grows colder and of course warmer south but we bear the climate very well. My (fathers sister) Aunt Hopkinson died last Oct aged 88 yrs and 8 months     she had become childish she had buryed 1 daughter left 3 sons & (15 grandchildren all) farmers comfortably of they live about 300 miles SW from here aunt was the last of that generation, now I am the oldest of the family I have 4 cousins in s York & vicinity descendants of my uncle John Watson (they have 18 children) they are all in comfortable circumstances so you see our name is not likely to become extinct in America at presant. I think your sister sisters names are Ann & Elizabeth   am I right? I wish to know your sisters adress at Nottingham  and if you are all professions of religion and how long it is since you became Christian as you know that temporal things are very trivial in comparison to eternal  and that it is the duty of all true believers to make a public profession of their faith before this unbelieving world according to the scriptural requirement I hope to here from you very soon believe me to be your well wisher John Watson.

Page 1 cross stitch/ interlaced upside down at top of page.

I thought I would tell you of a family visit we payed at my wifes brothers at Metuchen her brother and sister was over from Connecticut she has two brothers lives at Metuchen one of them invited all the rest with their families children & grandchildren 27 in all, Rev Mr. Plumily was invited the three brothers engaged in prayer and made remarks appropriate to the ocasion  they was the only five that was left poor of a family of 10 they was left form but commited to their creator by pious parents now by the blessing of a kind providence. They had what ?Augur prayed for neither poverty nor riches but the nessasary? Comforts of life Mr. Plumily engaged in prayer and made some remarks. Then we left the parlor for the dining room and took dinner of two roast turkies roast beef & a variety of other viands all was happy best of all was all was members of Christs visible Church on earth I wish I could say so of all my friends. Now I must tell you that 12 individuals have just made a public profession of religion at Metuchen two of them was near 80 another 60 they had been waiting to be better prepared but found that if they tarried till they were better they would never come at all the rest was young persons. how strange that so large a portion of mankind is so loath to believe Gods word and accept of salvation thereon Offered to us without money and without price I wish you would send me your Uncle Charles adress and say if you know any thing about Ralph Burrows but I must close I feel you will tire of reading my scribbling

JW

Page 4 is a separate letter addressed to Caleb Slater

My Dear Cousin Caleb.
I think about you every day, I thought I must write a few lines to you as I never expect to see you on earth I love my native land but have never regretted leaving it   if we had staid at Somerby a few years longer we should not have had money enough to pay our Passage here as he did two of our neighborers we worked hard on his farm 11 years & improved it 20 percent then left it 50 pounds worse than when we entered but I don’t like to neither think or write or talk about it. I suppose that he has been called to give up his account long before this time I hope he became convicted of his sins and converted from them    do let me know if you know any thing about Somerby I will remember your wedding trip to Hull taking my dear Mother with you I trust your union has been blest and that your beloved children are walking in truth which is our greatest joy but you will very soon be separated from each other may you all meet again and be an unbroken family in Heaven for this is your priviledge. I hope to meet my father & mother & many other friends in Heaven as I humbly trust that they are through faith and patience inheriting the promises my sister Elizabeth who was named after your sister died in her 23 year after 4 days suffering of inflammation of the bowels she had made a profession of religion some 3 years I think. My brothers are both members of the Calvin Baptist Church ^also my son   We can all say that “Surely goodness and mercy hath followed us all the days of our lives and humbly hope to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” But all must admit the truth of that proverb “man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.” but sin is the prolific parent of all the trouble in the world but thank God there is a remidy provided for “the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin” let us continue to pray for faith to enable us to receive that great atonement that he has made in a saving manner renouncing everything that pertains to ourselves by way of merriting at his hand for he has promised that if we come in this way we shall in no wise be cast out

Yours in sincerity

John Watson