Emily May Blackmore

12 May 1886 - Letter to her family

Independence Mo.
May 12th 1886

Dear Folks at home.

According to promise I write you on arrival. We got here this A.M. about 9’o clock. Left Cin. Monday morn about 8 1/2 clock. got to St. Louis at 6:30 P.M. Was awful tired and was glad to get to a hotel to rest. We took a parlor car next to the engine. The hottest dirtiest place in creation I think. If it was to do over again we would both take a common coach back. We staid at St Louis till nearly 9 o’clock P.M. and started “home”. took a sleeper and had a very pleasant journey got here about 9 A.M. Pa Rodgers was there to meet us. he was awful glad to see me. and has hardly been out of sight since I got here. Clara and her husband and little girl were here for dinner. She gave us a bedspread. Lute did not get here. They were awfully disappointed because she did not come.

About 15 miles from Independence we came upon the back of the storm. The first we saw of it was 10 cars upside down by the track or rather turned over on the side. part of their were new passenger cars - on their way to another road the rest were freight cars. as we came in we saw still other signs of a storm. There we heard that Kan. City was badly injured by a storm. Will send you a paper containing an account of the storm beter than I can give it. It stormed very hard here. blew and hailed and rained very hard. blew down trees and fences but did no serious damage.

They have a very nice place here and I think I will like to live here as well as any place away from home. The place does not look much like I imagined it would. the ground being very rolling and so much timber around here. We walked around some but were too tired to walk up and down many hills. Part of the land we came through was flat prairie. looked very nice. I don’t think I could ever be satisfied in Ind. I like Ill. much better. I like the folks here very much. Hortense is a very friendly and good girl. Pa R. is tickled to death over me. and Ma R. is about as well pleased as any one. Clara has a very nice man. I like him ever so much. and he seems to like me. They thought the cake was awful nice and said they were glad to know you had remembered them. Ma R. sends her love and best wishes. and said you had her sympathies. I think she is a very young looking woman. She is so clean and fair. and is such a little woman. They thought my presents very nice. John is getting ready to go to the P.O. and I must quit. I want some of you to write as soon as you get this. and perhaps I can make the next letter more interesting. Give my love to all my friends. and tell them I like my new home very much. and send me the journal this week. Answer right away and I will write again next week.

, as ever May
Box 5?
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18 May 1886 - Letter to her family

Independence Mo.
May 18th 1886

Dear folks at home.

I expect you are hardly looking for a letter so soon again but I imagined the one I wrote was not very satisfactory. and as I have plenty of time thought I would write again. We have just put out a very large wasing. two weeks for them besides John’s and mine. We have 8 white shirts and 2 suits for me. and almost a dozen sets collars and cuffs and every thing else to correspond. so my hand is very tired and can not write well. We got to the St James at Cin. 8 PM left the next morning for St. Louis about 8 1/2 A.M. got to St. L. about 7 1/2. It was a very hot tiresome journey. so dusty. We left St L. about 9 P.M. Tuesday eve and got to Ind. about 9 the next morn. Pa R. was so afraid he would not meet us that he sent a carriage Tuesday eve for fear we might come. Lute? did not get here and they have not heard from her yet. Clara was here. She looks very bad. She bought us a bedspread. I like her husband real well. We were there for dinner Sunday. Why didn’t Frank go out to see us married. I have not heard from him. and he did not tell John why he did not come. Wish you would just show him that note he wrote me the day I graduated. I think real hard of him.

Last Thursday P.M. John and I went to see some cattle they have in pasture about 7 miles from here. They have a great deal of trouble with their cattle getting clovered. They have lost 7 here. Friday it rained all day. Will Church got here Friday night about midnight. The colts cam through very nice. We had no trouble with them and they did not seem very tired and sore. Pa R. was well pleased with “Ohio Lad” as they call him. and thinks they got him cheap. Will went on to Kan Sat P.M. John and I took a horse back ride and went to see some more cattle they had and went to his Uncle Cy R. I told John I had seen more bulls since I had been here than I ever saw in all my life. They have 100 bulls and nearly as many cows and heifers here. The people here gave Pa R the name of Bull Rodgers to distinguish him from others the same name. I like to live here. The people are very kind. I have not met any one much but relatives. We went to church Sunday and Sunday eve and it was real funny to see people straining to see the “buckeye”. A good many knew nothing of it until we got back and it has been in the paper about every other day since we got here. I saw Vint Fortier Sunday eve. He has been here about a month. He is coming out soon. Dick Curtis Jr. and Frank Lightner are in Kan. City now. They came here Sunday morn. but we had gone to church and did not see them.

Ind. is a very pretty place. All the yards are large and have such pretty lawns around them. and of course at this time of year look at their best. And hills - every place is on a hill. We can see for miles in every direction. I told Em. we could see every place but Ohio from the back door. I have not gotten the directions straightened out yet. Can’t get them into my head any different from the ones at home. They laugh at me a great deal about it. Seemed all the way out here we were going north. There is an eastern company here trying to buy the land on both sides of the road leading from Ind. to Kan. C. and the price they pay is almost fabulous. Land is now selling at from $100 to $350 and $400 an acre and it is land not nearly so good as lots sold in Clinton Co. this spring at $30 to $50. It is good for grazing but is too hilly to farm. Have not seen as much broken land since we got in Mo. as there is between home and Wilmington. People seem to depend more on cattle and horses here. There is very little wheat and oats that I have seen. and it does not look near so well as Ohio. We have not been to Kan C yet. Intended to go Sat but Pa R. thought he would go and they can not both leave very well on account of the cattle clovering? so badly. so we concluded to wait till this week. Pa R is going to New Mexico about the first of June with some cattle. Don’t know how many he will take.

The storm here did a great deal of damage to the crops. So many fences and bridges washed away and so much corn washed out what was up and some plowed. It is strange to see where the water has been. and it runs away so quick. The water was gone the next morning that would have taken a day or two to run off in Ohio. We got the paper you sent. was surprised to hear of the storm so near home. I told John I thought we were fortunate to miss the storm like we did. We seemed to keep between them or around them all the time. We passed 10 cars turned over along the railroad. where there had been a man killed. Part were new passenger cars and the others were full of freight. Ma R and Hortense arent to? the cellar. Clara and her little girl did ??? Clara’s little girl. Lulu look very much like Lute? did.and Clara says is so much like her. Clara looks very bad. I was right in my guess about her.

I took a ride back on the place with John last night. They have a little pony that I ride. It is one Lute? rode to school. Tell Bennetts girls I get to take more rides here than I did at home. They have two grays some like Bosworths only lighter. One of them is more like Werdens? Fanny only larger. John says I can ride one of them. but I expect we will have to start when Pa R’s not here. He is so afraid we will get hurt. Dav, the one I would ride does not jump as much as Charley did last summer. and I do not feel afraid. John has such a nice horse here. but he ran away with old Frank? and the wagon before John went back and Pa R is so afraid John will try to hitch him up again. He wanted me to coax John to sell him. John hates to give him up. but will sell him if he can get his price. How are the girls getting along on the back seat at R- and what did Creamer have to say. Suppose he will try to act awful independant about it but I bet his fingers ached to get hold of the $10 Anderson got. Thought Anderson would have put it in the paper. Martin Kennedy put it in the Democrat did you see it? He sent us a paper. I want you to cut off the bonnett pattern and send me. I wish I had my little blue bonnet out here. I need one morse? here than I did there. I will also make Ma’s and send it for? her. Ma R. and I made his pillow cases yesterday and he off a bolster but I went off with John and did not get it done. John went away this morning to see to some cattle and will be gone all day. I want you to write often and long letters. Tell people to not wait for me to write for I have so many to write. I wrote Em and Lydia yesterday. Will write Aunt Ange? and the other folks back there fast as I can. You need not send my bonnet just the pattern. Will quit for this time. May.
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08 Aug 1892 - Letter to her family

Junction City Kan.
Aug 8” 1892

Dear Pa and Flora-

It is almost bedtime but I thought I would write a few lines as I think John expects to go in early in the morning. We are all well, suppose you think that is news. It has been very hot and dry and the corn is injured to some extent. If we could only have rain right away it would not be so bad but as hot and dry as it is now it is rather discouraging. They hauled three loads of wheat to town last week, got 60 cts. and it is splendid wheat too. Ma and I went to Uncle Ben’s Sat to spend the day. and to Aunt Lida’s today. had a very nice time both places considering the hot weather. Last week we made about 1 1/2 gals of plumb jelly and 2 1/2 of butter. We got another bushel today. Lucius went today to get them and said he got the last in that patch. It is awful hot to work them up. but they are nice after they are done. We will have lots of grapes here. both tame and wild. but the apples will not be very plentiful and there will be no other fruit. We had our first watermelon today. it was real good, though not so very large.

Ma had a letter from Grace Sat. urging her to make them a visit. I think Ma wants to go but is afraid it will make her sick again and she is getting anxious to get home. I don’t think she has enjoyed her visit very much because it has been so very warm. She seems to think it has not been so hot down there. but I tell her it is hot every place from reports. She intends now to go to Easter’s the first of the week and home the last from Burlingame. and not go to Lydia’s now. Will send you word from there where to meet her in K.C. Are glad to hear your all well and getting along so well. and that you are not starving. Think you and Mrs De L. must have a good deal of fun keeping house.

We have not named the baby yet, have you a name for her? She is real cute, is fat and bright is beginning to laugh and notice quite a good deal and is very good. The other two are cases especially Florence she gets worse everyday if such a thing is possible.

Tuesday morning. We caught about 13 or 14 pounds of fish last night, come over to dinner. It is the first we have had since Ma has been here. Guess she had begun to think we did not have fish here. She has just decided to go to Easter’s Monday. If it does not make her sick she will be home the last of the week. Must quit and butcher the fish and fly around generally. Hoping to hear from you soon and as ever. May

We all send our love and hope you will both be up before long to see us. May-
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19 Aug 1894 - Letter to her family

Junction City Kan.
8-19 /94

Dear Home folks,

Rec’d Flora’s letter yesterday, will try to write a few lines today to send in the morning so you can get it as soon as possible We hare all well. Emma was sicker last week than she has ever been - with her teeth but is about all right now. Hazel weighs about as much as Emma does, and has improved very much Lute seems awfully pleased over it, as well she should be for she has surely been an awful care to her.

There will be another $2 excursion next Sunday to K.C. and Lute is going home on it. Flora she said you could have her ticket back if you can come up. The train leaves K.C. about 7.30 and will get here about midnight. They have not been running them every 2 weeks since the strike and it may be 3 or 4 weeks before there is another - we intended to see the agent yesterday so as to tell something more about them but none of us went to town. She can tell you if you come, more about it.

We have no rain since July 4”, had one little sprinkle, not enough to lay the dust. Should a fire and wind start I do not know wher it would stop. Melon vines are dying and melons rotting, even potatoes wilted in the ground. Wells are dry- and springs go that have never been known to fail before have quit running. It is enough to give away one the blues to see the corn fields. Many and many stocks without an ear on and the blades dry and falling off. And still travelers from the west pay we know nothing here. Place where there has been no rain for 22 months to sprout the seed planted. There are so many going by, not a day but some wagons go by toward the east, either to S.W. Misouri or Ark- John says there are places where we can walk across the river with your shoes on. And the water is green and stagnant and you can smell it quite a distance. An old seller told Aunt L the other day She had never seen the river so low. Our well still holds out all right and seems to have plenty of water. Another such year in succession will do us of this country, It is all right enough seasonable seasons- but this drougth is surely terrible.

Florence is all right now or seems to be. Some days she is very fretful and pieces? a good deal - other times she is as well as she ever was. I would be awful glad to know whether she will have another one. I dread taking another for ever yet it makes me shudder to think of taking that one and it only 3/4 of it. Uncle Ben says John M “Kay’s at Sabina was 30 ft. He married Fanny Carrol you remembre. Well let us know whether you can come, for we will have to meet you at the train you know. We will all be glad to have you come. Lutes have moved since she came up here. I will send you her address.

Well I will close for this time. Love to all and write soon. How about those blackberries? Did Pa pay for them and the sugar? Seems impossible to get the straight of it from him.

May-

Lute lives at 702 Harrison St. go on the 9” cable the same and the house is next to corner on SW corner. lower floor. You will have about 2 blocks to walk.
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23 Apr 1895 - Letter to her family

[envelope]
Miss Flora Blackmore
Independence
Missouri

[letter]

Junction City Kas 4-23-95
Dear Home folks,

While I am waiting supper I will write what I can. We are all well as usual except Pa. he is no better in some ways not so well as when he came home. We went to town Sat to see the Dr. He gave him some medicine which he thinks is helping. His trouble now is chiefly with - his side and stomach The Dr. here thinks he would have been better off if he had not had these last treatments Florence stood the last treatments splendid. She got pretty sick when the morn came but has not been sick since. by being careful of her diet next day we avoided all trouble. They have a notice of the worm in the paper so I suppose they must feel as though they had it all. I did not get Flora’s letter till last Sat. I also had one from Sllie? Webb written the 6” - neither had been opened either. I wrote Grace again regarding the school last week. I don’t believe it ??? her while to bother with it. John Rodgers said if she made application she ought to be before the board. John told him she intended trying for a state certificate. He said she was a good one to pass that and if she did get one she need not bother long with a little city school.

I must tell you how near we came losing Emma last Thursday. The girls had gone to Mrs Kregars about 2 1/2 ??? to spend the day and I went in the P.M. and staid for supper. There is a high bank - 6 or 7 ft. by the side of which was a hog shed covered with poles and hay. The hay had been used off except enough to cover the holes. The top of the shed was even with the ground and Emma stepped on it and slipped through into a sows nest that had pigs a few days old. and she was very cross. did not stop a minute to attack a grown person. The other children screamed and Mrs K and I ran. had as far to go as from your gate to the De Ls back door. Of course I did not know which way to go to get there quickest. Mrs K just flew and got over a gate, ran in and got her and tossed her over the fence and the sow ran at Mrs K and almost bit her leg as she was climbing the fence. I ran to the place where Emma fell but the hole was too small for me so I ran in and jumped down a wall into the coral and when I got to where I could get in the shed I could not see Emma. the sow or Mrs K. so I thought the sow was running with her - I ran out and saw Mrs K carrying Emma and I almost sank down I could not get up the wall till Emma put out her arms to me. She must have been in the place 2 or 3 minutes all the time the sow making a terrible noise and could not have been 6 ft from her. Mrs K said she had her hands drawn to her breast and was walking back from the sow. I never had such a shock and could hardly sleep that night. When I did I dreamed of it. I did not tell John till next day I went to another neighbors today and he almost dreaded to see her go. I never told Pa or Ma- I knew it would shock him and she is not much better. but it has seemed as though she was brought back from the dead. I never want such an experience again. She was terribly frightened. Well write soon. With love to all

May-

Flora - G. Says she wont write to you any more for you don’t write to her
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1896 - Letter to her family

Junction City Kan

Monday - 1896
Dear Home Folks,

In haste I write a few lines. Our boy is very sick and seems to be getting weaker all the time. I am very much afraid we will lose hime and that he can not last many days unless a change for the better setes in before many hours. He got better of his cold, indeed I may say well of it and right away was taken with indigestion of stomach and bowels was taken Xmas day but we did not realize he was so bad till Sat eve. We had the Dr. Tuesday yesterday and think I will send this afternoon as he did not intend coming today unless we send for him. Expect word at any time for one of you to come. He is very bad and we have very little hope thought having been so strong it may pull him through.

May -

We had to change the feed and the only hope I have is that he will live till the effect of the change begins to wear off. I do not know how long that will take. The Dr. said yesterday he did not like the fever he was having all we can do is hope.
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08 Jan 1896 - Letter to her family

Junction City Kan 1-8-96

Dear Home Folks,

I know you are anxious to hear so will write a few lines. The Dr. says he is pleased with every symptom this morn except weakness - he is more prostrate than he has been yet - but is sleeping and resting and is not suffering much as yesterday - indeed till 11 - oclock he seemed perfectly easy at times now 12 M he is a little more restless - The Dr. says it is now a question of nourishment and rest. From indigestion it went to inflammation of the bowels and they have been very much inflamed and bloated. We took him from cows milk a week ago and put him on Malted milk. We had a very bad spell Monday when I wrote you I thought once or twice he was dying The Dr. said it was a inward spasm caused from the pain of the bowels trying to move and could not. I moved them with a syringe and started I am for the Dr. but he was better when the Dr. got here. He began right away treating the inflamation so I suppose that was about the time it began. The cold does not trouble him - the rupture is better - Temperature 10 / half [1/2] - pulse 128. He is still a very very sick child with few chances in his favor - but we have a little bit more hope than yesterday. Will write again in a day or so.

May -
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09 Jan 1896 - Telegram from her husband John to her family

Received at Independence, Mo. 266? Jany 9 1896
Dated Junction City KS 9
To Our A Blackmore

Our darling boy died this AM will bury eleventh Inst? ten AM notify relatives

JW Rodgers
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1896 - Letter to her family

Dear Pa and Flora

I will try to write a few lines. I seem to be improving all the time - but slowly of course. I cannot walk yet. I have take the Serum treatment 2 times with very good effect. He will give another today. Ma is better. She has had most of the work to do for a week. Ma R has been laid up with cold and sore throat. She is better now. Aunt ??? has never written. Aunt J. wrote. I wish you would write her and to Em and tell them how I am. We got 1/2 oz Serum and we can surely tell whether it will do any good by the time it is gone. Well I will quit. Write soon and send ??? some more journal? They seem to do Ma so much good.

With love

May R
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19 May 1896 - Letter from her husband John to her family

Junction City Kans
Tuesday May 19, 1896

Dear Pa and Flora,

I will only add a few lines to what May has written the Dr commenced with the serum. Sunday we gave seven drops which caused the temperature to raise considerably within ten or 15 minutes and large drops of sweat stood on forehead and on hands but this did not last but a short time and then she did not feel any bad effects yesterday he increased the dose to 11 drops. The effect was not as marked as the day before today he thought would increase it to 15 or 16 or MS? the Dr. thinks by the time the 1/2 oz is used we could notice a change. Moyer is familiar with this treatment had seen it used in other cases

Our neighbor Dixsons one of the boy has been in Texas since Feb. for his health he has been getting worse they are expecting him home this week. He has lung trouble. May let them have the circular last night to look over. I will re mail it to you when I go in again. May seems very hopeful and thinks she is getting better. her appetite is good. and has had but very little trouble with indigestion for several days and she is better as night sweats but her cough has been some worse she sits up in chair a little each day. I lift her from chair to bed. You have ??? by the papers we have been having such heavy rains which has been needed to dround the chinch bug and hesian fly. Have chance to send this in to mail.

Yours

J. W. R
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