Julia Billings letter to Abby Hopper GIbbons
Item Description
Member of
Description
Encloses a monetary contribution towards the Randalls' Asylum Christmas gifts. Discusses the Home (later called the Isaac T. Hopper Home), a shelter for women ex-convicts, and wants to become a subscriber. Discusses travelling to New York in the future and recent events concerning family/friends.
Linked Agent
Creator (cre): Billings, Julia Parmly, 1835-1914
Physical Form
Date Created
1865-12-17
Subject (Topic)
Geographic Subject
Language
Extent
4 pages
Resource Type
Internet Media Type
image/tiff
Digital Origin
Institution
Library
Shelf Locator
SFHL-RG5-174
Collection Guide
Local Identifier
A00181015
PID
sc:187226
Record Content Source
Rights Statement
Use and Reproduction
Please cite appropriately, crediting Abby Hopper Gibbons Papers, SFHL-RG5-174, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College as the source and indicating the identifier of the item, A00181015. This work is believed to be in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States. For more information, see http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/.
Transcription
---------- Page 1 ----------
Woodstock, Vt.
December 17th 1865.
My dear Mrs Gibbons,
I am very glad you
let me know you needed contributions
for the Randalls' Asylum Christmas gifts
and I enclose $20. I would send
a larger bill but that I fear my note
might miscarry. I was thinking of
you only a few days ago and wondering
what I could do for the Home.
I am delighted that the Institution has
been put in such fine order and
I sincerely hope it may be carried on
prosperously and do great good that you
may have a rich reward for all your
labors there. Always believe me
---------- Page 2 ----------
[lefthand page]
a warm friend of the Home
but do not look to me to fill any
important position there. I am
not capable enough to be more than
a subordinate worker. I might
make myself so I suppose, if I could
give a good deal of attention to the
duties required, but it has not
been given me, to do many things well
and the new cares that have come
upon me in the past three years
almost absorb me.
I hope you will write me when &
how to subscribe to the Home.
I presume it is in no such positive need
of funds now as formerly, but if it
be, I shall esteem it a privilege
[righthand page]
to give what I can towards sustaining
it. I do not expect to be
in New York before the month of
April. Then I hope to visit my
sister Mary with my husband; but
his plans are still undetermined. He is
in San Francisco and having all his
interests there, he may not be able
to leave them until later in the year,
but I know he will try to return within
three months from now. It is my
wish to remain in Woodstock until he
comes, for here I have a delightful home
and my children are so well that
I should be [loath?] to run the risk of
taking them to New York.
Are you to be at home this winter
---------- Page 3 ----------
and are all your daughters with
you? I desire to be affectionately
remembered to all of them and
very cordially to Mr. Gibbons.
I should like to know how Rosalie
and her little boy are.
Your note came only this morning
I was delighted to get it and thank
you for the kind way in which you
allude to my husband. I wish you
might have seen him before he went to [California]
and I shall try to make him acquainted
with you very soon after he gets home.
If my younger sister were well I
should want her to work for the Home, but
she is in such delicate health that her
time has to be expended chiefly in taking
care of herself. I regret to learn that
Mrs Mead is dead & that Miss Sedgwick is failing.
[written sideways along left margin] Let me hear from you when you can find a convenient time to write
and believe me always
most affectionately yours
Julia Billings
Woodstock, Vt.
December 17th 1865.
My dear Mrs Gibbons,
I am very glad you
let me know you needed contributions
for the Randalls' Asylum Christmas gifts
and I enclose $20. I would send
a larger bill but that I fear my note
might miscarry. I was thinking of
you only a few days ago and wondering
what I could do for the Home.
I am delighted that the Institution has
been put in such fine order and
I sincerely hope it may be carried on
prosperously and do great good that you
may have a rich reward for all your
labors there. Always believe me
---------- Page 2 ----------
[lefthand page]
a warm friend of the Home
but do not look to me to fill any
important position there. I am
not capable enough to be more than
a subordinate worker. I might
make myself so I suppose, if I could
give a good deal of attention to the
duties required, but it has not
been given me, to do many things well
and the new cares that have come
upon me in the past three years
almost absorb me.
I hope you will write me when &
how to subscribe to the Home.
I presume it is in no such positive need
of funds now as formerly, but if it
be, I shall esteem it a privilege
[righthand page]
to give what I can towards sustaining
it. I do not expect to be
in New York before the month of
April. Then I hope to visit my
sister Mary with my husband; but
his plans are still undetermined. He is
in San Francisco and having all his
interests there, he may not be able
to leave them until later in the year,
but I know he will try to return within
three months from now. It is my
wish to remain in Woodstock until he
comes, for here I have a delightful home
and my children are so well that
I should be [loath?] to run the risk of
taking them to New York.
Are you to be at home this winter
---------- Page 3 ----------
and are all your daughters with
you? I desire to be affectionately
remembered to all of them and
very cordially to Mr. Gibbons.
I should like to know how Rosalie
and her little boy are.
Your note came only this morning
I was delighted to get it and thank
you for the kind way in which you
allude to my husband. I wish you
might have seen him before he went to [California]
and I shall try to make him acquainted
with you very soon after he gets home.
If my younger sister were well I
should want her to work for the Home, but
she is in such delicate health that her
time has to be expended chiefly in taking
care of herself. I regret to learn that
Mrs Mead is dead & that Miss Sedgwick is failing.
[written sideways along left margin] Let me hear from you when you can find a convenient time to write
and believe me always
most affectionately yours
Julia Billings