This letter was written by George C. Sunderland (1818-1905) of Somers, Westchester County, New York. He was married to Abigail S. _____ (1827-1908) in 1855 and resided in Ocean Mills, New Jersey when this letter was written in 1856. George was a millwright by profession.
The letter was written to Mrs. Ichabod Marvin. Ichabod was born about 1783 and was married to a woman named Louisa (age 50 in 1860).
TRANSCRIPTION
Addressed to Mrs. Ichabod Marvin, Carmel, Putnam County, New York
Postmarked Brewster’s Station, New York
Ocean Mills, New Jersey
10 Mon. 12th / 1856
Dear Brother & Sister,
I will write some few lines to you for Mother said in her letter to me that she had wrote to you stating I would let you know when she would be up & as we have concluded on the day, I will let you know it for we will be very happy to see you both down to Somers the 18th inst. Saturday or on Sabbath if it will suit you best for we shall be to Somers both of those days. My business will not allow me to stay longer than Monday or Tuesday morning early so if you can come down, I really wish you would & then we will talk all over that I want to say to you for it is a long Jersey story and a political history of the best man of the three — viz: Fillmore, so you will amply be paid for the trouble of coming to see us for we both have grown very handsome.
I should have thought you would have been down to the Jerseys among the New York aristocracy this summer seeing that we live so near the most fashionable watering place in the world — viz: Long Branch. There has been about 8 or 1000 boarders here this summer & the place was all alive with people & fireworks all through the hot weather. I really wish you had come & seen what a good place Jersey is. Abigail likes it as well as I do for we find very good neighbors & kind friends & I have just as much to do as I can do & that makes it pleasant for me & besides, I am home all the time & eat at my own table which I have furnished with plenty of good fish & clams which is a favorite dish for me. Sweet potatoes grows here & we have plenty of them & everything else good.
It was warm weather here last week but the wind is east today & we shall soon have a change of weather I think, but Jersey is good in all kinds of weather and I like it as well as I ever did and have steady work & a good warm mill to work in & would always like to live here if I only could have Mother here contented as she is in Somers but I will not plan too largely for who knoweth what a day may bring forth & who can tell the changes that will take place in one single year.
We have of necessity to attend Methodist Church yet once in awhile. We go down to the Branch to hear the Dutch Reform Minister & every other Sabbath he preaches in the school house had a miles from us. We would very much like to attend that church altogether for we like him very much as a minister & a friend. He has called on us 2 or 3 times & he is a good Catholic man in his principles (not a Roman Catholic) but Christian Catholic. All the inhabitants here are old fashioned yet very kind & good to strangers — to us anyhow — for they take us out in their carriages to church & to other public doings. We went to Free Hold to the county fair last week free of charge & we have been to 2 other fairs this summer & to the muster day of soldiers at the sea.
We go a visiting quite often & have formed many acquaintances. We have been visiting off as far as 10 miles with out neighbors to see their friends & we have a friendly visit at our own house once in a while & everything is pleasant and why should it not be in such a place as this.
Abigail, Father & Cousin = Elizabeth Hooper & Josephine Darly = Joseph & Harriett = Festus = (& Horace & Hannah Miller Abigails Sister & Brother) & 3 of Abigail’s cousins from Brooklyn have visited us this summer & we feel as if we was not so far from home after all seeing our friends come to see us. It is a very pleasant ride from New York down here & you must come & see for yourself = now I will stop & say goodbye until we meet & then I will tell all I can to interest you.
Affectionately yours etc. — G.C. & A. S. Sunderland
Spared & Shared 10 