Eliza Harman Winder Miller, Iowa 1889

Name: Ann Winder
E- mail: annsfamilytree@pobox.com

Envelope addressed to: Mrs. E.E. Garber, Aspin, Pitkin Co., Colorado

Feb the 14 /89
Eldon, Iowa

Dear Children

I will write you a few lines in answer to your ever welcome letter that I got some time ago and should of rote ere this but I was over to Batavia to see the children they are all well I am still mending slowly dad(1) is not any better I think he is geting worse all the time J H Winder(2) and family are all well B J Harman(3) has bin verry sick but is about again the rest of our folks are all well as far as I no John Allens house burnt down last Sep and they moved up to Appanoos co near to uncle Allen Harman Charly Carter is married him and Tamma Winder has joined the Cambelites(4) up at bladensburg the methodist episcopal and the free methodist have bin having meeting for six weeks but they did not get many converts Dave Brown joined they broke up last thursday I slept in our old house it did not seem like home as everything in the house belong to some body els but the three corner cubbord we have sold some of our things or rather give them away we have had the nicest winter that I ever seen in Iowa it is raining some little now I will go to docks(5) in the spring if I live(6) if dad don't get helpless if he does of corse I can't leave him if I can't help him but if he can travel and wont go he can stay where he is the folks are verry good to me but I cant feel at home like I do with my own children I feel satisfied it will ware out for dad is enough to wair any of them out and as for me to be draged from one place to another I cant stand it he is not contented any place but a little while I never was used to that way of doing and I don't feel as if I ever can If I had better health it probable would be different Dock Shag says he can cure him I want him to try him and see what he can do but I have my doubts about it and I don't think it is rite for my children to take care of him either they all three say that if they had their choice they would take me before him they did not tel me but they have told others neither of them likes the way he has treated me polly gave me a scolding the other day because I dont talk back and give him fits when he flies all to peaces about nothing but I think he can do as he pleases if he thinks their is no here-after but that is enough of that I will stop Ellen my heart akes for you when I think of your trouble but don't greive for your darling but think of your little angels that you have in heaven(7) by by for this time

Write soon
Mother to all

Footnotes:
1. A reference to her second husband Martin Miller (abt. 1797-1893)
2. John Henry Winder, Eliza's son (1847-1930)
3. Benjamin J. Harman, Eliza's brother (1828-???)
4. Campbell, Alexander, 1788-1866, clergyman, cofounder of the DISCIPLES OF CHRIST; b. Ireland. His father, Thomas Campbell, 1763-1854, came to the U.S. in 1807 and settled in Pennsylvania, where he withdrew his congregation from the Presbyterian Church. Alexander came to the U.S. in 1809 and joined his father's followers, known as Campbellites. Nominally Baptists (c.1812-c.1827), they advocated a return to scriptural simplicity and became the Disciples of Christ. Alexander founded (1840) Bethany College in West Virginia.
5. Her son, Marcellus Duane Winder, presumably because of his initials, was referred to as "Doc".
6. Eliza died soon after she wrote this letter, 26 Feb 1889.
7. Molly's note: Elizabeth Ellen Winder and David Garber's daughter Ruthie Inez Garber died at age 3 on December 9, 1888 in Aspen and their daughter Bertha Eunice Garber died at about age 15 on March 22, 1889 in Aspen. Elizabeth's husband David Henry Garber died May 22, 1889 in Aspen.

Notes: Written by Eliza Harman Winder Miller shortly before her death in 1889. Eliza and her first husband, Thomas Winder, migrated from Ohio where they were born and married to Iowa in 1842. Thomas left for the goldfields and died there, after which Eliza married Martin Miller.

See http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~annieron/pedigrees/114.htm for Eliza's pedigree