A Letter from My Great Great Grandmother

October is a month of memories and honoring ancestors--culminating in Halloween, and All Souls Day. So it was particularly fitting that I should get an email from a cousin (a second cousin, I think--his grandmother was my grandfather's sister) in Alabama, reminding me of a previous email chat about mutual forebears and my promise to look for an old letter I remembered.  

I had known right where it was-- but humidity had swollen the drawer shut and I couldn't open it. And then I forgot the whole conversation. So his recent email, and the past months of dry weather, sent me to the bottom drawer and I found the letter!

It's nothing momentous -- just her reply to an invitation to visit my newly married grandfather and some information regarding the family. The main thing I'd remembered about it was the mention of people who left South Carolina "during the trouble with the Indians." 

But now here's 73 year old Celia Emily saying "as I grow older I feel the need of staying home." And suddenly she's real and speaking to me across the years. (I'm 76 and sometimes feel the same.) She mentions that she's in poor health, but according to family records, she lived another six years. 

I hope that Huborn and Ruby made several trips to see her during those years -- maybe taking the baby who would become my mother with them.

It wasn't far.

Letter to Victor Huborn Northcutt signed Granmother Northcutt  (Celia Emily Mason Northcutt- m. John Henry Northcutt, May 11, 1865 Old Sparta-near Evergreen, AL)

                             ~~~

Envelope is addressed:  Mr. V.H. Northcutt, Troy, Ala.

Postmark Evergreen, Ala. Jan. 20, 1917 A two-cent stamp

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Letter to Victor Huborn Northcutt signed Granmother Northcutt  (Celia Emily Mason Northcutt- m. John Henry Northcutt, May 11, 1865 Old Sparta-near Evergreen, AL)

                             ~~~

Envelope is addressed:  Mr. V.H. Northcutt, Troy, Ala.

Postmark Evergreen, Ala. Jan. 20, 1917 A two-cent stamp

                                   ~~~

                                      Jan 20

Dear Huborn

Just a few lines to thank you for your invitation to visit you. There is nothing I would enjoy more if my health would admit  I no I would have a pleasant time with you and Ruby.. but as I grow older I feel the need of staying at home My health is very bad this winter—now those records I am send you as to the best of my memory  I doe not remember dates

Now if this is not satisfactory pleas let me no and excuse all eares.

Full of love for you bothe, as ever

Granmother Northcutt

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ENCLOSED NOTES

Your grandfather J.H. Northcutt was the son of W.M. Northcutt who came with his father J.W. Northcutt from South Carolina and settled in Butter (Butler?) Co. Ala. do not remember the date J.W. Northcutt was a Methodist preacher

Your great grandmother Northcutt was a Miss Nancy Morris of Ahoobuta (?) Miss. who died when your grandfather was born. don’t know her parents.

Your great grandfather Benjamin Mason came to Ala with his father Peter Mason from Savannah, Ga. do not remember their dates

Your great grandmother Mason was Miss Margaret Mancil Came from South Carolina with her father William Mancil, during the trouble with the Indians. do not remember these dates.