Urker
Lodge
Crossmaglen
Ireland
Sept
22, 1906
My Dearest Sally[1],
I was very glad to get a letter from
you this week and to find that you are keeping better. I doubt you are still not sufficiently lazy
for your own good. It was very sad
about the death you mentioned[2]
& all the illness. We are having a time of deaths about Cross'. Mr. Bates[3]
was promoted from Cross'[4]
branch of Belfast Bank to Saintfield where he was only able to do duty two days
till he had to lie down and he is dead and buried. Janie[5] and the
children are gone to live in Belfast where David[6]
is entered in the Bank. Then three
young married women have died after childbirth of blood poisoning from the
treatment of a careless bad old nurse.
We only were acquainted with one girl called Larbin[7]
from [Drum???] who was only a year married and only 20 years old. Dr. McBride[8]
was away on his holidays or likely it would not have happened. Ethel[9]
and he are still engaged but I hear no word of a wedding[10].
We have had a full house all
summer and are quite alone the last four days. Eva & her nurse & two
babies left on Monday. Eva[11]
looks very thin & pale. She has two
dear little girls[12]. Janie Cosgrove[13]
left on Tuesday. She has no children
and does not wish for any but she nursed Eva's a good deal.
I am
in a little anxiety about Mollie[14]
and her care just now as there has been a terrible typoon in Hong Kong and loss
of life and I am sure she has been well frightened if not hurt. The paper
yesterday was full of horrors. A
dreadful Railway accident on the Scotch Express from London at Grantham. Some poor people were roasted to death by
the upset carriages taking fire. How
the accident happened is quite unaccountable as all are dead who could explain.
I
expect Mary Reid[15] next week
for a little. Andy[16]
was to leave for America on Thursday last & Cis[17]
wished her mother to leave home for a while.
She is keeping fairly well.
Uncle Tom[18] too is
coming early in October. So if you
don't get letters you will know I am too busy to write. Some of [Trom][19]
family are also expected any day.
Bessie Brown junr[20].
is here now. Fairy[21]
& Mr. Kirk[22] & boys
enjoyed their visit greatly only the weather as too bad to allow going about at
all. Mr. K. took some photos of which I
send you some.
Your
book for me has not come yet. I do
believe the "cloud" you speak of comes from the state of your
health. An old Scotish Clargyman had to
ask about an old lady who was subject to fits of melancholy about the state of
her soul "How's her Leddyship's bowels?"
Behind every cloud remember there is "The Father" and all that
means. "Have I been so long a time
with thee and yet hast thou not known me." We may be and are naughty children yet tho' he punish "Yet
will he not always abide".
What
a diffference a bright sunny day makes on one's outlook on life present and
future and so does a healthy body a healthy and not morbid mind.
Poor
Mr. Bates sufffered hard. It was his
liver caused his death. It was as hard
as a piece of board and he had turned quite yellow with jaundice yet would not
be got to consult a doctor till too late.
He lay five days unconcious but moaning pitifully. Mr. & Mrs. Rogers[23]
are staying in Liscalgot[24]. We have got a Roman Catholic manager in Mr.
Bates place. I have not seen him yet
but those who have don't admire him. I
am sorry to hear of Tommy[25]
having so hard a struggle to keep above water.
Maggie[26] has not
been here for a long time but I hear she and all at Slieveroe are well. Sally[27]
has gone back to school. Her knee is
much better but not quite well. I am
getting some building and repairing done in the yard now that the house is all right.
You would be surprised how nice a parlour the old kitchen makes.
Give
my love to Mr. W[28]. & the
children and with fondest to yourself
I am yr ever loving
Mary Griffin
P.S. I hear that the McKeans[29]
are leaving Millmount[30]
but they have not written to me only sent a card in return for my letter of
condolence.
Envelope addressed to:-
Mrs. Whiteside
The Manse
Leongatha
Gippsland
Victoria
Australia
[1] Sarah (McCullagh) Whiteside
[2] I don’t know which death this would be.
[3] William BATES (?-1906)
[4] Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh
[5] Jane Clements (?-1925) She lived in Toronto, Canada during WWI
[6] David BATES (1889-1917) He died in battle in WWI and served in a Canadian regiment.
[7] LARBIN?
[8] William Scott McBride (1862-1939)
[9] Ethel Sarah Gilmore, daughter of Eliezer Gilmore and Sarah Jackson
[10] They married June, 1907
[11] Eva Oliver Reed, wife of James Ussher, half-sister of Sarah (McCullagh) Whiteside
[12] Margaret Eleanor Ussher & Florence Maud Ussher, ages 1 ½ and 2 months old
[13] Jane Ledlie COSGROVE née JACKSON, daughter of John JACKSON (Sir Thomas JACKSON’s brother) and Kate Maria WHITING. She had no children.
[14] Mary “Mollie” (Menary) Wright, wife of James Wright, daughter of Mary (Jackson) (Menary) Griffin
[15] Mary (née McCULLAGH) Reid, wife of William Reid and sister of Sarah WHITESIDE
[16] probably Andrew Reid, son of Mary Reid & William Reid
[17] Sally McCullagh Reid, daughter of William and Mary Reid
[18] probably Sir Thomas Jackson
[19] “TROM”?
[20] Elizabeth “Bessie” Brown who married Samuel Gilmore and emigrated to Tientsen
[21] “Fairy” was also in a letter sent by William Sherlock WHITESIDE when he was in St. Moritz. I still don’t know who she is.
[22] Mr. KIRK – could he be related to “Fairy”?
[23] Mr. & Mrs ROGERS – possibly a descendant of James ROGERS and Mary COULTER
[24] Liscalgot, Crossmaglen
[25] Probably Thomas McCullagh
[26] Margaret (Jackson) (Reed) McCullagh
[27] Sarah McCullagh, daughter of Margaret (Jackson) (Reed) McCullagh
[28] William Sherlock Whiteside
[29] Mary Anne Jane (née BARTLEY) McKEAN after the death of her husband, William McKEAN (d. Aug 21, 1906). William McKEAN owned the mills at Laragh.. Also of interest, his mother was Anne JACKSON – though this may not loop back into the family tree again.
[30] Millmount in Keady, Co. Armagh.