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Weber.JosephWeber1840HanoverLetter1902r1.1 - 20 Oct 2011 - 05:09 - Main.guesttopic end

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Joseph Weber: Letter to home from Hanover in 1902

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Hanover On May 24, 1903

My dear brother, I am taking my pen in hand to write you a few lines. I am in good health and I hope that my letter will find you, your wife and children also in good health.

It leaves me, my dear brother, that I have already written twice to you and I have never had any response to my letters. I do not see any reason why you don’t write to me; did I do anything wrong to you so that you don’t write me back?

We're so far away from each other so neither of us can throw a stone in the other’s garden; and if I have hurt you once, I beg you to forgive me.

My dear brother, I would like to let you know about my life in America. I went through a lot of grief when my wife passed away three years ago. I have been a widower for three years now. When my wife died, my older daughter came to live in my house with me last year. Her husband died as well. So we are alone.

Then a son of my daughter, who is 12 years old had suffered with pain in his leg. Doctors have been patient with him for 10 weeks then finally have decided to cut it off. They have suggested moving him to a bigger hospital. Our priest has then written a letter to a catholic hospital in ...(Kehl??). The boy got taken to that hospital but did not want to stay alone; the pastor had asked for the mother to join her son. My daughter has sold everything in order to join her son at the hospital. I was alone again in my big house.

I have sold my house for 1250 dollars but I kept some farmland so I can have something for me.

My children are far away from me. Two of them have a farm and the other two are far away from me; and the youngest daughter is in the convent. When the mother died, she moved to the convent, then I became alone.

I still working at the same factory, it’s been 18 years now. My salary is 1 dollar and 20 cents per day, my monthly pension is 9 dollars. I am going to board with my son-n-law, Aloïse. He and I are now alone in Hanover. He is a watchman at the same factory where I work; he is been there for 15 years and he gets 2 dollars per day and he has to work hard. He has four children to feed and he has another man living with him; there we are, good brother.

I think you will not make me wait too long to write me back so that I will know you are still alive. Tell me about our brother Michael; if he is living or if deceased. Write me what you know about our sister “Kretel” who died at Strasbourg Hospital. The children have written to me, but it’s been awhile that I have not gotten any mail from them, and I don’t have their address to write them.

My dear brother, I have made my portrait, 24 copies that cost me 8 dollars. If you write me I will send you one. I could do it right now but I am not sure if you are alive or among the dead. Only God Almighty knows, but we don’t; we have to have hope that the evil stays behind us.

At Aloïse’s home, everything is fine, I now have no one to control me anymore; I work and I drink a lot, I have also money; I am like the nightingale in the tree.

Here is my dear brother, I want to conclude by sending my greetings to you and your wife and children, Hello from my son-in-law and his wife. Let me greet you all.

My address is Mr. Joseph Weber. Hanover, Ontario.
Best greetings,
Joseph Weber

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-- JimBenedict - 28 Aug 2011
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Webber.JosephWeber1840HanoverLetter1902 moved from Webber.JosephWeber1840HanoverLetter1901 on 30 Aug 2011 - 04:22 by JimBenedict
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