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Following are scans of a letter sent to Laverna Potter in Plainfield, Vermont.
The text of the letter reads: Hebron, May 28, 1904 Dear Grandma, Received your letter, was glad to hear from you. It found I and the baby well, hope this will find you the same. There has been a change in my life since I wrote to you. I was married May 3 to Chas. Wynn so I am not Mary Potter any longer. I took the girls to Will. Before I was married and he did not like it. He wanted me to keep Gladys but I could not so he said he would make me trouble so he went up to the old house and took all my things. I could have made it hot for him but I did not. He has given Gladys away to a woman in Chemung. So you see he did not care. I see Walter last Sunday up to Walworth the first time since he was married. I live with his father and mother. We have a beautiful place and a loving home, not much like I have been used to. Mother is very lonesome but she has a good home. My father was buried in S.C. too far to bring him back. Gladys was 6 years old last Dec. and Jeanette was 4 in April and Lawrence will be a year in June. I'm sorry you are so lame, hope you will get better. Will has left the market and gone to painting. Give my love to Betsy and Bert. It is nice Merton and his wife can live with you. You had not ought to be alone. Well I have written all of the news. Write soon. From your loving granddaughter, Marry Wynn. This letter offers a gold mine of facts in helping to trace relatives. Here's the letter with my notes added in brackets. This also demonstrates how one plays "history detective" with various sources. [I was told William and Walter Potter (two of four brothers) moved from Vermont to Wisconsin, but I had no further information.] Hebron, May 28, 1904 [The 1900 census shows William and Mary Potter being in Walworth Wisconsin which is 12 miles north of Hebron, Illinois. Walter Potter was in Chemung Illinois.] Dear Grandma, Received your letter, was glad to hear from you. It found I and the baby well, hope this will find you the same. There has been a change in my life since I wrote to you. I was married May 3 to Chas. Wynn so I am not Mary Potter any longer. [Important fact: divorce and remarriage occurred in 1904.] I took the girls to Will. [Will. must be an abbreviation for William] before I was married and he did not like it. He wanted me to keep Gladys [Gladys was one of the children's names found on the 1900 census for William and Mary Potter in Walworth Wisconsin] but I could not so he said he would make me trouble so he went up to the old house and took all my things. I could have made it hot for him but I did not. He has given Gladys away to a woman in Chemung. [Chemung Illinois is 14 miles west of Hebron Illinois and where Walter Potter was living in 1900.] So you see he did not care. I see Walter [Walter was one of the Potter brothers who also moved to the Wisconsin area] last Sunday up to Walworth [Walworth Wisconsin is 10 miles away from Hebron Illinois] the first time since he was married. I live with his father and mother. [This puzzles me as Walter's parents were, I believe, in Vermont. Perhaps the writer is referring to Walter's in-laws.] We have a beautiful place and a loving home, not much like I have been used to. Mother is very lonesome but she has a good home. My father was buried in S.C. too far to bring him back. [I get the feeling the writer's mother would be Laverna's daughter. That would make her mother's maiden name Williams, but I have no idea what her married name is.] Gladys was 6 years old last Dec. and Jeanette was 4 in April [These names and ages match exactly with what is on the 1900 census. The 1900 census also shows Mary had two other children who had died sometime before 1900.] and Lawrence will be a year in June. [A third child not on the 1900 census, born in 1903.] I'm sorry you are so lame, hope you will get better. Will has left the market and gone to painting. [The 1900 census shows William Potter as being a painter, and future census reports show him as being a butcher/proprietor of a meat market.] Give my love to Betsy and Bert. [Albert was William and Walter's brother who married Betsy. They remained in Vermont.] It is nice Merton and his wife can live with you. [Merton was the fourth brother who also remained in Vermont. The 1900 census shows Merton Potter living with Laverna Potter.] You had not ought to be alone. Well I have written all of the news. Write soon. From your loving granddaughter, Marry Wynn. [I could not find a Charles and Mary Wynn on any census reports, but did notice future census reports show William being a widower and in his second marriage to Olive. Later census reports also show the children mentioned above as being with William and Olive Potter.] |
