Coles Cty Charleston Ill

August 6/65

Dear Father & Mother I avail myself of the present opportunity of writing you a few lines in order to let you know how I am getting along in this life. In the first place through the mercies of our Heavenly Father we are all well & I hope these lines will soon find your kind hand and find you well & doing well.

In the next place I will give you a summary account how I am fixed OK and about my house. In the first place I have a fraimed house with 2 large glass windows and a 10 feet room to one side and one end with glass window good plan, floors nailed down tight and next a framed smoke house with a shingled roof a first rate milk house large and wauled up with rock and floored with gravel and sand a well of first rate water in __ steps of the door.

I have 4 beads and beadsteads with bead clothing enough to keep them warm, a good cooking stove and heating stove. I have 2 dinner boilers, 2 skillits, 2 gridders, 3 bakers, 1 steamer, 1 fruit pan, 5 pie pans, 2 coffee boilers dish pan there are my cooking vessels.

I have 11 plates 4 dishes 4 pitchers 13 saucers 10 cups coffee 7 tin cups 6 glass tumblers, melases stand, pepper box salt cellar knives forks spoons, large and small. These are our table furniture.

I have 7 jars 6 crocks 5 buckets. These are our milk and water vessels. I have plenty bacon and pickeled pork, lard, 2 barrels of melasses, plenty cornmeal plenty flower beans peas potatoes cabbage beets onion cucumbers tomatos pies of many sorts.

I have 26 turkeys, 120 chickesn, about 15 cats not if you doubt anything I have stated come up and see for yourself.

We had about 4 acres in wheat we made 79 bushels. Yr corn crop is hurt bad by the rian it has rained for one month and this country is flooded with water. There is about 4 acres of our corn dead and more of it injured by the water yet we have 400 bushels of old corn we are fating 12 hogs to sell they will weigh 24.00 lbs now.

We have 200 fruit trees of 30 different kinds of choice fruit some of them has apples. I wish you could see them. Albert has sent for $21 worth of other kinds of fruit.

We had 7,000 bundles of oat on 10 acres of ground. We have 20 acres of grass cut and 20 more to cut and 14 in being >>> to cut.

Write write soon we got your letter and that $50 bill in was glad to hear from you all write soon and often.

Louiza Beckett

To Henry an Eliza Shelley