Author: Iva M. Cooper age 16 of Paw Paw, MI
Title: Letter to “Aunt” Miss HP Draper [Hannah P. Draper age 78 of Westmoreland, Oneida Co, NY]
Date: 12 February 1899
Curator: Christine Fisher
Note:
Paw Paw, MI
February 12, 1899
Miss HP Draper [age 78]
Westmoreland, Oneida Co NY
Dear Aunt:
As Auntie [Valeria Louise Nelson Nelson, age 62] has warned you not to be scared, I suppose you have nerved yourself for my awful letter.
I have never seen you, and perhaps never shall, but I hope that I may sometime, I would be glad to come if I could, and stay with you, and comfort you in your loneliness.
I hope you are getting along all right this cold weather, here this morning the thermometer registered 34 degrees below zero, and it is predicted, that it is going to be cooler during the next three days, some, here in town, have lost their fruit by having their cans burst, and we should have lost ours, if mamma (Helen E. Nelson Branch Cooper) had not nearly all night, keeping fires. Grandma [Nancy J. Nelson, age 85] said, this morning, when she first awoke, that she hoped those poor children would not freeze, meaning Amanda and Frank (Lawton), she thinks you are all right, because you wrote you had your supply of coal, for the winter, but I think the children will take care of themselves for Frank has a good supply of wood in the wood shed, we have also managed to keep in wood.
We are all as well as usual, papa [Lyman Cooper, age 70] and mamma [Helen E. Cooper, age 53] are convalescing from the LaGrippe, grandma [Nancy J Nelson] has a slight cough, having taken a little more cold, but is getting better, Auntie [Valeria], well, she is not exactly a somnambulist, for she does not quite walk in her sleep, but she does nearly every thing else, eats, talks, pares potatoes, and washes dishes in her sleep, and it is quite funny to see her sometimes when se goes to eat an apple, she will begin to pare it, get a mouthful, take a nap, and so alternate till the apple is finished, when she (rousts up) as grandma says, to see if she has eaten it, or where it has gone to, she nods and bows on all occasions, and this morning got up, went to the stove opened it, made a low bow, and was met by the flames, (I suppose I ought to say was kissed by them), at all events she singed her hair, smelled it burning, (and woke up). She says she was not asleep, but I think she must have been taking her morning nap, and got up in her sleep, we never know what she will do next, she says it is not so funny, and though we have to laugh at her, we are all sorry for her, because she has been broken of her sleep so much taking care of grandma, that she can not help it.
I thought I would send you a valentine, and thank you, for that , capable cat; I have three cats, but I have not used diamond dyes on them, one of them is black nearly all over, the other two are malta and white, I think. I will not follow the example of the capable cat and dye them. Do you keep a cat? Grandma says, you used to keep a cat, when she was there, and that you had a chair for it.
I think this is all for this time, as grandma says, you can not read it, your not being used to my writing.
When you write to Auntie V [Valeria]
Write a letter, please, to me.
I will always ever be
Your grand-niece Miss Iva C.
Miss Iva May Cooper [16 years old]
Paw Paw, Box 178
Van Buren Co, MI