William H. Francis, Cascade, Dubuque Co., Iowa, to his nephew, [William?], Lurgan, Co. Armagh, 21 December 1872
Description
Francis has just received several letters from Ireland, which pleases him greatly: "It is presumed that I shall have more correspondence hereafter than heretofore, I am always glad to hear from old Ireland," "I am sorry to learn the condition of Sister Bell, I thought there must be some great wrong upon the part of the man that calls himself her husband, I wrote to Sister McDonald a few days ago, that Bella should leave the scoundral and go home to some of her sisters, ... and if they could do no better ship her off to New York - there is a home for her with Thomas or Robert." Francis offered to send his sister the money to pay her passage to New York - "I would advise no woman to live with a drunken brute of a husband,'' Francis reported that the weather was very cold, 20 degrees below zero on the day he wrote, ''and no indication of moderating from this point, both summer and winter has many variations of temperature, even in one day there will be two or three degrees of heat, or cold,'' As for his business, Francis reported briefly that "I am busy as usual in the line of killing and curing,'' He asked to be sent a ''Belfast Almanac for 1870, '' Francis was an Episcopalian - his Irish relatives were Church of Ireland. He had emigrated to America in 1854. [Context provided by Professor Kerby A. Miller] According to information from Schrier, Francis was a member of the Church of Ireland, and a medical doctor, who emigrated to the United States in the early 18501. By 1879, he had been in Cascade, Iowa, over twenty years practicing medicine.
Transcript, title and description by Professor Kerby Miller. Manuscript given to Professor Kerby Miller by Professor Arnold Schrier from a private collection.