Courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Oblinger Family Collection

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Saturday forenoon 11 Oclock Aprl 25^th 1874
Fillmore Co Neb
Dear Father & Mother & Bros & Sister

To day finds Ella & I alone as the boys (Giles & Uriah have gone to Sutton I have finished my Saturdays work and thought I would write until the boys come for their dinner Nett my Saturdays work does not amount to much To day I give the house a general sweeping & brushing cleaned out the cupboard and washed off all my dishes then washed {Begin deleted text}the{End deleted text} down the windows & doors Last Wednesday I washed & then scoured my tin ware so we will live bright for a few days Now Mother are you ready to say well Marth what do you scour tin ware with away out in Neb Well I use sand just as I use to in Ind but I can not go to the Creek here and get it for we are not near any runing stream the sand I useed come out of Mr Powells Well it was some Mrs Allkire give me Then I give the table a genuine scouring with it I had scoured it frequently with ashes but it would never look the way I wanted it to It is the table top the boys brought with them and it got so colored before I got here that I dont think I ever will get it the right color Well by & by we will set it to one side and get a new table it will make a good table for all purposes as that old square table of yours does it reminds me very much of that old table only the legs are all the same length yet Nett we recd your letter dated Apr 16^th last evening Mr Robinson brought {Begin deleted text}them{End deleted text} it out to Giles then Giles came over last evening stayed all night I was truly glad to hear for it did seem like a long time since we had a letter from home althouh I was not uneasy for I had an idea you was so busy you could not get time to write well while you have so much to do write as often as you can & we will be satisfied I tell you a letter every week comes very acceptable and when it goes over two weeks time {Begin deleted text}would{End deleted text} seems long It may be we would have got this letter sooner in the week if {Begin inserted text}we{End inserted text} had had a chance to send to the Office The men are all so busy putting their crops in that they do not go to town unless copelled to I expect you are just as anxious to hear from us as we are from you I fear you do not hear as often as you should as I told you before we write every two weeks and think Giles will write when we do not but he tells me he did not write last sunday (which was his time) so you will not get a letter until you get this I would write every week if it did not cost so much we have a few stamps & want to make them reach as far as we can I have time enough to write every week I had a notion to write yesterday afternoon and send it to the Office to day but I had not heard from you for so long I thought I would wait until we would get a letter for I can write so much easier after getting a letter and it was too late last evening after Giles come for then I had your letter to read & Giles had the two late Journals and of course I had to look over them the one especialy that had the conference appoinments in I was surprised to see {Begin inserted text}some of{End inserted text} the the [sic] changes that has been made I hope you have a preacher that you will like and one that may do much good Uriah says he has heard his Father speak of Mr Millers father but he does not know him Is Tipton a station or a circuit where Harrison is sent I say it is a circuit and the boys rather think it a station I think it is a circuit and a muddy one too I suppose Bro Munson¹ was pleased to get out of the Eldership how I would love to see him Nett have you & Allie quit corrisponding or why do you never say any thing about her I would just like to know her actual condition and know if Cheny is any account I wish we could get a good preacher to preach for us I think after our school house is finshed we will have to try and get Bro Heckman stared again We did not go to hear Father Spears last Sunday as Uriah had been working the oxen so hard it looked like a sin to drive so far with them on sunday and I was very glad we did not go for about noon it commenced raining and rained very hard in the after noon We had a little thunder last evening the first we have had this year but I did not burn my bed ticks we had a little shower To day is a very beautiful day a little too windy from the North to make it real pleasent out of doors but I have had the door open all day You ask what kind of a day Easter was here It was quite different to what it was with you It was a very pleasent and beautiful all day with a south wind some anticipated a storm as they had such a dreadful one last easter guess they expected another We have not had much snow since but some cool days for this time of the year but I think hardly so much as you have had We have had some very warm pleasent days The spring is considered very backward here for this state I have mad some garden planted some of nearly all kinds but beans Mother I suppose next Friday will be the day for them I planted peas last Tuesday guess the sign was right as it was in the Twins but I had no twins² to plant them as you use to I remember when you would have Giles & George to plant your peas I planted about the half of what I had will plant again in a few days we have planted our Early Rose & Peerless potatoes have quite a good sized {Begin deleted text}ptach{End deleted text} patch of them have some more of all kinds to plant Uriah has got his Wheat & Flax sowed and considerable plowed for corn some are going to plant corn a Monday several will plant during the week I have quite a nice lot of horse raddish & sage roots and Rhubarb my Honey suckel is growing nicely and most all of my rose bushes are alive I can not tell yet about the little forest shrubery yet I fear they will not do much my Pinroes and Dialetre grew nicely for awhile and then died I wish you would try and save some Peonies seed this season I believe we can get them that way best I know they have seed Now dont forget it I do not as you can get any seed of the Dialetre There is lots of flowers I want to get after the sod is once subdued so they will grow Well the boys came home about one Oclock Giles went on home with Robinson I got dinner and then we went to work We have been planting five³ wood (our Nurto I mean) I tell you it was a big job to plant those Beach nuts I planted nearly all of them while Uriah was setting the shrubery I tell we are quite proud of them They all look nice some had nice sprouts on them We set the presiding elder {Begin inserted text}right{End inserted text} in the center of the farm by the center stake and set Mr Peach between the Cherrys & Pears I think we have added several dollars to our place by planting those things It looks like we will have some fruit to use before long What a pleasure it is to work on ones own farm a person has some heart to go ahead and fix up for you can feel that it is ours and not for some one else to come along and say well you will have to hunt anothe place I want to get another man on here I would rather live as we do than to have to rent and have some one bossing us and telling us when to move and be bothered moveing as we use to I do think J Helvie is foolish for not takeing Jim & Lue up at their offer they do not know how much better off they would be We can tell by experience how much better it would be for them I am not one bit sorry that we made the break when we did although we have had to scratch pretty close to get through I think if Jim would sell what he has and I suppose he could sell that Uchervill place and have enough to get through I think he would have considerable more than we had I believe nearly every one in this neighborhood was renters back east and now I do not know of one that would be will to give up their homes here and go back and rent they all have come through the rubs as we have and now the ones that come first are getting through all right are satisfied and willing to stay We got three letters to day one from Urahs Father & one from U A Cook & one from Mrs Plummer tell her I will answer soon Cook is up in Minnesota now He talks like he would come on his land before long not this year though Uriahs Father sent him 25 dollars to homestead his land When Uriah jumped this claim he did not have money enough to homestead so he just put a Fileing on it When he Filed on it they said it was just as good as a homestead for 33 months if you would stay on it and improve it Sometime ago there was quite a trouble in the Beatrice district about the fileings they said they were no account and several men around here put out for Beatrice and put homestead papers on their land The first we knew of it McClanes land was deeded to another man a man that had been a soldier and only had taken one eighty and was entitled to another eighty with out liveing on it so he got McClanes They tell McClane at Beatrice that he can hold his if he proves up on it so he is going to prove up unless the man pays him pretty well for what he has done I think the man that took it is not much or he would not take a peice of land another man is liveing on but this is a currious world filled with currious people Uriah was a little uneasy about ours feared that some fellow might want to homestead over his file so he had no money to homestead with so he sent to his Father and he helped him to twenty five dollars Urah will go now in a few days and put his homestead papers on it and then it will be safe and in nineteen months we can get a deed for it It will take 18 dollars to homestead he will only have to go to Geneva the county seat We have heard of no trouble in the Lincon district some thinks the fileings that have been jumped has been done by a set of land sharks that is watching the land office to make money without work M^cClane has wrote to Washington to find out how it is Urah got a Quire⁴ of fools cap⁵ to day so there is no danger of us getting out for awhile and he got one dollars worth of {Begin inserted text}white{End inserted text} beans they are 6 1/4 cents per pound we will plant about all of our Potatoes so we thought would have to have something to eat cove over and we will give you a mess of beans The Cane & bean seed come all right also the patterns I got the goods out to cut out the overskirt but begin to wonder where Ellas dresses was to come from this summer so I did not make the overskirt I concluded my dress would wear just as well without as with it and look about as well I would like to make a dress for Ella out of some of that Lawn that Aunt Adelaide give {Begin inserted text}me{End inserted text} but I declare I am up a stump to know how to make it can you tell me how she can wear her Gaiters yet this summer that I got for her last spring Where is Uncle Geo & Aunt Sallie now Uriah says he remembers very well how Jake Rife use to take the girls sleigh riding he says he remmens the team he drove and he all ways went in a fast trot Nett I do wish I could be there to help fix for the raisings I suppose Manda will be there to help just tell her to eat lots for me If she helps bake the cakes tell her to be sure and put the soda in {Begin inserted text}Nett{End inserted text} I guess you & Manda thinks you bullies to make cakes Well one thing certain if you was here you would neither bake or eat many well you are ready to say I would not want to live there well {Begin inserted text}we{End inserted text} get just what we have to have now and after while we will have Nic nacs as well as you I would like so well to see Manda and hear her give one of her old fat laughs Does Annie favor her very much I would like to see her tell Manda to send me her picture I would like to see Ella & Annzie together now Well this sheet is full and my brain is not empty yet neither has Uriah wrote any and there is none wrote for Ella I believe I will try another peice with this for three cents

I thought when I comenced I would not have much to write and I did not double the lines I wish now I had but it makes such tedious writing to double the lines Uriah is reading the Journal and Ella is crying for me to take her and put her to bed she likes to be nursed as well as ever she runs so much during the day that when night comes she is nearly pegged out so I will close for to night I am as ever

Mattie Oblinger
Sutton Clay Co Neb

Sunday fore noon April 26^th

Well as I said last evening I was not done writing I will try now to finish Father I suppose you and Will are fixed when you are frameing the barn I think will is any how I souppose he will be ready to start out to build barns by the time you get yours done Father I guess we can manage to get through with out that money now unless something happens us at the time I ask things looked a little scaly but we was not suffering and never have been discouraged yet I expect as you are building you need all the money you can get but I tell you what I do wish and that is that you would write to us occasionly how gladly we would receive it I expect you think because Nett writes so much you would not have any thing to write well I know you can tell us something and let Nett skip one week I love to get Netts letters but they are not from Father or Mother when you do not write it seems as though you have nearly forgotten us I know though that you have not nor I dont think you ever will I want to know where Jim Morris is Giles and I had a dispute about him the other day Giles said he was in Logan & I said he was in California keeping hotel I think San Francisco I could not make Giles think he was I suppose Will Thornton is at his destination ere this He dropped a postal card for Giles as he passed through Neb Nett I will tell you what I was doing most of last week I tore up a lot of rags and knit a Rug it will be about 1 yd square when finished I could have finished it yesterday had I worked at it I knit it in strips and then sewed them together knit them on wooden Needles I dont think I will ever knit another as it is hard work and they are not so nice as braided ones I {Begin deleted text}have{End deleted text} oppen{Begin inserted text}ed{End inserted text} one can of my Pears the days Mrs Morgan visited me They were just as good as they could be Mrs Morgan thought they were extra good and she is a judge of good fruit for she was always use to it and was her principal living before she came here to live

Is there a prospect for fruit this year or can you tell yet I have just put some dried pears on to cook for dinner and Ella is begging for me to give her some more to eat she is nearly crazy when I cook fruit I will be glad when we can have fruit to use all the time Will how did you succeed with your mustache Nett said some time ago you was sprouting them did they grow to do any good Will how often do you visit Miss Retta now Charlie how is your mustache or have you got any sprouts yet I think when a boys goes with the girls he aught to be old enough to have a mustache I suppose you set up to the glass as big as any of them now on saturday night and Lather & Shave but it hardly seems possible to us I would like for you to be cutting some more flourishes with your pen soon Will has your ink bottle dried up or why is it we get no letters from you any more We had intended to go up to Giles to day but it is so windy we thought we would feel best at home & it threatened rain this moring Well if you was all here I would dispense of this writing I think I will write to Geo & Grizie this after noon I did say I would not write until they would write to us but I will try once more I have not got the scratch of a pen from Grizzie since I have been here I do not know the cause of it Ella is playing with her cat she said awhile ago she guessed she had better send Grandpa some of Jetties hair I dont there is a day but she says some thing about some of you she seems just as glad as any of us when we get your letters the last one Grandpa sent her she had us to read it to her until she had it completly memorised Giles come over she got it for him to read he let on as though he could not tell what it was or he could not read it she would tell him right along how it was It tickels her wonderfuly to get a letter she is waiting paitiently for some little chickens my hens have done no good so far a setting they all want to lay and set on one nest I took one off and set her in a different place after she set about a week she left the nest I have another one setting that seems to do better Uriah has quit reading has laid on the Lounge for a nap but I will spoil that for I am going to get dinner We are all well We are as ever yours truly

M V Oblinger

Ella sends Grandpa & Grandma and all the rest {Begin deleted text}as{End deleted text} a big kiss she says she would just like to see you

Diner over we are going up to Giles awhile so I will not get to write to Geos this afternoon I made us a sweet Cake for dinner it went pretty good Father if you will come to see us I will prmomise you a mess of Salt risen bread I am bakeing that kind now days as I am out of yeast and meal there is considerable of it used here as we are going to Giles I will take my letter along maybe will have a chance to send it to Turkey Creek PO Uriah think he will not write this time I will roar⁶ him & Giles up if they do not write soon