By C. Kihm Richardson Walking from Strykersville ... - Fulton History

PAGE 106
Early Letters From Java (continued)
week fit for loging and then 4 hands and 1 yoke
of oxen will lay up one acre in one day. The land
is generally of good quality; there is but very
(little) waste land here. It is excellent for grass
and any other thing that you want to put on it, it
being so new a place that it looks rather hard to
a new commer but several have been to Mishagun
and Ohio and have come back and purchased here
for they say that they think it is a better country
here than it is there.
The winters here is much milder here than they
are with you but the summers is cool night but
warm days which makes better for wheat but it is
not country for corn. Fruit does well here and it
will be very plenty here as everyone is trimming
to see which one is first. According to the look
now there will be some Swenmure kind this season,
on trees that have been set out more then 3 years
hung full. They don't pretend to keep any of th. . .
cattle but they have oxen and horses and there is
none of them that keep more than one yoke of
oxen; most of them keep 3 or 4 horses, some keep
4 cows, some 8 and some 12, and young stock in
preportion and one-half of them keeps on brouse
through the winter. The grass and s . . . starts in
the very early in the Spring. They turn their young
cattle in the woods by the first of April and let
them run till they get their fields clean of their
crops. There is all kinds of roots and herbs over
in the woods here Sometimes there is a
flock of wolves come along that make the woods
ring with their howling but they don't stay but a
little while with us as there is no ledges here for
them to burrow in and the Indians here
about till they go off, and the owls give us a little
musick in the evening so that we are not without
musick if we are in the woods.
The Indians come round to visit us once in
awhile but they are very peaceable. Mr. Friend
(Isaac) has got to be pretty forhanded; he has
200 hundred and 20 acres of land and 100 hundred
under improvement, and keeps 60 head of horned
cattle and 5 horse .... and 80 sheep and lambs
and 10 hogs and he milks 12 cows and he presses
his cheese in a 1/2 bushel every day. He killed 20
hogs. Last Fall he told me that he turned off 300
hundred dollars worth of sheep last fall for which
he took part cash and part term in towards his
land, and he says he can turn off this Fall 500
hundred worth of sheep and have enough left for
his own use. My land lays joining him on two sides
within forty rods of his house. He is a man that is
much set by here in this place. The probability is
that he will cut 100 hundred tons of the first rate
of hay this season as there is now other kinds cut
here. Wheat is coming in very heavy this season
and there is gravel on the ground. Corn is rather
low now but it has a good color so I am in hopes
that we shall have a good crop yield.
APRIL 1978
I have not room to write no more on this sheet.
I have wrote to John Osgood and Murthuey Goutt
and I want you should put your letters all together
and sit down together and read them and one then
some of you write to me as soon as convenient.
Give my best respects to your family and Mr.
Linevag (?) and Mr. Chandler. This from your
friend,
JACOB MORSE
Artemas Stevens
Little is known of his family or of his personal
history. Capt. Artemas Stevens, native of
Dracut, Massachusetts, came to Java in 1835,
and resided there until his death in 1877. Isaac
Friend, a neighbor and friend of Capt. Stevens
in Dracut, moved to Java in 1821, died there
in 1883, and was progeniture of a numerous
family, some of whom still reside in the town.
JACOB MORSE, JAVA, N.Y. LETTER WRITTEN
JANUARY 5th, 1835, TO CAPT. ARTEMAS STE-
VENS, SUNCOOK, NEW HAMPSHIRE, LETTER
HAS BEEN EDITED.
Java - January 5th, 1835
Dear Friend,
I now take this opportunity to write a few lines
to inform you that I received your letter this day,
dated November the 2, and I received it with so
much pleasure as I should 5 dollars in money as
I began to think that you had all forgotten me. We
are all in good health at present hoping these few
lines will find you enjoying the same blessing.
I am getting along here as well as can be expected
considering how I came here. I have had a
good run of Customers this winter at Shoemaking.
1 have made 42 pairs of -boots and 53 pairs of
shoes in 3 months so you may guess whether I have
worked or played. I have let out 2 1/4 acres of
timber to chop this winter and have paid for it in
shoemaking. I have made boots for one dollar and
25 cents . . . some made for 1 dollar and some
have been one dollar and 50 cents. I bought
(meadow?) land last Fall and give 15 dollars and
then I took a job clearing 3 acres of land after it
was chopped and burnt for 15 dollars and I done it
in 13 days, and split the rails and put up 24 rods
of fence on the same and I have bought four sheep,
2 of paid in shoemaking at 1 dollar and 50 cents
per head. 2 I paid for in (geese?) that I raised last
summer. And I have got 3 shotes. I have got 6
acres cleared on my place and 2 acres of wheat;
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