Isabel Kans
Sunday afternoon June 9th, 1889

My dear Sister & family

Well well here I am after three weeks silence & I just bet my old shoes you have been looking anxiously looking in vain for a letter from dis creature for the last too weeks & here it is not wrote yet. well I will have to git down on my knees & beg pardon but will add that I did not do it for spite. I looked for so long for a letter from you & none came till three weeks ago friday & caught me whitewashing the kitchen & in awful bad humor but it was just as I was afraid. it was. I felt in my bones that you was sick or you would not let me wait five weeks for a letter for I could not think you was cleaning house all that time. Oh you poor dear soul. how you must have suffered & if I had just known it I expect I would have started right off walking afoot to take care of you. it worries me so that your neighbors are so poor. how can anyone be so selfish & so much for themselves. but I hope you have had no more & are feeling well again. better them than a spell of fever even if you did suffer so much pain. Don’t you remember how many carbuncles & boils Ma had one summer. even one on the top of her head & she suffered everything.

Nett writes about a cylone which she and her husband survived, spring 1889, but an ominous foreshadowing of her tragic fate a month later.

We are all well or as well as common. sometimes I imagine I am not well but I guess its lazyness that ails me. this is a kind of a cloudy dreary day has tried to rain but I guess its all gone around. had a nice shower yesterday morn. rained so easy we could hardly see where it come from. we're haveing plenty of rain but not as much wind as we had last month. I declare. there was more wind & hard wind last month than any time since we have lived here. & in May too. for that month has always been so nice. there was three days especily the time you spoke of it blowing there. it began here on sat. & kept getting worse till Mond. it just tried itself. the sand & dirt blew till one could hardly see & filled up the Lister rows. still in places the corn could not come up. & had to be replanted where it had been planted with planters. in lots of places it blew the soil off & whipped the corn that was up till it looked dead. & instead of it getting lower as the sun went down as it most always does it got worse so by four o'cl it looked dangerous. I am ashamed to say it but Dick & I went to Websters that afternoon. he came from the Lodge that morn & said if we didn't go that day he didnt know when we would go & that we could go very well. the wind was in the South & thot it would get lower as the sun did. well we started after noon & I thot after we started the wind didnt blow as hard as I thot it did for the doors & windows made so much noise. but by the time we got up by Lawndale it began to get worse & I told Dick if I ever got forgiveness for going that day I would not start again. we should not come back & it got worse & looked so desperate. I was that uneasy I could hardly set still. the team did not pull a pound & would have to hold back to keep the buggy off thier heels. & just after we got there, it got so dark & thunder rolled away in the distance. & at that time a cyclone was tareing a portions of Pratt & Stafford Cos up. we got there & Mollie come out to meet us with the corners of her eyes full of dirt. the baby was on the floor asleep & she had just got off the bed from a sleep. had nothing to do. she had not cleaned house & her house was the dirtiest & more dirty rags laying around than I ever saw at her house & that baby is just the worst little thing to strike Blanch & climb on everything. Blanch was as fraid as death of her. Mollie has to have her eye skined all the time. & a real homly baby she is too. I believe if it was me I would rather not have one if I couldnt have one of my own flesh & blood. well the next day was pretty & bright & the men went fishing in fornoon & afternoon we came home. & have not seen or heard from them since then. only about a huge hail storm that passed through there last sun eve that cut thier crops down to the ground. I bet Charlies are more anxious than ever to get out. Charlie would have to replant nearly all of his corn but they seemed real lively. Ed had been there a short time before & staid a week. was hunting work but was going back where Will is. he told Sell that Will is going to marry this fall. Sell is real sassy & hateful to charlies & oh how smart he thinks himself. now Will excuse me for saying so about your nephew but its the fact & he needs taken down some to. I thot Mollie acted rather disgusted with him.

4) Oh dear me did you read about that terrible flood in Penn. wasent it awful we think we see lots of trouble loosing horses & cows but trouble is that as to such trouble as that was I never want to live in such a place as that was. Dick saw a loan agent the other day that had been there & had lots of acquaintances there. so much gone to ruin & so many lives sent to eternity in such a short time. did you know that Charlie Hiskett was trying to get a pension. Cowhick sent papers here for Pa & Less to sign & do you know how he was disabled. well the stated loss of Eyesight & hardness of hearing. now aint that great. & Tom Roby who never smelt gun powder has applied for one. I spect he had the bowel complaint once & must have a pension for it. There is some I think ought to have some & others not. Yes Helen you can send that apron pattern like Blanches if its not to much trouble to cut it off. Oh how sweet she surely looks in her new dress for it must be awful pretty. I wish I could see her with it on but la me it wouldn't do for us poor tads to go back there. You & Blanch with your Plush & Silk & us with our cotton ades on. it would never correspond atal atal. people would know me from Mrs. Clark sartin I expect. I look lots older than you do. for it seems to me I look awful poor & old well no wonder with such a hardy baby tuging the cream out of me & running here & there & all when I set down to sew or do any setting work I can hardly hold my eyes open & I dont have ambition enough to do anything. oh how I long for a long rest. Dick got None up here to help me. she done very well for a day or too but it soon got old & she set down & watched me work & I would have to hang her duds up after her. she would lay her dirty dress across the machine & apron on the stand or rocking chair & shoes under the stand or any place else but never in the right place. Sue says she has to talk to them. especily to Jen about her work till she gets clear out of patience & sometimes takes a big cry. Oh Jen is awful slouchy about her work & I dont know who she takes it after either. but guess its just the nature of the animule. anyway to get it off her hands quick. she is a great big lumix & green as a pea vine. it seems like she could learn by seeing how others do but she dont improve a bit. sue got Carrie Mathis picture & if I had known she was expecting it I dont think I would ever have tho of Carrie. she looks as old as her mother the last time I saw her & so poor but oh dear me she is dressed. she is head sales lady in I believe a millitary Store in Milwaukee at $12 per week. & then she says she don’t make much after paying five per week for board. her folks are in Minunk, Ill. keeping hotel.

Tues afternoon. I will write some while my bread raises. it is real warm today & is making things grow. I have hoed my cabbage & done lots of other things. I have a good many chickens but they dont grow fast enough to suit me. I am hungry for fried chicken. I keep setting hens all the time or as fast as I can get the eggs to set them. Eggs is 8ct & butter 7. I make lots of butter & just use lots of it & cream too. Pa & Aunt Lyd & I went down to the creamery before we started home that morning. it is awful nice. so much nicer than Cooks creamery. saw them seperate the cream from the milk. they only pay 10ct a guage. we then went to the sugar plant but could not see anything but the frame of the building & the lake of water that they have made on part of the land Uncle Jim use to own south of town. Oh if I could see you I could tell you about. So many of the big old hills north of the Lodge are broke up & planted to cain. people thinks that sugar plant is going to make them rich & I guess it is a good thing. but we are too far from it to do us any good. Just six years ago today Noah Johnsons wife was buried. & oh how pretty our old place was the roses all in bloom & currents big enough to use. yes yes I wish I could be with you & help take care of some of your fruit. oh it just seems like I am more homesick this year to go back than I ever was. I wish I was rich so I could travel. this paper is full & I am not done. I wanted to send this off today. the train going east does not go till 4:17 pm but Pa says I will have to get it there if I get it in the mail today. wish I could go as easy & cheap as it can.

I will send a piece of Mabel dress. 6½ made it bag waist & too wide ruffles. the top ruffel getherd in at the waist. it makes her look lot bigger. she only weighs 38 lbs. not as much as she did too months ago. well I must quit for my letter is too big now. dont forget to write soon & tell all the news. for give me or my long silence. I would think something was going to happen if D or Late would think of writing a letter. Kiss the kids & Will too & yourself for me. Oh yes send me some of your wallpaper so I can imagine I see your room & keep the organ till I come. good by till the next time. as ever your old sister.