The Claims. Holt Co.—
Nov. 7th, 1897
Dear Brother,
We read several of your letters sent from home, and were very glad to hear from you. I suppose you know all about when the boys left home to come here and who went along etc.

Phoneta, Alice and Paul and Boyd left here the latter part of Aug. That left Edgar and Hudson with the cattle to take care of and all the preparations to make for winter. Hudson wrote home soon they must have some one to help care for the mills etc. and wrote for Phoneta, Alice or me to come and neither Phoneta or Alice could come, so I came and left home Sept. 16th and arrived here the next day.

the building place here is fine. It is on Hudson's land and faces south. The cattle yard is north of where the house is to be. Everything is well planned, and when the building is finished it will be very nice here. The cattle sheds are now partly finished, and the house is begun. 

The house will be 14 x 20 with a low room above. Mr. Sexton, a man from West Point has been here three weeks, and will stay about three weeks longer, helping. He is very good at the work they have to do.

The cattle must be herded, and when they are left alone, stray off.

When I came E. & H. were making hay

and worked at that about two weeks longer. Lee Jones has herded for them part of the time since I have been here. When he did not come, either E. H. or I herded. Of course that put back the other work and that was the way they were herded all fall.

Father came up two weeks ago last Friday, Oct 22nd and left last Friday. Hudson went to O'Neil for groceries etc. and father went with him. Hudson came back last evening. When Father was here he helped all he could and spent part of the time herding. The night of Oct 23th it rained all night, and the next day it turned to snow. The wind blew strong and it was a regular blizzard, but it was not very cold. The sheds were not fixed &

Mr. Sexton, father and the boys worked in the storm making as good shelter for the cattle as they could. The next day the weather was better, and since then it has been nice, with the exception of several days.

The only house so far has been the mill-house. 8 x 12 ft. It is right by the well and wind-mill. It has a tank along the west side about 3 ft. wide and 1 1/2 ft. high, and until lately the mill was kept in water in it. 

The cows are nearly dry and do not give much milk.
There is one tent up, used as kind of a store-house. They had another tent up, in which the boys slept, but during the storm it blew to pieces.

The wagon cover is over a wagon-box and Mr. Sexton and the boys sleep in it. I sleep on a cot in the mill-house. I fold it up in the day-time.

The mill-house is our kitchen, dining, & sitting room & every-thing combined. We have an old stove outdoors and until three weeks ago what cooking was done was done on it. It was very windy a great deal of the time, and about 2/3 of the time we ate bread and milk. The milk is very good and was satisfying, but when it was cold and chilly and without fire, some-thing warm would have been preferable. Three weeks ago we read Ida's small oil stove or lamp with one burner, and during the storm and wet weather we had something warm to eat and

could heat water to wash in, but a fire in a stove would have felt very good. Hudson went to Burwell two weeks ago for lumber. I went along and bought a stove, and last week the water was taken out of the tank boards laid on top and the stove pit on top in the N.W. corner. We did not have enough pipe to put it on the floor. We can now cook and bake and have warmth when it is cold, although not as much warmth as if the stove was on the floor.

Our meals are not elaborate. It was late in the season when they came, and had no garden. They raised some very nice potatoes, but not very many, and a few turnips.

We use a great deal of milk, and I make oat-meal, corn-meal & graham mush, [?], corn-starch, cracker soup, warm potatoes in milk etc. We do not have much lard so we get along without it. We have some meat and have a little once in awhile.

We have had some dried fruit to stew right along and some apples from home. Mother sent some dried apples, cherries, plums, elder-berries & prunes, and beans, and Husdon ordered through Dr. DeBell 23 lbs. rice, 23 lbs. oatmeal, 1 doz. [?] of corn-starch, 6 lbs. coffee, one case of canned tomatoes, one case of canned corn, 23 lbs. dried peaches, 23 lbs. of dried prunes and a small box of raisins. I write this to tell you what they have on hand for the winter.

Our milk-house is very much crowded by this time. The tank takes up at  least 3/8 of the floor room. We now call it our cellar, and have a good many things in it, and on top it is almost covered with boxes. On the eastside is the tool-chest, boxes with clothing etc. The floor space we have is the length of the room and about 4 ft wide.

We have one chair, two stools and a small bench. When we eat we put some of the eatables on the bench and sit around and hold our plates. There is a shelf around half of the room and we have things sitting on it.

We have quite a little fun sometimes about our house, and being so crowded. I wish you could step in to see us.

Edgar has taken pictures of some of the things, and when the house is finished he will take a picture of it. Monday he took a picture of the ever-green grove. Father and I are in it. The grove is very nice. I will send a spring of arborvitae from it.

The well-water is soft and very good and there is plenty of it.
The grass is cured they say, and the cattle can eat from it all winter when the weather is nice.

They have here 76 head of cattle with the calves. 4 horses and one pony for herding, two pigs, one rooster and six hens, one old cat with three kittens, and two other cats, but they will give some away. There were rats and nice and squirrels here before

we got the cats, but now we do not see any. When it was warm, there were a great many birds here. They would come very close sometimes, and also wash them-selves in the water in the spout running to the tank in the cattle yard. It is not lone-some here.

I expect to go home in several weeks from now. Ida has been doing the work at the Creamery since I am here. Edgar and Hudson will keep house themselves. Every one at home is well so far as I know and we are and have been well. I suppose you will receive this before Christmas. I send you my best wishes and a Happy Christmas and New Year.

Your sister, Lillie C. Bruner