Isabel Kansas
April 1890
[Written about April 20-23]

Dear Sister and Bro,

Well I supose you think it about time you wer hering from us but you will Pleas remember you wer some 4 or 5 weeaks answering our letter so I just thought I would sorter pay you back in your own cover & then Late sayed he had wr. you a great big letter a short time ago & I supose he told you all the news so that we have not much to tell. Blanch has tried to wake up the boys and told them to go to bed & now she is at my knee try to help me write. she talks real plain but still calles me sass & Papa. Dick has not come home yet. Late got a letter from him today & wanting $10 sent to him to come home on. he also borred $2.50 of Ed Carter to pay his shair of expences down there. Pa had to pay $20 on Nettes caskett & perhaps will have to pay the balance. Dick never sayed anything to us of going back to Mo after he came hom. I think he changed his mind prety often or els hasent much. somehow one cannot tell much about him for he never says anything. could tell you much more of him but perhaps have said too much already but dont write back to them anything I have writen concearning him in this. I have been listing corn today and my calves are sore tonight. Sue wants to write & I'll give up the balance to her as this is all the writing paper we have in the house. Let us here from you soone.

As ever your Bro Less

+++++++++++++++++++

Dear Sister

Well Hellen, Less began this letter last. Sometime I dont know when & left this for me to finish & I havent had time until tonight. This leaves us all well. Blanche has got most over the Hooping Cough. if that was what it was. I cant hardly believe it was for the rest did not have it. Mabel coughed a little but not like Blanche did. hers was just like it but some say she will have it again. Pa is lots better. Looks better & says he is getting fat. he has had some cold but is better. Hellen, Blanche is not the same disposition Mabel is & never was. She was very determin until I quonquered her & since she is a very good little girl. minds so much better than Mable ever did. Mable never was quonquered. you could see that plain enough. nor never will be as long as she stays there. Dick said you wanted to keep her. I dont see why he did not let you. I think you ought to have them or one of them. Anyhow if you want them. I asked him why he did not leave her with you. he said Oh it was too lonesome without Mable. it looks like he cared lots for them, dont it, the way he is doing. He told me you said you would come home with him if he would let you take Blanche home with you. did you tell him. If so I do not see why he did not let you come. I know you can do better by her than I can. Oh it will be hard for us to give her up to you, if I only knew you could keep her, than anyone else. Now [perhaps] you will think by me asking that question that I have no confidence in him. Oh Hellen I am sorry to say it but I have not. Oh if I could see you I could tell you many things that perhaps you dont know. but Hellen I think sometimes it was a blessing that poor Nett was taken from him for no telling what he would have brought her to. he has never even paid for her coffin nor even went to see anything about it. Just to give you some idea of some of his tricks I will tell you a few. (don’t think hard of me) When he first went back to Mo he went to Medicine Lodge to the bank & borrowed thirty five dollars. Late & some two others went his Bail. Well he was only gone 11 days until she was killed & he was back & then when he took a notion to go back again he settled all up with the railroad boss & got his pay & had $50 when he started back & it only cost him $4 to go back to Chillothe, well you know how long he was there & the other day Jennie got a letter from his sister Magie asking about him & she said that when he got the news of Netties death he had no money to come home on. so her husband lent him 10 dollars & he never did send it back so when he came back the second time they tried to treat him as well as they could & when he staid as long as he wanted too he Borrowed 15 dollars more & promised to send the 25 dollars back as soon as he got home. & they have never had the scratch of a pen from him. now it is a mystery what he done with his money. & then he was only home a week until he started to Oaklahoma & Borrowed $12.50 of Ed Carter to bare his share of expenses there & back. & he is still there. & the other day wrote to Late to send him $10 to come home on that Uncle Jim owed him $25 & he could not get it right now. I know Uncle Jim is slow about paying his debts but I think there is a Nigger in the woodpile someplace dont you. Late wrote to him. so we will find out whether they paid him or not. Now I know of over 100 dollars that he ows here & that is the way he tries to pay his debts. What do you think of such work as that when he has the Motherless children depending on him for support. Now it may be he cant get his pay but with what he has done & the different stories he has told it looks fishy. All the time he was in Mo & since he has been down there he has never written to us to hear from Blanche but that is allright of course but I could tell lots of different stories he has told about what was coming to him in Mo. You have heard of the 50 dollars that he claimed his Brother owed which I dont think he ever loaned it. But I will say no more now perhaps ought not to have said what I have but Hellen it worries me when I am trying to help him all I can. I think he will do so perhaps Pa & Late will think I ought not to have told you this but you are one of the family. I thought you ought to know It but you neednt tell them I told you. Pa dont know what to think of him. Well I have written a big letter & told nothing either. the rest are all in bed & I must go too. I guess Mable & Jennie get along as well as you can expect but she is not fit to have the care of her & as to the controlling, none of them control her. she does about as she pleases. Now my paper is full. now please write soon & dont wait as I have. I have no help my girls are both away & I dont get much time to write. With love to all & a kiss to the children.

I am as ever

sister Sue W.