A Letter from Aunt Vesta



 

Owego, N.Y.
Sept. 8, 1935.
Dear Chub,--

    . . . I received your letter of Aug. 1 -- and was so glad to get it just at that time, as Aug 5, I was invited to ride with friends to Willimantic Conn. to visit a cousin of my mother's & her daughter. -- an Ingersoll, 78 yr. mind so clear & such a memory.  She gave me this data I'm sending you, she told me some she said wouldn't look good in print.  When I see you I will elaborate.
    She knew nothing much of the Padgett's except as she knew my Grandfather John 3rd.  He was a good man, did some local preaching, Methodist, a favorite expression of his -- "Oh, well, you can catch more flies with molasses than vinegar."
    John 2nd. came from England when he was 4 yr. old so I've heard my grandfather say, he is the one (I've heard grandpa tell this) who had double teeth all around his mouth and was so strong in his teeth that he could pick up a barrel by the bung and lift it off the ground. . . .
    My father [Silas Edgar Padgett] was 9 1/2 yr. older than mother [Frances Ingersoll].  He was peddling lightning rods for a man in or near Nineveh, he drove a team, came down in this neighborhood, saw the school house near us, sold light rods to Moses Ingersoll, (cousin Addie's father, brother to James) his wife Adaline liked him as a young man and suggested that he take our school to teach.  He did.  Mother went to school to him one year at least.  He had been to Oxford Academy -- a boarding school and was called very well educated for his day.  Mother had just district school education.
    After they were married, he went to war for a friend who was drafted & received a bounty of $400 for it).  While he was at war mother taught school.
    Father was a large man, smart, quick tempered, very nervous, ambitious, great reader, thick heavy black curly hair.
    Mother was medium sized woman, slow motioned, handsome ("Pink" & "Aunt Pink" were her nicknames) as a young lady (Heavy, long black hair, only girl in her family to have any hair), very patient, great reader, bright, great Bible student.  Both brought up as Methodists, when married went to Presbyterian church. . . .
    It's twelve now & I must get to bed.  This is quite rambling but it may answer some of your questions and you can rearrange it. . . .
 

        Love        Aunt Vesta

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