Hutchings, Brother and Sister
South Lancaster, Massachusetts
October 28, 1890
Previously unpublished.
Dear Brother and Sister Hutchings,
I have just received a letter from Brother Dunlap. He speaks of setting out an orchard on my place in the valley. He specifies nothing, but says his bill is fifty dollars for trees and work and inquired if the place can be rented for one hundred fifty dollars. He says he can rent it for that. He had an offer for the place, twenty-five hundred. Up to the present time the place has cost me over twenty-seven hundred. Dunlap speaks of the necessity of putting a fence round the orchard, which will cost me, he says, about seventy-five dollars. 6LtMs, Lt 13a, 1890, par. 1
I need the money invested in the place so much, and I am paying interest on the money invested in it. I can not feel that you have done the right thing by me. When you had the place of me in shares, you put in no wheat, and left my part uncared for. I paid the sum of thirty dollars for baling hay, paid ten dollars to build a shelter over it; it cost me in all forty dollars, and the shelter was not thorough and all the hay was spoiled. That year I lost all. Now if you had done your duty to me, you would have seen that the hay was cared for and turned into money for me; you would not have left me at haphazard chances to those who did not care a cent how much loss I sustained. 6LtMs, Lt 13a, 1890, par. 2
Will you please tell me how much I paid you for fencing? I have the bill at home somewhere, and Pacific Press has an account of the money you drew, but I want the account now that I may see how I can afford to sell the place. I shall have to lose on it, but I had better lose on it now than wait longer and sustain any more losses. These things are a great perplexity to me. I never would have purchased one foot of land if I had known how the matter would turn out, adding to my cares and perplexities when I am full of burdens. The past two years no one has worked for my books and I have had to hire money for living expense. I want to sell that place in the valley, if possible. It brings me nothing because I have to trust to others to manage for me who will do about as you have done, which is not very flattering to me. I would make more money to let the land lay uncared for. But in hope of selling, I must still keep it up. 6LtMs, Lt 13a, 1890, par. 3
Please answer at once in regard to the cost of fencing. 6LtMs, Lt 13a, 1890, par. 4
In great haste. 6LtMs, Lt 13a, 1890, par. 5