NAWSA General Correspondence Rogers, Reynold 472 W 74th St. New York City 19 Oct 1904 Dear Cousin Alice, Many thanks for sending me on my letter. In case your friends stay with you over Sunday it would perhaps be better if I push off my visit for three or four days & leave here tomorrow week. This will give me a better chance of getting over the worst attack of influenza I think I ever had. It came on very suddenly & I feel today as if I should never be well again. Yesterday I did not get to the office until 2 p.m. & was really not fit for any work. Of course I might be well by Saturday but I much doubt it & I do not like leaving it uncertain. From your letter I conclude that this postponement will not inconvenience you & I would not for any thing run the risk of being laid up at your house. As Cousin Harvey thinks it would not be wise to take my trunk with me I shall not do so. Please excuse a scribble but I can hardly hold my head up. with kindest regards Believe me Your affect cousin Reynold Rogers Boutwell Ave Dorchester 5/28/05 My dear Alice, I hope you had a comfortable journey yesterday & are feeling better for a good days rest. I am sending you by this post a portion of todays American & also the only letter that has come for you. As regards your letters recd tomorrow & Tuesday these will be readdressed for you by the post office people. Cousin George arrived last night about 7:30 & Howard came direct from Cambridge about 1/2 hour before him. Coz. Geo is I think looking very well & with the exception of his white hair has not altered since I saw him at Abercairn 33 years ago! -- He was of course very sorry to find you had been obliged to go away. He tells us that Coz Emma & Anna are coming on from Gardner tomorrow & they will all go on to the Vineyard Tuesday or Wednesday. As Tuesday is a holiday I expect it will be Wednesday when they go on. This morning after breakfast we had the horse & carriage out. Coz Hy, Geo. Howard & I drove down to see your houses & then on to Mr. Starks. After that we went thro' Quincy, Atlantic & round Squantum & back home just in time for dinner at 1:30. It is a regular hot summer day & we all enjoyed the drive. This afternoon Howard has gone off to the Conants, he is to meet his friend Hayes there & they are all going for an excursion to the Blue Hills. -- As I missed church this morning I shall go this evening if supper is not very late. -- No letters came for you at the office yesterday after the morning ones.--- We miss you very much but I do hope that in spite of the meeting tomorrow you will manage to get a good rest before you return on Thursday. -- Please be sure & let me know if there is anything I can do for you here. Believe me Your affect. Coz Reynold Rogers Dorchester Mass 29 May 1905 My dear Alice, You will like to hear what news there is to send you. This morning Coz Emma & Anna arrived from Gardner, they spent the day in town shopping & we are now all in the library wishing that you were with us. -- Coz George went over to Harvard to meet Howard at noon & they got back here in time for supper. --Coz Geo. and his party go on to Chilmark tomorrow. Mis Wilde sent you on the office letters this morning & I do not know that there is any office news of interest.-- Coz Henry has had an invitation to speak at Claremont NH on 9th June & he has accepted. Mrs. Clara L Hunton wrote to him or rather addressed the letter to you. He will go on there from the Vermont meeting. I have been trying to find Mr. Whitney all today but with my usual ill luck I have missed him. We have had a very hot day with every prospect of a repetition tomorrow. Coz Henry received your postal this morning & your letter this evening & we hope you will decide to stay at Geneva until Thursday & take a real rest. --- I am not sending you papers about the Jap victory for a guess you will have all the news in the local papers. It is grand news for surely now the Czar will see the madness of going on with the war & he will give his people all they want. ---- All here send their love & Believe me Your affect Coz Reynold Rogers Chilmark, Mass 10 August 1905 [*Dorchester Mass, Aug. 17, 1905 Dear K. Your letter from London & card from Scotland rec'd. I am kept busy writing up report of the convention & can send only a line. Reynold is at the [?Y?] D.S., & is looking much better already for the change of air. All well here. More soon. Yrs affy A.S.B.*] Dear Coz Alice, I am glad you had such a comfortable journey & are really taking a rest. - You are well out of this very hot weather. - Would you mind doing me a favor by writing to Prof. Hayes & proposing that she puts acetylene gas in her new house? I would not trouble you but I do not know her address & when building her house she may not think of having it piped. --I do not think she ever saw the lights here. -- I think your Father has almost decided to go to Chicago next week. Mr. Foss told him today that of course he must go, he said that he had made all arrangements, engaged accomodation & that of course your Father would go as his guest. The party starts at 2 o'clock on Monday afternoon.--- You will see from the enclosed that at last the Transcript has published your letter. --- I am sorry to say that I have not yet had any luck as regards work. I saw Mr. Whitney yesterday & he said that it was now too late to think of installing acetylene this year. Just funny after all his promises! Then I saw Mr. Foss & he said he was very sorry but his manager had gone away for his vacation the day before & would not be back until next Monday. As Mr. Foss goes away to Chicago next Monday it means that I shall have to wait nearly a fortnight yet. --I feel very much in the dumps that I must bury myself somewhere & I felt almost tempted to accept Coz Henrys suggestion that I should run down to Chilmark for a few days & look up Mrs. Sanford & other possible buyers. He then proposed that I might be able to hurry up the work at the new houses if I went down all day & kept the men up to their work & this I have been doing all day. It was proposed that I should have Joseph down there with the horse & cart to try & get the road cleared up but Joseph did not in the [?Lall?] are being treated to a fortnight at the sea shore, they went on 28th July to a place on the North Wales coast.--I am so thankful to think that she is having a little change.-- I did not intend to bore you with such a long letter but I know home news always interests you. -- Please remember me very kindly to Mr. & Mrs. Barrows & all relatives & Believe me Your affect Cousin Reynold Rogers Parker House Albion T. Brownell Proprietor New Bedford, Mass 2 June 1905 Dear Coz Henry, When I got to Onset (1 1/2 hours late) yesterday I found that [?Churbach?] had sailed over here in his boat to have her repaired & would not return until late today. To save time I decided to take the electrico over here, find him out & see how the land lay before I did any canvas. I have hunted the wharves all over last evening & this morning but can find no trace of the "Clito". There are many boats anchored outside in the bay but there is no way of finding out if his boat is one of them. I shall now go off to Sandwich & then this afternoon drop off at Onset. If I find it neccessary to see [?Churbuch?] I will stay there over night so if I do not turn up by your bed time tonight please not to expect me. In any case I shall leave Onset by early train tomorrow & be at the office by 9 o'clock so as to be on hand in case you want me to give evidence against Mulvey. - In haste for early mail Your affect Coz Reynold Rogers Am I not having my usual bad luck? Dorchester 5 July 1905 Dear Coz Alice, Thanks for your postal of 28th [?]. As you say the Russian news is most exciting, at last the Czar is reaping the harvest of the bad oats he has sown. -- I enclose some letters that have come for you altho' I am doubtful if you will get them before leaving Portland. Mark is back again, to our surprise he turned up at noon yesterday. He says the work Mr. Fall gave him was too hard, they gave him house work & this he refused to do, & so left. -- Please let Coz Henry the hay is all in & the houses are going on all right.-- Yesterday we picked the red currants & cherries, today Miss Hager has made the currant jelly & canned about 15 quarts more of cherries. In the evening we went to see the fireworks at [?] Fields.- Yesterday & today have been very hot, tonight it looks like rain. Your affect Cousin Reynold Rogers Dorchester 3 June 1905 Dear Coz Henry, We are very glad to get news from you & Alice today & to know all is well. I am sorry you have given up the Alaska trip but still I suppose there are lots of equally interesting places to see.--I hope you will not shorten your holiday on [?a/of?] the houses for all goes on well there & Mr. Vickery says there is nothing to call you back. He started the grading today, he found it impossible to get a contract for that work. The sewer is not started yet. Connell wanted the lines given him first, Mr. Rice proposed to come out on Saturday & [?] them & now he tells Mr. Vickery he cannot come out until Wednesday.-- The interior woodwork of the first two houses is nearly finished & the work is certainly first class. The brick masons finished the last house today & it is now ready for the roof.- I enclose some letters for you I thought I had better send on the dividend ck but of course I have not acknowledged it. As mentioned in Alices letter (which I wrote from the office) I hope to have the hay in tomorrow. No luck so far with acetylene. I intended to go to Bridgewater again today but in view of the holiday I think it better to wait until Wednesday. There was an ad in the paper yesterday for Directory Canvassers & I answered it I do not know if it is Murdocks ad. If I can get some work like that it will tide me over until the fall I hope for I do so hate the idea of giving up acetylene & yet I must be earning some money. I shall try & see Mr. Whitney as soon as he returns from Canada next Thursday. Murphy is away also at present.-- Miss Hager has been off collecting rents today & met with some success I understand.-- The enclose newspaper cuttings may interest you.-- With best wishes. Your affect Cousin Reynold Rogers 45 Boutwell Ave Dorchester 7 May 1906 My dear Alice, I am so glad to hear good news from you & I do indeed hope that your long journey will be crowned with success.-- I do not know if there is much home news to send you for I guess Mrs. Barrows keeps your advised of everything that happens.-- Affairs at Memorial Hall go on much as usual, every week we have men going & a few coming but the balance keeps on the wrong side!-- I heard from Lizzie yesterday, she keeps well & her stay at Holyhead seems to have done her much good. I think she will finally decide to come over early in June, she says that she cannot stay away from me much longer. She says "Mollie has not yet proposed "that I should have the help which they are now "giving me [?}, if I came to you. Of "course I cannot suggest such a thing neither "can you!-- I told her in my previous letters but I believed you had written to Mollie & made the suggestion. Am I right in saying so, I think if it came direct from you she would consent. Lizzie also goes on to say "Please give Coz Alice "my love & many thanks for her promises of a hearty "welcome. I am sure she will be kindness itself "& I am very very grateful to her for all her kind "interest in us." --- You will have heard that the Cambridge contigient came over here yesterday but it was such a wet day that we had to stay in doors all the time. I went to church in the morning but got out of doing duty at Memorial Hall. Your Father seems well but busier than ever. We both miss you a good deal & I miss my nightly walk to the post.-- I suppose your Father sent you on the letter from Dr. Emily in which she says that she intends going to York early part of June & expects to stay a few days at Cambridge on her way. Then she says that in August she may pay a visit to Chilmark.-- I have not seen anything of the Atwoods since you left.-- Your Father is telling me I ought to be in bed & so I have better stop.-- Again wishing you the best of luck. Believe me Your affect Cousin Reynold Rogers Somerville 8 May /09 Dear Cousin Alice, You will be sorry to hear that Lall is laid up with mumps! I had my suspicions of it yesterday, for his glands were badly swollen. We called the doctor in & he said the swelling was too low down in his neck for mumps. This morning his face on both sides is swollen right up to his ears & he has suffered from shooting pains during the night, so before coming to town I called on the doctors & he now says it is mumps without doubt. The lad is in good spirits but it means at least two weeks from school & this troubles him. Of course his Mother is much worried but there is nothing to do for him but keep him warm & out of draughts. He is a sight today with his big face & made the remark that he must be a brother of "Bill" Tafts! I hope you & Uncle Henry are well. Your affect Cousin Reynold 22 a Wesley Park Somerville 21 May /09 Dear Cousin Alice, I hope you had a safe journey to Geneva & will manage to get a little rest while there. Thanks again for your letter & invitation to Chilmark. My vacation begins on 3rd July & as I may only get two weeks, perhaps we could get rooms & board somewhere at the Creek until your cottage is ready. Do you think Florence would know of some place where the charges would be moderate. I feel I want a rest a change and as much as I can get of it, nothing does me so much good as the sea & the Creek would be very handy. As regards staying at Popes Hill of course I should much like this but I hardly know what to say because Lizzie thinks she would not care to stay at Cliff Cottage after I leave.-- Now as regards Mr. Barrows attitude I feel that his difference with Lal is not of much consequence. What I do resent is his extraordinary behaviour towards Lizzie. For some reason or other he was curt to her for some time before the trouble with Lal & ever since then has completely ignored her. She took no notice of it at first but at last she naturally resented it & the result was the remainder of her stay was anything but pleasant.-- I certainly consider that Mr Barrows should apologize to her for his behaviour & when he does Lal is quite willing to apologize to him but naturally he resents Mr. B.'s treatment of his mother as much as I do. It is too bad to bother you at such length about our troubles when you have so much else to think of but both Lizzie & I are conscious that you should know just how we feel. -- Your affect Cousin Reynold Rogers I enclose a few cuttings from yesterdays papers Boston May 31, 1910 Dear Cousin Alice, Howard will not be on hand this time to meet Dr. Emily (as I think he generally does). I wonder if you would like me to do so & see her into the Popes Hill train. Of course I shall be very glad to do this but I think is best to ask you first in case you have made other arrangements. Perhaps you would telephone me in the morning & at the same time let me know what time the train is due.-- I am thinking a lot about Kitty for she will have so much to see to at this time, how I wish I was near Rock House so that I could give her a helping hand. -- Affectly yours Reynold Rogers Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.