Carolyn Gay Taft Farm Letter - September 29, 1926

Old Mission, Mich. Sept. 29th 1926

My Dear Miss. Taft:-

Received your letter tonight & thanks for same. I will answer right away so it can go in Tomorrow's mail.

I guess I will start out by saying we escaped frost but did a lot of shivering it rained & I saw a few tiny snow flakes the last day of the fair. The wind blew so hard that it keep things from freezing here but up around the Traverse region it froze every thing black. Had a letter from Aunt Alice H. & she said every thing around Detroit was frozen black.

The corn is not extra good & Jos. wants to leave it as long as he can so it will not be soft It seems to be rather loose on the cob due to so much rain & not enough Sun to properly ripen. He is very anxious to get it out now so he can get his fall plowing done. If we only have drying weather later on.

Jos & I went all around T.C. trying to sell your apples last week & no sale at all then Mr Perkett will pay $0.50 a bu. for As. No. 1 apples "wealthies" or $0.75 a 100# for No 1 & No. 2 apples. The hail we had here done a lot of damage to the wealthy & most winter apples so we think it best to sell for $0.75 a 100# other wise there would be mostly ciders. Hope it will be all right with you. Of course he furnishes the basket or crates to put them into.

Mr Morgan didn't pay over $0.06 to the people who signed for that price. A lot of them was pretty wild about it but of course the only thing they could do was cool off.

Frank Kroupa sold his bay Frontage a week or so ago Herbert Seel was here last night & he said that large Roberts house at the Mission is to be opened next Summer. Also some Orange Grower from Florida bought a cherry farm near the Mission I couldn't seem to find out much about it. But I do beleive things are going to boom before long if people keep a clean name & advertise the proper way. And not be crooked with their dealings. If you hear any thing please mention to me & I will do the same to you.

Joseph bought that little place to speculate on as well as live there if necessary. A while ago there was a man thru' here wanting to buy a small farm high up so as to get a view of both bays if we had of know in time might have resold again. Of course we must take care of the cherry orchard & the rest of the soil is pretty good. The money is in our cherries if any another year.

Joseph saw Mr. Holmes yesterday & he isn't going to let people go in there & cut the wood. They intend to cut it themselves & sell it. You can't seem to get much satisfaction talking to them. Joseph was willing to cut if he could get it reasonable but won't pay a fortune for it. They try to soak it on when you are anxious he said they would know more about it later on than now. The bunch held a meeting & decided if they let one cut wood there they would have to others. So decided to cut them-selves then sell it by the cord.

Jos. had to take the heiffer again the 25th of Sept. hope this will be the last time.

The threshing is all done The machine balked[crossed out] balked a little so it took them longer than it should have. Ledger wasn't here so Jos. had to get Guy & Charlie Cooper in place of Henning & Ledger And as usual I had them for supper. I had to milk a coww[crossed out] cow to have cream for their coffee & oh my how I had to hurry to do things all alone. There was only 5 stayed for supper. I paid the bills so all you have to do is pay me. There was 43 bu. of oats they look very nice. Mr La Batt's bill was

 $7.50
 1.00 Chas Cooper
 1.00 Guy K.
 1.00 Ernest K.
$10.50

$10.00 check
  .45 left over
$10.45 in all

on hand 10.45
exp.    10.50
         .05

There was $0.45 on hand so so you owe me $4.50 for suppers at $0.30 per person Harry Tang helped Mr. LaBatt this year.

Poor Mr. Ladd was left in a mess he let both men go to Grand Rapids on a vacation and both of them went a factory & got a job. And now with all his extra work no one to help him. Help is so scarce that the Farmer's are worrying about how to get their work done. I think that is a mean trick for one person to do to another. Don't you? Mr. Ladd is very kind to his hired help too. Most every one likes to work for him. A person can't trust a fellow now days.

Well my dear it is past bed time & I am very tired. so must retire

Thanks for the good letter. Am so sorry for you all down there.

Roger finds Algebra a little difficult.

I would like to write more but can't. If I find any thing of interest in the paper will mail it to you. And will keep my ears open.

Your's with love

Essie

P.S. 6 A.M. Thursday while Joseph & I were eating breakfast alone and all was quiet we were visiting & exchanging gossip. He said Roy Holmes & his partners are looking forward to a booming Summer as there will be a lot of Florida people come here to resort and buy. I hope some person among them gets interested in this farm & take good care of it. I like to have Joseph get out with those men & visit a little as he hears a lot of inside news of interest to you. And I will write all no matter if I get it all jumbled together you can puzzle it out.

It has looked like rain for 2 days now hope it clears up. It is so damp here that I have had three hard colds now in the last three weeks I feel miserable & my brain hardly works. My nose feels as tho' some one was pinching it.

I must call the children now so they can get ready for school. Am enjoying your Record Eagle. There was an article in in last week stating that Mich. resort property had been so well advertised that they were hoping for a great change to come here within a year or so.

Am glad of one thing That little house of ours is clean & free from bugs. That is hard to find around here as so many people has the pests all thru' things.

Mr. Hamilton has left a bad name here. There has been about a doz. after him for debts. He sold furniture that wasn't paid for and did lots of crooked dealing. They brought his car back this week. We had a new abstract made out and have a deed of the place so know we are safe in that Mr. LaFranier at the first Nation bank attended to things for us and he said that Mr. H. couldn't get away with that stuff with the bank.

Essie