Washington City, April 3, 183(4?)

 

Dear father & mother—I am in tolerable good health at present, and hope these lines will find you all the same. I have been anxiously looking for a letter from you all winter, but not receiving any I begin to grow very uneasy and axious to hear from you. I wrote to you about the close of November last, and not receiving an answer, I have concluded that my letter never reached you, or that owing to the severity of the winter your answer to me had miscarried, as there were for several weeks no mails reached this place on account of the depth of the snow. We have had a very severe winter in this part of the country, it is said by the oldest inhabitants that its equal were never known here, the snow on a level was from four to five feet deep, and in some places it drifted so as to completely conceal the first story of the houses, and so completely blockaded the doors and windows, that the people were obliged to cut their way through the snow to get from their houses. The poor people suffered very/much from the high costs of the wood and marketing. Judging from what we had here, I would suppose that with you it was much worse, as our climate here is generally much milder than yours.

            Dear father & mother, if you did not receive my last letter, you are not acquainted with my affliction of last summer, indeed I neglected my duty very much through the summer, in not writing to you, and perhaps gave you uneasiness in consequence, but I was so low spirited and down heartened that I thought as I could not give you good news, it was better for you not to hear from me at all, but as soon as I got on my feet and had a prospect of getting better I wrote to you, to which I have never received an answer. I got out of work last June, and not having a prospect of having any thing more to do before winter, I had made up my mind to go home, and gave them notice at the office that I was going away and that I wanted my money, but they not having it at the time put me off a couple of weeks, and in the mean time as I was going along the street/a little after dark I made a misstep and strained my ankle; not thinking that I had injured it much, I walked home and did not put any thing to it, and continued to walk about on it for several days, thinking that it would get better, but instead of that it became so swollen and inflamed that I was not able to use it at all. I therefore had to apply to a Doctor, and on examination he told me that I had got it very seriously injured, and having neglected it so long, the inflamation had become so aggravated, that without great care I would lose the use of it, and perhaps be obliged to have it taken off. He commenced putting poltices to it and rubbing it with one thing or another but nothing appeared to do it much good, and it continued so for a long time, and at length it broke in four places, and then it began to get a little easier, but they were very ugly sores, and it was for four months that I was not able to go out of the house. It troubled me a good deal in the first part of the winter at work. I was obliged to have a stool made and sit while I was at work, which was very inconvenient, but it has got pretty strong now, and I am able to do away with the stool,

                                                            (remainder on back of the letter)/

and walk without limping much. I am still at work here, but how long it will last is uncertain, however, it will last long enough for me to receive an answer from you which I hope you will not delay. I think it very probable when I get out of work that I may go home, but something may turn up that may give me work longer than I expect, and in that case I shall work on as long as I can, in consequence of getting so much behind hand by sickness. For want of more paper I must come to a close.

                        Please give my love to all my relations.

                                                            your affectionate son

                                                                                    Michael Rodgers

 

Mr. John Rodgers

 

[envelope postmarked City of Washington and addressed to Mr. John Rodgers, Conemaugh Salt Works, Indiana County, Penn.]

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