August 1898 letter from Mattie in Hartland, Maine, to Miss Lizzie A. Linn at Head House, City Point in South Boston, Massachusetts. Lizzie was also from Hartland, Maine.Read about the ornate City Point Head House, constructed about 1897, here. Presumably Lizzie was working or visiting there.
Elizabeth A. Linn (1879-1973), "Lizzie", was the daughter of William A. Linn and Luella Hannah (Green) Linn of Hartland, Maine.
Interestingly, the 1880 Census shows a William Linn, wife Emma and daughter Lizzie A. Fuller. Was Emma Ella? Was Lizzie the daughter or adopted daughter of William and Emma/Ella? There was a Fuller connection to the larger Linn family, as a genealogy of the the Linn family of Hartland, Maine, shows.
This genealogy contains a section describing Lizzie's immediate family and a family photograph. Another photograph and short bio of Lizzie appear on the website of the Hartland Historical Society - mentioning that she was active in the suffragist movement in Hartland - you'll have to scroll down a bit more than halfway.
Lizzie would return to Hartland, Maine, by 1900 and spend the rest of her life there.
Perhaps a reader will weigh in with the identity of Mattie.
In the letter, Mattie talks about:
- working for the Brown family and speculates that Mrs. Brown might be pregnant - they might have been Attorney William B. Brown (1866-1938) and Helen M. (Whittredge) Brown (1864-1938), "Nellie", whose first child, a daughter, was born in 1899.
- mentions the "little Smith girl"
- mentions moving into Dr. Bean's house - presumably the house of Dr. Edwin Augustus Bean (1848-1898)
- mentions Mr. Hale from Waterville
- mentions Mr. Wallace Grey - perhaps Wallace L. Grey (1871-1962)
- mentions Mr. Lidstone - perhaps Rev. Isaac Harold Lidstone (1865-1937), if he ever pastored in Hartland
- uses phrases from various languages, including French, Italian, Latin, German
- says she is "way down in the valley of the blues"
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