Transcribers log #009 ESTHER HATTIE GRIFFIN of Aurora, Indiana
Welcome to... My Darling Emma 1857
If you are NEW HERE be sure to read the beginning of the journey I am on transcribing my family's 19th century letter collection!
Today I want to write about another one of Emma’s cousins who wrote to her in Winchester, Virginia... this cousin pens her letters from INDIANA, USA 🇺🇸
Esther “Hattie” Griffin
(1844-1895)
Hattie as she mostly signed her letters, was the daughter of William Griffin (a farmer) and Nancy Childs. She was born in Aurora, Indiana and had 3 siblings(listed below) whom she mentions A LOT in her letters! Sometime after her correspondences start, Hattie's parents BOTH pass away. Hattie and her adult siblings continue living together on the family farm.
🍎 Children of William & Nancy Griffin 🍎
- Nancy "Nannie" Griffin (1842-1895) unmarried
- Louisa Griffin (1843-1904) unmarried
- Esther “Hattie” Griffin born (1845-1895) married Conway Bainum
- Robert “Bob” C. Griffin (1847-1904) married Lillian "Lily" Worley (see Worley family below)
Hattie and Emma are first (paternal) cousins, her mother and Emma's father were siblings. The cousins begin their correspondences around 1870 when Hattie was 26 years old and Emma was 13. The letters last almost a decade and there is A LOT of letters! Hattie writes about so much, I wouldn't even know where to begin. I will give you a sampling with some quotes from her letters below.
Hattie didn't stay on the Griffin family farm her whole life like her siblings. Finally at the age of 44, she finds love and marries Conway Bainum. Sadly Hattie passed away a mere 6 years later from cancer. Hattie had no children...But her memory now lives on...in her own words...within these letters!
| Esther Hattie Griffin's letters she wrote in the 1870s. |
She is the only letter writer to use multiple colored inks.
Got a favorite?
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Quotes from Esther Hattie Griffin's letters written to Emma E. Childs:
"First I will tell you about my trying to make a new dress. I am going to have mine ruffled on the skirt. I want to have it made basque but I dont think I like the basque the way they wear them now. I think I will want for another style. I always dread to make a dress for I am such a poor hand and it is such a task. I sewed carpet strings that was my work all last week and I like to do it - for how to make a dress is some thing I don't know much about."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1872 (age 28)
“I am invited to a dancing party next week but don't think I will go. They are going to have two rooms one for dancing and the other for those who wish to play or have games of any kind. They are going to have a band of music from Wilmington. They anticipate on a good time. A gentleman told me this morning that he expected to dance most all night. I told him I was going to tell the preacher on him - says he don't care if they do turn him out of church. Well I don't belong in any church so if I go and dance it wont make any difference for I would rather go to a dance any time then to a kissing party for to go to such a party and to have to be kissed so much it always makes my face burn and despise it.”
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1870s
"Where is Thomas Childs now. He visited us some six or eight years ago and we have heard nothing of him since. Uncle Mordecai Childs from Covington, Kentucky and grand son was here last August and spent some time. I received a letter for my cousin in Ohio yesterday - Uncle William Moore’s grand daughter. She says he is well and smart for one of his age. He is over 90 years of age. Aunt Susan Moore is dead. She has been dead some time. Her disease was small pox. Her daughter Miss Maggie Patton of Hillsboro, Ohio was here on a visit last September."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1872
"Mother requested me to tell you that she does not know whilst there ever was any record of the ages or not. If there was -aunt Sallie McPherson got it and she has been dead about three years. I suppose your father knew she was married the second time. She was married in Ohio and then moved to this state and located in Delaware County – her boys also. She and mother corresponded after she moved to the state for a while. Since her death we have heard nothing from the boys. Father and uncle George Griffin of Aurora wants to know if your father can tell them any thing of Mr. Levy Griffin – is he living and where."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1872
"One of my cousins living near Manchester got badly burned sometime ago and is not expected to live now. For a while they thought she would recover but I heard at Aurora last night that they thought she was dying. Her arm was burnt to the bone and from her waist down was burnt badly. She was kept under the influence of chloroform for three days. Sister Nannie and I were going out there to day but can not get started soon this morning. It was a long drive there and back in one day. We are going tomorrow if nothing happens to prevent us from going. The way she caught fire was she was standing with her back to the fire and her dress caught fire and burned a good while before she found it. As soon as she discovered her clothes were on fire she ran out of the door and the wind was blowing hard and it spread it all over her. She was young and badly scared and no one in the room. She started to jump in the well but they caught her before she got there. I think it is such a pity she was a smart girl and very handsome."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1873
"PS 1000 thanks for the soap you sent. I think it is very nice. It looks very nice in the quilt."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1873
"What kind of dresses are you going to get for summer and what is the fashions for making them. Polkadot is all the go here. It has taken the place of Dolly Varden and I like it a great deal better. I am going to get me one tomorrow. They are making calico dresses here with over skirts and sailor waist."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1873
"You told me the way they make their dresses there is the way they make them here. I am going to have my polka dot made with over skirt on, one ruffle on it, one on the under skirt and sailor waist my grenadine. I am going to make it with over skirt and trim it with blue silk. I would send you a scrap of my dress if I had them cut but we've been so busy cleaning house last week that I have not got them cut yet"
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1873
"There was a boat come up the river yesterday and put three off at Sarenburg with the Cholera and seven had died on the same boat. It came from “New Orleans” they said there are 700 die in a day with cholera and yellow fever. I will go to Hillsborough in July if the cholera dont get too bad."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1873
"I had almost forgotten to tell you about the wedding that I spoke about in my last letter that I was going to if they did not play out they are going to be married two weeks from Wednesday at 6 o'clock in the evening. I am getting a white Swiss dress made to wear. I am going to have it made with over skirt and trimmed with fringe and the waist made puffed and trimmed with lace and flowing sleeves. From what I have heard they are going to have a big court there some from Cincinnati and Rising Sun."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1873
"I don't know what to write that would interest you. I went to a Granger picnic four weeks ago. It was held near Johnston Mills. We had a nice time speaking, croquet and base ball was the order of the day. The next week was the Aurora fair. I attended that on Saturday it was very good."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1873
I was at a funeral Monday afternoon at the ME church. There was two funerals there the same day the one in the fore noon was a lady that died of Trichina by eating pork that was infected with it. Hattie Wymond and I were at Dr. Suttons office last week and looked at them through a glass. We looked at a piece of meat the size of a finger nail and he told us there were 22 worms in it.
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1874
🌈 Dr. George Sutton as mentioned in Hattie’s letter wrote a report of his findings of Trichina in Dearborn County, Indiana. Its quite an interesting read and can be found online as it was reprinted by the Indiana state medical board in 1875. Here is an excerpt from the report found on the National Library of Medicine website:
“The discovery of the parasite created an excitement in the city and neighborhood. People crowded to my office to see the trichina, and meat was daily brought in for examination. We soon found that a considerable portion of the port of this locality was infected with the parasite.”
“I have set my cap for Mr. Wright for he is such a good singer. He is not very handsome but is smart and I think that preferable to beauty. He has got an awful big nose - he cant help that for he did not make it but I expect you are tired of so much foolishness.”
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1874
“Oh Emma there was the worst looking set of wandering Arabs passed here yesterday. One of the girls stopped here begging. I gave her a pound of coffee and they went down the road a short distance from here and camped. The neighbor say they went to Aurora and got whiskey and they were fighting all night. Oh what an awful life to live.”
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1874
“I have nothing very interesting to write first I must tell you about cousin Hattie Stark's wedding. She was married last Thursday morning at 11 o'clock. She was to have been married an hour sooner but they were waiting for some of their friends from Cincinnati. She was married in wine colored silk, white gloves and white rose and feather in her hair. She wore no jewelry except a hair necklace with a gold fasting made of her mother's hair. He was dressed in black with white gloves and white neck tie. There was a large crowd through after dinner. They left for Connersville to his “home” where they expect to locate. Hattie got a great many nice presents. One I think was the nicest a silver cup lined with gold. It was presented to her by Mr. and Mrs. Jackson from Kentucky. Her mother gave her a table spoons solid silver with her name on them. Her presents were rich and elegant.”
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1875
"Your brother Thomas passed in sight of our house sometime ago on his way to your house. My cousin Senator Johnson was going to Cincinnati and met him on the cars and had a talk with him. He was telling us of your father's sickness."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1875
“We have had a very wet summer it rained 40 days. The Ohio river was higher than it was ever known to be at that time of year. It destroyed thousands and thousands of acres of corn - since the water went down it has left an awful smell it has caused a great deal of sick."
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1875
“Cousin Bob Milburn bought the calico for the curtains and us three girls made them. He got two rolls and it did’nt take but one - he gave the other one to me - we all made us a dress of it. Lilly and I made our dress alike and trimmed them in white. We went to Doctor Johnston’s and wore them and they all thought they were very nice. Bob came there in the afternoon and said we looked splendid in them. I will send you a piece to put in your quilt.”
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1877
“You asked in your last letter who John was. Well he is a boy that has been living with us three years. His name is Mitchell and his parents are dead. He is a nice little fellow.”
-Esther “Hattie” Griffin Indiana 1877
🌈 The 1880 census has listed in Esther's household a farmhand named "John Tanner" age 18.
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The Worley family was mentioned a lot in Hattie's letters. According to Hattie, they became their "newest neighbor" around 1870 when the families daughter Lily was around 16. Lily had red hair, played the piano and Hattie's brother Robert would end up "visiting her often." By the 1880 census Robert was the head of household on the Griffin family farm after mom & dad had passed away a few years prior. On the same census, Robert was MARRIED to neighbor Lily and his sisters Louisa, Nancy and Hattie (who were in their late 30s by this time) also lived on the farm.
Robert and Lily Griffin had one daughter. Mabel was her name and she married Dilver C. Love. Dilver, yes that was his name. Dilver was a WWI veteran and a farmer. Now, Mabel and Dilver also had one child, a son named Jerry Griffin Love.
Unfortunately, Jerry Griffin Love only lived to 31 and left no heirs to this side of the Griffin family/Hattie's immediate family.
Although Jerry Love's life might have been taken short, it was nonetheless fulfilled with great achievements. After college, Jerry served as the Captain’s yeoman on the USS Calcaterra while serving in the Navy. After his enlistment, Jerry worked at the Library of Congress as a research specialist. According to his obituary Jerry "carried out special assignments for congressman and administrative officials. Through the years he prepared and presented historical papers on the history of Aurora and the life of Elmer Davis as part of his duties, which he presented in Hillforest historical programs in Aurora. He had served the national library since 1958 when his fatal illness intervened.”
Jerry Griffin Love died of a “swift virus infection of only 3 1/2 days suffered.”
The only photo I found of Hattie's immediate Griffin family is of her great nephew Jerry Griffin Love. Crazy where these family rabbit holes end for me sometimes. Recently I found out I was going to have a great nephew myself! Brings me joy & LOVE knowing he'll be reading this one day about our ancestors.
To the next time folks!
Sincerely,
CT
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| Jerry G. Love Hattie Griffin's Great Nephew Aurora High School; Year: 1951 |
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