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Very fine content 3 pp, 7 ¾ x 12 ¼ ALS, Bath [Maine] July 28, 1829, from SALLY HANKS who writes to her sister Polly Huntington of Mansfield, CT, with a detailed explanation of a healing a man had after he was buried alive, and a narrative about the local wool business. Huntington, who has been recognized in The History of Tolland County by J.R. Cole, developed a particular skill in silk dyeing and monopolized the business furnished by local silk manufacturers.
“...We have so many harvest hands to wait on that I have little more liberty than a person...chained to a wheel chair...5 years ago last winter as he (Gurdon) was digging clay underground, a piece of earth supposed to contain 10 or 15 tons, broke off and buried him all but his head; a lump of frozen clay by his side, the bigness of a half bushel was supposed to save him from being crushed...The weather was extremely cold & the men with him started to go for help to dig him out – but he retaining all his presence of mind told them he should perish before they could return & they must pull him out, which they thought was impossible, but...he persuaded them to do it. When they could think of no way to get him to the house without a sleigh & horses, but he still having more reason than the frightened men, told them to throw the clay off his sled...[They] take him to the house before he froze to death...after which he lay in a cover lid sewed to poles, hung up by chains, about 3 months. The lower part of his back one was crushed in 2 places...both thighs broke...his arms and legs much injured...His whole frame [was] so bruised that he was bled 17 times to prevent mortification...They thought it impossible for him to live from one hour to another. They never attempted to get any bone except one arm. He is a little crooked & not as active as before but able to do a good days work. His wife told me he had been a man of prayer for several years previous & thought he had passed from death unto life. But he said when death seemed to stare him full in the face, he became much alarmed...Both soul & body were much distressed for several hours after he was hurt, but in the evening of the same day, Jesus seemed to speak peace to his troubled soul & became so perfectly happy in his mind, that he was not sensible of any pain at all but lay perfectly still & composed til his wife discovered it & he heard her say she believed he was dead....”
Hanks later begins a narrative about the silk business. “...We have had 120 yards of yarn, wide linen wove this year...35 wove with 16 shafts in a 50 figures in the piece by an Irish man while the girls were spinning in the springs...Rhoda did the work till a [problem] rose over the pulse on her right wrist while milking a very large cow & she has been not able to do no hard work since. She is now ornamenting chairs for Mr. May in the Village...Rhoda works in the house with them & has no occasion to go to the shop. Mrs. May brings the chairs to her and takes them away & gives her a dollar a week. We have a hundred weight of wool to spin. Mr. Hanks has bought a machine said to spin 10 run a day. Rose is just learning to spin on it today. I expect Mr. Smith & wife will call at your house...
“Your affectionate sister Sally Hanks”
During the early part of the 19th century, the production of silk, including the nurture and care of the silk-work and the dyeing of silk, constituted a household industry. Polly Huntington, who later married Stephen Brigham, was noted, along with her brother Asa as notable dyers in The History of Tolland County by J.R. Cole.
Toning. Several holes in the folds. Punctuation added and spelling corrected in the transcription for clarity. The letter was apparently hand carried as it contains no postal markings.
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