20.18.18

Letter

1876

Letter to Amanda Conner from Ella Dibble. Material: paper. Size: 5 1/4" x 11". Description: gray lined stationery written in dark gray ink, to Dear Friend Amanda, sent from Woodville, Minn on October 3, 1876 and written by Ella Dibble; references made to mother who suffers from lameness and toothache, Eva, Charlie working for Mrs. Wood, quilting, Eugene, a robbery, a corrupt country, grasshoppers, Mrs. Bendure died, Ann has a little son, blinds on the church, threshing, runaway oxen, Charlie almost breaking his neck.

Ellen Dibble was a friend of Amanda Conner who lived with her family in Woodville, Minnesota. Ellen died in Waseca County in 1933. Miss Amanda C. Conner of Blooming Grove and James Wilson (J.W.) Cleland were married October 3, 1877. Amanda was born September 11, 1852, in Indiana, and came to Waseca County with her parents in 1856. Sadie Lilly was a cousin of Amanda Conner on her mother's side. Mother Sarah Lilly Conner moved with her husband and family to South Dakota in 1883. She died there in 1900. Amanda's husband, J. W. Cleland was born September 27, 1847 in Delaware County, NY., and was one of nine children born to Rev. and Mrs. W. J. Cleland. He came West with his family in 1863. He carried on the homestead farm until 1885, when the place was sold and he purchased a small farm on the west shore of Clear Lake, near Waseca. J. W. was stricken by paralysis while working about a threshing machine. He never recovered from the stroke and died after a very prolonged illness, July 15, 1903.