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San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
In this letter to her sister Fanny Davis, Mary Jane Brooks writes that as she is now sixty years of age, she is unable to work as in her youth. She asks for back payment on rent for Fanny's house, where she lived for twenty-five years without payment, or suggests Fanny buy the property outright. She also writes of details of mutual friends in San Francisco.
mssHM 19795
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Manuscripts
In this first letter (HM 19797, dated 1853, September 14), Mary Jane Brooks describes her journey to California "according to agreement" to her sister Priscilla and her husband Thomas Marsh. Much of this letter contains Brooks' description of Kingston, Jamaica, where she stopped en route to California. She laments that she has not yet found a man to run away with her. HM 19798, written August 12, 1886, and includes an envelope. Brooks is still in San Francisco, and writes of people she is seeing and letters written and received. The last letter in this sequence was written 1886, September 2. Brooks writes that she has reached her sixtieth birthday, but feels "old beyond my years." She discusses the possibility of getting her share of the farmstead left by her father, and hopes her sister will cooperate.
mssHM 19797-19799
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Manuscripts
These manuscripts are a series of letters from Mary Jane Brooks to her sister Priscilla Marsh and brother Thomas Marsh. HM 19790 is dated 1853, December 14 and 15, and lists the current price of goods in San Francisco. Mary Jane Brooks also writes of her family and friends. In the next letter (HM 19791, dated 1854, February 28), Mary Jane Brooks writes further of family and friends. HM 19792, dated 1854, July 14, tells of a fire in San Francisco, but the Brooks home was undamaged. Mary Jane Brooks writes in the next letter (HM 19793, dated 1855, July 28) that her father is not doing well. He has quit working, and "thinks he is not long for this world." HM 19794, the final letter in this sequence, is dated 1856, March 4. Father is still alive, but is ailing, and Mary Jane Brooks urges Priscilla to prepare their mother for his passing. The letters are written from San Francisco, and all are signed "Aaron and Mary Jane Brooks" but letters are in the handwriting of Mary Jane Brooks. With one-page typescript of an additional letter, dated 1856, July 5.
mssHM 19790-19794
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Manuscripts
In this letter to her sister and her sister's family, Mary Jane Brooks asks for news of home, such as if their father has paid off his house yet, and any other family news. Brooks is currently living in a house and has several boarders. Her brother, Aaron, has "gone to the mines" and as a result, Brooks has much more to do without him there to help. Incomplete, as letter is first two pages only.
mssHM 19796