Fremont. Apr 3rd 1865. Monday evening. My Dear Cousin. I should know you was Edwins brother by your punctuality in answering letters. Your truly wel- come letter came last night and I should have replied to it before I slept if I had not at the same time got a letter from my soldier brother which demanded my first attention and I postponed yours untill to night. Brother Will wrote me from Norfolk. Va. and was in good health and spirits at the time. He was to go to Win- chester from there. Poor boy I hope he will pass through unscathed but I fear not. I do not wonder you feel anxious on Edwins account. I myself feel impatient to hear from the dear boy. His letters are very precious to me and I look eagerly for them when the time comes that they are due. I hope and pray he may be still unharmed. He has got along so far all right and his time of service so far gone it would be so hard to have any thing happen to him to prevent his coming home safe and well. but we must hope for the best. Do not fail to let me know if you hear from him and I will do the same. Then Melinda has three children! I wrote a letter to her soon after I wrote you. I hope she will be able to answer it. I am very sorry her health is so poor. I am so well myself it seems hard to think of others being sick all of the time as she is. Spring seems to be fairly opened and farmers are about ready to “scatter the seed.” I am very glad to see warm weather after such a long tedious win- ter. I am getting impatient to work in the garden. (My hus band is not worth a darn to make garden. I tell him that is because he is Dutch but he wont own that. He and I grow old amazing fast. We have only been to three dances this winter. The last one we staid ‘till nearly five in the [Written upside down on top of Scan 2] Nelson write good long letters to me for if if they are all as good as your first I shall only be too happy to get them. I never shall be a good letter writer for it is not nat- ural as it is for my mother but you must prize them for what they are worth. Helen [End] morning. [Warnt?] that early. Speaking of Sugar making. Oh! It makes me smack my lips to think of it: I never saw any made untill I came to Minnesota and on my fathers farm they made a little and I always got a share. Where they live now there is plenty of maple and they were calcula- ting to make considerable but I am afraid the spring has not been favorable for sugar making and I shall not even Havens get a bite. I have not heard from Eliza ^ since I wrote you before. I am looking every day for a letter. Cousin mine I shall be so pleased if I get your picture to put beside of Edwins in my Album and I wish I had all of your fam- ily in it. If ever I have an opportunity to get ours taken. I well send them but I cannot get them for my nearest relation on account of living so far from [illegible in original] a good Artist. Scrub Artist come around very often thinking to im- pose on the people in the country pretending to be tip top workman but I wont patronize such for I am such a beauty myself in particular that I want them taken right. I have got to get some taken soon for I am ashamed to aske favors and not return There is one thing Nelson when you come to know me you will be perfectly satisfied with the shadow and not the substance. Well Cousin I have written all you will care to read at once. I must apologise for using a pencil. My pen is so poor (I have been mad all winter because William would not get me a gold pen that would last while writing one letter) that I cannot make a mark and I tell him I will use a pencil even if I write to the Presi- [illegible in original] dent which no doubt will be the case. Mother ^ thinks it very curious to write to those you never saw but I think it a fine way to get acquainted with my unknown relatives. Dont you think so? She cannot write herself and cannot understand the why's and wherefore's as some would. Please to write soon and remember the picter. My love to you and yours. From Cousin Helen. A. Hiltz.