This is a collection of letters that were written by Mary Lott to her brother, Deacon John Phillips. Mary and her husband Henry had moved from Pennsylvania to Delaware County, Ohio, in the mid 1820’s. The letters start in 1826, and end shortly before John’s death in 1846. Mary died not long after her brother; her husband had died a couple of years before. The letters, copies of which are now in a historical society, were compiled and notated by Hildah Phillips Brown, a descendant of Deacon John Phillips, and the book was compiled by a different descendent, Jacqueline Lois Miller Bachar. Apparently, these two descendants never met, but the second was able to build on the work of the first.
I was very interested in reading this book because I had ancestors living in Delaware County in this same time frame. I was, of course, hoping for a mention of my family, but they may not have lived close enough to each other to have been acquainted. However, Mary’s description of what her life was like is probably at least somewhat similar to my ancestor’s lives. The Lott’s lived in Kingston Township, and my ancestors lived in Peru Township, which was just to the north, and eventually became part of Morrow County. So when Mary writes of a good harvest or a cold winter, my ancestors probably were experiencing the same things.
One of the saddest things about this book, is that Mary started almost every letter with one of two refrains. Either “received your letter; glad you are yet living” or “please write, if you are still alive”. Granted, her brother lived to 94, so he would have been in his seventies when Mary started this correspondence. The other poignant part is that she always speaks of how much she misses her family in Pennsylvania. She asks about other family members, and how to write to them. She may have been able to make a trip to visit her siblings once, but it was a challenge, both monetarily and physically.
If this was your family, how would you research them? This is the type of book you hope to find when you are researching in a specific area. Not only did the author show a map of how the Lott’s probably traveled to Delaware County (which could well be how my ancestors got there, too), but Mary also describes the challenges of life. They went “sugaring” in the winter, she spun and wove flax, both for her clothing and to sell, and they had a few farm animals and various crops. The Lott’s did not have children, which meant they did not have much help with all that work. Mary was also focused, understandably, on the health of everyone around her, describing both injuries and diseases.