1877 03 11 John G Andrews to Samuel Andrews

                              West Campbell

  Ionia Co mich           

                                    March the 11 1877

brother Samuel

sir yours of Feb 18^th

 came to hand in due time

 was glad to hear from you  I

 though[t] bye the tone of your last

 you never would write again

  you want to know what is the

 matter with me  their is not

 anything the matter with me

  I wrote to you last in answer to

 your scolden letter  as for friends

 I did not know whether I

had any their  I have never

 had the scratch of a pen from

 Wm since we live in the

state  I never go back on a friend

 as long as they are a friend    the way

 to be friends is to be square toed

   as for visiting their I have no

 notion of ever doing   their is other

 places that I would much rather

visit    I would like to have you

 come out here on a visit  I have

 spent over three hundred dollars

 traveling around since I live here

  now I am going to stay at home and

 let the rest of you do some visiting 

  well you want to know about

our trip  we first went to Clay

 Co Ill cant say much for the

 friends but it is the poorest

 country that I ever saw in all

 my travels    from that we went

 to Stewart Carricks in Verm

illion Co Ill that is a splendid

country  Carrick is getting along

 verry well he is farming on

 rented land  he is farming about

 800 acres pays about 31 75 cts an

 acre [$ 31.75  ?]

from that we went to

 brother Josephs  staid with

 him about ten days  I cant

 tell you much about his

 circumstances  he is the same

 old Jo    then we came to Ind

   James and family is all well

 and doing well  James is getting

 very fleshy  we left home

 the 14 day of Dec 76 and arrived

 home the 25 day of January  77

   as for Brubaker I cant hardly

 tell you he has had a great deal

 of sickness last summer did

 not get much of a crop last

 summer  I heard last week that

 he was going back to Ohio this

 spring  how much truth their

 is in it I cant say 

Samuel has gone to work for

Carrick  this summer he is

geting $30 per month and

 boards him self  he went a week

 ago last wednesday  Carrick

 is talking of going to Texas this fall

   write as soon as convenient and give

 all the particulars

tell me wheir cousin marget

 is and what her name is and wheir

 D[..] is and what he is doing

I have told you what Sam is doing

    James is living with his mother in

 law  Ed is living with me  we

 are making a little shugar  froze

 up now  we had steady cold wea

ther through Dec and January

  February was verry pleasant

 March is seting in rather rough

  feed is plenty yet  write soon

yours truly

JG to S Andrews