Letter written by Henry Ebenezer MacDonald - Harris County Texas John Hendry 13 May 2001 ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. ************************************************************************** Transcript of a letter from Henry E. MacDonald of Houston, Texas, to his brother Roderick in Melbourne, Australia. (Top Line of Page Missing) Hair I do not know whose it is # 835 Courtland St she forgot to say - will Oct 28th 1906 ask - writing her today My Dear Roderick, Your very kind letter of Sept 6th, received Oct 8th, and was glad too see by it that you all were enjoying good health. I am pleased to say that we are all doing very well. As your summer is on our winter will soon be here. We have already frost but not in Houston. Houston is something similar to Melbourne, it is too near to the Gulf of Mexico. Now as to news from Glasgow I am like yourself, received no news from A. J. Macdonald and it is very strange. I received a letter from Mrs MacLeod, Glasgow, postmark Oct 2nd, Houston Heights, Oct 15th. She sent me a list of books and she said that she sent you one too. There is a good many of them and old ones too. She says that they took good care to keep everything of consequence & what was in all the boxes is known to them. She said she had a letter from Mrs Gillies asking her to call and see a copy of a will that Alick left in Savings Bank, leaving all to Rebecca and to her relatives. She was offered £3- but would not take it. She says that you ought to see the original will. She writes a good deal in regards to it but I suppose she give you all the information when she wrote you with the list of books. I received the Weekly paper you kindly sent on the 26th also the - (Line Missing from bottom of page) Page 2 I am glad to see that you are very busy it is a good sign of good times. We have had plenty of work all summer, but times are getting slack in Shop. There plenty of work but cannot spare the Engines. Big bussiness on the road moving Cotton & the Planters need help to pick cotton. I will send you some papers with all the news. Now about that “Cable Message” from New York. Robert assuredly thought a good deal, when he went to the expense of cabling the news. He will get over all that after a while. I am glad to hear that Robert is doing so well. It would be strange if at last we were both to meet in America. There is no telling what may happen. Hope it is so. As for the cold climate, you can get used to it. The weather is very fine today with a dry Norther. There is plenty of beans, turnips, okra, onions, figs and other vegetables growing in the garden but no fruit trees. The front garden Loui attends to it and he has all kinds of roses in full bloom. I bought a pair of Guinea Pigs for Georgiana’s little boy. One died [and] Louis [got] another one. He has now over 2 Doz of them. I beleive I have given you all the news that I can think and will now draw to a close They all join me in sending love to all, From your Affectionate Brother Henry Write soon