Fox Robert Ralston (1 results)

No Binding. Condition: Very Good. 5 letters (26 pages). 8 x 5 inches. Creased at folds. One sheet with a hole in the center which was present at the time of writing (Lizzie writes around the hole). Toned with a few spots of stain. The girl's letters are quite faded. Generally, in very good condition. No envelopes. See images. Eliza Davis Fay Fox (1825-1886) first married Heman Allen, second, she married Robert Ralston Fox. She was the parent of three daughters, Lizzie, Harriet and Florence with Heman Allen (1779-1852), U.S. senator from Vermont, Brigadier General (Vermont Militia), State Marshal and first U.S. ambassador to Chile under James Monroe. Allen was the nephew of Ethan Allen, founding father and a founder of Vermont. He married 19-year-old Eliza when he was 65. After his death, Eliza married Robert Ralston Fox, a wealthy businessman who purchased Fishers Island in 1863; they had two daughters together, Fay and Bessie Fox. Four of the letters were sent from Flatbush, where Robert Ralston Fox had a home. One letter by Aunt Eliza to her niece, Kate is sent from the island, undated, but the contents suggest April 14, 1867. Eliza tells Kate that she will send her Ralston's letter "I received last night" (That letter is dated Friday, April 12, 1867). Eliza also writes that she will enclose 3 letters from her daughters "which will save me the trouble of writing about them" (confirming the source of this collection, all dated within a few days of each other. Kate was the daughter-in-law of Edward Everett, senator, diplomat and governor of Massachusetts). Eliza is concerned they can't find the right people to work on the island and worries about the future should something happen to Ralston, calling the work on the island a "tremendous undertaking and none can believe it who don't live here". She's worried about the future of her daughters should she die. Ralston had left the island on the 11th of April, to shut down the house in Flatbush, "I arrived home all safe about 11 pm. Of course I had to stop at Fulton Mkt to eat some of those good oysters". On his way to town, he "fell in with W. Bergen" who offered $30.000 for the [Flatbush] property "I said no, and furthermore that I should withdraw the property from market". He mentions renting storage space in New London and planned to send a sloop there. Ralston mentions other affairs and that "I fairly engaged a gardener yesterday - Scotchman with a wife". The sisters, it appears, were living in Flatbush while their mother, stepfather and two young step sisters lived on the Island. Lizzie, 21 married Robert John Hood 5 months later. After his untimely death in 1878, she married her cousin Harriet Eleanor Fay's son, James Freeman Bush, a second cousin 15 years her junior. Lizzy says "nothing but death shall separate me from Rob - In fact I do not understand myself & wish this place sold and we could all be together. I am quite sure that you will not lose me when I am married - I am entirely too much of a baby to want to leave my mother entirely & already have visions of homesickness". "Kiss dear little Bessie & Fay for me". She also reminds her mother that her allowance is late. All three girls write about the Bergen's, Mrs. Brittain and their visits with Mrs. Cortelyou, who is very pleasant and "so frighteningly rude sometimes". They all sew, go for walks. [Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY - History] [Fishers Island, NY - History].