LETTER: Autograph letter signed, "LMJ," to "Absent but not forgotten friend" Jasper Ordway.
From a Lowell factory girl
[Labor] Autograph letter signed “LMJ” to “Absent but not forgotten friend” (Jasper Ordway); June 27, 1841, postmarked July 2; Lowell, Massachusetts.
One leaf; folded to make four pages; the ink on the first page is faded but legible, and the paper is uniformly aged; creased, with some small holes at the creases; and a hole on the third page, not affecting text created by a drop of sealing wax. The letter is written on the first three pages and is addressed and postmarked on the fourth.
Unfortunately, LMJ’s full name and identity have been lost to history; though her surname might have been Jones or Johnston (which are names she mentions in her letter). She writes to Jasper Ordway, likely a neighbor or a relative in Tunbridge, Vermont, where she was from. At the time of her writing, she had been employed as a factory worker at the Merrimack Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts for a year. LMJ’s punctuation is spotty, but she explains that an injury prohibited her from doing schoolwork or housework spurred her to weave in the mills:
As you know that my father has always been much opposed to any of his girls going to the factory you will wish to know how I got leave to come. I will tell you. In the first place you will recollect that I hurt my wrist when I was in Vermont and I thought there was a weeping sinew on it. But I became convinced that it was nothing more or less than a sprain for it was so lame some of the time last winter when I was at school that I could not move the joint enough to write or cipher by the way we had a very good school master not quite as good however as master Tracy but I am digressing. Well to return my sister Hannah came home the last of April she said it would be easy work for my hand to work in a factory weave-room. And my father knowing that I could not do housework concluded to let me go to Lowell in hopes that my wrist would grow strong enough to work in the country in a short time. (p.1)
LMJ worked at the mill with her sister Hannah, who must have also been close to Ordway for LMJ writes, “Hannah says I must tuck in her love and tell you she should be very much pleased to hear from you” (p. 2). LMJ asks for news from home – she heard a girl was burned in a fire in Tunbridge and inquires if Ordway knew the victim’s identity.
The last part of the letter describes LMJ’s difficulty in sending the letter to Ordway, and mentions how eager she would be to receive a letter from him. There was a lack of communication between LMJ and Mary Jones, an acquaintance of hers and Ordway’s, who was supposed to act as a mail carrier on behalf of LMJ. The mix-up resulted in LMJ opening the sealed letter and adding a postscript in dark ink, the text of which wraps around the top, side and bottom of page 3. She apologizes for the cramped handwriting and says, “I fear you cannot read it but put on your specs and try” (p. 3).
By the time LMJ arrived at Lowell, there were eight textile mills that employed 7,500 workers. Her background as a New England farm girl who had been sent to work in one of the factories was common to the majority of the other female workers there. The girls chose to work – or were sent by their families – to earn money and to gain a measure of independence. In LMJ’s case, it seems that her tenure as a mill worker would have been temporary; when her wrist healed she likely returned to Tunbridge to go to school and to maintain her family home.
(#12905)
P.1
Lowell June 27 1841
Absent but not forgotten friends
I take this opportunity to send you the information that I have become a factory girl since I wrote to you last. As you know that my father has always been much opposed to any of his girls going to the factory you will wish to know how I got leave to come. I will tell you. In the first place you will recollect that I hurt my wrist when I was in Vermont and I thought there was a weeping sinew on it. But I became convinced that it was nothing more or less than a sprain for it was so lame some of the time last winter when I was at school that I could not move the joint enough to write or cipher by the way we had a very good school master not quite as good however as master Tracy but I am digressing. Well to return my sister Hannah came home the last of April she said it would be easy work for my hand to work in a factory weave-room. And my father knowing that I could not do housework concluded to let me go to Lowell in hopes that my wrist would grow strong enough to work in the country in a short time.
P. 2
Accordingly I started not in very high spirits I assure you for I did not expect to like the place but I thought that I should have an opportunity to earn my board and clothes here without thinking that I was indebted to some one else for every thing I gad. We came to Concord and spent one day at Jerry Paiges they were all well except the twins they had the chicken pox. The next morning we took the stage and came to Nashua from there we came to this city in the railroad cars in about half an hour a distance of 15 miles then looked around the city 3 days than I expected I have engaged for a year in the weave room mill No. 5 Merrimack. Hannah says I must tuck in her love and tell you she should be very much pleased to hear from you. I read a Notise (sic) in the paper yesterday of a house being burnt and a young lady was supposed to have perrished (sic) in the flames in Tunbridge. If it is a fact I wish you to write who it was. I think I informed you in my last letter that if father had let his form in Springfield and that my brothers were both away from home. I now inform you that Mary has been sprinkled and has joined the Methodist Society.
P. 3
I have not heard a word from you since I came from there except once then Mr. Lenc called at our house he was going to Boston he said you was well a few days before. I had almost concluded not to write to you again I have written to you twice one letter I sent by mail the other Johnston Dexter carried to Norwood and said he would put it in the post office there. I went to meeting today and was very agreeably surprised to see Mary Jones there. I then concluded to write a few lines to you. I thought when I began this letter I would scold at you for not writing me before. Then I thought perhaps the letters might have miscarried. But I expect this will go directly to you and now if you do not write I think I shall not write to you again at present. Only think how glad you would be if you was in my place to receive a letter from a much esteemed friend here I am alone with only my sister that I am acquainted with and a letter would be very gratefully received especially from you tell Oscar that though far away I often think of him this from your friend LMJ direct to Lowell Mass No. 61 Merrimack Corp.
[darker ink postscript; text wraps around page]
When I wrote this I thought I should send it by M Jones she told me where she worked. I understood her that it was on the Merr Corp I went to the place where I thought she said she worked but she was not there I then went to the Merrimack accounting room and inquired for her but the man said there was not any girl from Tunbridge of that name in this Corp. I wrote my letter and sealed it before I went to the accounting room to see M so I have broken the seal and wrote this I fear you cannot read it but put on your specs and try. I wish you to tell Mary Jones that I tried three times to find her for she will think very strange of my not seeing her as I promised tell her it was not my fault tell her to come and see me when she comes to the city again she will find me at 61 Worthen Street.
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