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Monday, May 7, 2012

Amanuensis Monday - A Nine Year Old Girl writes to Hawaii in 1865



San Francisco Feb. 20th 1865

My dear Auntie,

I was disappointed
that you did not write to me.
I think that the pictures of Lydia and
the Queen were good, I would not have
known Lydia if Helen had not
told me. I have got a good
many friends here, I will tell you
the names of some of them, Flora and
Ada Smith, Mary and Kitty
Osborn, Lillibell Rosa Blankman
How is Jennie Annie and Bernie
Parke.  Helen wants to know how
Mary Hopper is.  Give my love
to Lydia, Jhon, Willie, Sam.

Goodbye from
Annie B. Aldrich

This letter was written to Mary (Jones) Dominis in Honolulu, Hawaii from her grandniece, Annie Aldrich, who was about nine years old.  Annie was born in Hawaii, but removed with her family to San Francisco.   Annie’s mother was Elizabeth (Holt) Aldrich, the only surviving child of Mary’s sister, Ann Marie (Jones) Holt.

Annie mentions Mary’s daughter–in-law, Lydia, who's brother was King Kalakua.  I’m assuming that the Queen mentioned in the photograph must have been his wife, Queen Kapiolani.   

I love the lack of punctuation marks such as commas and question marks, and the lined stationary.  Her only misspelling is the name “Jhon”.  However, I’m very impressed with the beautiful penmanship.  I cannot use a fountain pen as well as this little girl! 

Hawaii State Archives, Queen Lili'uokalani Collections,
M-93, Box 11, Folder 93
Letter from Annie Aldrich to Mary Dominis, 20 February 1865

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

1 comment:

  1. Annie's mother Elizabeth died about 8 months after this letter was written.

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