Tag Archives: work

July 26, 1925

Sunday Night 7/26

My Dear Sweetheart,

We had a real good time and returned at 6PM so I have time to write my “daily dozen” lines to you. It was a mighty good feeling to find a letter here from you, and it was an especially good one. When I read it, I had a bath and shaved. I felt like a different person. The fishing was enjoyable, and the drive a good one, but there was a tired feeling when we returned. I did not expect to get back until 2 AM (Monday) and was mighty glad that Dr. K.S. came in early.

July 26, 1925

July 26, 1925

Dr. Sandusky, an eye ear & nose specialist, went with us. He and I fished from one boat, while Dr. KS and Dr. White went in the other. We were on the lakes near Dr. Pridgeon’s and stopped at his home for a while this morning. He had an extensive case of creeping eruption last summer and I was anxious to have Dr. White see the location of its origin. We did not catch any real fish as they were not biting, but had fun catching brim (which are a perch). The outing was the principal thing and we enjoyed it. Had breakfast at 5 o’clock this morning. Dinner at 9 o’clock last night. Meals came close together and were big ones too, but they were thoroughly enjoyed. Dr. KS is a prince of a host for a fishing party.

Had my first letter from Mr. Bishopp yesterday which was an answer to one I had written to him. He told of a request from Florida which had been made to Dr. Howard that we locate a man in his locality for some work. According to Bishopp his tract is five hundred thousand acres. It seems too large to believe, but it sounds encouraging and especially since the study comes in our line. He is located in the South-Western part of the state, where the problem is probably that which I have had in mind, and which I intended looking up this summer. If his holdings are this extensive he should be interested sufficiently to offer an inducement for me to do the work in that section, which incidentally is probably less than 100 miles from Miami but nearer the West Coast. If it looks as good as the east coast for living conditions it might be better to locate our station there. I am not going to take you to an out of the way place, Dear, but will locate where I believe you will like it. I’ll tell you all about it before deciding, as I will have quite a bit to say as to where the station will be. I am assuming that there will be one, for that’s what I am going after.

You are going to like Florida, not simply because I am here, but I really believe that it will strike you about right. The amount of work to be done in our line has no limit as far as I can see, and I have no doubt but that we can count on Florida as our permanent home. The southern portion of the state, especially the East coast, is the coming portion and I don’t believe there is a place anywhere which offers the possibilities that this section does. I mean in growth and development. A business lot in Miami sold for twenty-two thousand dollars per front foot a few weeks ago. The highest price ever paid for business property at any place was on 5th Ave. N.Y. and it sold for 25,000 per front foot. Real estate values are higher than in the eastern cities.

The farm land and every other piece of property has increased since last year. The proportions are hardly believable as much of it is selling for several times what it could have been bought for last year. The farmer I told you about who asked $5000 last fall, refuses $10000 now and if he holds it he will get more. His location is off the highways, or it would be worth much more.

I wonder if the boom is one which will have a reaction, but I hardly think so, for the Northern tourists will always come during the winters. This summer the travel on railroads is just as heavy as last winter, and autos can be counted several per hour – all on their way to South Florida before the winter season. Don’t think I am crazy, Dear, as I don’t want it to be too much of a shock when you come down with me. You would then wonder why I hadn’t told you. Our lot at Fulford was bought at the right time and at the right price. I don’t know what it would sell for now, but I sincerely believe that it will be worth at least three times what we bought it at, within two years from now. I intend to familiarize myself with the values when I am down there this summer and may see where I can handle an option or two to good advantage. Your caution would be “don’t be reckless” and Dear, I won’t.

This is getting to be a lengthy letter, so I’ll bring it to a close.

I love you, Dear, with all my heart and I wish for you real often. No one else interests me, and Sweetheart, I feel that I couldn’t get along very well without you. I have never had such a feeling before. I am real glad that we are young enough to feel some of the romance of it, for if we were older we would probably miss much of it.

With a sweet goodnight and all my love,

Your
Walter.

July 24, 1925 (Ina)

Friday Night.

July 24, 1925

My dearest Walter:

Just a few words before saying goodnight. Mama, Claudelle and I have been enjoying a visit with Mr. and Mrs. Parman, or rather, Mrs. Parman because Mr. Parman was already asleep when we arrived. We had quite a bit of running around to do before going there so it was rather late. It is now after eleven o’clock.

Mrs. Parman spoke of you a number of times during the evening. She told us of receiving a letter from you and she seemed to be very much pleased over it. In fact, she is very much pleased over our affair and especially in the fact that she was the means of bringing about the acquaintance. We are truly grateful to her, aren’t we? This was the first visit we had made them since you left. I couldn’t help but think of how badly I hated to see you leave that last afternoon you and I were there. Everything there to-night reminded me of the pleasant hours we had spent together.

July 24, 1925 (Ina)

July 24, 1925 (Ina)

Mrs. Parman read us part of a letter she had received from Mrs. Laacke (I don’t remember how to spell it). She wrote of your visit with her and how she had enjoyed it. She also seemed to be very much pleased over our engagement. She said she thought you had lived long enough without happiness. The same applied to me too, I suppose. They are not half as “tickled” as we, are they? I like Mrs. Laacke very much. She said she thought her husband had decided never to come home. Mrs. Parman thinks they will be in Reagan Wells until about the middle of August. They are finding lots of work there to do. She also says Mr. Parman is kept very busy. I wish you could have been here that long, in a way, but still I am glad for you to be in Florida so that you can finish there sooner and then come back.

I love you ever so much.

Goodnight and sweet dreams.

Yours always,
Ina.

Saturday Afternoon
July 25, 1925

My dearest Walter:

I am writing you early today as we are leaving at 4:30 for Hondo where we are to go as delegates to a meeting of the Southern Pacific Federation of Leagues. They are going to give us a reception tonight, we are to have several services tomorrow and the Uvalde League is to furnish the Sunday evening program. They appointed me the leader for the evening so I am having a rather hard time trying to find enough to serve on the program so that I will not have a talk to make. The first part of the hour is to be taken up with an Epworth League program as it should not be given, and the latter part with the same subject, same speakers etc. in a program as it should be given. Whether there will be much difference in the two, I don’t know. There are about fifteen Uvalde Leaguers going in cars. I am “chaperoning” several in the Willys-Knight. In fact, I am the only “grown up” going so I suppose I’ll have to behave in order to set a good example.

Honey, do you get tired having me talk League work? If you do, please tell me and I’ll hush. Honestly, I’m not crazy on the subject. When I tell you of where I go and what I do I have to bring it in often because about all the places I go are connected with it. When we are married it will be diferent. My principal interests will be different.

I wonder where you are and what you are doing this afternoon. I know you are busy as can be on something.

I miss you, long for you, think of you and love you all the time.

Love,
Ina.

July 15, 1925 (Ina)

Wednesday Night.
July 15, 1925.

Dearest Walter:

Your letters of the 10th and 12th came this afternoon and they made me feel oh so good. You see, I don’t always get them on schedule time as we don’t always go in town just after train time. Walter, bless your heart, your letters make me so happy and I read them over and over and then read them some more. These two letters were so nice and long and newsy. You seem to know just what I am interested in and just what to write. I especially appreciate the long ones now since I know that you are so busy, but still you take time to write me. I am just as proud of you as I can be and I love you so very very much.

July 15, 1925 (Ina)

July 15, 1925 (Ina)

Your letter to Mama and Papa came also. Mama tried to tease me for quite a while by telling me that she wouldn’t let me read it. Finally, after about two hours’ time she handed it over to me saying that she was trying to see just how anxious I would get to read it. I think it is a mighty nice letter and they do too. They will answer it before long. Don’t be afraid of a refusal or anything of that kind. It didn’t come as a surprise to them since I had told them that you were going to write and ask. Everything is lovely.

Yes, indeed I think it will be mighty nice to have Dr. White down in Florida with you every summer. I feel that you are very fortunate to have him every moment that it is possible to do so. I am so anxious to meet him. I know I shall like him from the things you have said about him. I shall enjoy meeting and being with your friends so much.

I am sure Dr. and Mrs. K.S. are anxious to get into that beautiful new home. I am looking forward to seeing it some time.

I can hardly wait for the time to come for you to return and for me to be with you always. It still seems too good to be true, but still I can’t help but believe that the “too good to be true” is going to happen in this case.

Walter, I don’t want you to hesitate to tell me about your work, the credit that you will receive for it etc. because I certainly will not think you are egotistical. I know you too well to think that. I am very much interested in you and your work, and you can safely write me anything you want to about it without fear of being misunderstood. By the way, I am very proud of your work too.

Goodnight and sweet dreams.

Always your
Ina.

September 22, 1924

Monday P.M.
Sept. 22, 1924

Dear Walter:

Thelma, Bob and the children have just left, so I want to have a few minutes conversation with you. I wish it could be several hours real conversation instead of one with pen and ink.

Your account of the fishing trip was interesting, and I know you had a good time. Yes, I would have enjoyed it the best in the world, and I appreciate your thinking of me. That makes me feel good even though I couldn’t be there. I know I’d just love to be down in Florida, and would be a mighty happy girl if I loved you. Guess I’ll know some day whether I do or don’t. There isn’t a doubt in my mind about your being good and kind and considerate because I feel sure that such is your disposition. If I find that I do love you, I feel perfectly sure that you can make me happy, and I will try my very best to make you just as happy. I appreciate your love more than I can tell you, and I hope I shall never be guilty of doing anything that would show lack of appreciation.

September 22, 1924

September 22, 1924

We had an inch of rain last night. Can you imagine such a thing? It has been terribly hot for the past few days, but has been so cool and pleasant today. Everyone seems to feel so much better. I hope you have had enough rain to make your work better.

No, up until a few days ago when Mr. Parman was here, he hadn’t heard a word from Mr. Bishopp, and had no idea about who was to take his place while he was on his vacation. He doesn’t know why Mr. Bishopp doesn’t write. However, he says now that he can’t get as long a vacation as he had hoped to get, so he and Mrs. Parman are going to leave here the last of this month, going by rail instead of in their car since he can be gone only two weeks. I am very much disappointed that it looks like you can’t come this time, but maybe it’s all for the best. I try to look at things that way, and I usually find sooner or later, that it all …

The remainder of the letter is missing. I just found the final leaf misfiled with the letters from July 1925. Here it is:

works out right after all. If we do our best and have faith I feel sure it will.

I am glad you liked the pictures, and I appreciate the nice things you, the nurse, and your landlady said about them. I don’t feel a bit badly that the landlady insisted that I was Irish. I am afraid though that I can’t boast of any Irish blood. As far as the temper is concerned, I must have “lost” most of mine when I was a baby, because I only have fragments of it left. I sometimes wish I had more. Some people seem to get so much satisfaction out of “flying off the handle,” that I believe it woiuld help my feelings a little sometimes if I could do it.

I am sorry your work didn’t come out just like you expected. I know you were disappointed, but you shouldn’t be discouraged, because you have spent a comparatively short time on that particular thing, while others have spent years without satisfactory results, so you really couldn’t expect to solve it all in two or three months. I feel that you will solve it sometime if they will let you continue working on it.

We are getting a little busier every day at the office. We have about six thousand tax receipts to write which are supposed to be finished by the first of October, so you can see that we will not have much idle time. You see, after the 1924 tax rolls are made, we have to write up each person’s receipt, now describing his property, and then, when he comes in to pay his taxes, all we will have to do will be to date and sign the receipt, and take the money. If we waited until tax-paying season, which begins October first, to write the receipts, it would be practically an impossibility to handle the crowd. It takes a long time, you know, to describe every tract of land in Uvalde County.

It is getting late and so I had better get some sleep.

Remember that I enjoy your letters lots & lots.

Sincerely,

Ina