Letter From W. A. Weller to Alfred L. Shoemaker, March 28, 1960

Authors

W. A. Weller

Document Type

Correspondence

Files

Date

3-28-1960

Keywords

Ascension Day, working, horses, corn planting, mules, W. A. Weller, Good Friday

Description

A handwritten letter from W. A. Weller addressed to Alfred L. Shoemaker, dated March 28, 1960. Within, Weller details the harmful consequences of working the farm on Ascension Day and Good Friday.

Sender

W. A. Weller

Recipient

Alfred L. Shoemaker

Corresponds to:

Packet 353-3 to 353-6

City

Middleburg, Pennsylvania

Transcription

Middleburg Pa

March 28, 60 Mr. Shoemaker

Dear sir I read your Book I don’t get it but my daughter gets it I want to tell you something about Good Friday I am 82 years now when I started farming I had so much trouble with my horses then one got lame and got an old man by the name Solvam Kline he used to Power so much and he said in Dutch Do you work your horses on good Friday I says yes well now don’t hitch em up on that day see if you don’t have better luck. Well I didn’t for 5 years didn’t have a sick horse then one year we were on behind and we had a fence a rail stake free to haul out and I said to the Hired boy we would hitch up and haul that fence out it would not be working in the ground and that year one horse kicked the other one's leg off and I lost a nice colt that was the last I worked horses on good Friday and didn’t have sick horses. Something about Ascension Day I was a young man then then neighbor had cattle sale on that day and I was pretty early there then he say:- don’t you work on this day I say no well he says don’t I want Pa he says now you watch who ever plants on that day don’t get any crop he said we went down at the river in a big field with 3 teams and then a boat went down the canal and fellow on the boat said you plant this corn today you won’t get any I told him that was our business we didn’t any corn well I matched this up and one Ascension day I went to my neighbor in the morning and when I come down he asked if I didn’t work I say no- I am a Jew- he say if a man does what's right he can do his work any time well he had two hired men at plowing with 6 of the best mules you could put a harness on and I walked along around just to see how nice the mules worked and then I went fishing well he planted his and I planted mine. In the fall he had one bushel basket of corn from 4 shock and I had 8 he come in my field when we were husking our fields joint he said he understand why his corn was so poor he picked his seed corn out of mine well I watched a few that planted on that day and it was no crop so I guess I will close and this is the truth

The man that had the good mules was [illegible]

Yours

W A Weller

Middleburg

Snyder Co Rd R 273

Language

English

Rights Statement

This item is available courtesy of the Ursinus College Library Special Collections Department. It is not to be copied or distributed for commercial use. For permissions which fall outside of educational use, please contact the Special Collections Department.

Recommended Citation

Weller, W. A., "Letter From W. A. Weller to Alfred L. Shoemaker, March 28, 1960" (1960). Alfred L. Shoemaker Folk Cultural Documents. 114.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/shoemaker_documents/114