This is a letter handed down in our Thomas family. We are trying to place the "Uncle Charlie and Uncle Frank in New Mexico" We don't know who those two men are, whether they are Thomas' or not. All the other mentioned people are in our branch of the Thomas family, descendants of Andrew J. Thomas, b. 1819, NC. Members of this Thomas family moved back and forth between Mobery,Missouri area to Canton, Indiana, working for the railroad. Also, we don't know who the Alice Howell, writer of the letter is or how she fits in the family. If any of these names are in your line, please contact me, we will be happy to share info. Dated May 3 1920, Hollister, MO. Dear Uncle & family, I am writing this letter to find out how you are we are all well at present. Charlie had the flu and lost six weeks work and then hurt his ribs on a break on a spray machine and was off 3 more weeks, we have left our farm at Branson and are 9 miles from Hollister, Mo and on a fruit farm working for Mr. Roy Callison he lived in Salsberry (town near Huntsville, MO) when he was a kid he said he thought he knew you, he is about 35 years old. We have been out here since August 1 1919 and we don¹t like this country at all we think we will be in K.C. again this fall. Bertha went to Business College in Springfield and is in KC now with Ida she gets $100.00 a month to start with and soon gets more. The boys are nearly as large as their father and are working every day. The baby boy will be 5 the ninth and his name is Walter James. There are too many ticks down here for us. The fruit here is nearly all killed will be a few apples & grapes but no peaches to speak of. I am writing this to find out if you folks are all right or not and I used to hear of you through Claude & Ruby (son of Cal and Nettie Thomas). I wrote to them a long time ago at Canton, Ill and my letter came back. Where are they now? How is Cassie & Ida and their children and the children at home tell me all about them. I hear from Harry real often. He tells me the Moberly news all the time and he hears from Uncle Will and the children. I write to Uncle Charlie and Uncle Frank is close to where he is he can¹t stay where Charlie is the altitude is too high for him. He is at Carlsbad and Charlie is at El Paso Gap, New Mexico. Frank is sick nearly all the time. Papa¹s health is pretty good yet he will be 78 the 23 of this month. I will close with love from all, your neice Alice hope to hear from you soon. Mrs Alice Howell, Hollister, MO - c/o Hillcrest Fruit farm [email protected] _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com