Eva Royle Chisholm

As usual for the letters for publication on line I have tweaked spelling & grammar & punctuation so that they are more easily understandable. I did not change anything else. Any added or non-readable words are in square brackets.

Bleak House

Mountain View Ranch

Round Plains

Wishart P.O.

Jan 14, 1900 (how nice)

Dear Dill,

I now take up my shovel to shovel you a few bushels of words as Alex says. He wants to know very much how Alfred is and how he came to lose his claim and all about it.

Is Allie well yet and why did she not write to me. How is Laura. Jimmi says "tell her I am well". We have had a lovely winter here so far. It has been thawing today.

By the way Otis has a girl now. A some kind of a breed.

Lil is working fifteen miles from here this winter.

There is no kind of amusement out here where we are at all. I have only been out once this winter and that was to a half breed dance. I don't want to go to another. I can imagine Laura or Ally in a place like this; they would not stay a week. Of course I don't mind it so much for two or three years, for I have hopes of getting out of it in then. If not I hope I shall die, I could not live the life some of the women around here have, I should run away.

Poor Jo's time is close at hand again. I suppose Ma will go up there then.

You want to know all about our plans, well I suppose we shall stay here for two or three years at least, if nothing happens, and raise cattle and as big a garden as we can, and milk from 6 to 7 cows. Butter is 2 cents per pound now. We sell enough to partly pay our store bill this winter and will make lots more next summer. Allie had bad luck with his horses last summer. One big one ran away and his others died. I shall try and raise a lot of chickens next year.

You want to know about our house keeping. Why we do the same as anyone else would who kept house in one small kitchen and bedroom, but next summer I shall have two bedrooms upstairs and a kitchen and sitting room down stairs.

I have written to Mrs. Wilcox about her organ. She wants to sell it and if we can, we will get it. It will be lots of company for me. And I might give some of the kids around here lessons.

If you are married soon Dill where do you intend to live. I wish you could live near me.

I hear from Kit Wilde occasionally she is making me a nice rug. Mrs. Fee (one neighbor) gave me a very pretty center table cover, soon after we were married.

Say Dill, how long does it take to feel like a married woman I don't feel any different. A. says he has to stop and think what people mean when they ask how Mrs. C. is. It seems funny to me to be called Mrs. And to have two more brothers. Kenneth wrote me a letter. I think I should like him. I do [like?] Jimmie. Ma says Jimmie is nicer than Allie, but then she don't know. Ha ha

You never said if you thought my dress was pretty. I thought I should like nuns veiling as every one has white silk or cashmere. I often wonder if you have your white dress yet and if you have worn out the blue wrapper yet.

Jan 22

My dear Dill guess the latest news. Jo has a daughter. It was born on the 5th. Pa says it is so small one can scarcely see it. I think he is very proud of his family. He offered to loan Allie either one he wished, a boy or girl. I suppose Mag will name it for her as she will be with her to help for awhile.

I think Mag and kids will have a room built near Pats and live there when the rest go to Oregon next summer. You never said a word about them but I think they will go alright.

Pat is going to get me a nice clock for a wedding present when he gets to Yorkton.

Perhaps we can have our pictures taken next Spring, if we can spare the money, then will send you all one.

Here is another curl off A[lex's] head I am so very proud of those curls. I'll bet you can't find me one of Alfreds as nice as that. ha ha

Jimmie says if I have written 7 pages then I must stop so I guess I will.

Well,my dear, I must close hoping to hear from you before 6 months again

I remain as ever your loving sister

Eva Chisholm

'Bleak House' is a novel by Dickens. This family was very familiar with the works of Dickens as their father had a set of the books. However, I don't think one has to be familiar with the book itself to get a strong impression of why she dubbed her current home with this name.

Dill, Eva, Mag, Jo, Otis, Lil - children of Jeremiah Royle & Margaret Lewis Young Royle ( who are also known as Ma and Pa)

Allie or Ally Smith- daughter of Margaret Lewis Young and Robert Young, half sister to Eva, Dill, Mag, Jo, Otis, & Lil. She lived in Seattle at this time. Her daughter was Laura who was also living in Seattle and was Lil's best friend. Allie's husband was Walt Smith.

Jimmie/Jimmi/Jimmy, Alex & Kenneth Chisholm - brothers from Nova Scotia. Jimmy & Alex are already there. Kenneth Chisholm - "died on the way west" in 1905 - still 5 years in the future from the time of this letter. Jimmy Chisholm married Lil Royle in 1903, still three years in the future from this letter. Alex is also known as Ally, which is confusing. But real life usually is confusing!

This letter was written around a month after Eve & Alex had been married. This hardly sounds like much of a honeymoon. The dress with nuns veiling she mentions later on in the letter was her wedding dress. See document Eve's wedding for more details on the dress.

The setting of the letter is in Saskatchewan, Canada, but this is before the area was known by that name. It was Assiniboia then.

Alfred Hansen went to the Klondike and was one of the ones on the famous trip up Chilcoot Pass to raise the flag at the summit. I expect the claim was a gold or land claim in that area. He was originally from Denmark. Alfred Hansen is Dill's husband to be.

About Eve's comment of Otis having "some kind of a breed" for a girl friend. How rude! To make things worse, it turned out that the lady in question was Sybil Cook, daughter of the same Reverend Gilbert Cook who presided at Eve & Alex's wedding. Sybil later became Otis' wife and remained so for life. One hopes that Eve learned better. (No, I don't know which Native American tribe Sybil was descended from. If I find out, I'll include it.) As for the "half breed dance" comment, I'm not sure what she meant and I'm not sure I want to go there anyhow.

"Poor Jo's time is close at hand" means that she was pregnant and about to give birth. Back then, some of these things were not refered to directly.

Jo was married to James "Pat" McIvor. The new daughter mentioned in the letter was Ena McIvor. (Ena later married Nicholas Shuttleworth in 1922.) Jo & Pat already had one child, Roy, who would have been two at the time.

Mag, or Maggie Royle Haigh would have had three children at this time: Orville, Dallas & Rhea with ages ranging from 8 to 11.

Kit Wilde, Mrs. Wilcox, Mrs. Fee - neighbors & friends (not related that I know of).