You are invited to be present at the marriage of Alice to Leon

You are invited to
be present at the marriage
of
Alice E. Anderson
to
Leon A. Gould
at the home of
the bride’s parents.
Sunday, June 10th.
10 A.M.
----- -----

Independence, Mo.
June 8, 1900

My Dear Bro. & Sr.,
Alice and Leon, I am glad to be able to call you so and regret that we could not have been present, at the Wedding. But we wish you much joy, happiness, peace, prosperity and posterity, and all that goes to make married life a success. I felt quit silly when I read the invitation, I have been expecting something of the kind but when it came, It didn’t seem possible that you had really made up your mind to take so great a step. It wasn’t funny at all to think I got married, I always knew I would go and do that.

    Well I am going to propose fear for fear you wont think of it, Leon bring Alice down here, and leave her in my hands and you can see her often and I want her Oh so bad. It is lonesome here alone I must have someone to talk to, and I would be so glad to take Alice in and mother her. Please don’t disappoint me I have been planning this for six months, and I know Alice would like to come, I have sent my loger to hunt a new bed so I can make room for you. Plin says Amen to it all so it is all right, just come. Well we are not very well just now. We have been having such colds, and they never know when to let up.

     I have been making Nina’s new dress to wear to the wedding, have got it almost done, I will send a piece if I don’t forget. Well it is way past bedtime and Plin hasn’t got home for supper, maybe you think that don’t sound well for him to be out so late, but it is not to be helped; once in a while in his kind of business, but I always worry when he don’t come at the usual time. So Alice you will have something to worry you now if you are anything like me. Well I expect you are the happiest couple ever lived & as I can’t add to –love you both- Maude

  (transcribed by Samii S. Gould)

Letters - Dear Cousin, I was very much surprised

Dear Readers, my apologies as I found this letter and realized it ought to have been posted as the very first letter in the series. 

                                                                                                                                 Wakpeton, N. Dak.

                                                                                                                                   Jan. 31, 1897
Mr. Leon Gould,
Battle Lake, Minn.

Dear Cousin: I was very much surprised yesterday when I got home from Sunday School to find that picture. I did not ask for one for I thought as long as I got one of each of the other pictures you would not have one of these for me but I was just as glad to get it as I would have been if I had asked for it.
I don’t think it is very good of Hallie or Winnie.
We are getting along nicely at school, have grown from eighty six last Fall to one hundred eighteen this winter.
I don’t see why if there is homesteadable land within reach of humanity, a person shouldn’t get him a home; it is the cheapest way of getting a home there is, I guess, that’s what I am going to do when I get of age; if I don’t miss my guess. I should hate to advise any one to go to Klondyke.
Well this paper, pen and ink are bad and the writer is worse. News is scarce and I have got to study, study, study.

                                                                                                   Good bye,
                                                                                                     Alice

Letters - Dear Leon, from your own Alice & Dear Brother, death won't stop me

                                                                                                                           April 30, 1900
Mr. L. A. GOULD,
Bemidji, Minn.

Dear Leon, I am not able to teach today so will ask you to take my place if you can. Of course if you have something else to do so that you cannot spare the time, why well will just quit school until I am able to teach. I will tell you something about the programme: Ella has just got so she can add numbers, a little and Ray and Amy can add and subtract numbers where there is no borrowing to be done. I have been trying to teach Frank to write figures about 100 but haven’t succeeded very well. He has been working examples in addition out of the Arithmatic.

    The B. Geog. are just ready to commence with South America. I will send some thin paper that I think they can trace the map.

     I may be able to teach tomorrow, don’t know for sure though. I was worse yesterday after noon after you left than I had been at all before. I rested pretty good last night but feel rather weak this morning. My ear doesn’t bother me this morning only once in a while.

    Well I think I will stop and eat some breakfast. Come over as soon as you can. Come home with the children from school if you teach and if you don’t teach, why come when ever you can anyway.

                                                                                                         from your own Alice.
over
I could not find the thin paper I thought I have, so will send yellow tissue paper. Maybe you can use it and maybe not.


                                                                                                                      Perham, Minn.
                                                                                                                      May the 21th, 1900
L.A. Gould
Dear Brother, yours of May the 16th. is here before me and contents notest in reply will say that I will be ready to come up that next week and preach where I can until the day you wish to be made happy. I will be at Mr. Nye’s Friday of next week. Bro. Omans and me are going out in ----- this week and begin Meetings up there and when I get him started in I will run up to Audulon for next Sunday. I am going to write to Bro. Smith today and if he wants to come he can. Remember me to all. yours in the faith.

                                                                                                J. N. Roberts
                                                                                           Box 334 Perham, Minn.

P.S. Death wont stop me on that occasion, I will come – dead or alive. J.N.R.

Letters - it would be a hard matter for poor people to make a home any place, "Yours until death" Alice E. Anderson

                                                                                                           Bemidji, Minn.
                                                                                                          Feb. 20, 1900
Dear Leon;-
I commence this letter asking the Lord to so direct me that what I may write will be in accordance with his will. I have read, studied and thought about your letter ever since I got it and feel I cannot answer it satisfactorily until I have settled that other question that has been on my mind so long.

    Leon, I do not believe very many people anyway, ever had such a hard time settling a question as I have in trying to settle this question. I have prayed over the matter so much and believing as I do that the “Lord” will answer our prayers; I do not believe he will let us be lead too far astray.

    Leon, I accept your love, thanking “God” for the love of such a true, noble man and I give you mine asking out Heavenly Father to help me to so live that I may never do anything to lessen the high opinion you have formed of me.

    I am not prepared to say you did hardly right in asking me to decide what would be best for you to do, for I have such a hard time in deciding what is best for myself that I hardly dare trust myself to decide for others. Then another thing. If you should abide by my decision and should find out afterwards that I had not decided for the best, I am afraid I should always feel as if I had done something to hinder your progress. Then my folks living up here might have the effect of making me decide it would be best to stay here when really it would not. You see there are a great many things to take into consideration and the only safe way to decide important matters is to take the matter to out Heavenly Father.

    For my part I really think from the sound of your letter that you favor staying here more than going to Independence and I suppose after reading my letter that it will be an easy matter for you to tell which side I favor most.

    If we really knew that you could do better at Independence than here, that you could find employment and have a chance to improve or make use of your talent; if we really knew that it is the Lord’s will for you to leave here, that it would be for the best; then I would not object to it at all. But I have seen some few families go to Missouri and most of them have come back feeling that Minnesota cold winters’ are preferable to Missouri’s orchards with her sickly climate. At least the climate of Mo. Proved to be sickly for most of us Andersons, and unless you could find work in your line of business I think this Jack-pine land better than the majority of Mo. Farms unless a man has more means than he knows what to do with.

     Of course I have no doubt that Mo. Is about as good a state as Minn. Possibly better, but I never saw very much except the dark side of Mo. so that would be another reason why you should not trust my wisdom in this matter. Another thing, every thing must be bought by a person living in the city like Indep. , even to potatoes and wood, therefore it costs more to live in such a place that would where there is plenty of wood and we can raise potatoes here, I believe.

    Of course it would be very nice to live where church privledges could be enjoyed and I do hope that the time will come some day that they may be enjoyed here, for goodness knows that the saints around here, young saints especially need something to keep them away and alive in the work.

    I agree with you that it will be a hard matter to make a home here but then I believe it would be a hard matter for poor people to make a home any place now days and I am afraid times are going to grow harder instead of better,. Now you have my idea on the matter I believe but do not let what I have said influence you too much for I really want to do what would be for the best, if it should take you a much greater distance than Mo. of course I should want it to take me with you. Now as it is about half past ten, time young folks like myself was in bed I will close hoping that if I have written anything contrary to the will of the Heavenly Father, he will show me my mistake before it is too late.

                                                                           “Yours until death”
                                                                                            Alice E. Anderson
(transcribed by Samii S. Gould)

Letters - Dearest Alice, women have better judgement in deciding such matters, LAG

                                                                                                            Bachelor’s Den
                                                                                                            Feb. 17, 1900
Dearest Alice;-
I will try to put the matter concerning that problem I asked you this afternoon in as plain a light as possible, and I hope you will be able to comprehend my meaning whether I am able to express it fully or not.

    One reason why I want your opinion is because I believe women have better judgement than men in deciding such matters.

     I will now give you my reasons for thinking of going to Indep. It looks to me now, that it will be difficult to make a home here that I could ask you to share or that you would be willing to share. And I can’t think of a home without you. Whenever I think of a home of my own, I feel that it would be a sad one, if not unbearable without you.

   I have some talent in the line of Shorthand work and down there I might have a chance to improve it and make use of it, perhaps, to the greater advantage. Such being the case, I might be able to provide a suitable home where we could be happy, if the Lord is willing, when I might fail here. I don’t know as I have talent for anything else.

    Of course, if I went, I should not in-tend to relinquish my homestead unless circumstances justified it at the end of six months, and I thought I could do better there than here.
Now for the reasons on the other side. I would like to hold the claim. If I could make a home here, with you, I should be perfectly contented, and as to happiness, I wont attempt to say how happy I would be.

    I think the out-doors work would benefit me. If I hold my claim I want to stay here and put in my time improving it, and make use of the means it would take to go down there and back.
Perhaps it looks foolish, from one point of view to think of going down there.

     Now I have tried to tell my thoughts and if you can, I would like to have you decide. Nothing would suit me better, if the Lord’s willing that we twain should be one, than to have a home here, if you wished it, near your folks. You may be sure that I would use my best efforts to carry out your wishes, and which ever way you decide I will abide by it.

    To change the subject, I have been wondering why you asked me that question concerning young men in the ministry.
I’ll tell you why I don’t think he ever made that kind of a statement. The Lord ordained marriage. He saw that man needed a help-meet and he gave him a wife for that purpose. It seems to me that a minister would need a help-meet as much if not more than any other man.

    Do you remember hearing of Elder Anthony? I think his initials are J.R. He does lots of writing for the “Herald”. I have heard that he was called to the ministry while he was a single man, but like men are apt to do, he fell in love with a woman, a widow. But he thought that as long as he was an Elder and dependent upon the church for support he ought not marry her. But it seems that he was wrong in that for the Lord spoke to him through the gift of tongues at a prayer meeting and told him that sacrifice was not required. So they were married.

    Alice, I have had the heart-ache at times during the past week because it seemed that you were no better satisfied as to whether you could or should give me your love. It seems to me that my future happiness as well as usefulness depends upon that. If the Lord would be displeased with out marriage I don’t understand why he should have let me love you as I have. If he should indicate that we were not for each other, I don’t know how I could stand it. I don’t believe I could unless he took away the sting. I have tried not to say too much to influence your mind the way I believe because I wanted to leave your mind free to act perhaps I have said too much in this letter, I hope not. Hoping and praying that we may be given wisdom to decide these matters right I am your friend till death.

                                                                                                    Leon.

I don’t know when I will see you again. May be not before the 25th. I may come over some evening next week. I don’t know when I shall be able to talk with your Mother. Maybe there is no chance to talk with her alone.
                                                                                      L. A. G.
(transcribed by Samii S. Gould)

Letters - Don't think I'm crazy, I am deeply in love, Leon

Dear Reader,
      The next scores or so of posts will be not my own writings, but correspondences of my Great-Grandfather Leon Gould. This letter is to his cousin, Alice, whom he later married! Great-Grandpa Leon had a large family (of 11 children), and journeyed as secretary to Alexander Smith in the RLDS church before eventually joining the Church of Christ (TL) and becoming an Apostle. His descendants have been blessed with a rich spiritual heritage and many true family accounts of  what can only be called miracles. If you read these letters and are interested in reading more of the Gould family history, look for a book titled "Trek of Faith" by Peggy Tucker. These letters contain the original spelling mistakes and have not been corrected. Feel free to print and keep these letters in your own family history files if you so wish. In the future, a book of Leon's writings will be made available. Enjoy!

                                                                                                                                  Feb. 1, 1900

Dear Alice:- I feel I must write a few lines, or more. And a dream I dreamed last night strengthened that feeling. The dream troubles me, and I will tell you what it was. In the first place I dreamed of getting a letter addressed in your handwriting so I shall look for one. But the one that worries me is this. I thought I was in a room, standing by the window when presently, you came in. You held out your hand and I took it. Your face was radiant and covered with smiles, and I seemed to read love in your eyes. Suddenly your eyes filled will tears and you began shaking your head and seemed to be telling or saying something that distressed you, and gradually seemed to be getting farther from me, though, I still held your hand. The sight of your tears and sorrow filled me with anguish and I awoke. The dream may mean nothing; I hope it does not, but I was unable to sleep any more and have felt that trouble of some kind was coming to us. I have wondered if it meant that you would find that you did not care for me. I could endure most anything but that. If you should make such a decision, I beg and plead that you will not do it hastily.

    Are you any better satisfied regarding the Lord’s will concerning us? There is one thing we must remember, in seeking the Lord for wisdom. It is this If the Lord is willing that we should be united in marriage the other power will use his influence to the contrary. And if the Lord is not pleased, the other power will use his influence in the opposite direction. Two influences have been at work. Can you decide which is right? A few years ago our parents would have objected strongly to the thought of our marrying. Some influence has changed their minds. Some influence has been at work to lead us both in different paths. Would it have been better? Was it right or wrong? If wrong, is the other influence wrong too? I think your Mother would be willing to aid us in deciding with her prayers. If you think best I will endeavor to lay the matter before her.

     Alice I love you earnestly, and truly, and I have said to myself many times that you were the sweetest, best and truest, (as well as the most beautiful, to me, as I have told you before) of women. Don’t think I’m crazy, I am not; but I am deeply in love.

     It will be a happy day for me when you can tell me that you are satisfied and can give me your love.
I have been contented and happy for the last few weeks, and the change in my feelings have been so great that I scarcely know how to act or what to say.

    Winnie told me a few days ago that Bertha asked him, when he was down, how you and I were getting along. He told her that he guessed we were not getting along very well, and she says,- “Well there will be a change there, I know there will be a change there.”
Hoping I have not written too much I will close, wishing you all the happiness possible for your good.
                                       
                                                                                                             with Love
                                                                                                             Leon Gould

Letters - My dear Alice, Yours in love, Leon

My dear Alice;-
You used a pencil, will you please allow me the same priveledge this time? Charlie has the lamp so I am writing this almost in the dark. I can’t even see the lines. I got the letter that I saw in my dreams, today.

    I asked my mail and only received a letter from Harry N. and went over to one of the windows and stood there wondering if I wasn’t going to get your letter. Finally I began to read Harry’s when I heard the P.M. Call, Mr. Gould! I went over there and he handed me your letter. I see you wrote it before I did mine I don’t know whether you mailed it first or not. That dream I told you has been on my mind, I suppose I am foolish to let anything like that trouble me. A mere dream.

   I have asked the Lord, if there was danger or trouble near you, to protect you. Yes, I heard you were in town. I stopped at the house the afternoon of Tuesday and your mother told me. Don’t let them make a catholic of you. I wouldn’t wish the girl I love to be a catholic you know. I would be very glad if you did not think you had to work out, but I suppose you do think so or you would not do it.

   Certainly, I would be please to have you tell me that you want to see or hear from me if you do. I didn’t hardly know whether you did or not. I would call and see you anyway if you were not among strangers. As it is I am doubtful not know what to do.

And they really let you eat at the same table with them? Strange? I wonder if they will stoop low enough in the next world to sit at the same table with the rest of the angels.
I think I had better stop before I tire you out or you will be sure not to want me to write again.

                                                                                                       Yours in love
                                                                                                         Leon Gould

Letters - Dear Leon, live in hopes and I hope not to die in despair, Alice

                                                                                                                                    Bemidji, Minn.
                                                                                                              Jan. 30, 1900
                                                                                                                                                    
Dear Leon;-
So I am in town again working for my daily bread. Are you surprised to hear it, or have you heard it before? I have given up getting that school this winter so thought I had better take up with the next best or next worse which was to work out, of course. I never made up my mind that I would try working out again until Sunday evening. Then I was in hopes I would have a chance to see you before starting out, but of course I did not. I got here about nine o’clock this morning and found plenty to do to keep me busy until nine tonight, and I am nearly as tired as I was the night after first day of school I ever taught. Tomorrow my work commences three hours earlier I suppose.

    Well such is life in the far north. How are you boys getting along? The weather is about as cold as it got a few times last winter, isn’t it? I have not told you yet who my Master and Mistress are, have I?

   Well they are not Bampy and Mamy this time. I am working at Mr. Charley Nangles. Catholic’s you know, but they do stoop so low as to allow me to eat at the same table as them.

   Well we have not had a chance to have that talk yet; but may live in hopes and I hope not to die in despair.

    I can not think of anything sensible to write so guess the best thing I can do is go to bed.
Please excuse this poor writing and if you find mistakes, blame the pencil and not me.

   They have a sick baby here; which, naturally, causes a great deal of worry.

   Well I must stop I cannot tell whether I am spelling the words right or wrong.
Shall I tell you that I would like to either see you or hear from you sometime in the near future? Please excuse this lead pencil as I have no ink with me and I wouldn’t bother to borrow any. Now I am going to stop; bidding you good night.

                                                                              As ever your true friend,
                                                                                  Alice E. Anderson

Letters - "My Dear Boy" & "My Darling"

I wonder if I’ll ever have another chance to see you alone in this world.?

Mr. Leon Gould
Bemidji, Minn.

“My Dear Boy”- If you are going to town may I bother you by asking you to go to the book store and see if you can find a dialogue book that is good for anything. If you can not find one then please mail the letter to Normal Instructor Publishing Co.
You may get stamps or what ever you please for the order.
Come over when ever you can and probably I will have something else for you to do, as I never do have anything for you to do.
Yours with L--- Shall I write it?
It doesn’t hardly seem proper but I guess it will seem proper when I get a little more used to it.
                                                                          Alice E. Anderson


My Darling:-
They had no dialogue book at the bookstore so I sent the letter as requested.
You are it if is proper to write the word you left unfinished,. Alice any word or token of love from you will be appreciated. I value your love more than I am able to tell but if God is our helper I will try to prove by my actions how much I prize it.
                                                         Yours with love and esteem
                                                                      L. A. Gould

Letters - Dear Leon, we have heard such sad news, goodbye, Ma

 Jan. 11
Dear Leon I hardly know what to write but will try and write a few lines we have heard such sad news that it makes us feel sick all over, will get Charley’s letter that told of Birch’s sickness and we just heard of Ethel Cooks death and it was so sudden that we could hardly believe it, but she looked bad when we were over there last week and I shall worry more than ever about you seeing that my letter didn’t help you any, I guess it would have been better if I hadn’t sent Em’s letter but you must try and overcome that feeling and not give way to it or it may lead you to do something equal to Bro. Merin’s son and that would make a bad matter worse and there is no --- of that so try and cheer up and come down home and see if that wont help you a little. Well Win is going to start tomorrow and I will send this by him. I am about sick and it is late so I will close hoping you will soon feel better, I hear Charley is with you now so maybe that will help you a little—goodbye Ma


Jan. 18
Dear Sister Emm, I guess I will write a few lines and send by Win he is going back today. I hate to have him go so quick but he seems anxious to get back. We just heard the sad news of Ethel Cooks death, it don’t seem possible that it is so, for we were over there last Friday, and she seemed as well as common but then, she did look bad, and hasn’t been able to be out much this month. I hope it is a mistake about Birch having the typhoid fever, it would be so hard for his mother to not be able to take care of him. Bro. Morton had the luck to get hurt again by the team running away he will be laid up the rest of the winter, there is lots of sickness lately. I am nearly sick myself with a cold. Well I had another letter from Leon. I am sorry I sent your letter for I guess it didn’t have the desired effect, he thinks he never will be any happier that he is now. I suggested him having a talk with Alice but he said it would do no good for he knew she didn’t care for him for she had told him so several times, he said you must be mistaken; so if she is not happy it must be because she thinks she done wrong in the first place and is sorry for it now, it would be wrong for her to consent to him if she can’t think anything of him. Well it is time to get breakfast so I will close, Love to all, Ella. Winfield says send Leon’s letter along so here goes if I – wrong—I might as well keep on.

Letters - Dear Alice, I'll be a better boy now, Yours in love, Leon

Dear Reader,

      The next scores or so of posts will be not my own writings, but correspondences of my Great-Grandfather Leon Gould. This letter is to his cousin, Alice, whom he later married! Great-Grandpa Leon had a large family (of 11 children), and journeyed as secretary to Alexander Smith in the RLDS church before eventually joining the Church of Christ (TL) and becoming an Apostle. His descendants have been blessed with a rich spiritual heritage and many true family accounts of  what can only be called miracles. If you read these letters and are interested in reading more of the Gould family history, look for a book titled "Trek of Faith" by Peggy Tucker. These letters contain the original spelling mistakes and have not been corrected. Feel free to print and keep these letters in your own family history files if you so wish. In the future, a book of Leon's writings will be made available. Enjoy!    

                                                                                                                                                 Bemidji, Minn.

Jan. 4, 1900

Dear Alice:-
Your letter was received tonight. So much crowds in on my mind to say that I don’t know just what to say. I expect I will say just the wrong thing at the wrong time, as I usually do. I have a letter that I received last night that did me good. I want you to read it some day. I have waited, a long time, though with a good deal of complaining, for just the words you wrote, and have never quite given up hope. 
Alice your letter made me very happy. I have not changed my mind; I love you more and more. I tried two or three times to break off as I thought there was, from your talk, very little show of your ever careing for me; but always ended the struggle by thinking more of you and feeling more disappointment; and praying for your love if it were God’s will. Your words seem to me like an answer to prayer. He couldn’t in my estimation pick out a better woman although he could find you a better man, easily.

I want you to be satisfied of the Lord’s will and when you are satisfied I shall be.

I want to see you, Alice. I can’t think of an excuse to stop now, though. I’m afraid I will have to stop, without one before long. Alice forgive me, if I have caused you pain by my actions I’ll be a better boy now.

                                                                       Your’s in Love
                                                                        Leon A. Gould

Letters - PRIVATE: Leon, I do care for you, Ever Your True Friend, Alice

Dear Reader - the moment of truth!! :)

Private                                                                                                            Dec. 99
                                                                                                                   Bemidji, Minn.
Mr. Leon Gould
Bemidji, Minn.

“Leon” Your message was received last Tuesday evening, I believe if you knew all the thoughts that have passed through my mind the last few months you would be surprised. My mind has run on one subject almost entirely, and the chief object in that subject is yourself.
Leon, I have many, many times been afraid I was not doing right by not accepting your love but its seems no matter how hard I try I cannot find out the Lord’s will about the matter.
I have made up my mind that I will tell you how I feel, tell you about the matter and see if you can suggest any plan to help right the matter.

     Leon, I do care for you, I do care for you more than I have ever cared for anyone else and yet I cannot find out for sure whether I really love anyone well enough to marry him ----(dim) ---- I am just as Ma said she was, she did not know how anyone could tel when they loved anyone well enough to marry him.
But it seems that she found out in time. Would you be surprised if I told you that at the very time that we were at Mrs. Bra---s when attending -------(dim) school I was tempted time and again to accept your love but I decided everytime that maybe it would be best not to do so for fear I would regret it someday. I know that I cared for you before then and that I have cared for you since then but my opposition to cousin’s marrying --- ---- ----(dim)---- accepting you love for a time. Now if I really knew that it was the Lord’s will for us to become united in marriage I would not oppose it any longer. But how am I to find out? I have prayed and prayed over the matter and cannot feel any better satisfied – the matter than ever. I must admit that at the time during the last two year I have thought I might_for others more than for you but I have every time so far found out that it was only a passing fancy and that I really cared for you the most. Now if I could only make you happy and gain peace and happiness for myself and done the Lord’s will at the same time I would be satisfied.

    Leon, can you not think of some way that we may find out what is right for us to do? I have waited to write to you ever since I got your letter from Moose but I have been afraid to do so for fear I had not a right to do it but I am going to write anyway for I must confide in someone. If I am wrong in going to you with these trials of mine may The Lord and yourself forgive me.

    If you have found out that you do not care for me longer, if you find that you feelings towards me have changed send this letter back to me and try to forget that I ever sent it to you.
I will now close hoping and praying the Lord’s will may be shown to us in such a manner that we may know what we should do.
                                                                            Ever Your True Friend
                                                                             Alice E. Anderson

(transcribed by Samii S. Gould)

Letters - Dear Alice, I pray God to direct you right. Mother

Dear Reader, here we can take note of the relationship between Emma and her daughter Alice. :) There is a biography about Emma Whiting Anderson - it is a delightful read! The title is "Portrait of  a Pioneer Woman," and the author is Jewell Benson Walsh.


Your presence
Is respectfully requested
At the marriage of
Miss Maude Gould
To
Mr. Plinnie Sherman
Thursday, Nov. 30, 1899
At the residence of
L.G. Gould
Independence, Mo.
At six o’clock P.M.
                                                                                                                                          Home---
                                                                                                                                    Dec. 30, 1899
Dear Alice, hadn’t you better write to Mr. Ergine, and ask him if he will notify you when they are ready for you to begin that school, and hadn’t you make up your mind to board at Bower’s where you can practice music on the piano, I don’t believe you are well enough to walk from Freems, I think it is the longest 2 miles I ever seen. You would wear out enough more shoes to make the expense about the same, anyway. Lester thinks it is 3 miles.

   Well Winnie and Tommy staid here till midnight last night, were here for supper, filled their pockets with cookies and started to walk to Cass Lake, where they will take the train for Wadena, on their way home. Winnie just got a fat letter from home. Leon brought it for him. He left it here for me to read and give to Leon. They sent a letter Maud and Pliny had written. They both seems happy as could be, and Ella wrote that if Maude was happy she guessed she was the only one in the family that was happy, it made me feel sorry, for I am satisfied you are not happy, and if you have wronged Leon in anyway, don’t be above asking his forgiveness. I don’t suppose you have, but I don’t know what is the matter, if you have refused him. Just because you are cousins, you may be wronging him as well as yourself, there is nothing in the law of God or Minn. against cousins marrying, and if he has declared his love for you, and if you have found out that you love him, it would be right for you to write and tell him so, no one should be ashamed of true love. Love and marriage were instituted of God, and if you thought you did not love him well enough to marry him, and told him so, and have made a mistake it was no more than your mothers and grandmother both did, but don’t risk your happiness and his by keeping silence. I pray God to direct you right.

                                                                                                    Mother

Letters - Dear Mother, Your son, L.A.G.

                                                                                                                                    Bemidji Minn.

                                                                                                                                    Jan. 3, 1900
Dear Mother:
Your letter received tonight. Was Glad to get it and surprised to get some of the others. You need not send this letter – oh well I guess I don’t write it. I don’t care to have it gabbed about the county and that seems to be a natural failing among some of the Otter Tail County people.

    I think that Aunt Em’s surmising are a little wrong. She must have imagined all that about Alice’s feelings. I don’t have any idea she felt half as bad as it was pictured. You see I have been trying to cure myself so have kept away. When I get cured, why, then I can go there again perhaps. That will take me about as long as it would for you to sit down and persuade yourself that you never saw the sun. If I dared to believe that her surmising were true--- but I don’t. For I have been told to the contrary, not once but several times. You suggest having a talk with Alice, Lots of opportunity for a talk anywhere around here. And then it wouldn’t do any good. I’ve talked out. I wrote to her Christmas before my school was out that I couldn’t promise to be there Christmas.

     So Bro. Swenson thinks I wasn’t cut out for a stumppuller. Well it don’t matter much what I was cut out for,. I can’t do anything in the condition of mind I’m in now. That’s why I am going to quit teaching school. I just can’t do it.

   I have just as much happiness right in this log hut as I ever expect to see anywhere. I’ve got my books and all the work I can do to relieve my mind.

     I would rather stay here and make a living that go to a city and make a failure. And that’s all I could make under the circumstances. Well its after bedtime and if I cut a load of wood and take it to town tomorrow I will have to get up early.
                                                                                            Your son
                                                                                              L. A. G.

Letters - Dear Sister Ella - Strictly Confidential

Dear Reader, this letter is from Emma, mother of Alice, to her sister Ella, mother of Leon. 

Strictly Confidential

                                                                                                  Bemidji, Beltrami Co.
                                                                                                  Minn. Dec. 19th, 1899
Dear Sister Ella-
I have been wondering why you did not answer my letter, but perhaps you are waiting for me to answer yours, as we both wrote about the same time. We are as well as common. 

     Christmas is over and New Years a coming. I hope you had a merry Christmas, though I think you must be lonely this winter with Maude and the boys gone. We tried to have a merry time Christmas, we invited all the relatives and we would have been glad if they had all come, but they wouldn’t and now if I write a little about matters, I wonder if Roseltha and Warfields’s folks will all have to read it first, if they do they may just stop right here---- But I do wonder what has happened to mar the friendship between Leon and Alice, or I should say to mar his friendship for her. 

    Before Alice came home Leon used to come here once in a while and acted friendly and sociable as ever, but since she came he has only stopped in once to get his pillow and blankets and when I asked him to come and see us, he said he didn’t have time, and I said I guess you will have time after your school is out, wont you? He replied, No, that he would be too busy then. I knew that Alice went up stairs and had a cry then, didn’t come down to eat any supper, and when she came down I knew from her eyes what was the matter. 

    Well before his school ended, she wrote a long letter to him, and invited him to come here to spend Christmas, it was so long before she got a reply that I knew she was anxious about it. Though she says nothing, and when Ruth came last Friday evening and told us Leon and Winnie were not coming for Christmas, she had another cry. Though she tried to hide her feelings from us. I knew she didn’t enjoy Christmas very well, and the next day Leon and Winnie went by going to town with wood but they never stopped, and we couldn’t make them hear so we could send the little gifts that were on the tree for them, so I think she had another cry.- she never tells me anything about it, but I told her, if she was troubled about anything, to make it a subject of prayer, and trust the Lord to make things right, but I have wondered what could be the matter.

    I wonder if he was mad because she corresponded with her old schoolmate John T. Smith, a while. I asked her, whey he quit writing so soon when he had started the correspondence first, she said she didn’t suppose he would, if she hadn’t have given him a hint, that it would be better to drop the correspondence. Then I have wondered if she had refused Leon, because they were cousins, and had hurt herself the worst.

     I remember I told her a few years ago, I didn’t think it wise for cousins to marry, but I don’t think there is anything in the law of God, or the law of Minn. against it, and if it should be that they love each other it wouldn’t be right for them to marry anyone else, and they will never be as contented to live single all their lives as to marry a worthy person they love, for though life brings its trials and responsibilities, yet the blessings of true love, more than compensate for trials, don’t you think so? at any rate I am thankful to God for my husband and children. and am glad I got married. 

    Now you see how my wits are all wool gathering, for I don’t know as Leon and Alice have ever thought of getting married, but I think from the way I can see how Alice feels, that they would be happier if friendship was restored. I think sometimes a young man being a few years older, than a girl, makes up his mind he wants to marry, sooner than the girl does, and if he takes her first answer as unchangeable, without giving her plenty of time to consider the matter he might make a mistake. I know if Ed had have taken my first answer, without giving me another chance to reply, I never should have married him. Well what a fool I am I don’t believe I will ever send this letter, do you.

    Well I dreamed of seeing Maude last night and she looked nice and happy, so I thought, Maude is all right. I hope so anyway. I suppose Winnie will be with you New Years, if he don’t change his mind. Lester has been here this week cutting wood for our folks, I don’t think he will stay long though. I guess I shall like to live here all right, if I could only go to meetings and Sunday school, and to see our folks I would be all right. Well I can’t think of any news, so I will stop, -love to you all.—write soon to

                                                                                  Emma L. Anderson                                                                                  

Letters - Miss Alice Anderson... I dreamed Thursday night... L.A. Gould

Dear Reader,
      The next scores or so of posts will be not my own writings, but correspondences of my Great-Grandfather Leon Gould. This letter is to his cousin, Alice, whom he later married! Great-Grandpa Leon had a large family (of 11 children), and journeyed as secretary to Alexander Smith in the RLDS church before eventually joining the Church of Christ (TL) and becoming an Apostle. His descendants have been blessed with a rich spiritual heritage and many true family accounts of  what can only be called miracles. If you read these letters and are interested in reading more of the Gould family history, look for a book titled "Trek of Faith" by Peggy Tucker. These letters contain the original spelling mistakes and have not been corrected. Feel free to print and keep these letters in your own family history files if you so wish. In the future, a book of Leon's writings will be made available. Enjoy!



                                                                                                             Moose. Minn.
                                                                                                             Dec. 10, 1899
Miss Alice Anderson,
Bemidji, Minn.

I dreamed Thursday night that I had got two letters from England, one from you, so Friday I went to the P.O. and got your letter but the others have not arrieved. Now perhaps I had better proceed to answer your letter. I am sorry that you were so disturbed as to think it necessary to do anything so distasteful as to write to me. I don’t see why Mrs. Nye should try to be offended at you, that I didn’t stay there over night for I told her that I couldn’t and wouldn’t, before you came in from the lake.

     As to coming to your place: How could I, any more than I have? Have stayed all night there and took dinner twice; I should think that was a great plenty.

    I didn’t blame you at all for not speaking to me in church, for I will own up that I tried to avoid it. Don’t ask me why, I cant help it. You should not have allowed it to cause you any uneasiness of mind. Whatever my actions may be, do not imagine that it is because I am offended. Nothing of the kind. Thank you for the invitation to Christmas dinner but I cannot promise to be present. My presence is not worth much anyway, and I am getting so I feel miserable and out of place in a gay crowd,. I’d rather be alone.

     I don’t know why Maud has not written to you. I supposed she had. May be she has been to busy lately.

    Tell the boys I don’t care for the school, thanks. I’ll be free in a week or more and if the Lord is willing I will quit the school business and leave it to abler hands. I’ve tried seven terms and made what I consider failures, so I think it is time to adjourn.

    You know a person in order to make a successful teacher must be able to put all their energies into the work and no one with a load on their minds is in condition to do the work. It took me six months to get this school under my control and I did not do it then without making enemies; but I can’t help it. I would have done the same if I knew it would make an enemy of the best friends I had, if I have any.

                                                                                                  L.A. Gould

Letters - Dear Cousin, Respectfully Yours, Alice E. Anderson

Dear Reader,
      The next scores or so of posts will be not my own writings, but correspondences of my Great-Grandfather Leon Gould. Great-Grandpa Leon had a large family (of 11 children), and journeyed as secretary to Alexander Smith in the RLDS church before eventually joining the Church of Christ (TL) and becoming an Apostle. His descendants have been blessed with a rich spiritual heritage and many true family accounts of  what can only be called miracles. If you read these letters and are interested in reading more of the Gould family history, look for a book titled "Trek of Faith" by Peggy Tucker. These letters contain the original spelling mistakes and have not been corrected. Feel free to print and keep these letters in your own family history files if you so wish. In the future, a book of Leon's writings will be made available. Enjoy!



                                                                                                            Bemidji, Minn.
                                                                                                            Dec. 6, 1899
Mr. Leon Gould
Moose, Minn.

Dear Cousin;- Well I got that far and then I didn’t know how to go any farther, but guess I might just as well commence one place as another. I have not forgot that I owe you a letter. I have thought at different time that I would answer it, but then again I would think that maybe I had better not, so I did not.

    “If a person could only know how to tell just what was the thing to do at all times.
May be it would be better if I should not write this time but I am going to guess at it and write anyway. I have thought ever since you were down at Mr. Nye’s this fall when Bro. Robert’s was there that I ought to write and beg your pardon for the way I treated you at that time.
I would have gone out and went to getting supper if I had have thought of your going off before supper. I would have set down and visited a few minutes before getting supper if I had not thought you would stay longer. Mamy told me to go in and visit with you before going to work at supper but I would not do it for I thought I would have time to do the visiting after supper, and when you went off as you did Mamy was the next thing to being offended at me. She said it was all my fault. They all would have been glad if you had have stayed over night with them. 

     I should have spoke to you the next day at church and I intended to all the time but before I got through the talking with the girls and my folks why you was gone. Now I really started to go over where you had been standing when I looked up and you were gone. So please do not think that it was because I did not want to speak to you for I did want to, I didn’t want to treat you as if you were an entire stranger and to tell you the truth I really felt bad all the afternoon on account of the way I had treated you. I mean bad not badly.

     Now I will tell you another reason I have for writing. Ma and all my folks and Freem’s too think that you and I have had trouble of some kind. Ma said the other day she guessed that you and I have had trouble for she could think of no other reason why you wouldn’t ever come and see us when you are up here.

     I started out Thanksgiving Day to have a talk with you but as Lester was with you I gave it up. Now Leon you are welcome to come here as often as you can and will. We would all, myself included, be glad to have you come. Another thing that made her (Ma) think we had had trouble was because Maude had not written to me for so long. She thought Maude had taken your part.

    Now if you, Winnie and Tommy are still in Beltrami Co. and Christmas time we want you to be sure and come to our house and spend Christmas Day with us as we intend to have the relation in this county here if the weather is so they can come.
Be sure and come for dinner.

     Another item of business is, that the boys say they are talking of having a school house built ready for school by the First of Jan. in the Dist,. we live in here and they thought it would be a good chance for a winter term for you if you wanted it.

    Well I think I have better quit for fear you will get sick of reading this, I wouldn’t blame you if you did have no better feeling than disquiet for me, but I will feel some better now that I have begged pardon.

                                                                                       Respectfully Yours
                                                                                       Alice E. Anderson

P.S. Byron got a deer yesterday. I suppose we will never see Maude Gould again. How different her wedding was from anything we had ever imagined in years gone by.

Letters - Leon, there must be some great mistake somewhere. Alice

Dear Reader, It is unclear where these letters belong, or even if they were sent or merely saved by Alice - they most likely belong with her initial rejection of his affection a few letters back, but since unclear and the next letters we have come with a gap of several months previous, we are sharing these now. 


Leon,- I am so surprised, I hardly know what to say--- I hardly know what I want to say. I know I am well enough acquainted with you so I can believe what you say and I hope you know me well enough so that you will believe me when I say that the idea never enter my head that you could have such a motive as you said you did have for doing as you did. I am not near as good as I wish I was, I have a great many since to overcome.
I don’t want more than my share of happiness in this world and I don’t expect to get it. You will certainly have you share of happiness sometime to pay up for what you have had to suffer.
I think if I had of known how matters were a year ago, If I had known then what I know now about your feelings I would still have done what I could to make you see your mistake, in fact I think I would have done more than I did do, if possible, for I didn’t know then it was a mistake, and altho’ you are not happy now as matters are, yet I think you would have been more miserable if that affair had been carried out, than you are now. Possibly if I had of known then what I know now, and still have tried to get you to see your mistake, it might have given you more hopes to contend with than you had already.
I am will to do what I can to help you that I think would be the right thing to do.
                                                                     
                                                                                                                                   Alice


Leon I pity you with my whole heart. I am so sorry that I am the cause of such misery. Take the matter to the Lord in prayer. Ask him; beg of him to relieve you of your misery. He will certainly help you sooner or later, so don’t give up. Don’t for one moment think you are going to the bad. That will never do. I do care for you, I care for you enough so that I could not stand it to see you go to the bad, or ruin your life’s happiness by acting under some rash impulse, without doing what I can to help you see where I think ---- --- (chewed)---- wrong.
But I have that same reguard for all of my cousins that are worth of any regard at all, or I fancy I have.
There must be some great mistake some where, or else our feelings would agree. What and where that mistake is will have to be proven in the future. Pray for me that the Lord will guide and direct my footsteps. And that he will give me wisdom that what ever I may do, may be for my best good, and I will do the same for you.
I will close hoping that you will never let anything come between you and your Savior----

                                                                                                                                           Alice.

Letters - Dear Cousin, I have got to study, study, study, Good bye, Alice

Dear Reader, this letter really should be the first of the series as it predates all the rest, but was somehow missed by me initially - my apologies! 

                                                                                                                              Wakpeton, N. Dak.
                                                                                                          Jan. 31, 1897
Mr. Leon Gould,
Battle Lake, Minn.

Dear Cousin: I was very much surprised yesterday when I got home from Sunday School to find that picture. I did not ask for one for I thought as long as I got one of each of the other pictures you would not have one of these for me but I was just as glad to get it as I would have been if I had asked for it.
I don’t think it is very good of Hallie or Winnie.

     We are getting along nicely at school, have grown from eighty six last Fall to one hundred eighteen this winter.

     I don’t see why if there is homesteadable land within reach of humanity, a person shouldn’t get him a home; it is the cheapest way of getting a home there is, I guess, that’s what I am going to do when I get of age; if I don’t miss my guess. I should hate to advise any one to go to Klondyke.

     Well this paper, pen and ink are bad and the writer is worse. News is scarce and I have got to study, study, study.
                                                                                                              Good bye,
                                                                                                                  Alice
(transcribed by Samii S. Gould)

Letters - Dear Cousin: I will endeavor to answer your letter, Your Cousin, Leon

 Dear Reader,
      The next scores or so of posts will be not my own writings, but correspondences of my Great-Grandfather Leon Gould. This letter is to his cousin, Alice, whom he later married! Great-Grandpa Leon had a large family (of 11 children), and journeyed as secretary to Alexander Smith in the RLDS church before eventually joining the Church of Christ (TL) and becoming an Apostle. His descendants have been blessed with a rich spiritual heritage and many true family accounts of  what can only be called miracles. If you read these letters and are interested in reading more of the Gould family history, look for a book titled "Trek of Faith" by Peggy Tucker. These letters contain the original spelling mistakes and have not been corrected. Feel free to print and keep these letters in your own family history files if you so wish. In the future, a book of Leon's writings will be made available. Enjoy!



                                                                                                                            Clitherall, Minn.
                                                                                                                            Aug. 11, 1899
Dear Cousin:-
With such materials as I have at hand I will endeavor to answer your letter.

     I met with a little accident so am off duty this afternoon. Was in attendance at the Silver Lake School last Sunday.

     Your letter is like you, Alice. It shows you Character which I admire and love. You must not worry over me. I will try to do the best I can but you must not be surprised if I fail altogether. I have been so near overcome lately that I dare not promise much for the future. I began to doubt the promise that our trials should not be greater than we can bear.

     Yes we can be cousins but, somehow that thought does not bring any great weight of happiness.

     Maud gets lots of letters from Missouri, lately. They have not sent out cards yet.

     You have lost more in weight since last winter than I have. When last weighed I was only fourteen pounds lighter than then.

    I have not seen Lester since I came home. It is of no use to go out there to see him for he is always away.

    I suppose you have your certificate by this time.

     You will have hard work to read this, but how can I spell correctly with such a poor pen?
Respects to Nona. I admire “smashers”.

                                                                                                                 Your Cousin
                                                                                                                  Leon Gould
                                                                                                              Battle Lake, Minn.

Letters - My Dear Cousin, Yours in Sympathy, Alice E. Anderson

Dear Reader,
      The next scores or so of posts will be not my own writings, but correspondences of my Great-Grandfather Leon Gould. This letter is from his cousin, Alice, whom he later married! Great-Grandpa Leon had a large family (of 11 children), and journeyed as secretary to Presiding Patriarch Alexander Smith (son of Joseph & Emma) in the RLDS church before eventually joining the Church of Christ (TL) and becoming an Apostle. His descendants have been blessed with a rich spiritual heritage and many true family accounts of  what can only be called miracles. If you read these letters and are interested in reading more of the Gould family history, look for a book titled "Trek of Faith" by Peggy Tucker. These letters contain the original spelling mistakes and have not been corrected. Feel free to print and keep these letters in your own family history files if you so wish. In the future, a book of Leon's writings will be made available. Enjoy!

                                                                                                           Bemidji, Minn.
                                                                                                            Aug. 9. 1899
My Dear Cousin;-
Are you still looking for a letter or have you given up ever getting another one? I received your letter a week ago today and have been trying to decide what to write in answer. Leon if I could give such a good love now as you are ,peace, ambition, happiness love instead of misery and pain I would ----(too dim to read)---- glad to do so. Leon I from ----(dim)---- know no more what real love means than a child ten years old. I have had my fancies, but I never cared enough for any man, so that should he have asked me, I would have consented to be his wife.

     Why is it that you should have such affection for me when I cannot return it. I do not understand. It seems to me there is a mistake somewhere. If it is God’s will that we should share each other’s lot through life then I have not found out yet that I love you and if it is not His will it seems a pity that you should be made to suffer so long.

     Do not give up entirely please. It realy does not seem to me that in real life, disappointment in love could make a person so miserable, so hopless. That seems more like a novel. And to think that I am the cause of it.

     My daily prayer for you is that you may find peace and happiness in the near future. I had never had any desire to get married yet, it may be that is the reason I have never loved as most girls do before my age. Of course I have always thought that I would not appreciate being an old maid. Your writing to me does not give me the blues. It only warns me because everybody does not understand out affairs and they think I am coorsponding with you and making you think I love you and then I cast your love away lightly. That makes hard feelings towards me.

     I do not cast your love off so light as you say. I have thought and worried more about it this last week than ever before but have not decided that I can give you my whole love and unless I can do that I will never marry anyone. Even if we cannot be more than friends or more than cousins to each other, can we not be that much? Is the any need of our being strangers to each other? I have no desire for any such a thing.

    This is a queer world and I am far from being satisfied with myself.

     Well I am at Barny Neye’s tonight, I came here Sunday. Took the examination Monday and Tuesday.. I tried for a Second Grade but will probably get left.

     The boys and Myron are haying. I spent last week working with blue berries. We “kids” have selected some land near Freem’s for Pa.. Nona is writing too. She made a new “mash” while at the Reunion. Omar Nunn and she correspond since her return.

     The Methodists are going to have a Sunday School picnic here near Bampy’s tomorrow. Did intend to have it today but it rained so they gave it up.

     I weigh seventeen pounds less than I did in the winter. 

     Went to church Sunday evening but much rather it had been a L.D.S. meeting. I have applied for the school in our district. The one in which Myron lives.

     Well as Nona has finished her letters and it is ten o’clock I guess I had better quit.
Nona sends her best respects and says if you see Walter say “Hello” for her.


                                                                                             Yours in Sympathy
                                                                                              Alice E. Anderson
(transcribed by Samii S. Gould)