Letter from Ellen Milliken Barker to Susan Barker FitzSimons, 21 February 1858 (page 2)

Continuation of the letter from page 061. Same hand, same brown ink, on a second leaf.

Paul’s. The latter still an invalid & in her chamber for the last four weeks & looks very frail. M & baby both well. 'tis a very large baby. Yesterday looked exactly like “Sister” — it weighed at the birth eleven pounds. Susie & herself & all seem to feel you would not have gone to see them the day you went to town. I have but heard from him since you left, you know she could not go to Mulberry with the girls, there was so much sickness among the negros or negroes. [M] was ill & Tom not well. I did hear last Saturday from Nell, date 18 Jan’y. I left a bundle in town for E. G. B. to forward, fearing to send the children’s clothes to Mrs S’s. The old [Lippan?] sent with yours (which your Father sharpened for you) was found here this fall & I thought they might be the [crossed out: lost] ^Missing^ ones of Annette’s. James['s] thimble was also lost at the same time. Kate said yr [illegible] you wish[ed?] [illegible] in town, or if they are improved you can [give?] to her. Theo met us at Marg’s on Tuesday & got into the carriage with us & told Kate he & [?] Huger were intended to bring up to Boston the next day 2 Alabama girls. He wished a cold collation — & as I had taken the last out of my larder that day & uncertain if your Father had ordered it to be replenished — we drove to Nat Fuller['s] — got a small leg of Mutton & a capon. The Ice & Champagne — Finis — & left town forgetting at last to stop at the Bakers — but I refreshed these loaves in some milk & had it hot for them. Kate & Myself made a sponge cake nicely flavored, but not so spongy as I hope what was sent to C & S proved to be. We spread the repast at the North end of the drawing room on the dining table & I had Charles & Abram to attend.

[Nat Fuller (c. 1812–1866) was, by 1858, the foremost caterer and private chef in Charleston — an enslaved cook trained under the free Black pastry chef Eliza Seymour Lee, who in the early 1850s built (with his owner’s backing) one of the city’s leading game-market and catering operations. The remark “she could not go to Mulberry with the girls, there was so much sickness among the negros” registers an enslaved workforce at the family’s Cooper River plantation; “Charles & Abram,” “Judy & Martha,” and “our Tom” who attend the meal are similarly the household’s enslaved domestic staff.] But when our dinner came at Night I felt like Mrs Macomba drawing on the old brown kid glove to receive her guests when I had humbled down to Judy & Martha — ^our^ Tom being that day sick. Mrs Bonnell Rhett came with them, she being cousin to Miss Robinson ^introdn^ & friend to Miss [Trapier?]. & Kate said in [quaint?] quiet way thought she had come to make them behave themselves. Miss [J?] is clever & full of mirth not very pretty. Miss R quite pretty, beautiful soft black eye & good complexion. More quiet style