Letter from Susan M. FitzSimons to Mr. Osborne — page 4 and signature 'Susan M. FitzSimons'

Final leaf of the four-page handwritten letter from Susan M. FitzSimons to Thomas E. Osborne (the family’s farm manager at Mills River, Henderson County, NC). Numbered ‘4’ at the top of the page. Continues from pp. 283–285. Susan closes by noting that her travelling and board expenses have been heavy and that she is anxious to know how much money she has left after the season; hopes Osborne’s crop has been good and that he has had a good harvest; sends her remembrances to his brother & wife and to Mrs Osborne; remarks how strange it seems not to be at Mills River at all this summer; and adds that her daughter Ellen and son Gaillie send their remembrances. Signed clearly ‘Susan M. FitzSimons’ — confirming the writer of the entire pp. 283–286 letter as Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons (b. 1827, d. 14 Dec 1900), mother of Ellen Milliken FitzSimons (b. 1862) and Gaillard Stoney FitzSimons (b. Oct 1864). [signature reading clean and unambiguous — ‘Susan M. FitzSimons.’ Ellen identified explicitly as Ellen Milliken FitzSimons (the elder daughter who became Charleston Library Society Librarian 1898–1948). Gaillie is Gaillard Stoney FitzSimons (Amy Walker’s father). Other text already accurate.]

Signature confirms the writer of the four-page letter (pp. 283–286) as Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons. The closing reference to Ellen & Gaillie is to Ellen Milliken FitzSimons and Gaillard Stoney FitzSimons, two of Susan’s children. Her “travelling & board” expenses likely reflect a season spent away from Mills River (probably in Columbia, where the letter is headed) for her own and Gaillie’s recovery — see p. 283.