Typed letter from W. Huger FitzSimons to Mr Thomas E. Osborne, 12 September 1918 (terms for sale of Mills River Farm)
Book 1, Page 288 ·1917–1918
Transcription
September 12th, 1918
Mr Thomas E. Osborne, Horse Shoe, N.C.
Dear Mr Osborne:—
I have had a talk with Sister and she is willing to sell you her Mills River Farm upon the same terms as mention- ed in her letter to you of January 16th, 1917 viz: Fifteen thous- and five hundred ($15,500.00) Dollars for the Farm, not including the Mountain land; she wishes to reserve the Mountain land. Terms $5000.00 cash and the balance ($10,500.00) by purchase money notes and mortgage, payable in five equal successive annual in- stalments of $2100.00 each with interest on all unpaid credit portion at the rate of six (6%) per cent per annum payable annually Please advise if this will be satisfactory to you. Sister says if you should buy at these terms she would of course still ex- pect to get the rent for this year. I wrote to Santer from Hen- dersonville as I promised you but mentioned to her that I would shortly be in Charleston and she answered by saying that she would look up the former letter she had written you and she con- cluded to wait until I could come to Charleston to talk the mat- ter over with her and that is the reason I have not written to you sooner. With kind regards,
Sincerely yours,
[Handwritten cover note in pencil at lower left, in W. Huger FitzSimons’s own hand:]
Dear Sister:—
Above is a copy of my letter to Mr Osborne of this date.
W.H.F.
Sept 12/18.
AI Notes
Typewritten letter dated September 12th, 1918, from W. Huger FitzSimons (Charleston) to Thomas E. Osborne at Horse Shoe, N.C., conveying the terms on which his sister Ellen Milliken FitzSimons (“Aunt Ellen”) is willing to sell her Mills River, N.C. farm. The terms repeat her 16 January 1917 offer: $15,500 for the farm, not including the Mountain land (which she reserves); $5,000 cash plus five annual installments of $2,100 at 6 % per annum. Huger had written from Hendersonville to ‘Santer’ — a third party (“answered by saying that she would look up the former letter…”), evidently another woman known to both sides; she preferred to wait until Huger could meet in Charleston. The handwritten cover note in pencil at lower left is in Huger’s own hand: ‘Dear Sister:— / Above is a copy of my letter / to Mr Osborne of this date. / W.H.F. / Sept 12/18.’ The three initials read clearly as W H F (W. Huger FitzSimons). This September letter laid the groundwork for the actual sale that closed 28 Oct 1918 (per the 5 Nov 1918 W.H.F. letter on p287). The third party “Santer” referenced in the body has her surname preserved as written; it may yet resolve from a later page of the album.