Mowbry Cottage

Dec 19— 80—

My dear Friend,

Your note was very pleasant to me, reaching me very soon after my arrival in Union Springs. I had been as usual, living over the happy days of the Autumns of long ago. As each Fall comes round I feel a kind of homesickness for the dear old home on the hill. The rambles round the grounds, & the apple gatherings are very fresh in memory, and now alas! you are so far away. I have had a good visit, or visits for I was also in Farmington to see Thomas, & in Bushville to see John. Thanksgiving I spent at Canandaigua at Granger Place School one or two old frds met

Miss Comstock's hair is about as white as your own, she looks the picturesque old lady—I hope you are feeling rather better than usual, and enjoying winter as much as may be the winters here grow longer & more dreary, you must be glad to escape them I read in Bushnell's life of "The manliness of Christ"—by Thomas Hughes when in US. both quite interesting, now-a-days my reading seems to circulate around things that interest Frank. I am actually beginning once more the history of England, reading with him—I was in Rochester for a day or so I did not enjoy walking in the old familiar streets, it made my heart-ache, the then when you all lived and we had a much enjoyed re-union we realized that we are growing old, but not for that did life seem less interesting, for my part—it seems much more so, you know I always did have a fancy for growing old—Union Springs has changed very much—death has closed several homes, and loss of money made changes in others—but I never had a better visit, my frds gave me much of their confidence, and now I have so many peoples affairs to think about—which is very pleasant—for during winter my life is rather secluded—Frank is quite robust this winter sets the cold & storms at defiance & walks to & from school mostly he is growing a manly youth

there, and the now contrasted too strongly, for me to feel pleasure in the city. I have never since Rosa left—been any way near the old neighborhood.

The last time I was weighed I had come down to 112—110 was my weight—in the years where we were first acquainted—I am very well—I meet with many people who lament their weight but none who are willing to practise self denial & grow less. I am always glad of a line—remember me kindly & know that—I am ever

Your true faithful

EPierson (Peirson), Elizabeth

A native of Yorkshire, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Pierson (1826–aft. 1900) was the eldest of ten children born to the English Quakers Thomas and Hannah Smith Pierson. The Piersons left England in 1849, and by 1850 were living in Lockport, New York. Charles Douglass lived with the Pierson family for a period of time after John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and both Elizabeth and her younger sister Mary Ann seem to have maintained close, lifelong friendships with Frederick Douglass and other members of his family. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Niagara County, 121; 1870 U.S. Census, New York, Niagara County, 73; 1900 U.S. Census, New York, Niagara County, 163; Fought, Women, 170–71, 179, 241, 270; “England and Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578–1837,” Ancestry.com; “New York, Alien Depositions of Intent to Become U.S. Citizens, 1825–1871,” Ancestry.com.