Carthage Property Purchase
Bank St., August 17, 1871
"Having had your permission to do as I found best with regard to procuring a country place for our young children, I have availed myself of the first offer suited to our means of payment.
We have purchased a little farm of 20 acres, 7 miles outside the city, & one mile east of Carthage, for the sum of $4150//00 . I have had it visited by a Gentleman friend of our house, who found it very cheap. The soil is good, & cultivated except one acre of woods. Several acres are planted in fruit trees & grapevines. There is only a small frame building on it containing six rooms with a large stable & other out [houses?]
Mr. [R.?]. King and the Father of one of our Sisters have attended to all for us so that we have not had any trouble, except to procure the money and sign the mortgage. We have paid $2000 00 the remaining $2150 00 is to be paid at the expiration of one year. I regret not being able to take our children out there now, We will be obliged to have a house built for them first. Still I hope that by having a man to cultivate the ground we will have some supply of vegetables & fruits for our house until we are able to build."
(source: letter, Mother M. St. Joseph David to Archbishop Purcell, Purcell Papers, Correspondence, 1871, Box 19, Folder 80, Archdiocese of Cincinnati Archives)