JOHNS, Florence to Minna W. Gauss - 1962-01-14
From Gauss and his Children
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Letter
Envelope
To: Mrs. Fred L. Reeves, 212 W. Walnut, Brinkley, Arkansas
From: Florence Johns, 524 W. Elsmere Pl., San Antonio 12 Texas
Body
524 W. Elsmere Place
San Antonio 12 Texas
Sunday, 14 January 1962
Dear Minna:
At last I am returning the material you sent to me in the CERTIFIED MAIL Letter. I do not know why I did it but have made copies of the records you sent in J.J.Johns' handwriting.
I have not had time to start on the Texas memories trip yet but the little book is safe and will probably have a little more time more and more later. Then you can write what you think about how to send the other diaries, guess it should be one by one or what do you think about it!
I am going to write to Mrs Glover Johns in Austin and ask her if Winston showed her any of the diaries. If he did, then he has some.[1] I hope that she answers, not being a Johns and I guess not too interested, she may not. Guess you understood that I wrote to her about Grandpa Johns telling of seeing a Major Johns who lived in Austin, in the big house there, which I know for years was called the Johns Mansion. She does not know anything about it except just what she said I guess. I have written to the Court House in Austin and do not get a reply. What he said was this: "he met a Major Johns, a fine old gentlemen who was a third cousin, his grandfather and mine being brothers". Do you know anything about this.
We have just come out of a very severe weather spell and they tell us there will be more. So many crops were ruined and the citrus crop trees have been mostly killed. They had just recovered from the bad spell we had in 1951. It appears the fruit was not all harvested and I do not understand why it was not as it must have been ripe. Guess the Lord has to wake people up now and then. I was certainly worried about our little plants here and they are certainly in a bad way in spite of what I could do. The wind blew at 30 and 40 miles an hour.
Christmas was quiet with us. Arthur's son, Arthur, Jr. came over from Houston for a couple of days. He seems to be a might fine young man, very much nicer than his brother John who is very hard to get along with and does not seem to like us very much. John was 28 years old this month and Arthur will be 30 years old in July, neither married yet.
Time rushes on and everything changes so. This city has grown so much that we do not know where streets are any more. There are no industries here, just the military installations and thousands of retired Army officers and enlisted men live here. A great many of these have good jobs too, and some think that the jobs should be for the home town boys, most of them have to go elsewhere.
It will be nice to hear from you. I had a card from Bonnie. She has been trying to get up a Texas trip with one of her relatives that lives in Pine Bluff. They want to see the Austin people again.
We hope you both have been well.
With love Florence
Source
Typewritten original in the private collection of the Chambless family. Transcribed to softcopy by Susan D. Chambless, January 30, 2000.
Transcriber's Notes
References
- ↑ By 1962, Winston had donated the volume of the diary in his possession to the Missouri Historical Society. Since this was transcribed, I have discovered that Winston had 3 more of the journals.--Susan D. Chambless
