ANNIE PICKFORD BITTERMAN Jan 7 1915 Dear Circle, Amelia is writing her part of the circular letter and suggests that I do the same, so I will. Tho’ I suppose I do not come in until after Henry, at least. Well, I have lived in the city for nearly a week and am just as much countrified as before. I have learned the names of four streets around the capitol (Main (State), Carroll, Pinckney, & Miflin) and that is all. I think I could perhaps find my way from Amelia’s to the flat if it was necessary alone but so far have always had company. The painters are busy now and the plumbers have work to do yet but I hope it will not very long before we can begin to keep house again. We are living with Amelia just now. That is, Ruth and I are. Cal is navigating between Mason C. and Nora S. from his letters, and Grace is staying with Grandma B. in Nora S. till the semester closes. Ella took Amelia & I to the Orpheus yesterday PM on Henry’s tickets and it was all good but two acts. A man who could whistle to imitate birds was very good. In the evening, we went to the annual church meeting and supper at the Unitarian Church and on Tues. eve we went to the Grinnell - Wis. basketball game at the Mens Gym. The score was 41 to 19 in favor of Wis. Today I have been making a working dress for myself as I expect to have to work occasionally after this. We visited with Miss Kramer on the train to McGregor where she teaches this year, and she says she is principal there and likes it very well. Ella has some nice new hardwood floors laid all over upstairs and is just having them varnished. I have just eaten as much candy as is good for me and it is bedtime so I will close and hope to write from our new house nest time. Good Night, Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ANNIE PICKFORD BITTERMAN Feb 16, 1915 805 Grant Street, Madison Wisconsin Dear Circle, I almost wrote it Nora Springs above, from force of habit. It still seems to me as if we were here for an extended visit. We have been in the flat now a week, coming over to stay finally of Feb. 8. The doorknobs are not quite all on yet, nor the electric light fixtures for the dining room and living room which were defective so were sent back and have not yet arrived. But we are getting comfortably settled and find the rooms very light and pleasant for a flat. Cal has not got used to steam heating plants very well yet and thinks they are more expensive to operate than hot water or air except in very sever weather when they can be run at full blast. He made Amelias furnace sit up and take notice of the coal he put into it, and we were very comfortable over there during the cold, stormy weather without using any more coal that Amelia & I did without getting very much seat. I will send a plan of our flat for those of you who have not seen it. We have a basement store room but not a laundry room down cellar. Mr Colby, our landlord, just moved his goods over from his old store to the new one last night after closing hours. Cal was asked to help and worked three house, till eleven. Then this morning he helped again and this P.M. washed the plate glass windows which make up the entire end of the store from ceiling to floor. Now that we are settled and Mr Colby is moved, he will have to look up something steady to do. I think he will be able to find something he can do. It is exasperating to see these labor union men work, to one who has lived and worked on a farm. It really cost about ten dollars for the time spent for one plumber to put eight feet of iron pipe having two elbows in place as a drain to the big refrigerator in the store below and in every other trade, works that way. We are getting used to the streets of Madison somewhat. Ella strictly forbids us to say a place is East or North etc in this city. We must only mention the street it is on. Monroe St. runs S.W. so our house stands that way, so we are unable to speak of the south windows, etc. I wish it had been on one of the straight streets. Maybe when the weather gets warm, we can take a picture of it. Or better still, you all can come and see us, here. The street cars pass right by here but I do not notice the noise much. Tho in summer when the windows are open, we may. We have half a dozen trees (box elders) along the walk here & I am glad to have something that will be fresh looking so near. I will try to have some window boxes on the screened porch in summer. We have a grocery store below us, a hardware next door, a butcher shop across the street. Also a delicatessen & barber shop, a bank, a drug store (which is also a sub postoffice) & a clothing store within a block. So as long as the “simoleans” hold out, we shall not want. Cal got the car out & took a bag of wheat over to Ella for her chickens last Friday but the streets were a sheet of ice and he said it was no pleasure to drive it. He keeps it in a barn belonging to a Prof. of French at the U who lets him have it free of charge. The girls and I walked to Lake Wingra, a few blocks from here Sunday toward evening, and a brown dog of somebodys went with us. It seemed quite natural to be out under the trees and off the cement walks for a while and we enjoyed it. None of the family have been homesick but me. One day when we first came & came over and found the flat so unfinished, I was promptly homesick but since that I have been busy and have not minded it. Ruth is enjoying her U. work this winter and comes home to dinner. Grace finds her high school work very much harder but is beginning to get abreast of it now and when Cal. gets at this job, we shall be all right, here. Grace is two miles from school so she has not tried to come home for dinner. I can go up to the city alone now and get back all right. We had the furniture that was damaged coming here repaired and it is now just as it was before, at the R.R. Co’s expense. Bedtime now, so goodnight. Love from Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ANNIE PICKFORD BITTERMAN Madison, Wis. Thurs. Mar 25, 1915 Dear People:- It is now 10:30 A.M. and a time that I should be busy at the multitude of things I have before me but this letter came to me Tuesday and I will send it on today. We have a drug store in the next block where we mail our letters. The carrier here won’t take them at the door. We were very sorry that Wendell and Ellen could not come to celebrate with us on the 19th and so complete the quarter century of regular meeting. Henry & Ella, Roswell & Kate, Ray and Theo, Amelia, Jim and Ethel Watson and Helen Churchill came and we enjoyed having them here. Had a seven o’clock dinner and spent the evening in games and stunts of all kinds. They are certainly a jolly bunch. They gave us a very pretty silver bon-bon dish and the best of wishes for the future. Sat. morning Grace woke up with a raging headache and had it for three days and has gone to school for the first time this morning (Thursday). Hope she will be able to stay without getting too tired. They have so many flights of stairs to climb between classes in different rooms. Tues. Theo invited me to her Victrola club. They have luncheon served cafeteria style and then a certain composer is studied and several selections of his played. Tues. it was Meyerbeer & his works. They seemed a very pleasant group of ladies and I was glad to be present. Amelia had the Happy Hour Club Tues eve. and invited me over, but I was so tired with being up with Grace several nights that I thought I’d better go to bed. Wed. Ella asked me to help serve at the Alliance dinner at the church as several of the regular hostesses were sick so I did. I had only joined the meeting before, but Mrs Watts says they have the reputation of putting every one at work. But I enjoyed it; after we had finished at the church, Ella and I went to see the oldest store I was ever in. It is a china store somewhat but has every thing else in it imaginable. A veritable Dickens “Old Curiosity Shop”, -- came home to supper & then went to the Soph-Frosh Gym. exhibition. Found cards in the door both days when I came home. I am a little shy when it comes to repaying calls at strange houses. They are bound to make us German here. They printed our first cards Bittermann, but had another order finished & gave us both kinds. -- and the first week Cal. was here, a man came up smiling & shook hands cordially and said “How do you do Mr. German”. Cal laughed & said “Well I am german but I have another name also.” Then he said “Well, I certainly thought you were my friend Mr. German, you look just like him.” He has also been taken for Ella’s brother. He’s been hobnobbing with the parson at the Unitarian church so much lately that he probably will develop into a church worker in time. Today the University Exposition opens to last three days. It is a sort of fair where every department of the U. is represented by a characteristic display. It is an immense amount of work and is only held once in several years I understand. Want to go one day. It is really a strenuous life in Madison as Henry says and heaps of good things one has not time to hear. Little Betsy has just come to stay with me today so good bye for this time. Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ANNIE PICKFORD BITTERMAN Madison Wisconsin Apr 19, 1915 Dear Circle: I was a little surprised when I looked at the date on Henrys letter to find I had had this letter six days. Well, I will not be long in telling all I know, would have written yesterday but was away from ten thirty AM to ten thirty PM. We were out to Theo’s cottage in the afternoon as were Henrys and Miss Marsh (their boarder) & Amelia and Miss Francis (her boarder) & Roswell & Kate and a pair of young lovers from the University, friends of the Owens. Theo says she will go to Merle’s for a couple of week on Friday so will not be at the cottage for a while yet to live. I was instructed by the balance of the “kin” to purloin Arthurs letter to send to Uncle Joseph and if he wants it sent back, he must “speak up”. I wont believe a pure bred down-Easter like Theo could read that sheet without she solemnly declares so over her signature. We were glad to hear of the pleasant party at Rufus’ on their anniversary and hope for many more happy ones for them. We thought that idea of Charles to get Rena’s age very clever, but “when a woman wills, she will, you may depend upon it, and when she wont, she wont and thats the end on’t” with Rena. Uncle Walter writes that Aunt is very poorly and the Dr says she may live some time but might go at any time. They are surely having a hard time of it. I have not had a copy of the family records Chas. speaks of. Speaking of Ford stories, Cal. heard a few new ones the other day. This man said the “Ford” was a “family” car. It had a hood for Mother, muffler for Father and a rattle for the baby. No 2. A man saw along the road every little ways a “ford” upside down with the wheels still running. Upon inquiring what had happened, he was told that someone had sprinkled insect powder all along that road. Well, I planted flower seed and radishes & lettuce in boxes last week when the garden fever seized me but it is not like getting at it in earnest. Cal thinks I can get along without a garden for one year but I’ll miss my guess if he isn’t sorry before the summer is over that there are no fresh vegetables. I am also going to miss housecleaning this spring but I am busy all the time. “Honest Injun” Love to you all, from Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ANNIE PICKFORD BITTERMAN Madison Wisconsin May 20 1915 Dear Circle: Henry gave me the “robin” at the “alliance dinner on Wed. so I will also be more prompt than last time. Mrs. Levis, Mrs Susner, and I were the three to get the dinner ready that day and Mrs Levis being used to that sort of thing, everything moved off very smoothly. At the rag bee held here at our flat a week before, 19 lbs were torn and sewed, for the rug they make to sell at the church fair in the fall The May fete which was to have taken place tomorrow at 5 oclock has been postponed till 5 on Sat pm. The weather is very cold and rainy and may have to be postponed again. 700 girls take part in costume. Ruth is of the group of villagers. Then there is Robin Hood and his men (all girls), milkmaids, Shepherdesses, jesters, etc. Grace and I went to see Mary Pickford in “Behind the Scenes” lately. If she is a relative of ours, I wish she’d “divvy” up some of that $100,000 a year she gets. She is a good actress. Amelia just told me over the phone that Versie and her sister Ruth were down to her fathers funeral and would stay in Madison over Sunday. I went to a ladies aid on Tues. PM here in Wingra Park and a lady I met there was well acquainted with Tom & John Treloars families. When Wendell plats his addition to Mason City we hope he will perpetuate the family names in the streets, as Ray did here in Madison. Not far west of us is Pickford St. also Sprague & Owen Sts. and I picked up a card a while ago with a picture of Main St. in Pickford Mich. Will enclose it to see if we ought not make a donation to repair it. Will also send pictures of the Colby flat taken in the winter. We are all well as usual. Affectionately your sister Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison Wisconsin June 13, 1915 Dear People: I notice I wrote my last sheet on May 20th. I think it has been so wet that one could not do much but write letters the past month so the “robin” just kept on the wing. Well, school is over for this semester. Grace and I attended the graduating exercises of the High School on Friday AM when about 200 pupils were graduated. Yesterday was final for Ruth when the Tri-delts gave their annual banquet for the alumni members and actives. Edith came to be present but I understand will not stay long, only till Monday. The graduating exercises for the 800 U. students will be on Wed AM this week and the summer school begins on the 21st. We must surely say “Well Done” to Roger to have finished the country schools so young. There was a big wind and rain again last night and we were told this morning by Mr Colby that the storm originated near Mason City. We wonder what damage was done, if any. Some houses were blown down & others struck by lightning not so very far from Madison. We are sorry to hear of the Farm work being so delayed in all places. People who have relatives in N. Dak. & Oklahoma tell the same story of cold & rain. The farmers around here are replanting much of the corn they had planted. We have begun to have radishes from out “town” garden, but other things grow slowly. Today was childrens day at the churches and three babies were christened at the Unitarian Church. The street cars are full of people going to the parks. I think it would be pretty chilly sitting around out there today. We are very glad to hear of Harolds good position. I guess there will be others of the young folks beside Paul looking for a “job” this summer. I was quite surprised at the amount of interest exhibited in the town of Pickford. But knowing an artist always takes a view so that the best points are shown, I tremble to think what it might have looked like, looking north, south or east. I suppose this season will make the Fair exhibits rather limited. Blanche Palmer sent us the songs their club had written and learned and they were the good ones. Grace has not her got her money for her first premium on eggs in the Junior Egg contest last year. Here hoping we may have better weather while the “Robin” makes this flight. Love to all Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison Wis July 16, 1915 Dear Bros and Sisters: Henry kept this letter ten days and then suggested that I send it right along the next day but I was also busy so did not get at it. We hope this temperature will stretch that Iowa corn like elastic. I know the women folks on the farm are picking & canning berries as fast as they ripen and the men are making hay and plowing corn and maybe harvesting for a change. Cal comes home as tired at night as he did on the farm and though there are no chores but the auto to tend, it seems to take all his spare time. He has tinkered more with it since we’ve been in M. than all together before. I’m afraid I’ll have forgotten all I learned before he gets it all in shape for me to use. We were mighty glad of Arthurs and the childrens visit. It was really a home coming week to us as it was really for Madison people that week. We hear today that Merle writes that Ritch’s mother is sick now and that they will not take their trip now as Henry expected. The girls and J.C. seem to think they must go to Iowa at Fair time but there is nothing very sure about it. They give the men a weeks vacation at the yard, so it wont be a very long visit. We have just had our first string beans and some of the peas are about ready. Our long distance garden is not so very productive. Had to spray the sweet peas with tobacco for Aphis. Hope you are all well. Good night. Affectionately Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nora Springs Iowa Aug 16, 1915 Dear Circle, Amelia gave me the letter on Sat. when we called for ten minutes on our way to Iowa. We found very good roads most of the way but just out of Blue Mounds Wis we had to put the chains on for 2 miles. Then there was nine miles of mud just west of Fennimore so we just got to Prairie Du Shein in time for the 12:30 ferry so lost no time there but north of Nashua there was a very muddy road newly graded and we got crosswise of the grade & not having the chains on couldnt get straight again without a man & horse to turn it into the grade again. Then with the chains on we came on all right. But it was late getting here because of all that. Got to Dales at 11 PM. Yesterday we went to Grandma’s for dinner and to Ellen’s for supper where there were about 40 relatives and friends together, which makes a fine circle. Threshing begins tomorrow if the weather permits and it is pleasant and breezy today so that will help get the grain in shape. We saw a number of fields still uncut on our way out Sat. while others were threshing. But corn us away behind everywhere. Dale has some south of the house as large as usual and we hope it will make a crop for him. It seems just as if we had been here all the time since we are back again. But we like Madison pretty well too and will like it better when we get in a home of our own sometime and Cal. gets busy at something not quite so strenuous as his present job. I think his vacation at the County Fair at Mason sounds restful (?). It is the hardest kind of work for me to tramp around at fairs. We are hoping for our trip home next Monday to Wisconsin will be as fortunate as our trip out was. It was fun to go over new country roads and the day was cool & pleasant. I will give this to Henry today. I am out of my turn but no matter. Love to you all Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison Wisconsin Oct 7 1915 Dear Circle I’ve had this letter a week and Henry was lots worse, but I’ll send it along today tho it will be short. We miss Amelia here so much and it seem strange not to think of running in to that house when we go by. But it will be nice for her to be with Edith in her cozy home. Mrs Crandall (her tenant) has decided to go to St Louis for a short visit this week, Ella says. The girls are both in school and busy as can be. Ruth tutors a 6th grade boy an hour a day beside. I am here alone all day and am as busy as I ever was. Go to the Alliance one day a week, getting ready for the fair. And am planning on taking some work in the evening continuation school in the Randall School beginning on Monday evening next. Some thirty ladies have enrolled from this ward for sewing, cooking & millinery lessons. Cal is at the lumber yard yet but homes to find something not quite so strenuous before long. We were shocked to hear of little Elliots death as we had not known he was sick. I wonder if Alice went on her trip to Ohio. Must mail this now. Affectionately Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison Wisconsin Nov 9, 1915 Dear Circle, I see Ellen has a birthday today [Sarah Ellen Pickford b. 9 Nov 1864, md. Wendell Wilkinson] and I wish her many more happy ones. Grandma Bitterman has one also today, is 72. [Sarah Heinselman b. 9 Nov 1843]. We enjoyed the two weeks visit with them and they left for home yesterday. Mr Neiman asked us to bring them up to see them on Sunday pm. They moved here from Nora Springs last week into a new house they had built on Sherman Ave and their lot runs right up to the shore of Lake Mendota. It is a fine place and Mr Neiman thought he could settle down all right if he could have the old “crowd” that held forth at the Pribbeans near by. Their house and lot cost them $8500. There is another fine large house going up just near them that is being built for a farmer that has just moved here from near Lancaster Wis., a Mr Griswold. Maybe Rudolph might know them. I met Mrs Griswold at the Alliance. I think Amelia is sending a shameful picture and I shall not be surprised if she appears before the footlights in tights if she continues to grow worse till next June. HAHA Grace when to the show “the Birth of a Nation” last night and she says she cant forget about it today. It was so thrilling and tragic, it was a relief when it was over. She wouldn’t have missed it but wouldn’t care to see it again. We heard Mr McAdoo talk last week on Preparedness, and liked him very much. Much better that Taft, for he seemed to really have something to say and said it readily. I have a hat half made for Grace. It remains to be see if she will wear it. Our teacher says hat making is very simple when one gets the rudiments learned. And I understand her daughter has eight hats. Well, it is past bedtime and I must close, hoping this will find you all well. I’m Your affectionate Sister - Annie Elizabeth - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison Wisconsin Dec 19, 1915 Dear Circle I found this letter on the stairs yesterday noon when I came home from the city where I had been to look at the things the merchants had put in stock to sell to other people for Xmas gifts, not to me, this year. Last week we invested in a lot on Chadbourne Ave and the cellar is dug now and if the weather permits the wall will be put in this week. We hope to be able to be in our own home about the time our year is out here at the flat. We are planning to build a six room house in semi-bungalow style with a laundry in the cellar & furnace heat & fireplace. Not a large house but convenient & comfortable, we think. Will send the plan around when it can be spared. We will be two blocks farther north than we are now, and thank goodness the street runs straight with the compass. It is in the University Heights instead of Wingra Park addition where we are now. There is an unprecedented amount of building going on here. At the yard, they say there are 100 new houses being built at present and there are not enough carpenters to be had. The girls are enjoying their vacation, but are busy helping with the Christmas program at the church almost every day. Our church fair two weeks ago brought in a little over $1200, which was good, considering every other church here had had a fair before that.. There is to be a 10th ward Christmas tree just across the street from us on Dec. 24 at 4 pm. The gifts on it to go to the Associated Charities. They are to use an evergreen tree that is growing there. I will enclose the letter from Uncle Walter Amelia speaks of. It think it is good of Uncle Wills to invite them to come to them. We are all as well as usual but there is much “grip” and measles around just now. It doesn’t seem nearly a year since we left Iowa and altho’ we are building, we still do not consider ourselves “badgers” for life, but hope to be comfortable in our own home as long as we care to stay here. We find many pleasant people here that we enjoy meeting. But at this holiday season we think lovingly of the old circle at home and send our heartiest wishes for a Merry Christmas to them and all the best new year ever. Affectionately Annie [Notes in brackets are by Noel Thompson in 1986]