nov 1, 1873 - “...father used to take me to mill for my health.” JL401 to Louise and Frances Norcross

Description:

Emily wrote her only letter mention of a grist mill to “Loo” and “Fanny”. If she really was a baby, this is probably the grist mill which Nathaniel Kellog established in 1744: “Tell Loo when I was a baby father used to take me to mill for my health. I was then in consumption! While he obtained the ‘grist,’ the horse looked round at me, as if to say ‘eye hath not seen or ear heard the things that' I would do to you if I weren't tied!’ That is the way I feel toward her. . . .” Though Dickinson’s comedic anecdote focuses more on the horse, the reference attests to town perceptions from the time that mill workers suffered less from consumption.