Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 21 (1906)

Lt 240, 1906

White, Emma

St. Helena, California

July 9, 1906

Previously unpublished.

My dear daughter Emma White:

I have just learned through a letter from Brother Chapman that you are with your sister in Battle Creek. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 1

Emma, I wish you would come to St. Helena and make us a visit. As you know, this is a beautiful place. I long to see you, and I hope you may comply with my request. I wish your husband J. E. White could come also. Perhaps while you were here, he could come also. This would give him a good opportunity to plan with W. C. White in regard to his book work. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 2

I would very much like to visit the South again, to see the Nashville meetinghouse and the new buildings recently purchased for a sanitarium. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 3

I wish you could be here with us to enjoy the products of our farm. We have had a good crop of loganberries. After using them freely for the table, canning, and making jelly, we have sold about two hundred dollars’ worth. We have sold about fifty dollars’ worth of green peas and are now gathering a second crop. They are very nice. Our new potatoes are excellent. They are dry, mealy, and very palatable. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 4

We are now using apple sauce from our early apples. These apples are small, but very nice. We have a few large cling-stone peaches, and others will ripen a little later. Today we are canning some luscious, fleshy blackberries. We have no apricots on the place, but we have purchased some that to me seem even richer and nicer than peaches. I have never tasted better apricots. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 5

We sent to Loma Linda for several gallons of clear, white, extracted honey. The bees collect this honey mostly from the orange and other fruit blossoms. If you will come, you may have all the honey you desire. I also have some grapefruit that was gathered from the trees at the Loma Linda Sanitarium. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 6

We had no strawberries this year, but we were able to get them in exchange for loganberries, box for box. A late frost killed about five hundred of our tomato plants soon after they were set out. But these have been replaced by others. The prospect is good for green corn. We had no cherries last year, and this year the cherry crop was very light. The frost must have injured the buds. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 7

It is nice to be at home and to enjoy all these nice things. We have with us Brother and Sister King. Sister King was formerly cook at Healdsburg College and thoroughly understands the art of cooking. Brother King helps indoors and out. We value their services very highly. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 8

July 11, 1906

Willie has just informed me that he has received a letter from your husband, saying that you have been examined by Dr. Kellogg, and that the doctor thinks you need treatment. The letter says that Dr. Kellogg has offered to give you the necessary treatment and to charge you nothing. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 9

Now, Emma, if you will come to us, I will pay the entire amount of your expenses. If you wish to take treatment at the sanitarium here, I will pay your medical bill, and also your traveling expenses till you return to your home in Nashville. This I will gladly do. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 10

Dores Robinson and Ella May White Robinson have recently returned from Chico, where they have been teaching school, and are now helping in my work. Mabel White is at home and expects soon to be married. Dores and Ella and Mabel are accommodated at the home of W. C. White. In my house there is plenty of room for you, and we will all be glad to have you with us. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 11

Dr. H. F. Rand is the medical superintendent of the sanitarium here. He has performed some very remarkable surgical operations. Years ago Dr. Kellogg told me that he considered Dr. Rand in every way equal to himself both as a physician and as a surgeon. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 12

Dr. Rand is highly regarded here. At the sanitarium at present there are about one hundred patients, the largest number they have had at one time since the institution opened. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 13

For several weeks, Maggie Hare has been under the care of Dr. Rand. She was accidentally shot in the leg, the ball going nearly through the limb, just below the knee. Dr. Rand removed the bullet and has managed her case well. We fear that if she had been taken to the St. Helena doctors, she would have lost her limb. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 14

A few days ago, a boy who had been bitten by a rattlesnake was brought to the sanitarium. The poison had so permeated the system, that the body was black. Dr. Rand worked over the case, and now the boy has gone home, having overcome the effects of the poison. The doctor has been equally successful in other cases he has undertaken, some of them very complicated. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 15

Will you not accept my invitation, and come where you can be with us, and place yourself under the care of Dr. Rand? I will willingly, gladly do as I have proposed. It will not cost you one cent. Please let me know soon what you are going to do. Borrow money if you need it to pay your fare, or we will send you a draft. 21LtMs, Lt 240, 1906, par. 16