Squire T.B. McQuesten,
Dear cousin,

Your letter of Jan 4th came in good time and we were glad to hear from you. An answer was not immediately returned because I wanted to finish that Tracy history and say a word about it. It contained a lot of information for us and well paid us for the reading. There was in it one statement which so far as we know was a mistake. It was that Gen. John Stark after the Bennington fight made overtures to the British, offered to go into their services, and that the colonies confiscated his property. He might have just as well made such a charge concerning Franklin or Washington. Carlyle, Lecky, Bryce, and Motley and John Fisk will continue to outrank Mr. Tracy as historians probably. The book is much better than nothing and we do not consider that we wasted our time reading it.

Mrs. Hobson¹ was the oldest grandchild of David McQuesten, your great grandfather, and was the daughter of William McQuesten, David's oldest son, who was born in 1787. Sometime after the snow is gone, I will make a copy of what is on the monument in the cemetery and send it to you.

We have been having some very fine wether [sic] during most of the past month: rain enough to help out, but not enough for the wells and springs. Business in town is fairly good. There is too much cotton cloth on the market and the Amoskeag Co. take anything for an excuse to suspend work for short periods, from half a day to half a week, and considering the very high price of food, it makes it quite hard for the help. The meat boycott has not reached us yet and it is not likely it will, certainly not in sufficient vigor to cause a prominent reduction in prices.

Please say to that brother of yours that we would very much like to hear him preach in the old 'Squog'² church and we think there are those outside the family who would be equally glad to hear him. Were it not for her relentless enemy, rheumatisim, Lucia would be quite comfortable, but,--and the but appears to be a good deal of a fixture.

Love and kind regards to all the family in whc' [sic] better half joins.

J. K. McQuesten

¹ Mrs. Eliza Hobson who died the previous summer. See W8280.

² See W8242. This likely refers to the Piscataquog church.