Dear friend Pearson
We received your letter several days ago. We were glad to hear from you. We are both well and hope you are the same. We had a good time at the Old Timers pioneer picnic at Cornwall Park. I was at it in 1945. We were both at it in 1946. Saw people I hadn't seen for years. Ate some fine picnic dinners there.
I think we can answer some of the questions anyway. We will try and give you all the information we can. Father [James Cousins] was born May 12, 1834 in Kilmore, County Armaugh, Ireland. Robert Cousins was born at Kilmore March 31, 1818. William was born at Kilmore in 1824. John was born in 1832. Jane was born June 15, 1821. Ellen was born, I think, about 1814. Mary was born, I think, about 1816. Betty about 1829 or 1830, I think. That was the names of fathers brothers and sisters. Robert Cousins died Nov 5, 1888. Jane died June 5, 1904. John died the spring of 1905. Father died May 8, 1921. I don't know when the others died. William never left Ireland. He was living yet about 1901 or 1902. Mary married a man named Henry Haddock. They were living in Ontario, Canada the last I heard of them. Ellen married a man named JohnBunton. They never left Ireland. Betty married a man named John Withers. They never left Ireland. That I know. They all moved to Dollingston, County Down, when father was a small boy, maybe three years old.
Thomas Graham and Jane Cousins were married in 1838. Robert Cousins and Ellen Graham were married shortly before they left Ireland, I think. I don't know her age. She was Thomas Graham's youngest sister. I think she might have been born about 1822 or 1823, I am not sure. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Graham and William Graham, his father, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cousins, and William Graham, Thomas Graham's 15 month old son (your step father), and Mr and Mrs John Wilson left Ireland together in May 1841 for Canada. Your mother was born, so I heard them say, Aug 22, 1841. Thomas had two other sisters. One named Sally. She married a man in Canada named Long. The other sister I don't know her name or anything about her. I forgot what year Betty Wilson died. I heard them say she was 92 when she died. I never heard of Thomas Graham or his wife ever living in Belfast. Dollingstown was about 17 miles from Belfast. It was about a mile from Lurgen, largest inland city in Ireland.
Father and mother were married Feb 30, 1860. They were both Linen weavers. My mothers folks were all weavers. Father left Ireland June 29, 1863--he was 29 then. He came over to New York on a Sailing vessel the Universe, an old East India ----. He landed in New York without any money. He got his pocket picked aboard the Ship. That was the time Lincoln had the draft. A man met and told him a friend of his had just drafted and his friend would give $1500 to pay one that would go in his place. So father went and got examined by the doctor. He stood medical examination all right, the doctor passed him. But as he was going out, the doctor took notice of his hand. He had got shot through hand in 1854 in a riot in Lurgan. He was not one the rioters, but he happened to go to town that day. The doctor looked at his hand. He asked him if he ever had any military training. He told he had not. If he had military training they would have taken him. He got a job from a business man in New York City named Miller. He lived in New Jersey. He had a small farm. He worked for Miller for 11 months then went to Canada. I think he went to Canada about June 1864. He was there to the middle of April 1865. He was a weaver in Canada. The Grahams, Robert Cousins and family, and himself went April 1865 to Ohio. They lived there two years. Father worked in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. They all went to Iowa about 1867 to Iowa Falls.
My grandfather, fathers father, was John Cousins. He died of a stroke paralysis at the age of 63 in 1854. His mother died in 1857. When the Grahams, Cousins, and Wilsons came to Canada in 1841 they landed at Singhamton, Gray county, Ontario. Robert Cousins and his wife Ellen were the only Cousins that came then. John Cousins came to America in 1861, I think. He lived at Singhamton. His wife name was Hester Green. They had a large family. He died at Singhamton from a horse kick early in 1905. William Cousins had a large family. He was married at 18. He never left Ireland. My mothers maiden name was Margeret Heron. She was born near Dollingstown, County Down, Ireland Sept 9, 1835. She lived in Ireland till July 11, 1871, when her and my oldest brother John and sister, Ella, left ireland for Iowa. John was born Aug 6, 1861. Ella was born Aug 5, 1863. John was drowned Sept 1, 1872. Ella died June 6, 1943. Mother died March 31, 1891 of pneumonia at age of 55 years and nearly seven months. Ellen Graham was born about 1843, I think. She married George Kennaird about the summer of 1865, I think, in Ohio. They had five sons. George. Joe. Tommy. Jimmy, and Johnney. Joe died of typhoid fever in Tacoma in 1882, I think. George died years ago, I forget, but think he has been dead at least forty years. Jimmy died in February 1933 of diabetes. I don't know anything about John.
George Kennard lived in Iowa when he was first married. He came to Tacoma the summer of 1878. He lived in Tacoma for a number of years. Jimmy was born there in October 1884. He went back to Iowa again and lived there a number of years before he died. After Jane Cousins married Alf Nicolson, they moved to Alabama. I guess they had a large family. Willie Nicholson was the[ir] oldest boy, I think. John Nicholson. Joe West. Robert Burt, and a man named William Gray came out with John Cousins when he came back from Iowa in 1902. They got back about March 10th. John Nicholson worked for Tom Upston and Jim Davis that summer 1902. He fell overboard off the Steamer Garland on the night of Dec 24, 1902 while coming from Bellingham to Lopez between Doe Bay and Olga, Orcas Island. His body was never found. He was drunk at the time he fell overboard. He was the only Nicholson I ever knew. He was the only one of the family that ever was on Lopez. The old folks are both dead now. I don't know how many of the family is alive now or where they are, where they all in Alabama, or other states.
I think we have all the questions you asked answered. We will be glad to answer if possibly can any questions you ask us. Write any time we will be glad to answer any questions we can. Hoping to find you well.
We will bring this letter to a close.
From James and William Cousins
Lopez, San Juan Co, Wash
Box 39
[TYPIST NOTE: James Cousins was born July 19, 1872 in Estherville, Iowa and came to Lopez at the age of 10. He died June 12, 1950 at Laurel Beach, Washington. William Cousins was born in 1874 and died in 1965.]