• Letter: from Cathrine Marie Frimann to Paul Freeman, 21.03.1900.
Translated from Danish by Eleanor Freeman.

Dear Brother,

Sunday we were in Stenderup and there read your letter and got your address and will now write a little news to you. Our parents are fairly well in health, which is a good and wonderful gift for us. Thea is at home this winter and has been sick a long time. She is better now. It is not so easy, but she must be content with the old people as long as they live. She is really odd. She cannot understand that she is doing well, but it must be that some have more to bear than others.

You will now be a grown man who can succeed. That can yield money, and it costs a great deal to learn it, too. Be careful about printing your letter so that the old folks can read it.

Regards from Morbroder H. C. Hald. He is well. He is now out at Vrang's place. Marie and Johanne were also. Johanne is a big plump girl - like Hanne Vrang - but she is big, you know. She studied with the curate and learned French. Hans Holm teases her that she wants a missionary. She is still going to Agtrup school.

Now us, yes, we are well, too, except for little colds. Influenza is raging here, however, among the grownups, and scarlet fever among children, but we have avoided both. Peter was not in school a while, but now he is in school again. In March Anna will be in school. She was 7 in July. Little Mia was 5 last Sunday.

We have had a long hard winter since last November, but now things are greening; it is still cold with night frost. Rasmus still has the milk route. It yields a little money, but it is a nuisance.

You can be sure Stenderup Kro is now elegant. Joergen Bruhn lives there. Over the door at the top peak it says Gammelhjem, though the house is not so old. Peter Bogh is again at his farm and is the same. Fruen has become so terribly efficient and thrifty, looking after everything. I don't know any more news.

F. Skyt is still not married. Rasmus' brother Mikael, whom you probably remember, is married and they have a little girl. He became exempt from military service. He volunteered when he was 19 years old and was discharged.

If only you can now get the benefit of your learning with the telegraph, but you are still in that place. Let us hear from you, and I will write. It is as if you were all dead. Neither Iver nor Jesse write to us. You are far from them where you are now. I read in the paper that the biggest creamery in the world is in Sioux City. They make 21,000 lbs butter daily. That must be close to where you are. It is from a Wisconsin paper. I think also our famous wrestler, Bryder Beck-Olsen, is going to Wisconsin.

Many good wishes from my husband and our three chicks, who know their uncle Paul well by name though they have never seen him. Of the others we must not think. Many come home who say things are better in America. There was a man home from Agtrup who is learning to paint and will go back there again this spring.

Regards from the old people - many many times - you can be sure it is a pleasant Sunday to go home to the old home. You can imagine how happy Mother is. In the summer we like to go to the churchyard and see the many fine grave stones that have been erected there and the dear ones who have gone before us.

Let us hear from you, tell us how you are. Many loving wishes from us.

Your affectionate sister, Cathrine Aagaard.

Goodbye and keep well.

• Letter: from Maren Frimann to Paul Freeman, 25.03.1900.
Extract of the letter:

"Cathrine and family were here two weeks ago. She promised she would write to you. They were all well."

• Letter: from Maren Frimann to Paul Freeman, 17.07.1900.
Extract of the letter:

"I must tell you some sad news. Your sister Cathrine died June 8th. It was very sad for her husband and especially for her children... they have no mother now. There are three: one 9 years, one 7 years, and one 5 years. You may be sure we will miss her very much. It was a great pleasure when they came a few times a year. We didn't go there often - it is too far."

• Letter: from Maren Frimann to Paul Freeman, 06.12.1900.
Extract of the letter:

"We are pretty well, thank God. You can imagine how I miss Cathrine now at Christmas. They usually came home. I don't know how they are. He never writes.

Rasmus Aagaard will have to get a housekeeper. I have not been there since Cathrine died. I cannot go so far and stay away from home. Your father cannot be alone. He is not exactly sick, but he is very old."

Cathrine blev gift med Rasmus Pedersen AAGAARD den 16.05.1889 i Hejls Kirke, Hejls Sogn, Nørre Tyrstrup Herred, Vejle Amt. (Rasmus Pedersen AAGAARD blev født den 18.01.1862 i Vonsild, Vonsild Sogn, Nørre Tyrstrup Herred, Vejle Amt, dåb den 21.01.1862 i Vonsild Kirke, Vonsild Sogn, Nørre Tyrstrup Herred, Vejle Amt, døde den 26.01.1941 i Hejls By, Hejls Sogn, Nørre Tyrstrup Herred, Vejle Amt og blev begravet den 31.01.1941 på Hejls Kirkegård, Hejls Sogn, Nørre Tyrstrup Herred, Vejle Amt.)

  Om Rasmus og Cathrine:

• Bryllupsbillede.
Kilde: Lokalhistorisk Forening og Arkiv for Hejls-Hejlsminde

• Bopæl: Rovtsvej 59, Hejls By, Hejls, matr. 54a.
Kilde: Lokalhistorisk Forening og Arkiv for Hejls-Hejlsminde.

The house dates back to 1842, restored 2012.

• Bopæl: Rovtsvej 59, Hejls By, Hejls, matr. 54a.
Sister Maria Columba, Colorado, 2021:

"Former farm of Bedstefar's aunt and uncle"?

The picture must have been taken 1948 as the layout looks like the other pictures taken this year, and thus it could be the farm in Hejls, where Rasmus Aagaard and Cathrine Marie Frimann lived.

• Beliggenhed: Rovtsvej 59, Hejls By, Hejls, matr. 54a.
Google Maps, 2019.

• Gravsted: Hejls Kirkegård, Hejls.
Foto: Lokalhistorisk Forening og Arkiv for Hejls-Hejlsminde.

  Parnotater:

Marriage: Page 44.
Witnesses:
The father of the groom Peter Aagaard, Vejstrup.
Dall, the owner of Kær Mølle (Mill).