Sinton, Tex
Sept 9, 1909
Forest my dear son,
Ralph has just brought your letter from the office and after reading it, I just can not wait another minute to write to you. You know of course it makes one awful uneasy about you if you have gotton better and go to work it will get you down sure enough. I want you to pack your trunk and come to us just as soon as you get this if you haven't already. You can find work to do here as soon as you are able to do it. Your Pa could have gone to work the next morning after getting here. You will soon spend all the money you have saved up and can't get away perhaps. Oh it scares me to think of you having that dreadful fever and so far from us. It will be better for you and us too for you to come before you get so you can't. When you father comes from his work I will get him to write some to you and mail this as he goes to work in the morning. For I want you to get it as soon as possible. And come as soon as you get it. And let us know immediately how you are, if you don't come. But I hope you will be able to start by Friday or Saturday. If you come from Fort Worth as we did on the Katy flyer you will get to San Antonio early in the morning and take a car for the SAP depot. you will catch the train for here and get here at two oclock in the day. If you should miss that train you could phone to Bro Hafer and your father can meet you at the train for it gets here after night 8.30.
Forest I don't feel uneasy about advising you to come on account of work. Bro Hafer said the other day that they were wanting hands at Corpus in the Lynd at one time. You can go from here down there and get back for dinner. Tom and Dora came down from Beeville Sunday and he said awhile back he could have gotton [sic] a job on the R Road for Errett. It was something about keeping an egine [sic], so you see there is more places than Sinton where there is lots of work. I do want you to come so bad. I [am]so afraid you will get down before you can get off. I will wait anxiously for you. We will move on to our place this week. Will not write any more now.
Your ever loving and anxious Mother, S.E. Sweet.
Eunice is more than anxious for you to come. She says Mama tell him to come right away. Ralph says tell you he want you to come. Hubert is out at play.
This letter to Forest is written eight months after Errett's letter from Bowie, Tex. (see previous post). The Sweet's -- Lewis, Sarah, Eunice (five years younger than Forest), Ralph (nine years younger) and Hubert (12 years younger) -- have moved to Sinton, Texas, about 500 miles south of Bowie. Apparently, Errett and his wife, Flossie, did not move with them.
Based on Errett's letter, written in Jan. 1909, I assume Forest was in Anadarko, Okla., about 100 miles north of Bowie. It's possible he is now near Dallas, because Sarah suggests he leave from Ft. Worth on the Katy, a passenger car routed from Galveston to St. Louis. The SAP depot must have been reference to the Sinton depot which is pictured to the right. She mentions that this is how they traveled to Sinton when moving from Bowie.
In this very heartfelt letter, Sarah begs Forest to come home. It seems that he has taken sick and she is worried about his returning to work before he is well.
This is a good time to share a couple of things that may explain Sarah's panic for her son --
First, she has lost several children at a young age to sickness. In 1882 and 1883, the Sweet's lost four young children. Family stories attribute these deaths to typhoid fever. This, of course, would put the fear of God in her for Forest's well-being if she suspects he has "the fever" as well.
