Letter from John Muir to [Margaret Hay Lunam], 1903 Jan 26.

[1]Martinez, CaliforniaJanuary 26, 1903Dear Cousin: Our sister Anne, one of the twins, died at her home in Portage on the 15th of this month, of Apoplexy after a weeks illness. Only Daniel was, of all the family, able to be with her at the last. We were all surprised & shocked, for her health for the last year or two seemed to be growing better, & she had written long holiday letters as usual to us all in lively spirits. For more than a month she had been pretty closely confined to the house, partly from illness & partly from the severity of the weather. On New Years day she03152 [2]wrote a long letter to Helen & Wanda telling of a merry sleigh ride she had enjoyed & how she had been visiting her friends & bible class after the confinement to the house, etc. On the evening of the 8th she was stricken with apoplexy & Dan was telegraphed for. On the 11th she seemed better, but gradually failed. Mary may have been with her at the last, for she lives in Kearney, Nebraska, within a days distance, but we have not heard that she got notice in time.I think poor Anne often over tasked herself in church work, in which she was very zealous.Sarah is still with her lonely sorrowing daughter Anna in Oregon I think I wrote that her husband Hiram Eastman died suddenly about a month ago in Chicago, where03152 [3]he had gone to be treated for a cancerous growth that began to trouble him a year or more ago. She is left with two little children & I have not yet been able to find out what the bereaved family is going to do, - stay in Oregon, return to Portage, or come here.The last we heard from Joanna she was not feeling well.I hope you & Maggie are getting comfortably through the winter. We are all about as usual here. I sent a little money to you for the poor a month or so ago. which no doubt has reached you ere this. When we get more word of poor Anne I\u27ll let you know. With love I am ever your cousin John Muir0315