Rachel Todd letter to Charity Rotch, Farmington, October 6, 1811

              B-311-18 
 
	                        Farmington  October 6th  1811
	         I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of thy kind & affec-
	tionate letter, my dear Charity, Dated Norwalk etc- we were
	indeed pleased to hear you had reached so far safe- yes dearest
	friends since a cruel seperation has been found necessary,
	& we must be deprived of your much loved society, to know
	that you get along well, & that all your endeavours are crowned
	with success, will be our greatest consolation my feelings
	at parting with you my beloved friends were such, as
	language can never describe, I have been obliged to exert
	every faculty to compose myself, & keep my mind sufficiently
	tranquil, to enable me to perform my duty to my family,
	I have strove to amuse myself with my wheel, for indeed it
	has been almost my only companion, since your departure,
	dear Catherine left me the morning after you did, & Doct has
	been absent every day, our house has seemed more like a
	tomb than otherways however I intend to keep close to
	my spinning, or something else, for I can always find enough
	for my hands to do, & try to dispel those gloomy reflections that
	have haunted me of late- I know not how it has happened but
	I have never been able, since your departure, to realize in the
	smallest degree, that I should ever have the satisfaction of reside-
	ing near you again, until last evening when I had a long