Lydia McLane Johnston to Robert Milligan McLane, April 28, 1850

New Orleans, late 1840s. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington.

[Lydia Milligan Sims McLane Johnston at New Orleans, Louisiana, to Robert Milligan McLane at [Washington City], April 28, 1850. Box 3, Louis McLane Correspondence (1795-1894), MSS 57083, Library of Congress. This is my rough transcription. Added paragraph breaks inserted for easier reading.]

My dearest Robert,

I arrived here yesterday evening from Texas, with the intention of going on in the steamship to New York tomorrow, but now suffer so terribly from sea sickness that Dr. McCormick says I must not go that route, therefore we have concluded to leave here on the 1st of May in the Magnolia for Louisville, we are 3 ladies & 5 children without gentlemen. 

Mrs. Worth is anxious to go on at once . . . children in Philadelphia, & wants to find some one who will put her in the cars. She has no friends in Baltimore & asked me if I would write some of my brothers to meet her there & see her off.

I wrote to Tiffany knowing you were away & . . . that . . . would do all in his power for their comfort, they have seen some . . . . . friends . . .

I have seen that I am most anxious that some of my family should extend to them some civility, if you could only manage to meet us at the relay house, & see Mrs. Worth off it would be a great comfort. I will telegraph Tiffany from Cumberland. 

Heaven bless you my dear Brother. Kiss Georgina & the [children] . . .

I am going to find . . . This evening if I am, I am still in bed suffering from the sea sickness but shall certainly find Mr . . .

                                                               Ever your devoted sister
                                                                L M Johnston

[Lily = Lydia Milligan Sims McLane Johnston (1822-1887) 
Robert Milligan McLane (1815-1898)
Worth = William Jenkins Worth (1794-May 7, 1849), one of about five hundred fatalities from a cholera outbreak in San Antonio in the spring of 1849.
Mrs. Worth = Margaret Stafford Worth (1799-1869); her family included Mary Worth (1822-1876), who had married one of General Worth's officers, John Titcomb Sprague (1810-1878), the author of a book on the Seminole Wars; Margaret Worth (1828-1914); Josephine Worth (1830-?); and William Scott Worth (1840-1904).
Tiffany = Henry Tiffany (born circa 1820), husband of Sally Jones McLane Tiffany (1820-1887), Lily's sister.  

Georgine = Georgine Urquhart McLane (1813-1899)
Little ones = Mary Emma McLane (1843-1869) and Georgina Urquhart "Jennie" McLane (1846-1915). The latter lived in Paris from 1885 until her death in 1915.] 

[Many thanks to Sue Davis, William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration.]