This is a document I have handwritten on lined paper with 1894 written on top left and right. I think it is an biography of Margaret Winter by her mother. She titles it "Louisa Margaret Winter."
Born May 26th 1894 in Sibley, Iowa on Saturday night about eleven o'clock. Dr. H. Neil ...grandma Wright and nurse Barnes were there to attend to all of your needs. Our first little daughter and our only little daughter great was our joy, especially your fathers, because you were a little girl baby. You were a very sweet little baby, only weighed 9 lbs., a small baby compared with the three big brothers who preceded, you were a dear quiet lovely infant. Malcolm could not say all of your name. So he called you Easy, he had been out at uncle Joes with his aunt Jennie for a week. James and Ray were at home and Hattie was there also.
When you were six weeks old I had gone out for a few minutes when I returned you were not where I had left you. Malcolm had lifted you and carried you across the room and laid you on bed. I explained to him how dreadful it would have been had he happened to drop you, he said he would never do that any more.
Your first visit was at your uncle Josephs, where your grandmother Wright and your aunt Jennie and uncle S. P. Wright all lived. Your first tea party was at the Rev. Wests. You were invited with your mother, you were much admired and kissed and passed from one dear lady to the other. You were baptized in the Little Rock church by the Rev. Brintnell name Louisa Margaret, but I gave you in addition all of the names I had selected for my other daughters, you being the only one, must have them all as follows. Elizabeth, Mary, Nancy, Kate, Emily, Caryl Louisa Margaret. Your eyes were beautiful big brown eyes your hair was light and flaxen. You always smiled at me and gave yourself a cute little shake whenever I looked at you from the time you were very young. When you were six months we moved from Sibley onto a farm we had purchased out near Little Rock. When you were three or four years old you imagined that Santa Claus must have a little boy and you called him Johnnie Claus. You called the garden the "gadie" and was never happier than when among the flowers and growing things. Miss Lela Green taught our school and boarded with us. You were very fond of her, and she hung two cute little dolls, one on each end of the Christmas tree for you from Johnnie Claus. Then you were surprised and happy. And your brothers were convinced that there was a Johnnie Claus. Miss Green allowed you to come to school every Friday afternoon that was when you were three years old. You had your own little slate and pencil, and primer, so you started to school quite a baby did you not. You could ride a horse when seven years old, yes and bring her in from the pasture which joined the house yard, the way you managed it, when her head was down as she cropped the grass you would jump up on her neck and as she lifted her head you slid down onto her back. However your real study did not begin in school before you were past 5 years. At 7 you were well up in the second reader your playmates were Jeannie and Gracie Virst. You have had measles, whooping cough and chicken pox. The songs you liked me to sing when you were quite small were Sleep baby sleep, and A dear little girl sat under a tree. Sleep baby sleep. Your cottage vale in deep clear white. The little lamb in the green with fleece so soft and white. Sleep baby Sleep. Sleep baby sleep. Your father is --- He is the lamb of God in high. Who for us all came down to die. Sleep baby sleep.
[to be continued]
