Background: George Jayne was a student at Fergusonville Academy in Fergusonville, NY.  Many of the students at the academy came from the New York City area.  It was thought that the isolation of Fergusonville would protect the children from corrupting influences such as drinking and gambling. George Jayne's family lived in Orange, NJ.  This letter is written to his sister.

Fergusonville

Monday Nov 2^nd 1857

 Dear Charlotte

                        We started from the pier at the foot of Franklin street, at five o’clock, in the steam-boat Cattskill. We had a very pleasant sail up the river. About seven oclock we passed the Palisades, but it was so dark I could not see much of the scenery. On Friday morning about 7 o’clock we reached Cattskill but it was about 8 when we were fairly started in the stages. At half-past 10 we reached Cairo where we had breakfast at 11 we started again the driver showed me where we were to cross the Cattskill mountains. It seemed to be a little bare knoll but when we came to it it was quite a mountain from its summit we could see Massachusetts we got to Prattsville about 7 o’clock we staid all night and started about 8 the next morning we arrived at Fergusonville about 3 o’clock in the afternoon  

                                                                                                Yours truly

                                                                                                Geo. E. Jayne

 P.S. Give my love to all

Courtesy of the Davenport Historical Association, Davenport, NY, 13750. Over 500 letters from the Ferguson and Jayne families, most dating from the mid-nineteenth century, are available from the Davenport Historical Association in The Ferguson-Jayne Papers, 1826 - 1938, edited by Mary S. Briggs. Transcribed for this web site by Margaret Monaco. All misspellings have been carefully preserved.