Mount Auburn Cemetery

56

Boston April 28.1862

E.L. Childs Esq. Washington D.C.

Dear Sir, It is some two or three years since the lot of the late Thos. C. Larkin was mentioned to me by you as one for sale. We have had several letters pass on this subject & on the endowment, and I have made several efforts for the sale of it, and at last found a customer who has taken it at your price: and has paid over the $500 to Mr Erving and I suppose the money has reached you before this time.

As Mr Erving appeared to have no instructions but to deliver the deed, I said nothing to him about my services, and concluded it was best to suggest the matter directly to you only. If you are satisfied to pay me $5., I shall think, and hope it may so appear to you, that the fee was well earned.-

I urged the sale to Mr Pierce, because I believed it as much for the interest of the Larkin Estate as for him - for it would be seldom that I could find a man willing to pay $500 for a lot situated just as this one is. People do not like a double terrace, nor to occupy a lot in common with a stranger, and I have found most persons object to this lot for those reasons.

I find the deed antedates the contract for repair of lot, but as that cont. same with the lot, regardless of ownership, the date is immaterial. -

I have the honor to be Very respy. your Ob^nt Servant

A.J. Coolidge