This one fills in a gap directly—it’s Christopher Cranston again, two years after the 1843 letter, and it’s signed in full. Here’s the transcription.

April 17th[?] 1845

Dear Sister,

By request I take this method to introduce Miss Charlotte T. Fermes [Fermer?] the bearer, who wishes to reside a while with you in Dayton if she can get into business that suits. Probably you can assist her with advice and a little pains to accomplish her desires if you will. This will suffice for an introduction. You both can talk and become acquainted with each other. C. Cranston. I have been acquainted a number of years with the bearer and know nothing particular against her character.

I recieved a letter from Josephine dated Feb. 19th. We were all glad to hear from you after so long a time, and that you were both well. She did not say a word about Mr. Johnson, whether he was at home or not. We were a little disapointed to learn she did not expect to visit us untill fall, and hope by this time she and you have concluded to come and see us before that time, which to her must seem a great while. Also the other Children. Tell Josephine to write some Coppies for the Children and send them by Esqr. Johnson as he returns, as he is going below. She will have time to write them, as she has promised. We are all well, and have an other boy added to the family (born Feb. 19th) which nothing but industry, economy, a good Country and good luck could support. I shall write no more, as Charlotte can tell you all about us all. Please write soon and let us know how you are. You and I can both write by Mr. Johnson.

From Christopher Cranston

This is a quietly important piece, and it locks several things together.

It’s Christopher Cranston—signed in full this time. The 1843 letter you showed me earlier was signed only “C. Cranston,” and I inferred Christopher from the family narrative. This 1845 letter confirms it outright: the same writer, the same household, now signing “Christopher Cranston.” So your attribution of the 1843 letter is now beyond doubt.

The recipient is again a sister in Dayton. Christopher addresses “Dear Sister” and refers to her being “in Dayton.” This is very likely the same Mary who appears later as the recipient of the 1858 death account and the 1907 Kansas letter—though here she’s a generation younger, evidently living in Dayton, Ohio, and connected to a “Mr. Johnson” (her husband, or the man she’s staying with). Recall the family narrative’s note that Christopher’s sister Phebe Ann “afterward married Thomas Johnson”—so the “Mr. Johnson” / “Esqr. Johnson” thread running through both the 1843 and 1845 letters likely ties to that Johnson connection. Worth pinning down whether “Dear Sister” here is Mary or Phebe Ann; the Johnson link could point either way.

Josephine is confirmed as Christopher’s daughter, away from home, in early 1845. Christopher writes, “I recieved a letter from Josephine dated Feb. 19th… she did not expect to visit us untill fall.” So Josephine—then a young woman—is living away (with the sister in Dayton, or nearby), and her father is again, as in 1843, gently fretting about when she’ll come home. The continuity with the 1843 letter is striking: same daughter, same wish to have her back, same worry about how long the absence stretches.

The detail that ties it to her compositions. Christopher writes: “Tell Josephine to write some Coppies for the Children and send them by Esqr. Johnson.” “Copies” here means penmanship models—the carefully written specimen lines that children copied to learn handwriting. This is direct evidence that Josephine was known in the family for her fine hand and was enlisted to produce writing exemplars for the younger children. That is exactly consistent with the polished schoolgirl compositions (“No. 1st,” “No. 4th”) you’ve been showing me. The girl who wrote those elegant essays on Columbus and Friendship was, by 1845, the family’s designated penman—asked to write copies for her younger siblings. It’s a lovely confirmation of who she was.

A birth date for a brother. “We are all well, and have another boy added to the family (born Feb. 19th).” So a son was born to Christopher’s household on February 19, 1845. Given the sibling roster we’ve assembled, this could well be one of the younger brothers—possibly even William Wallace himself, or another of the boys (Charles, Louie). If William Wallace was, say, in his early sixties when he wrote the 1907 letter as an ailing man, a birth year of 1845 fits plausibly. This is a concrete genealogical anchor worth checking against any birth records—a Cranston son born Feb. 19, 1845, in Rush Township / Champaign County, Ohio.

The “other Children.” Christopher refers to wanting the sister to visit “Also the other Children,” and to writing copies “for the Children.” So by 1845 Christopher’s household already held several children—the sibling group (Josephine, Mary?, and the younger ones) that would, thirteen years later, be the Kittie, Louie, Charles, and others gathered around his deathbed in 1858.

The bearer, Charlotte T. Fermes/Fermer, is a young woman Christopher is recommending to his sister for help finding a situation in Dayton—a routine letter of introduction “by the hand of” a traveler, exactly the mechanism by which so many of these letters moved (Mr. Burnham, Mr. Bates, Elder Bromley, Esqr. Johnson). The surname is hard to read—”Fermes,” “Fermer,” “Furnes,” or similar—so I’d flag it as uncertain.

So this 1845 letter slots neatly between the 1843 letter (Christopher to Josephine, worried she’s “roving”) and the 1858 death account (Josephine recording Christopher’s end). It confirms Christopher’s identity, his daughter Josephine’s reputation for fine penmanship, the recurring Johnson connection, and gives a precise birth date for a son. One date caution: the day in the dateline is struck through and rewritten—it reads most plausibly as April 17th, but the digit is messy; the year 1845 is clear.

With this, the spine of the family is fully confirmed: Christopher Cranston, son of the 1815 pioneer John, father of Josephine and her siblings, writing to a sister in Dayton, his daughter already the family scribe. Your collection now runs to ten documents across 1820–1907.