LETTER FROM WEST POINT 1882

Letter acting on behalf of the widow of a soldier named Rodger Maher, hoping the Congress will grant her some "bail out" money. Rodger Maher served with the 10th New York Vols and was wounded at the Wilderness, treated and returned to duty and died while on pickett duty.

Ebay Item Item number: 290295395759

Indian Agent of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency

The writer is D.B. Dyer, Indian Agent of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, I.T. (Indian Territory). This agency was located at Darlington, now Oklahoma.

The letter is dated Feb. 7, 1885 and is addressed to Hannah Hardin of Shawneetown, Indian Territory.

The text concerns payments for the care of "Mary and Annie".
"Yours of 24th ultimo just reached me and I enclose herewith draft for 52.57 to pay for board etc of Mary and Annie from Nov 1st/84 to Jan 31/85 inclusive. Your receipts were not made correctly please send me new ones same as sample I enclose. I also send copy for next quarter's account. I am Respectfully, D.B. Dyer, Guardian and Indian Agent"

The letter written on the letterhead of the United States Indian Service.

This letter is for sale on Ebay Item number: 300291776597.

Wake County, North Carolina 1803, Sam Johns

Handwritten letter dated May 15th 1803, on the front signed by John Tallen, William Eamle, Joseph Hannes. On the back is a recording of the Clerks office in the book of Wills, Black Sams pass, negro Sam signed Allen Trimble June 1811.

*The front of the letter is as follows:

May 15th 1803 Wake County of State of North Carolina know all men by these presents that we the justases of the peace do sartifi that the barer of these lines is entitled to freedom & we desire that all may let him pass as he behaves sivle his name is Sam calling himself Sam Johns and he further informs us that he wants to travel to the Western Country and we desire that all may let him pass for he a good hard working honest in dustres fellow.

Signed by us, John Tallen, William Eamle, Joseph Hannes

*On the back of the letter is as follows:

Highland County Ohio Recorder in the Clerks office of the Common ( ) of ( ) County in the book of Wills ( ) Allen Trimble ( ) June 1811 Black Sams pass Negro Sam

This fantastic letter is up for sale on Ebay Item number: 160312865866.

Carroll Benton in Boston 1908

Letter dated "Upton Ranch, LaCinta Canyon, Solano, N.M." [New Mexico], October 11, 1908, written from a lady named Irene to her friend Carroll Benton in Boston. She describes some aspects of ranch life and family news, and then casually mentions "We had two shooting scrapes in one day this week & as I happened to be in town when the first started up, I came near not getting home. A Texan sheriff came in after a saloon keeper, the saloon keeper swiped a horse and beat it out of town with a 30-30 across his saddle. After him two sheriffs with six shooters drawn, then five minutes later four more joined the party. The man headed right for the canyon and of course we couldnt go home on account of possible shooting. Same night our town blacksmith got drunk and went after the Texan sheriff on an old score and shot up town before he was arrested".

This fantastic leter is up for sale on Ebay Item number: 200302264010. This would make a great addition to your genealogy if you are related to Carroll Benton.

New Haven Connecticut, W.S. Swane, William Okeeff

An letter from William Okeeff in New Haven, Connecticut, March 21, 1898 which includes the envelope. This letter says, "Dear Madam, In the matter of the W.S. Swane note we have been unable to serve papers on the maker of the note as he has eluded the sheriff. If we are able to make service we will collect the note and damages as he is in a position to pay but manages by fraud to keep his money out of our way.....Yours truly, William Okeeff.

This letter is for sale on Ebay Item number: 120365724091.

John Pitts of Tyngsborough, Massachusetts

Letter dated 1794, where John Pitts of Tyngsborough, Massachusetts has written to Captain Josiah Danforth regarding a court case coming up..he tells Danforth to present his case to the General Court and if all the facts are out, justice will prevail..signed on back, your friend Jn. Pitts.

This great letter is for sale on Ebay Item number: 350144743321.

Chrissie Hansen, World War One letters

World War One letters that belonged to a soldier named Chrissie Hansen. 3 are written by him and 4 are written to him. They are all dated 1918. Chrissie Hansen was stationed at Camp Jackson.

This great batch of ww1 letters is for sale on Ebay, Item number: 120362350200. If Chrissie Hansen is part of your family this would be a great addition to your genealogy.

Letters From Delaware, Connecticut, Albany.

ONE LETTER DATED 1795, from Dover, Delaware., written and signed by John Fisher., Forwarded by William A. P Phelps. A notation states the letter is from the Chief Justice of Delaware., letter is about his wife and goods being bought for her.

ANOTHER LETTER dated 1826., has MS markings of PAID and a small PAID 5 in the upper right corner., about a Court Martial and at the bottom of the address., asks the postmaster to forward this without delay to Mr. Sherman. Curious no town marks., but likely Connecticut being addressed to a fellow in North Milford, Ct.

ANOTHER LETER dated 1834., from John P. Cushman., to Hon. James McKown., hand stamed in red STEAMBOAT., with the word STEAM over the word BOAT., upside down with a rate of "12"., from Troy, N.Y. About the President of the New York Medical Society.

ANOTHER LETTER:, dated at Albany, NY July 11, 1823., marked FR [means Free] addressed to the Hon. Smith Thompson., Sec. of the Navy, Washington. Letter concerns a young lad's recommendation., likely to the Naval Academy or for a position in the Navy. The writer's name is hard to make out, appears to be Fr. Bloodfood, or Bloodford.

This batch of letters is up for sale on Ebay Item number: 290287184487.

1878 British Solicitor sending Share of Late Father to Hackettstown NJ resident

Apparently Miss Annie Maria Russell of Hackettstown New Jersey had requested addresses for her brothers but Solicitors Watson & Sons, 18 Parliament Street, Hull said they'd received their shares of the fathers estate and he didn't know where they were.

This letter is up for sale on Ebay Item number: 250351848871.

4th Battery Maine Volunteers 1865

Letter signed "Adelbert A. Dailey," Headquarters, 4th Battery Maine Volunteers, March 4, 1865.

Dailey writes to "Eddy" [Edward Elmes of Maine]. In full [original spellings and punctuation retained]: "To day I have been thinking of you and that I had ought to send you some some little token of friendship for you have been a good boy and have been kind and good to Mother and Zylpha since I have been away and Eddy you will always find a true friend in me[.] I hope you will do as well as you have while you stay with Mother[.] I should like to have you stay thru all summer if your Father and I can agree[.] I will send you a little present[.] I can not get much here to send you or I would give you something handsome[.] But be a good boy. Take good care of the things and I will make you a handsome present when I get home[.] I should like to have you with me if you will[.] I shall have to write Zylpha a short letter so I will close[.] Be a good boy Eddy and remember you will always find a good friend in me[.] With much love...."

This great old letter is for sale on Ebay Item number: 160307521898. This would be a great find for someone working on the genealogy of the Dailey family.

Port Au Prince, Captain William Van Allen

Letter dated 1818, Port Au Prince, where Captain William Van Allen has written to merchants in Philadelphia regarding some courageous events in the capturing of Spanish ships; travelling with the USS Hornet, going up against a 16 gun Spanish Ship....capturing goods from a smaller ship, exchanging more gun fire...being captured and losing his crew.....making a bargain to get his crew back....

Wagon Train Travel Letters

Manuscript copy of (12) riveting letters home from husband and wife, G. Nelson Allen and E. A. Allen, and daughter Lizzie H. Allen, while they were travelling through the mid and southwest, 1857-1860. It appears as if the copy, nicely penned in an unknown hand, was made circa 1890s-1910.

Letter locales: New Philadelphia, Ohio; Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; Fort Des Moines, Iowa; Cass Co., Iowa; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Fort Kearny, Nebraska. A 13th letter is dated much later, 1887, from Camden, Delaware, but also mentions this trip. 35pp total, octavo and legal.

Fabulous content: Traveling to Pike's Pike; wagon trains as far as the eye can see; men heading for the mines; Sioux Indians; horse stolen; Pawnees begging for food; and more. Great local color and description.

This batch of Wagon Train Travel Letters is up for sale on Ebay Item number: 170287256399.

Key West Fla. Sept 5th 1862

William Hopper who was a Hospital Steward in the 90th New York Veteran Volunteers Regiment. The letter is dated Key West Fla. Sept 5th 1862. The letter reads:

My Dear Wife,

On the 1st of this month I had a slight attack of yellow fever which might have proved fatal had I not taken it in time as it is life or death very quick but by good treatment and attention I have recovered the treatment was a hot mustard bath after taken the bath I was wraped up in woolen blankets and allowed to sweat in the mean time I took a large dose of castor oil....if I had not known the symptoms I should have no doubt let it run on me until it would be too late. I am all right now unless I get another attack. I will return to duty in 3 or 4 days. I get good care here. Please let me know how much you owe Mother up to the 1st of September. Our pay is due again but I don't suppose the pay Master will come here until the fever has disappeared from the Island write soon. I got a letter from Ben saying Edward Andariese has gone to the War he says Astoria is all clearing out to the War. Your affectionate Husband Wm H Hopper.

This Civil War letter is for sale on Ebay Item number: 310107115968.

Civil War letter by William Hopper

Civil War letter written by William Hopper who was a Hospital Steward in the 90th New York Veteran Volunteers Regiment. The letter is dated,"In the field in Camp near Kearns Town...April 6th 1865." This letter is dated just three days before Lee surrendered to Grant, in the letter he mentions Lee. The letter reads:

My Dear Wife

I received your letter last night I was happy to hear you and Katy was well we left Stephensson Depot on the 4th to March up the Valley it rained very fast when we started. We started about oclock P.M. the roads are very muddy we halted about 4 miles above Winchester where we remained all day yesterday and I think we will today there is an order issued for us to have two Pair of shoes. I think we will get the shoes today and start again tomorrow. I think our destination is Linchburg about 150 miles. I miss my log house very much the last two nights also today as the weather is very stormy. I have simply a shelter tent now to protect me from the storms my bed upon the ground I was very much afraid I would take cold after our march by lying on the ground but I did not I am pretty tough yet. I sent all my suplus clothing to Baltimore for storage. We belong to Genl. Hancocks Vet Army now by transfer from Sheridans. I did not go to Harpers Ferry as I expected to and I have not been able to ascertain the reasons of it but I think Col. Thaumon got wind of my movements and frustrated my designs before the order for my detail was issued. You may seal up my cheverons in a close package and forward them I will risk them coming all safe. It is thought Lee will come down the Valley if he does he will find obstacles in the way such as Hancocks Corps Carries. Portions of which has been concentrating at this place. I did not think there was so many troops in the Valley as I now see. I expect we will have some hard marching up through the Valley when we get under way which I expect will be tomorrow. Write again soon I remain as ever Yours. W.H. Hopper Address me thus W.H. Hopper Hosp...90th N.Y. Vet. Vols. 1st Brig. Dwights Div. Harpers Ferry. Va.

This letter is for sale on Ebay Item number: 310107115760. If William Hopper is one of your ancestors you may want to place a bid.

Spring Grove, Florida, Lizzie M. Clark

1881 Spring Grove, Florida

Letter home from northerner, Lizzie M. Clark. She describes her impressions of the Spring Grove area (including Jacksonville) in eight filled pages. The letter also includes her floor plan sketch of the house -- showing piazza, hammock, etc. She mentions her "colored" washer woman, sweet potatoes for breakfast, riding in a donkey cart, gorgeous sunset, orange grove, Florida "crackers" who come to hunt deer, and more. " She appears to be living with her husband on the land of a Mr. Greenleaf.

"There are five men to work the grove - three white; and two colored - the latter are pleasant & willing and do many things for us."

Henry Jennings letter 1798

Henry Jennings letter dated 1798. Henry Jennings has written a letter from Norwich, to his mother in Preston, CT. The letter relates his trip withh the Ship Hope, a ship of 16 guns..... and signs Henry Jennings.

Kiona, Benton County, Washington

Letters written in 1927 by Herman Ohms, a 37 year old WWI Veteran (ex-Marine) who is living at Kiona, Benton County, in the Yakima River Valley in the state of Washington and presently employed by the Northern Pacific Railroad. He has written these letters to a pen pal by the name of Robert Meador who lives in Goodview, Bedford County, Virginia. Olms’ two letters are described as follows:

--First letter dated 18 January 1927, is 4-pages written in ink on lined white paper. Ohms introduces himself to Meador and proceeds to write a little about his 20 years of travel throughout Western America and a lot about the Menominee Indians he grew up around in Northern Wisconsin. He describes their diet, lifestyles, living in teepees in summer & log houses in winter. He explains and draws a diagram showing how bears were caught in deadfall traps. He writes “I have had some of the older Indians tell me how they got Mr. Bear . . . the Indian would back up to a large tree one that the Bear could not reach around. Then when the Bear came to attack him, as you know that a Bear always squeezes his victim, the man would have a sharp knife so when the Bear made the squeeze he would disembowel the animal which would be the end of Mr. Bear. It must of took some nerve to do this.” He gives further interesting details of the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin.

--Second letter dated 30 March 1927, is five-pages. Ohms writes Meador that he has been working early & late loading sheep onto stock cars of the NPRR. He describes a recent arrow hunting expedition and his efforts to reproduce the Yakima Indian’s method of making tools & arrowheads. He goes on to describe present conditions of the Yakima Indians: “All that is left of this tribe is on the Reservation at Topnish, WA about 38 miles west of here and number about 500 all told and most of them are Breeds as the full blood Indians are about gone. They live on land allotted to them by the Government and do very little work usually in the fall. They pick potatoes and before 1915 [prohibition] hops, but no more hops.” Meador then describes in detail watching the Indians fish-for and hook salmon in the Yakima River.

This group of great Kiona, Benton County, Washington letters is for sale on Ebay Item number: 360110713250.

Stephen Pike, Burlington, New Jersey

Handwritten letters, 1805-1825. The material centers on Stephen Pike (1786-1826) a Burlington, New Jersey teacher and merchant who married Rebecca, a daughter of the noted Rev. Thomas Scattergood. Pike is an interesting writer who frequently punctuates his letters with humor and personal musings. He was active in Quaker affairs and there are many names and commentaries. All but a few of the letters were penned by Stephen Pike and many were sent to his good friend, Thomas Kite, in Philadelphia. Other correspondents: Rebecca Pike, sister Sarah, and Miers Fisher.

Highlights include:

Three detailed travel letters home, 1819, Union, PA; Salem, Ohio; Fredonia, New York; from Pike's horseback trip to towns in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. Content on a salt mine, maple sugar camp, journey into coal mine, Lake Erie, Cattaraugus Indians, more.
Hears Elijah Hicks lecture
Dr. Physic to treat Susan Emlen's cancer
ALS Miers Fisher - death of William Redwood
Fascinating descriptive portrait of the "little Prophetess" Mary Roscoe [married name Hinsdale -- later figured prominently in Thomas Paine recant controversy]
Quaker meetings; prominent visiting ministers
Brief excerpts:

1819 [Pike enters 400 ft into PA coal mine with lighted candle] - "There are a number of passages crossing each other at right angles like the streets of a city; what represents the blocks of houses, however, are but 6, 8, or perhaps 10 feet square - through these passages a cart is drawn to the extremes where the coal is dug..."

1819 [Sandy Hill Meeting, OH] - "...the smallest meeting house I think I have ever seen...built of logs...with sliders to separate the men and women..."

1819 [Ohio salt works on Yellow Creek, north of Richmond] - "They bore the earth, mostly through solid rock...descending frequently to the depth of three hundred feet...a tube is inserted to pump up the salt water from the bottom."

1819 At Lake Erie, Pike is mortified to find himself unexpectedly on board a vessel of war while on an outing with Commodore David Deacon. "My opposition to the spirit of war was by no means lessened by this accidental visit..."

1819- [Buffalo, NY] - "I passed through the Indian Village at Cattataugus...I was much interested in seeing the uncivilized aborigines of our country in their native haunts...I saw a number of the Indians of both sexes apparently enjoying their indolent repose...I met one party of young folks on horseback. They galloped by me with smiling countenances, their faces ornamented...with streaks and spots of red paint." More.

1819 [Crosses Carthage Bridge, NY] - "Conceive of a bridge of a light, airy structure, two hundred feet above the surface of the water, the principal support being a single arch of 300 feet springing from one perpendicular precipice to another...; [seeing people on bridge from below] "...it appeared as if [they were] passing over a rainbow among the clouds."

1813 [Elijah Hicks] - "I had the satisfaction of hearing him, for the first, at an appointed meeting he had here...He was eloquent on his two (I almost said favourite) topics..." More.

1814 - "Dr. Physic, who is now sick in the same family is an instance of one who has attained to their every pinnacle...and is very far from being lifted above the calamities of life. He has come to relieve his afflicted friend, but he is, himself so much afflicted by disease as to be unable to perform the necessary operation."

1807 [Philadelphia Yearly Meeting] - "This being the yearly meeting week we are crowded with company and fare sumptiously...the streets are swarming with plain gowns...the doorkeeper of the women[s] meeting house was curious enough to count the number that attended it and computed it to upward of sixteen hundred women in one house."

1824 - "Sister Scattergood has had a tedious time with a felon on one of her thumbs...Her son Joseph has also been much afflicted with a swelling on his arm. Above seventy leeches were applied. Afterwards it was oppend and since that town or more pieces of bone have come from it..."

Prophet Mary Roscoe

1814, 1815 - "Mary R. rose and began an interesting and very instructive address...she appears to speak only in compliance with a higher power.."; "...there were many in the meeting as well as myself, enamoured of the beauty of her lines, and exicted strongly to desire the possession of what appears so noble, and the same time, so lovely."; "I am told she fainted several times in attempting to speak in public,"; "She resided for a time in Willet Hicks; family, and it troubled Willet & his wife not a little that they could not, by any means, induce her to sit with them at table. I suppose they considered her a sister in the highest affinity, being, spiritually a child of the same Divine Parent, a partaker of his favours....but he insisted that the kitchen was her proper place..." More.

Note: Three letters have content on Mary Roscoe -- her family background; sermons, personal nature. Although none of these letters are complete, they do contain a lengthy Roscoe portrait - about 2pp. legal total. One letter with paper loss at bottom; two lacking signature pages. [See last photo.} Mary Roscoe (later married Henry Hinsdale) played a prominent role in the Thomas Paine (1737-1819) recant controversy.

Edward Brooks to sister Sarah

June 1864 letter datelined 11 US Inft 1st Brig, 2nd Div., 5th AC-We have had no fighting,... but since tow oclock this morning we have been hearing musketry in the 9th corps. they have been very rapidly cannonading for a couple of hours ...we are now within 2 miles of Petersburg, but the confederates still hold that place. ...we have been making our way here from near cold harbor, across the Chickahominy, to charles city court house and yesterday we crossed the james at windmill point some 25 or 28 miles below Richmond. the trains crossed on a pontoon bridge said to be 2100 feet long... the troops crossed in transports. the 2nd corps crossed on the 15th and the 9th corps just afterards.. the 18th corps under gen smith went by transports through white house and up the james and was the first to advance on the south side of the river.. I hear a cannon about twice a minute, it is about 10 am, and firing will probably cease soon. June 18th we moved out hospital...we took earth works and the commanding position of this whole vicinity which the rebs would not have yielded if they had intended to make a stand against us.. These heights overlook Petersburg and only a mile distant so that 3 church spires are in plain sight above the tree tops.

Georgetown, Washington 1834

A one page letter with integral address leaf from F.W. Dodge of Georgetown, Washington, District of Columbia, to his nephew Allen Dodge at New York. Dated Georgetown, September 2, 1834, the letter combines business with complaints of illness.

This letter is for sale on Ebay, Item number: 190263574632.