This stampless letter has a circular date stamp for PAW PAW Mich., a matching PAID and 3 cent rate, and is addressed to Capt. Ed Richmond, N. Adams, Mass., It is a two+ page letter (plus a small enclosure) written by T.R. Harrison and Frances Darling. The headline is Paw Paw, Mich, Aug 16 / 54 [1854].
Some abstracts:
"Inclosed you will find orders for the payment of amounts due to Frances N. Darling, & Jane E. Darling, daughters of William Darling, deceased, from the estate of their Grandfather David Darling of which you are Administrator."
"There are two other children of the said William Darling & only two both boys & of age, Charles & Edgar, the former residing in Jackson in this state & the latter at Leoni in the same county, where also the Mother (now Mrs. Haywood) [Kaywood?] also resides."
"The amount due Jane E. you will forward directly to me, she being my wife, also the amount for Frances you will forward to my care; she is now teaching school a few miles from her & makes it her home with me."
Find your roots and hear your ancestors' words across the generations. Discover your origins in old letters as ancestors tell their stories and reveal family relationships, past events, moments in time and details of family history. Add branches to your family tree as you search your ancestry and build your genealogy.
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Emma Wadsworth Letter, 1865
The correspondent, Emma Wadsworth is clearly an intelligent, articulate, young woman and does not hesitate to speak her mind. She gives the reader a descriptive literary sketch of the intrigue and the controversy surrounding the Lincoln Assassination. Excerpts of the letter are quoted below.
LETTER EXCERPTS
"Speedwell, Ills.—April 21, 1865
Dear Friend--
Your favor of March 20th, I believe it was for the first part of it has been scattered among my papers so I have not time now to hunt it up…I forthwith proceed to reply. Here is a goodly piece of paper to begin with but letter writing is getting to be such a bore that I can hardly content myself to write…
I am in glorious spirits and good health and you know when we feel well everything is bright and joyous, and when the prospect of peace lifts one up to the ‘ether regions’ or with peace and calm will come, cool reason and soberness. O how anxious I feel . O my beloved country will thy children buy bitterness and wrath, prejudice and the sorrows of this cruel civil war and write on the glorious principles of Madison and Jefferson. I fear they will not do it for many years. Oh but I welcome that sweet angel of peace!
Everything is peace around here since Richmond was taken. Goods and everything else have fell 50 percent. It has been a hard winter….
Mr. William McClury and [Mr.] Flowers are home paroled. McClury has been with us some. Lincoln’s assassination has cast a gloom over the north. The anti-war party bitterly detested Lincoln and have no crocodile tears to spill over his death. But heaven save us from the drunken debaucher [Andrew Johnson] who reigns in his place. I would a thousand times rather had Lincoln than the thing who by virtue of the second office is the gift of the people, now holds the first place. Not a paper I have seen has failed to denounce him for his shameless ‘incoherency’ on the inauguration day and I have seen the friends of Lincoln shed tears of vexation over that exhibition, the shoddy Democrats by to mourn loudest of all over Lincoln’s fate—who when living, they denounced everything he did and said. It reminds of the way the opposite party carried on when the noble Mr. Douglas died, I lament that our land has been darkened by the assassin’s hand, but for one who from my very soul, I believe to be the worst enemy of my country almost. I would have him suffer for his actions by the laws of our country and not by the assassin’s hand. But if it is possible in Andy Johnson we have the essence of combined meanness, instead of a thoughtless, cruel joker….
I like frankness in all matters and I nknow you do or I would not dare to write as I do…. Write often…E.W."
******END OF LETTER******
LETTER EXCERPTS
"Speedwell, Ills.—April 21, 1865
Dear Friend--
Your favor of March 20th, I believe it was for the first part of it has been scattered among my papers so I have not time now to hunt it up…I forthwith proceed to reply. Here is a goodly piece of paper to begin with but letter writing is getting to be such a bore that I can hardly content myself to write…
I am in glorious spirits and good health and you know when we feel well everything is bright and joyous, and when the prospect of peace lifts one up to the ‘ether regions’ or with peace and calm will come, cool reason and soberness. O how anxious I feel . O my beloved country will thy children buy bitterness and wrath, prejudice and the sorrows of this cruel civil war and write on the glorious principles of Madison and Jefferson. I fear they will not do it for many years. Oh but I welcome that sweet angel of peace!
Everything is peace around here since Richmond was taken. Goods and everything else have fell 50 percent. It has been a hard winter….
Mr. William McClury and [Mr.] Flowers are home paroled. McClury has been with us some. Lincoln’s assassination has cast a gloom over the north. The anti-war party bitterly detested Lincoln and have no crocodile tears to spill over his death. But heaven save us from the drunken debaucher [Andrew Johnson] who reigns in his place. I would a thousand times rather had Lincoln than the thing who by virtue of the second office is the gift of the people, now holds the first place. Not a paper I have seen has failed to denounce him for his shameless ‘incoherency’ on the inauguration day and I have seen the friends of Lincoln shed tears of vexation over that exhibition, the shoddy Democrats by to mourn loudest of all over Lincoln’s fate—who when living, they denounced everything he did and said. It reminds of the way the opposite party carried on when the noble Mr. Douglas died, I lament that our land has been darkened by the assassin’s hand, but for one who from my very soul, I believe to be the worst enemy of my country almost. I would have him suffer for his actions by the laws of our country and not by the assassin’s hand. But if it is possible in Andy Johnson we have the essence of combined meanness, instead of a thoughtless, cruel joker….
I like frankness in all matters and I nknow you do or I would not dare to write as I do…. Write often…E.W."
******END OF LETTER******
An 1860 pre-civil war dated letter from William Wadsworth to his sister, Emma Wadsworth
1860 PRE-CIVIL WAR LETTER WRITTEN BY CORPORAL WILLIAM WADSWORTH
"…A good nigger is worth from fourteen to eighteen hundred dollars here…." William Wadsworth, July 1, 1860"
A pre-civil war dated letter from William Wadsworth to his dear sister, Emma Wadsworth. The letter by Wadsworth is written from Camden, South Carolina on July 1, 1860.
Little did William Wadsworth know, but a short two years later, in 1862, he would muster into Company "I" of the 83rd Illinois Infantry. His perspective on the South in 1860 is very interesting. What he was doing in South Carolina at the time is left to the imagination.
At the time this letter was written, Abraham Lincoln was busy campaigning and was soon to be elected President on November 6, 1860. South Carolina would be the first to secede on December 20, 1860, on the heels of the Lincoln winning the election. What a time for Wadsworth to be visiting South Carolina. The political atmosphere must have been exciting with the North and South at each other’s throats. This letter gives us great insight into the days just before the Civil War commenced.
WADSWORTH LETTER
Below I have quoted excerpts of the letter
"July 1, 1860
Miss Emma--Sister
I received yours of the 16th and was very glad to hear from you. I am well and doing as well as could be well as could be expected for these times. You asked me to tell you what I think of the South. I think just as I always have about the South and the Slavery question. I always thought that if you would rather live in a slave state than a free one and I expect to live farther South than this before many years. I do not believe that Slavery is right, but still I think that under the circumstances that they are held in the South that it is better to keep them as they are for the Slave and Master, although there is is not one Slave out of ten that does not work enough to pay his master the interest on the money that he has invested in him. A good Nigger is worth from fourteen to eighteen hundred dollars here. As for politics there is not much ‘tis made here yet. I think that the race in this state will be pretty close between Bell and S.A. Douglas.
******
[Wadsworth refers here to John Bell and Steven A. Douglas. John Bell initially opposed secession; however, he later gave his full support to President Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Army. In 1860 Douglas was nominated by northern Democrats for the presidency.] ******
You spoke in your letter about some of them trying to make a split in the…church on the slavery questions there is…and I suppose they can all do what they please, but I hope that they will find…foolish enough to have anything to do with such measures, and I think that if old John Miller would strain as hard for the salvation of his soul as he does for popularity, that he would let such things alone and to counting up men he has cheated in horse trades and pay them the difference.
I left Lexington about a month ago. Times got so dull that we had nothing to do and as I was the lost jer in the shop, I had to take my chances. I came from Lexington to here. I have a good job here carrying on a shop for a man that does not know anything about the business. I am getting two dollars per day. I have been out of stock for two or three days but look for more everyday. I cannot tell anything about when I will be at home. I have not got a letter from Lib since I left home. I wrote to Ed twice or three times and to Lib once but have got no answer yet. I do not think that I will write anymore unless they write to me.
Politics does not bother me as much as the girls. There are so many good looking ones here and they all want to marry. I have almost made up my mind to tie to one of them, but I cannot decide which. I think that I shall find one after…need not be surprised if I should bring her home with me when I come. If I do you…expect to see something good looking. We will have a grand ball at the hotel where I am boarding on the fourth and as I am one of the floor mangers, I will have a good chance to look around among them.
If I leave the man that I am at work for soon I will go farther south, and I think that I will stay here and after the first of next month I am going to try to carry…on the shop on my own …
Give my respects to all inquiring friends and not to ones that do not inquire to. Tell Kate and James that I would like to hear from them….[edited the rest of the letter].
Yours truly….Wm. Wadsworth"
"…A good nigger is worth from fourteen to eighteen hundred dollars here…." William Wadsworth, July 1, 1860"
A pre-civil war dated letter from William Wadsworth to his dear sister, Emma Wadsworth. The letter by Wadsworth is written from Camden, South Carolina on July 1, 1860.
Little did William Wadsworth know, but a short two years later, in 1862, he would muster into Company "I" of the 83rd Illinois Infantry. His perspective on the South in 1860 is very interesting. What he was doing in South Carolina at the time is left to the imagination.
At the time this letter was written, Abraham Lincoln was busy campaigning and was soon to be elected President on November 6, 1860. South Carolina would be the first to secede on December 20, 1860, on the heels of the Lincoln winning the election. What a time for Wadsworth to be visiting South Carolina. The political atmosphere must have been exciting with the North and South at each other’s throats. This letter gives us great insight into the days just before the Civil War commenced.
WADSWORTH LETTER
Below I have quoted excerpts of the letter
"July 1, 1860
Miss Emma--Sister
I received yours of the 16th and was very glad to hear from you. I am well and doing as well as could be well as could be expected for these times. You asked me to tell you what I think of the South. I think just as I always have about the South and the Slavery question. I always thought that if you would rather live in a slave state than a free one and I expect to live farther South than this before many years. I do not believe that Slavery is right, but still I think that under the circumstances that they are held in the South that it is better to keep them as they are for the Slave and Master, although there is is not one Slave out of ten that does not work enough to pay his master the interest on the money that he has invested in him. A good Nigger is worth from fourteen to eighteen hundred dollars here. As for politics there is not much ‘tis made here yet. I think that the race in this state will be pretty close between Bell and S.A. Douglas.
******
[Wadsworth refers here to John Bell and Steven A. Douglas. John Bell initially opposed secession; however, he later gave his full support to President Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Army. In 1860 Douglas was nominated by northern Democrats for the presidency.] ******
You spoke in your letter about some of them trying to make a split in the…church on the slavery questions there is…and I suppose they can all do what they please, but I hope that they will find…foolish enough to have anything to do with such measures, and I think that if old John Miller would strain as hard for the salvation of his soul as he does for popularity, that he would let such things alone and to counting up men he has cheated in horse trades and pay them the difference.
I left Lexington about a month ago. Times got so dull that we had nothing to do and as I was the lost jer in the shop, I had to take my chances. I came from Lexington to here. I have a good job here carrying on a shop for a man that does not know anything about the business. I am getting two dollars per day. I have been out of stock for two or three days but look for more everyday. I cannot tell anything about when I will be at home. I have not got a letter from Lib since I left home. I wrote to Ed twice or three times and to Lib once but have got no answer yet. I do not think that I will write anymore unless they write to me.
Politics does not bother me as much as the girls. There are so many good looking ones here and they all want to marry. I have almost made up my mind to tie to one of them, but I cannot decide which. I think that I shall find one after…need not be surprised if I should bring her home with me when I come. If I do you…expect to see something good looking. We will have a grand ball at the hotel where I am boarding on the fourth and as I am one of the floor mangers, I will have a good chance to look around among them.
If I leave the man that I am at work for soon I will go farther south, and I think that I will stay here and after the first of next month I am going to try to carry…on the shop on my own …
Give my respects to all inquiring friends and not to ones that do not inquire to. Tell Kate and James that I would like to hear from them….[edited the rest of the letter].
Yours truly….Wm. Wadsworth"
1859 PIKES PEAK, COLORADO GOLD RUSH LETTER BY WILLIAM WADSWORTH
1859 PIKES PEAK, COLORADO GOLD RUSH LETTER BY WILLIAM WADSWORTH
"…I expect to start for Pikes Peak about the first of April…. They say that the prospect is full as good as that of California…" Wm. Wadsworth, Feb. 19, 1859"
Here is another William Wadsworth letter written to his sister, Emma Wadsworth. It is written from Greenbush, (presumably Illinois) on February 19, 1859.
William Wadsworth, an apparent mover and shaker, would also live in South Carolina in 1860, immediately preceding the Civil War. See his 1860 letter up for auction, too! Later, in 1862, he would serve in the Civil War (Company "I" of the 83rd Illinois Infantry).
In this letter, Wadsworth tell his sister of his intentions to travel to Colorado—during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1858-59. Like others, he heard rumors of gold, of large nuggets and gold-bearing quartz. Trappers had seen the flash of color in Rocky Mountain streams. Cherokee Indians had found golden flakes in the sands of Ralston's Creek. In the early spring of 1858 four parties of gold seekers started out for the Front Range of the Rockies to verify the truth of these rumors.
WADSWORTH LETTER
"Greenbush—Feb. 19, 1859
Dear Sister
It is with pleasure that I take this opportunity of writing to you. We received a letter from you for Martha. She has not been here since Christmas. She is at Mother’s. Mailed your letter to her this morning. Ed’s folks are all well. Ella is as fat and sAucy as she can be. She is beginning to talk a little. My health is improving. I think that I will get well as soon as warm weather comes.
I expect to start for Pikes Peak about the first of April. I do not know whether I will have time to come to see you before I go or not. I have seen letters from several young men of my acquaintances from there. They say that from 3 to 8 dollars per day is a low estimate of what a man can make. Besides there is two or three men in this neighborhood that has been all through that country. They say that the prospect is full as good as that of California.
I have been shut up in the shop so much for the last five years that I think that the trip will do me good. I intend to go there and if I can do well there, I will stay for a year or two. If not, I will go south and work at my trade. [This is exactly what Wadsworth did in 1860]. I can make from 15 to 18 dollars per week there, which I can only get from 11 to 12 here. I have been getting thirty dollars per month board and wasting since I have been here. I expect to go and see mother before I go away…
.Yours truly, Wm Wadsworth"
"…I expect to start for Pikes Peak about the first of April…. They say that the prospect is full as good as that of California…" Wm. Wadsworth, Feb. 19, 1859"
Here is another William Wadsworth letter written to his sister, Emma Wadsworth. It is written from Greenbush, (presumably Illinois) on February 19, 1859.
William Wadsworth, an apparent mover and shaker, would also live in South Carolina in 1860, immediately preceding the Civil War. See his 1860 letter up for auction, too! Later, in 1862, he would serve in the Civil War (Company "I" of the 83rd Illinois Infantry).
In this letter, Wadsworth tell his sister of his intentions to travel to Colorado—during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1858-59. Like others, he heard rumors of gold, of large nuggets and gold-bearing quartz. Trappers had seen the flash of color in Rocky Mountain streams. Cherokee Indians had found golden flakes in the sands of Ralston's Creek. In the early spring of 1858 four parties of gold seekers started out for the Front Range of the Rockies to verify the truth of these rumors.
WADSWORTH LETTER
"Greenbush—Feb. 19, 1859
Dear Sister
It is with pleasure that I take this opportunity of writing to you. We received a letter from you for Martha. She has not been here since Christmas. She is at Mother’s. Mailed your letter to her this morning. Ed’s folks are all well. Ella is as fat and sAucy as she can be. She is beginning to talk a little. My health is improving. I think that I will get well as soon as warm weather comes.
I expect to start for Pikes Peak about the first of April. I do not know whether I will have time to come to see you before I go or not. I have seen letters from several young men of my acquaintances from there. They say that from 3 to 8 dollars per day is a low estimate of what a man can make. Besides there is two or three men in this neighborhood that has been all through that country. They say that the prospect is full as good as that of California.
I have been shut up in the shop so much for the last five years that I think that the trip will do me good. I intend to go there and if I can do well there, I will stay for a year or two. If not, I will go south and work at my trade. [This is exactly what Wadsworth did in 1860]. I can make from 15 to 18 dollars per week there, which I can only get from 11 to 12 here. I have been getting thirty dollars per month board and wasting since I have been here. I expect to go and see mother before I go away…
.Yours truly, Wm Wadsworth"
Friday, June 18, 2004
Lydia Giles, San Francisco California, 1881
~1880 OVERLAND JOURNEY~SAN FRANCISCO~MARITIME~
“When I have good pen and some better paper, I will write you of the Rocky Mountains, the Plains, the Hills and Valleys, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains that we crossed coming here. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would come Overland to California, I would not have believed it, would you?”
Lydia Ann Giles,
San Francisco, California,
July 10, 1881
Two great letters written by an exciting and adventurous, female sailor, and pioneer who made the Overland journey through the Sierra Nevadas in 1880. The letters are written by Lydia Ann Giles and addressed for the most part to family members in Tenants Harbor, Maine. She sailed the world over with her husband, Captain Henry Giles who worked for J. M. Grace & Company, San Franscisco, shipping and commission merchants
LYDIA'S FIRST LETTER TO HER SISTER
***Oakland, California--July the 10th, 1881***
“Dear Sister-- Will write you a few lines this evening. I arrived here all right—was eight days—got along nicely. Was sick a week after I got here. Had a bad cold-cough and sore throat. I was not on deck for a week. Was over to San Francisco yesterday.
Sherry and I took the afternoon to ourselves and had a good walk. Took the car and went to Laurel Hill Cemetery. It is a beautiful place. [Laurel Hill Cemetery founded in 1854 is no longer in existence. Also formerly known as Lone Mountain Cemetery, San Francisco County, it was sadly forgotten and left to the vandals. Many of San Francisco’s pioneering politicians were buried there. Many of the bodies were moved and retinterred at Laurel Hill Mound, Cypress Lawn, Colma.] Then we took the steam car and went home with Mr. Chapman[of J. F. Chapman & Co., shipping and commission merchants, San Franscisco] to Sea and spent the evening. His wife was a Levensaller. She has two brothers here.
Capt. Wallace sailed yesterday. The ‘Gibson’ lays at the same wharf we do. Mrs. Speed has spent one day with me and I have been one day there. Henry has a bad cold; other ways, his health is good. He likes the long voyages very much.
I had a letter from Leann yesterday. Said there was a present waiting for her when she got home. A real silver butter dish. Had a bail to it and a place to lay the knife on the side. It was from Edward Gleason, a cousin. Henry has sent her a pair of blankets. Had them made to order. Her name wove in the border. I did not see them, but they must have been very nice. Mr. Chapman is going to give me a pair and Mr. Levensaller will give me a pair.
We intend to go to William Long someday after Henry gets over his cold. He lives at Shawood, a small town back of here. When I have good pen and some better paper, I will write you of the Rocky Mountains, the Plains, the Hills and Valleys, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains that we crossed coming here. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would come Overland to California, I would not have believed it, would you?
Henry says he will send Joe’s pipe by mail. We have two nice great hogs on board. Write as soon as you get this and write all the news. Kiss Eddie for me.
My love to all and a good share to yourself.
Yours affectionately. L. A. Giles.
Henry sends his regards.”
“When I have good pen and some better paper, I will write you of the Rocky Mountains, the Plains, the Hills and Valleys, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains that we crossed coming here. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would come Overland to California, I would not have believed it, would you?”
Lydia Ann Giles,
San Francisco, California,
July 10, 1881
Two great letters written by an exciting and adventurous, female sailor, and pioneer who made the Overland journey through the Sierra Nevadas in 1880. The letters are written by Lydia Ann Giles and addressed for the most part to family members in Tenants Harbor, Maine. She sailed the world over with her husband, Captain Henry Giles who worked for J. M. Grace & Company, San Franscisco, shipping and commission merchants
LYDIA'S FIRST LETTER TO HER SISTER
***Oakland, California--July the 10th, 1881***
“Dear Sister-- Will write you a few lines this evening. I arrived here all right—was eight days—got along nicely. Was sick a week after I got here. Had a bad cold-cough and sore throat. I was not on deck for a week. Was over to San Francisco yesterday.
Sherry and I took the afternoon to ourselves and had a good walk. Took the car and went to Laurel Hill Cemetery. It is a beautiful place. [Laurel Hill Cemetery founded in 1854 is no longer in existence. Also formerly known as Lone Mountain Cemetery, San Francisco County, it was sadly forgotten and left to the vandals. Many of San Francisco’s pioneering politicians were buried there. Many of the bodies were moved and retinterred at Laurel Hill Mound, Cypress Lawn, Colma.] Then we took the steam car and went home with Mr. Chapman[of J. F. Chapman & Co., shipping and commission merchants, San Franscisco] to Sea and spent the evening. His wife was a Levensaller. She has two brothers here.
Capt. Wallace sailed yesterday. The ‘Gibson’ lays at the same wharf we do. Mrs. Speed has spent one day with me and I have been one day there. Henry has a bad cold; other ways, his health is good. He likes the long voyages very much.
I had a letter from Leann yesterday. Said there was a present waiting for her when she got home. A real silver butter dish. Had a bail to it and a place to lay the knife on the side. It was from Edward Gleason, a cousin. Henry has sent her a pair of blankets. Had them made to order. Her name wove in the border. I did not see them, but they must have been very nice. Mr. Chapman is going to give me a pair and Mr. Levensaller will give me a pair.
We intend to go to William Long someday after Henry gets over his cold. He lives at Shawood, a small town back of here. When I have good pen and some better paper, I will write you of the Rocky Mountains, the Plains, the Hills and Valleys, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains that we crossed coming here. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would come Overland to California, I would not have believed it, would you?
Henry says he will send Joe’s pipe by mail. We have two nice great hogs on board. Write as soon as you get this and write all the news. Kiss Eddie for me.
My love to all and a good share to yourself.
Yours affectionately. L. A. Giles.
Henry sends his regards.”
Thursday, May 27, 2004
S. Brooks to Thomas Brooks, Massachusetts, 1812
This stampless letter has a faint circular date stamp for BOSTON with the stars / asterisks at the bottom, a handwritten 10 cent rate, and is addressed to Mr. Thomas Brooks, Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and is a one page 'Honoured Parents' letter written by S. Brooks.
The headline is Boston, May 11th, 1812.
Some abstracts:
"I am well and hoping these few lines may find you the same. I got down verry safe and went to Mr. Rogers the same night and gave him your letter, he read it over several times and made strange of it, he had no notion of moveing out of the house, and never said he had, he said he might live in the house this nine years but as the times where now, he did not want to live in the house only by the quarter. Thomas is well and sends his love to the family."
"I bought John a trunk and a wach [sic] and a picturbook."
The headline is Boston, May 11th, 1812.
Some abstracts:
"I am well and hoping these few lines may find you the same. I got down verry safe and went to Mr. Rogers the same night and gave him your letter, he read it over several times and made strange of it, he had no notion of moveing out of the house, and never said he had, he said he might live in the house this nine years but as the times where now, he did not want to live in the house only by the quarter. Thomas is well and sends his love to the family."
"I bought John a trunk and a wach [sic] and a picturbook."
Senator Asa Biggs, North Carolina, 1865
POST CIVIL WAR LETTER FROM CONFEDERATE SECESSIONIST DELGATE, SENATOR AND JUDGE
"All the valuable part of my Library was destroyed or carried off by the Federal Forces when they occupied my former residence in 1862." Asa Biggs, Nov. 30, 1865
This is a letter written by North Carolina Senator, Asa Biggs from Tarboro, North Carolina only a five months post war. The letter is addressed to Messrs. W. H. and O.H. Morrison.
Asa Biggs has quite a political history. He was an ardent supporter of slavery and states' rights, he approved of secession and resigned his federal position in 1861 to take a seat in the Secession Convention. He served as a Confederate district judge from 1861 until the end of the Civil War.
One of his three sons, Henry, was killed at Appomattox on 8 Apr. 1865. Another, William, also served in the Confederate Army and later became editor of the Oxford (N.C.) Free Lance. Biggs's other children included Asa Thomas, Lucy E., Patricia, and Cottie. Never wealthy, he often despaired of being able to provide for his large family. Reading the letter offered here, one gets a sense of his despair.
Biggs moved to Dalkeith in 1863 to settle on land he had acquired there. After the war he practiced law in Tarboro, (the city from which the letter is written) until he moved to Norfolk. A devoutly religious man, he experienced a religious conversion and described it in an autobiography written for his children in 1865 (published in 1915 by the North Carolina Historical Commission). He died in Norfolk and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery there.
THE BIGGS LETTER EXCERPT
"Tarboro, N.C., Nov. 30, 1865
Messrs. W. H. & O. H. Morrison:
Gentleman -- I am located at this place and expect to resume the practice of my profession and open a Law School to make a living. All the valuable part of my Library was destroyed or carried off by the Federal Forces when they occupied my former residence in 1862. I desire to replenish as far as I have the means and I now write as proposed by me to one of your firm while I was in Washington to inform you of the Congressional books left me and to ascertain if I can make an exchange for some Law Books. The Congressional Books are of my former residence in Williamston and a friend has sent me the following catlogue....
Can you take them and if so what is the most liberal price you can allow? I can box them up carefully and send them from Williamston via Norfolk, Va., and the books you send me can be forwarded via Norfolk to the care of Kader Biggs & Co., Norfolk Va....
I suggest this route as it will be less expensive, being water carriage all the way. I desire first to procure all the Statutes of the Unitied States during the war and the Decision of the Supreme court during gthe same time and afterward I can fill up my set of Reports & c.. I desire also to obtain the latest edition of any reiliable work on the Internal Revenue Acts, the most complete one I have seen is a publication by Bontwell, late commissioner of Internal Revenue. I desire also to procure a supply of staionery, one ream of good letter paper, one foolscap, 1/4 or 1/2 ream of conveancing paper and some envelopes and pens. In reply please state at what price you can furnish these articles so that I may see if I shall have the means to pay as I desire to confine myself to my resources for payment. Hoping to hear from you at our earliest convenience.
I am respectfully your obt. servant...Asa Biggs...
P.S. I find I have lost my copy of Brightley's Digest. I shall like to obtain the latest editio nof that work or any other which gives a Digest of the Statutes and if the recent statutes are included, I shall not need the Statutes themselves.
"All the valuable part of my Library was destroyed or carried off by the Federal Forces when they occupied my former residence in 1862." Asa Biggs, Nov. 30, 1865
This is a letter written by North Carolina Senator, Asa Biggs from Tarboro, North Carolina only a five months post war. The letter is addressed to Messrs. W. H. and O.H. Morrison.
Asa Biggs has quite a political history. He was an ardent supporter of slavery and states' rights, he approved of secession and resigned his federal position in 1861 to take a seat in the Secession Convention. He served as a Confederate district judge from 1861 until the end of the Civil War.
One of his three sons, Henry, was killed at Appomattox on 8 Apr. 1865. Another, William, also served in the Confederate Army and later became editor of the Oxford (N.C.) Free Lance. Biggs's other children included Asa Thomas, Lucy E., Patricia, and Cottie. Never wealthy, he often despaired of being able to provide for his large family. Reading the letter offered here, one gets a sense of his despair.
Biggs moved to Dalkeith in 1863 to settle on land he had acquired there. After the war he practiced law in Tarboro, (the city from which the letter is written) until he moved to Norfolk. A devoutly religious man, he experienced a religious conversion and described it in an autobiography written for his children in 1865 (published in 1915 by the North Carolina Historical Commission). He died in Norfolk and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery there.
THE BIGGS LETTER EXCERPT
"Tarboro, N.C., Nov. 30, 1865
Messrs. W. H. & O. H. Morrison:
Gentleman -- I am located at this place and expect to resume the practice of my profession and open a Law School to make a living. All the valuable part of my Library was destroyed or carried off by the Federal Forces when they occupied my former residence in 1862. I desire to replenish as far as I have the means and I now write as proposed by me to one of your firm while I was in Washington to inform you of the Congressional books left me and to ascertain if I can make an exchange for some Law Books. The Congressional Books are of my former residence in Williamston and a friend has sent me the following catlogue....
Can you take them and if so what is the most liberal price you can allow? I can box them up carefully and send them from Williamston via Norfolk, Va., and the books you send me can be forwarded via Norfolk to the care of Kader Biggs & Co., Norfolk Va....
I suggest this route as it will be less expensive, being water carriage all the way. I desire first to procure all the Statutes of the Unitied States during the war and the Decision of the Supreme court during gthe same time and afterward I can fill up my set of Reports & c.. I desire also to obtain the latest edition of any reiliable work on the Internal Revenue Acts, the most complete one I have seen is a publication by Bontwell, late commissioner of Internal Revenue. I desire also to procure a supply of staionery, one ream of good letter paper, one foolscap, 1/4 or 1/2 ream of conveancing paper and some envelopes and pens. In reply please state at what price you can furnish these articles so that I may see if I shall have the means to pay as I desire to confine myself to my resources for payment. Hoping to hear from you at our earliest convenience.
I am respectfully your obt. servant...Asa Biggs...
P.S. I find I have lost my copy of Brightley's Digest. I shall like to obtain the latest editio nof that work or any other which gives a Digest of the Statutes and if the recent statutes are included, I shall not need the Statutes themselves.
Lydia Giles, 1882
Letter written by an exciting and adventurous, female sailor, and pioneer who made the Overland journey through the Sierra Nevadas in 1880. The letters are written by Lydia Ann Giles and addressed for the most part to family members in Tenants Harbor, Maine. She sailed the world over with her husband, Captain Henry Giles who worked for J. M. Grace & Company, San Franscisco, shipping and commission merchants
LYDIA'S SECOND LETTER TO HER SISTER
***Liverpool, England--July the 13th, 1882***
My very dear sister Will commence a letter to you to say we are nearly ready for sea. Shall said about the 17th . I have received one letter from you and quite a number of papers. Hope I will get another letter before we said. I though I would not come home this time as my health is good and they all seem to be getting along well enough without me.
Henry is well and has got quite a corporation on his. He sends his regards to you and Joseph. Captain Speed and wife are staying with us now. Their ship is in the Graving Dock. .We stayed with them when our ship was in the Graving Dock. We had rather stay on the ship than board on shore. Captain Murphy has stayed us one night.
We have been off sight seeing over to London and Buxton. Captain speed and wife, Henry and I, Mr. Fox and wife met us in Buxton. Went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Works in London. Rode through the principal streets over London bridge and Westminster bridge, through Hyde Park, round Roblen Row. Several times saw through the Tower of London. Stood on the spot where Anne Boleyn was beheaded. Saw the block and beheading axe and headsman’s mask. Was in the dungeon where Guy Fawkes was imprisoned and where the Royal Children were murdered—the two sons of Edward the Fourth. The instruments of torture, saw the crown jewels as Aunt T. B. says they were immense. Went to Windsor, was through Windsor Castle, all but the grounds, private apartments. From Duxton we went to Bakewell Church. This sacred pile is very ancient. Tradition assigns it a date anterior to the conquest. The old Nave is supposed to have re-erected about 1100, upon a still older foundation.
..... I hope you will not think that I have taken this large sheet to write the history of England on, but if you would like it, I will write a few descriptions of these places when I have more time. I came back very tired, but well satisfied. Enjoyed every minute of it. Although my lame knee ached very bad, being on my feet so much.
Our friends Mr. Gracie and wife, Mr. Meeks and wife, took us to Prescott in company with Capt. Speed and wife. Had a pleasant time. I sent you a paper with a necktie. Hope you got it all right. Tell Eddie I got him a Monkey in London. Not a live one. Kiss him for me. Will send it to Eddie by mail from San Francisco. Take good care of yourself and don’t go round among the sick too much. Laura is coming down to make you a visit soon. Don’t let her go round too much.
My love, best wishes to you.
Write to San Francisco in care of J.W. Grace & Co. Write about the first of November. I will send for a paper when we leave by the Pilot,.
Many thanks for the Opinions, your affectionate Sister, L. A. Giles.
Had a present of 17 Round Books and a case of scissors with my name on them in gilt….”
LYDIA'S SECOND LETTER TO HER SISTER
***Liverpool, England--July the 13th, 1882***
My very dear sister Will commence a letter to you to say we are nearly ready for sea. Shall said about the 17th . I have received one letter from you and quite a number of papers. Hope I will get another letter before we said. I though I would not come home this time as my health is good and they all seem to be getting along well enough without me.
Henry is well and has got quite a corporation on his. He sends his regards to you and Joseph. Captain Speed and wife are staying with us now. Their ship is in the Graving Dock. .We stayed with them when our ship was in the Graving Dock. We had rather stay on the ship than board on shore. Captain Murphy has stayed us one night.
We have been off sight seeing over to London and Buxton. Captain speed and wife, Henry and I, Mr. Fox and wife met us in Buxton. Went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Works in London. Rode through the principal streets over London bridge and Westminster bridge, through Hyde Park, round Roblen Row. Several times saw through the Tower of London. Stood on the spot where Anne Boleyn was beheaded. Saw the block and beheading axe and headsman’s mask. Was in the dungeon where Guy Fawkes was imprisoned and where the Royal Children were murdered—the two sons of Edward the Fourth. The instruments of torture, saw the crown jewels as Aunt T. B. says they were immense. Went to Windsor, was through Windsor Castle, all but the grounds, private apartments. From Duxton we went to Bakewell Church. This sacred pile is very ancient. Tradition assigns it a date anterior to the conquest. The old Nave is supposed to have re-erected about 1100, upon a still older foundation.
..... I hope you will not think that I have taken this large sheet to write the history of England on, but if you would like it, I will write a few descriptions of these places when I have more time. I came back very tired, but well satisfied. Enjoyed every minute of it. Although my lame knee ached very bad, being on my feet so much.
Our friends Mr. Gracie and wife, Mr. Meeks and wife, took us to Prescott in company with Capt. Speed and wife. Had a pleasant time. I sent you a paper with a necktie. Hope you got it all right. Tell Eddie I got him a Monkey in London. Not a live one. Kiss him for me. Will send it to Eddie by mail from San Francisco. Take good care of yourself and don’t go round among the sick too much. Laura is coming down to make you a visit soon. Don’t let her go round too much.
My love, best wishes to you.
Write to San Francisco in care of J.W. Grace & Co. Write about the first of November. I will send for a paper when we leave by the Pilot,.
Many thanks for the Opinions, your affectionate Sister, L. A. Giles.
Had a present of 17 Round Books and a case of scissors with my name on them in gilt….”
Monday, May 17, 2004
John Little, New York, 1883
Name: Terry Schliewe
E- mail: tks1952@comcast.net
Franklinville, NY
17 July, 1883
Our Dear Son James:
We would like very much to hear from you once in a while, your Mother is afraid you are not doing well because you never write and she worries about it. Now cannot you send us a card now and then, how you get along for health and worldly good not forgetting the world to come above all things. I send you a few cards, with this mail, the last we heard was from Orrie, said his mother was not well hope she is better now.
We are all very well at present. Margaret and Stephen are with us yet but go back to Corry next month. Kate has been visiting for the last 3 months at Muncie Indiana to Thos. Duncans. Peter’s Uncle Peter has just gone after her. Francis assists me in the office the business of the office has increased a good deal now and will be a Presidential or salaried office after this quarter. Johnie and family live at Little Valley the county seat, we have a call from him every week or two when he has business this way. He rides on the Railroads free.
Your Aunt has sold her house in Olean and gone to live with her daughter Margaret in Wisconsin. Hugh is sick with consumption and remains in Olean. Your Mother had a cousin with her husband from Scotland visiting their son who is a cashier in a wholesale house in Keokuk Iowa. He owns a farm there his parents visited him 3 or 4 weeks then went home to Glasgow his name is Gavin Herbert. 6th of August next if spared I will be 69 years old. Your mother was 67 last June we are now old. Time will be short with us and it behoves us and all of us to be wise concerning the latter end I trust you are.
And now James let us hear from you about your crops your family and your financial affairs, and prospects if you get the papers I send. Your mother often almost every day regrets that you do not write.
Write, Write. from your affectionate Parents, E & J Little
Notes: This letter was written by John Little of Franklinville NY to his son James Little of Canby MN. James served in the NY 6th Cavalry Company I and left NY to homestead in Yellow Medicine County in MN. John Little Sr was the Postmaster in Franklinville from 1861 till his death in 1886. He refers to his son Johnie, who was John Little Jr sheriff of Cattaraugus Cty btwn 1883 and 1885.
E- mail: tks1952@comcast.net
Franklinville, NY
17 July, 1883
Our Dear Son James:
We would like very much to hear from you once in a while, your Mother is afraid you are not doing well because you never write and she worries about it. Now cannot you send us a card now and then, how you get along for health and worldly good not forgetting the world to come above all things. I send you a few cards, with this mail, the last we heard was from Orrie, said his mother was not well hope she is better now.
We are all very well at present. Margaret and Stephen are with us yet but go back to Corry next month. Kate has been visiting for the last 3 months at Muncie Indiana to Thos. Duncans. Peter’s Uncle Peter has just gone after her. Francis assists me in the office the business of the office has increased a good deal now and will be a Presidential or salaried office after this quarter. Johnie and family live at Little Valley the county seat, we have a call from him every week or two when he has business this way. He rides on the Railroads free.
Your Aunt has sold her house in Olean and gone to live with her daughter Margaret in Wisconsin. Hugh is sick with consumption and remains in Olean. Your Mother had a cousin with her husband from Scotland visiting their son who is a cashier in a wholesale house in Keokuk Iowa. He owns a farm there his parents visited him 3 or 4 weeks then went home to Glasgow his name is Gavin Herbert. 6th of August next if spared I will be 69 years old. Your mother was 67 last June we are now old. Time will be short with us and it behoves us and all of us to be wise concerning the latter end I trust you are.
And now James let us hear from you about your crops your family and your financial affairs, and prospects if you get the papers I send. Your mother often almost every day regrets that you do not write.
Write, Write. from your affectionate Parents, E & J Little
Notes: This letter was written by John Little of Franklinville NY to his son James Little of Canby MN. James served in the NY 6th Cavalry Company I and left NY to homestead in Yellow Medicine County in MN. John Little Sr was the Postmaster in Franklinville from 1861 till his death in 1886. He refers to his son Johnie, who was John Little Jr sheriff of Cattaraugus Cty btwn 1883 and 1885.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Top Genealogy Blogs
Olive Tree Genealogy Lorine McGinnis Schulze (the Olive Tree Lady) answers questions about genealogy and provides tips for finding those elusive brick-wall ancestors
The Paper Trail Eclectic mix of old documents - you may just find an ancestor's will, land record or general store receipt here!
Past Voices Letters, letters and more letters! Letters from Civil War soldiers, from wives to husbands, sons to mothers, sisters to sisters... This blog contains poignant old letters full of genealogy tidbits.
Ancestors at Rest - The blog for AncestorsAtRest.com website. Contains death records of all kinds - funeral cards, death notices, cemetery receipts, obits...and more
Family Bibles - Another AncestorsAtRest.com blog of Family Bible entries and pictures of the births, marriages and death pages
Genealogy And How Up to date announcements of new websites and new genealogical records and databases placed online.
The Paper Trail Eclectic mix of old documents - you may just find an ancestor's will, land record or general store receipt here!
Past Voices Letters, letters and more letters! Letters from Civil War soldiers, from wives to husbands, sons to mothers, sisters to sisters... This blog contains poignant old letters full of genealogy tidbits.
Ancestors at Rest - The blog for AncestorsAtRest.com website. Contains death records of all kinds - funeral cards, death notices, cemetery receipts, obits...and more
Family Bibles - Another AncestorsAtRest.com blog of Family Bible entries and pictures of the births, marriages and death pages
Genealogy And How Up to date announcements of new websites and new genealogical records and databases placed online.
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Civil War: Charles McDowell, a Canadian in NY 9th Artillery, 1865
Name: Lisa Saunders
E- mail: saundersbooks@aol.com
To Nancy Wager McDowell from her husband Charles McDowell (A Canadian who enlisted in the New York 9th Heavy Artillery of the 6th Corps):
DURING THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG [Near Petersburg] January the 1-1865
Dearest Wife
Old Eighteen and Sixty Five has got around and I ain’t much sorry either. But time passes fast with us now. It soon will be spring. Now we have easy times. It is awful muddy now. The most we do is to get our wood and that ain’t very hard work. I wouldn’t care if it would keep muddy all winter.
There has been a good [many] soldiers buried around here. You may go any way you are a-mind to and you will see graves throwed up. When we went after wood the other day, we found a man's skull laying a top of the ground. He hadn’t hardly any dirt throwed over him.
I counted twenty- six ball holes in a tree about a foot through. This was done the time we took the railroad and they charged on us but they got badly whipped. Some of our regiment got taken prisoners last night. Co. M and some of the other company went out yesterday morning on picket. Our company didn’t happen to go, and about two O’clock this morning, we was waked up by the yelling and shooting of the rebs. They made a charge on them. I haven’t heard exactly how many of our regiment there was taken. They say thirty-five or forty-two killed, and five or six wounded. Our boys brought in a few of the rebs. They come on them by surprise.
There is a good many deserting from the rebs most every night and come over here. I think this war will end this winter. It looks more like it now than it ever did before since I enlisted, but we can’t tell this war business is very uncertain. But I find most every one thinks so. I hope so anyway. I would like to have it come to an end this winter.
You would have laughed to have seen us tumble out of bed when the rebs charged on our picket line this morning. We tumbled over one another pretty fast. We was soon in a line. We didn’t know but they would try our line of battle but they knowed better than to try that. If they had they would have had a nice time.
You said you would like to have me come home on a furlough. I would like to go home as well as you would like to have me come but I don’t know whether there will be any more furloughs given or not. I think it will be a pretty hard thing to get one. Isae Woodruff started for home the other day. He had a furlough for fifteen days. He has been trying for one ever since his father died and if it hadn’t been for his father dying, he couldn’t have got one.
You say we can afford it as well as any body. Well I think we could, but if we save the money that it would cost me to come home, we can have so much more to spend. You know we will want to go a- visiting some when I get there. We might happen to get back to Washington yet this winter.
When we get orders to move, we don’t stop to tell long stories. We hear Dunbar and them other fellows is coming back to the regiment. I hear that Lee has give Lucy all of his property to keep till we comes back, then I suppose he will take her too. I wonder if he washed his face since he has been home. Robert Trevor is most well. Old Jef Davis is at home now.
I helped carry Jef in when he was wounded. I couldn’t help but laugh and felt sorry for him to hear what expressions he made. He said it was too bad. He said there was a reb captain come up to him after he was wounded and commenced turning him over to search him. He asked him what he wanted and he said his money and Jef told him [he] would get it for him. He said he put his hand in his pocket and handed his pocket book and the captain took the money out and throwed the pocket book down and a boy came along and he gave him the pocket book for a drink of water.
He would almost cry when he told about that. He said he thought it was too bad after shooting him to take the last cent he had. He said they took twenty-four dollars and ninety-five cents, which he had worked hard for. And he said there was some more come up to him and said, “You are wounded, are you old fellow?” And Jef said, “Yes.” “Well,” they said, “we will be a long with the ambulances and take you to Richmond you dammed Yankees. We will give you Fishers Hill!” Now I bet you Jeff’s eyes stuck out then. And, he said, in about two hours he seen them going back pell mell as hard as they could run and the Sixth Corps after them. He said then he felt glad. This was about now he laid there on the ground till next day noon before we found him.
That is what hurts the men so, laying on the ground so long after they are wounded. They took lots of money from our boys that day. I could have made a thousand dollars if I had a-went around an got our wounded and killed and searched them, but I wouldn’t do such a thing but there is lots of them that does do it and the boys had lots of money then.
There is a good many of our wounded a- coming back to the regiment now. There was two come today that was wounded to Monocacy, besides a good many new recruits. There was one come a few days a go, just like John Tree. You know him. The one we had so much fun with when we was at Fort Foote. The boys had lots of fun with him and night before last we left and we ain’t seen him Since. I don’t think they will look for him much.
It’s a- getting so cold. I don’t know but we shall heft to set up tonight and keep a fire. It is a-freezing fast. But we had the good luck to make a haul on a couple of blankets the other night when we was guarding baggage. I find a man has to look out for himself here. If he don’t, nobody else will look out for him. My cousin was over to see us the other day. He is pretty sick of the war.
I think I must write a letter to Canada before long. I haven't wrote to them since you left. Don’t you think it is too bad it has been so long since I wrote? I feel most ashamed to write now. I shall heft to apologize pretty well. I must write within a few days. Anyway I have had three or four letter from them this summer. Uncle Hiram has been a- trading farms lately. As soon as my time is out I think I shall go and see them Sometimes when I get to thinking about my native land and what good times I have had there it makes a feeling come over me that makes me feel sad.
Little did I think when I left home that I would be gone for seven years. Oh how I long to see my sister Margaret and all the rest, and if I get out of this alive it won’t be long before I can see her. She thought [my likeness] an awful sight. She feels pretty bad about us. She is afraid we will never come home alive but I live in hopes that we will come out all right.
And I must tell you what we had to eat for News Years. We didn’t draw no rations yesterday and we hadn’t nothing for supper last night, only coffee and nothing for breakfast this morning only we got an order and went and bought some bread. So we had bread, beef and coffee, and drawed rations after breakfast. So we had hardtack, coffee and pork for dinner. ain’t that pretty good? It’s getting so cold I must draw my letter to a close hoping soon to get an answer. We expect to go on picket now every day but I hope not till it gets a little warmer. I have just heard that they only captured twenty- three of our men.
From your ever true and affectionate husband C McDowell
Notes: The above letter is one of about 150 Civil War letters I found in my mother’s attic between Charles and Nancy Wager McDowell and their families. Charles McDowell was born in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada on 15 Feb. 1837. His family later moved to Norwich, Ontario, Canada. As a young man he and his brother David McDowell moved to Geneva, NY where Charles married Nancy Wager 24 Dec. 1860 when she was just 15. Despite his father's pleas (John McDowell of Norwich, Ontario) Charles enlisted in Lyons, New York in 1862. He served in the New York 9th Heavy Artillery under Secretary of State Seward's son, William H. Seward Jr., of Auburn, NY. The regiment was nicknamed "Seward's Pets" because the Secretary of State frequently visited his son's regiment and often brought along Lincoln. In the letters I read of a remarkable devotion to one another despite war’s infidelities, scandals and ever-present threat of death as well as Charles’s devotion to his new country. I also gained new insight into a wife's role in the camp life, a Canadian family’s views on the war and their participation, hangings, prostitution, amputations, desertions, theft and murder among Union troops, personal contacts with Lincoln and Seward (of "Seward's Alaskan Folly"), battles of Cold Harbor, Jerusalem Plank Road, Monocacy, Opequon, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, the Siege of Petersburg, Moseby's Men, and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Among my family’s papers I also found photographs of most of the letter writers as well as Nancy Wager McDowell's obituary which reads: "MRS. MCDOWELL IS DEAD - SHOOK HANDS WITH LINCOLN. With the death of Mrs. Nancy Wager McDowell...the town of Sodus probably loses the distinction of having a resident who could boast of having shaken hands and talked with the martyred Lincoln…She was married in 1860 to Charles McDowell, a native of Canada, who came to America when a young man. Mr. McDowell was a member of the Ninth New York Heavy Artillery in the Union Army and it was while stationed near Washington that his wife had an opportunity to speak with the President. Mrs. McDowell passed nearly a year in that vicinity and many were the pies she baked for the soldiers stationed at the capital. Typhoid Fever caused her to return to Alton to the home of her parents…" ("The Record," Sodus, Wayne County, N.Y. September 18, 1931) Charles McDowell died 17 April 1913. Their two children were May Belle (born 4 Aug. 1871) and Gilbert (born 6 Mar. 1883). Gilbert’s children were Gilbert and Russell (grandfather).
The letters, along with background information and era recipes are found in my book: Ever True: Civil War Letters of Seward's New York 9th Heavy Artillery of Wayne and Cayuga Counties Between a Soldier, His Wife and His Canadian Family
If you would like to see pictures of Charles and Nancy McDowell and read more letters, please visit my website at www.authorlisasaunders.com
E- mail: saundersbooks@aol.com
To Nancy Wager McDowell from her husband Charles McDowell (A Canadian who enlisted in the New York 9th Heavy Artillery of the 6th Corps):
DURING THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG [Near Petersburg] January the 1-1865
Dearest Wife
Old Eighteen and Sixty Five has got around and I ain’t much sorry either. But time passes fast with us now. It soon will be spring. Now we have easy times. It is awful muddy now. The most we do is to get our wood and that ain’t very hard work. I wouldn’t care if it would keep muddy all winter.
There has been a good [many] soldiers buried around here. You may go any way you are a-mind to and you will see graves throwed up. When we went after wood the other day, we found a man's skull laying a top of the ground. He hadn’t hardly any dirt throwed over him.
I counted twenty- six ball holes in a tree about a foot through. This was done the time we took the railroad and they charged on us but they got badly whipped. Some of our regiment got taken prisoners last night. Co. M and some of the other company went out yesterday morning on picket. Our company didn’t happen to go, and about two O’clock this morning, we was waked up by the yelling and shooting of the rebs. They made a charge on them. I haven’t heard exactly how many of our regiment there was taken. They say thirty-five or forty-two killed, and five or six wounded. Our boys brought in a few of the rebs. They come on them by surprise.
There is a good many deserting from the rebs most every night and come over here. I think this war will end this winter. It looks more like it now than it ever did before since I enlisted, but we can’t tell this war business is very uncertain. But I find most every one thinks so. I hope so anyway. I would like to have it come to an end this winter.
You would have laughed to have seen us tumble out of bed when the rebs charged on our picket line this morning. We tumbled over one another pretty fast. We was soon in a line. We didn’t know but they would try our line of battle but they knowed better than to try that. If they had they would have had a nice time.
You said you would like to have me come home on a furlough. I would like to go home as well as you would like to have me come but I don’t know whether there will be any more furloughs given or not. I think it will be a pretty hard thing to get one. Isae Woodruff started for home the other day. He had a furlough for fifteen days. He has been trying for one ever since his father died and if it hadn’t been for his father dying, he couldn’t have got one.
You say we can afford it as well as any body. Well I think we could, but if we save the money that it would cost me to come home, we can have so much more to spend. You know we will want to go a- visiting some when I get there. We might happen to get back to Washington yet this winter.
When we get orders to move, we don’t stop to tell long stories. We hear Dunbar and them other fellows is coming back to the regiment. I hear that Lee has give Lucy all of his property to keep till we comes back, then I suppose he will take her too. I wonder if he washed his face since he has been home. Robert Trevor is most well. Old Jef Davis is at home now.
I helped carry Jef in when he was wounded. I couldn’t help but laugh and felt sorry for him to hear what expressions he made. He said it was too bad. He said there was a reb captain come up to him after he was wounded and commenced turning him over to search him. He asked him what he wanted and he said his money and Jef told him [he] would get it for him. He said he put his hand in his pocket and handed his pocket book and the captain took the money out and throwed the pocket book down and a boy came along and he gave him the pocket book for a drink of water.
He would almost cry when he told about that. He said he thought it was too bad after shooting him to take the last cent he had. He said they took twenty-four dollars and ninety-five cents, which he had worked hard for. And he said there was some more come up to him and said, “You are wounded, are you old fellow?” And Jef said, “Yes.” “Well,” they said, “we will be a long with the ambulances and take you to Richmond you dammed Yankees. We will give you Fishers Hill!” Now I bet you Jeff’s eyes stuck out then. And, he said, in about two hours he seen them going back pell mell as hard as they could run and the Sixth Corps after them. He said then he felt glad. This was about now he laid there on the ground till next day noon before we found him.
That is what hurts the men so, laying on the ground so long after they are wounded. They took lots of money from our boys that day. I could have made a thousand dollars if I had a-went around an got our wounded and killed and searched them, but I wouldn’t do such a thing but there is lots of them that does do it and the boys had lots of money then.
There is a good many of our wounded a- coming back to the regiment now. There was two come today that was wounded to Monocacy, besides a good many new recruits. There was one come a few days a go, just like John Tree. You know him. The one we had so much fun with when we was at Fort Foote. The boys had lots of fun with him and night before last we left and we ain’t seen him Since. I don’t think they will look for him much.
It’s a- getting so cold. I don’t know but we shall heft to set up tonight and keep a fire. It is a-freezing fast. But we had the good luck to make a haul on a couple of blankets the other night when we was guarding baggage. I find a man has to look out for himself here. If he don’t, nobody else will look out for him. My cousin was over to see us the other day. He is pretty sick of the war.
I think I must write a letter to Canada before long. I haven't wrote to them since you left. Don’t you think it is too bad it has been so long since I wrote? I feel most ashamed to write now. I shall heft to apologize pretty well. I must write within a few days. Anyway I have had three or four letter from them this summer. Uncle Hiram has been a- trading farms lately. As soon as my time is out I think I shall go and see them Sometimes when I get to thinking about my native land and what good times I have had there it makes a feeling come over me that makes me feel sad.
Little did I think when I left home that I would be gone for seven years. Oh how I long to see my sister Margaret and all the rest, and if I get out of this alive it won’t be long before I can see her. She thought [my likeness] an awful sight. She feels pretty bad about us. She is afraid we will never come home alive but I live in hopes that we will come out all right.
And I must tell you what we had to eat for News Years. We didn’t draw no rations yesterday and we hadn’t nothing for supper last night, only coffee and nothing for breakfast this morning only we got an order and went and bought some bread. So we had bread, beef and coffee, and drawed rations after breakfast. So we had hardtack, coffee and pork for dinner. ain’t that pretty good? It’s getting so cold I must draw my letter to a close hoping soon to get an answer. We expect to go on picket now every day but I hope not till it gets a little warmer. I have just heard that they only captured twenty- three of our men.
From your ever true and affectionate husband C McDowell
Notes: The above letter is one of about 150 Civil War letters I found in my mother’s attic between Charles and Nancy Wager McDowell and their families. Charles McDowell was born in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada on 15 Feb. 1837. His family later moved to Norwich, Ontario, Canada. As a young man he and his brother David McDowell moved to Geneva, NY where Charles married Nancy Wager 24 Dec. 1860 when she was just 15. Despite his father's pleas (John McDowell of Norwich, Ontario) Charles enlisted in Lyons, New York in 1862. He served in the New York 9th Heavy Artillery under Secretary of State Seward's son, William H. Seward Jr., of Auburn, NY. The regiment was nicknamed "Seward's Pets" because the Secretary of State frequently visited his son's regiment and often brought along Lincoln. In the letters I read of a remarkable devotion to one another despite war’s infidelities, scandals and ever-present threat of death as well as Charles’s devotion to his new country. I also gained new insight into a wife's role in the camp life, a Canadian family’s views on the war and their participation, hangings, prostitution, amputations, desertions, theft and murder among Union troops, personal contacts with Lincoln and Seward (of "Seward's Alaskan Folly"), battles of Cold Harbor, Jerusalem Plank Road, Monocacy, Opequon, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, the Siege of Petersburg, Moseby's Men, and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Among my family’s papers I also found photographs of most of the letter writers as well as Nancy Wager McDowell's obituary which reads: "MRS. MCDOWELL IS DEAD - SHOOK HANDS WITH LINCOLN. With the death of Mrs. Nancy Wager McDowell...the town of Sodus probably loses the distinction of having a resident who could boast of having shaken hands and talked with the martyred Lincoln…She was married in 1860 to Charles McDowell, a native of Canada, who came to America when a young man. Mr. McDowell was a member of the Ninth New York Heavy Artillery in the Union Army and it was while stationed near Washington that his wife had an opportunity to speak with the President. Mrs. McDowell passed nearly a year in that vicinity and many were the pies she baked for the soldiers stationed at the capital. Typhoid Fever caused her to return to Alton to the home of her parents…" ("The Record," Sodus, Wayne County, N.Y. September 18, 1931) Charles McDowell died 17 April 1913. Their two children were May Belle (born 4 Aug. 1871) and Gilbert (born 6 Mar. 1883). Gilbert’s children were Gilbert and Russell (grandfather).
The letters, along with background information and era recipes are found in my book: Ever True: Civil War Letters of Seward's New York 9th Heavy Artillery of Wayne and Cayuga Counties Between a Soldier, His Wife and His Canadian Family
If you would like to see pictures of Charles and Nancy McDowell and read more letters, please visit my website at www.authorlisasaunders.com
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
CHARLES R. COLLINS~27TH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY, 1864
CHARLES R. COLLINS~27TH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY~
"I presume that we shall be obliged to go front in the spring camping. If so all right, but in less than six months I shall be free, then I shall keep so one day, I think, and let others try it. It is thought by many that we are likely to go with the Army of the Potomac, but it is evident by the move that we shall go soon somewhere, but we are all anxious to see the country. Charles R. Collins, March 28, 1864 4-page letter addressed from Camp Near Portsmouth, Va., March 28, 1864 and written to his,
Mother and Brother. The letter is written and dated through April 6, 1864, a few short weeks before his capture. a letter written by an Honor Roll victim of the deplorable Confederate prison in Andersonville, Ga.Charles R. Collins was from Chicopee, Massachusetts. He mustered into Company D , 27th Mass. Infantry on May 14, 1862. He was captured on May 16, 1864, at Drury s Bluff, two years later. He died at Andersonville Prison on August 24, 1864. Charles Collins is buried at Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave 6714.
THE COLLINS LETTER
Camp Near Portsmouth, Va., March 28, 1864
Dear Mother and Brother--
I shall endeavor to give you a detail of another move on the 19th. We had marching orders. Our two companies was relieved in Portsmouth by a portion of the 4th Rhode Island and on the 21st, the remainder of the Regt., except our Company, was relieved in Norfolk by the remainder of the 4th Rhode Island and the 13th N.H., and on the 22nd we had orders to move. It began to snow about eleven and blew as hard as ever you saw it in your life and about noon we started with all of our worldly effects upon our backs with our guns and equipments. Thus we marched 4 ½ miles to our camping ground. The ground was covered with snow. The boys undertook to pitch tents, but the wind took them down as fast as they could put them up. But fortunately the 10th N.H., Camp was near by. Our officers told us to seek shelter where we could find it, as they were away to relieve a Regiment that was away on a furlough. We seen rough shelter within this nearly deserted camp. We was wet cold, and hungry, but we took a little stimulent which kept the spirits up alike [with] all soldiers. The snow fell about one foot deep.
The next morning you might have seen us wading through the snow with our governments on (that is shoes) to get wood to keep us warm. We went about 1/4 mile & on the 24th we went and shoveled the snow to put up our tents. As luck would have it, our old boards came from our old tent and we stockaded our tent 4 ½ foot high, and we have got a Cibley stove in our tent, but as it has no bottom alike all such, we placed it on the terra firma and thus it will stand. Our family consists of five in number. Therefore, you can see that we have a jolly crew. Our floor consists of a few short boards flung on the ground. On the 25th it commenced to rain and blow tremendous hard and continued to the most of the night. It drowned out a number of tents, crews, but we was all right. Thus you can see what pleasures the soldier s experience. But these moves we call excursions, huts we are amongst the observers to be observed and have the pleasure to see the lay of the country and making for ourselves a new home.
We have a beautiful camping found now. In front is a long line of breastworks and to our right is encampments at intervals, a number of miles. To our left is a creek. Near the bank is a house which is used for a hospital, still over the creek to our left, the breastworks extend to the River with forts at intervals throughout the entire line in front of the breastworks. The most of the way is a strong abuts which will trouble the Rebs to charge through. Our duties will be light I think. I have had nothing to do yet, but shall soon. The 26th, it come off clear and nice, but the wind blows alike all March weather. But this morning, it is a beautiful morning. I presume that we shall be obliged to go front in the spring camping.
If so all right, but in less than six months I shall be free, then I shall keep so one day, I think, and let others try it. March 29th, as I am off duties, I am compelled to resort to my such palace to shield myself from the inclemency of the weather as you may be fully aware that the weather here is windy and alike that of ours at our northern homes in the month of March, and at those times, loneliness of spirit takes possession of my mind and at those times, I resort to pen and thus give a description of the passing events. Last night we had orders for the Second Brigade to march with three days rations and one hundred rounds of cartridges as our Regt. belongs to thus. You can see how we stood but before we began to get ready the order was countermanded. This is our style.
It is thought by many that we are likely to go with the Army of the Potomac, but it is evident by the move that we shall go soon somewhere, but we are all anxious to see the country. April 6th. Yours of the 6th has been received in due time. I have just returned from a march from Trenton. We was two days. We saw no Rebs. I have just received a letter from Aaron. He sent Laura s photograph. The children are well.
The last letter I had from Chicopee [was from] my little ? was sick with the lung fever, but she was out of danger. Frank Gleason has got his discharge but I have his brother that line and he was agoing to send it to him. I saw in your letter that you had received it so long that you was almost ashamed to write, but I can always find him, so answer letter now if you want to hear form me again very soon. You must write because we expect to take the field soon. I have made up my mind that I will not write any more letters unless I can have my letters answered. You can take lines in the night or at least on the Sabbath day. I can excuse no one. The women can write.
You must excuse all the mistakes and give my love to all, and be sure to write often. You know that you are fine and I am not. This from a Brother & C.R.Collins.
"I presume that we shall be obliged to go front in the spring camping. If so all right, but in less than six months I shall be free, then I shall keep so one day, I think, and let others try it. It is thought by many that we are likely to go with the Army of the Potomac, but it is evident by the move that we shall go soon somewhere, but we are all anxious to see the country. Charles R. Collins, March 28, 1864 4-page letter addressed from Camp Near Portsmouth, Va., March 28, 1864 and written to his,
Mother and Brother. The letter is written and dated through April 6, 1864, a few short weeks before his capture. a letter written by an Honor Roll victim of the deplorable Confederate prison in Andersonville, Ga.Charles R. Collins was from Chicopee, Massachusetts. He mustered into Company D , 27th Mass. Infantry on May 14, 1862. He was captured on May 16, 1864, at Drury s Bluff, two years later. He died at Andersonville Prison on August 24, 1864. Charles Collins is buried at Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave 6714.
THE COLLINS LETTER
Camp Near Portsmouth, Va., March 28, 1864
Dear Mother and Brother--
I shall endeavor to give you a detail of another move on the 19th. We had marching orders. Our two companies was relieved in Portsmouth by a portion of the 4th Rhode Island and on the 21st, the remainder of the Regt., except our Company, was relieved in Norfolk by the remainder of the 4th Rhode Island and the 13th N.H., and on the 22nd we had orders to move. It began to snow about eleven and blew as hard as ever you saw it in your life and about noon we started with all of our worldly effects upon our backs with our guns and equipments. Thus we marched 4 ½ miles to our camping ground. The ground was covered with snow. The boys undertook to pitch tents, but the wind took them down as fast as they could put them up. But fortunately the 10th N.H., Camp was near by. Our officers told us to seek shelter where we could find it, as they were away to relieve a Regiment that was away on a furlough. We seen rough shelter within this nearly deserted camp. We was wet cold, and hungry, but we took a little stimulent which kept the spirits up alike [with] all soldiers. The snow fell about one foot deep.
The next morning you might have seen us wading through the snow with our governments on (that is shoes) to get wood to keep us warm. We went about 1/4 mile & on the 24th we went and shoveled the snow to put up our tents. As luck would have it, our old boards came from our old tent and we stockaded our tent 4 ½ foot high, and we have got a Cibley stove in our tent, but as it has no bottom alike all such, we placed it on the terra firma and thus it will stand. Our family consists of five in number. Therefore, you can see that we have a jolly crew. Our floor consists of a few short boards flung on the ground. On the 25th it commenced to rain and blow tremendous hard and continued to the most of the night. It drowned out a number of tents, crews, but we was all right. Thus you can see what pleasures the soldier s experience. But these moves we call excursions, huts we are amongst the observers to be observed and have the pleasure to see the lay of the country and making for ourselves a new home.
We have a beautiful camping found now. In front is a long line of breastworks and to our right is encampments at intervals, a number of miles. To our left is a creek. Near the bank is a house which is used for a hospital, still over the creek to our left, the breastworks extend to the River with forts at intervals throughout the entire line in front of the breastworks. The most of the way is a strong abuts which will trouble the Rebs to charge through. Our duties will be light I think. I have had nothing to do yet, but shall soon. The 26th, it come off clear and nice, but the wind blows alike all March weather. But this morning, it is a beautiful morning. I presume that we shall be obliged to go front in the spring camping.
If so all right, but in less than six months I shall be free, then I shall keep so one day, I think, and let others try it. March 29th, as I am off duties, I am compelled to resort to my such palace to shield myself from the inclemency of the weather as you may be fully aware that the weather here is windy and alike that of ours at our northern homes in the month of March, and at those times, loneliness of spirit takes possession of my mind and at those times, I resort to pen and thus give a description of the passing events. Last night we had orders for the Second Brigade to march with three days rations and one hundred rounds of cartridges as our Regt. belongs to thus. You can see how we stood but before we began to get ready the order was countermanded. This is our style.
It is thought by many that we are likely to go with the Army of the Potomac, but it is evident by the move that we shall go soon somewhere, but we are all anxious to see the country. April 6th. Yours of the 6th has been received in due time. I have just returned from a march from Trenton. We was two days. We saw no Rebs. I have just received a letter from Aaron. He sent Laura s photograph. The children are well.
The last letter I had from Chicopee [was from] my little ? was sick with the lung fever, but she was out of danger. Frank Gleason has got his discharge but I have his brother that line and he was agoing to send it to him. I saw in your letter that you had received it so long that you was almost ashamed to write, but I can always find him, so answer letter now if you want to hear form me again very soon. You must write because we expect to take the field soon. I have made up my mind that I will not write any more letters unless I can have my letters answered. You can take lines in the night or at least on the Sabbath day. I can excuse no one. The women can write.
You must excuse all the mistakes and give my love to all, and be sure to write often. You know that you are fine and I am not. This from a Brother & C.R.Collins.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
John Farris to David Buster, Kentucky, 1842
Letter is addressed to Mr. David Buster, Laurel County, Ky. [Kentucky]. Unfolded, it is a one and a half page letter written by John Farris. The headline is Laurel County Ky June 30th 1842.
Some abstracts:
"As it respects a written charge against uncle James NcNeill if there is any brought I think it is your place or the Preachers to do it, I shall not bring any myself because you and all the male members ware preseant and heard him make the charge against me and said he could prove it, you heard the proof he maid as well as I did, I made my complaint to you as a leader and one who has the over sight of the church to attend to it, my feelins is hurt with him and his family and so has my property been hurt and now me and my little children has to suffer for it, in shooting of my only work horse it kept me back with my crop ..."
"William NcNeill went and brought a note against me and put it in another mans hands to push me ..." "I can't fellowship them in the church for the preacher thinks tere is nothing that can be brought against them as a chrage that will bear any weight."
"... untill some providential change takes place to make things shine in a better light than they now do you may considder me no more a member of church you are at liberty to arrace my name at your leisure."
Some abstracts:
"As it respects a written charge against uncle James NcNeill if there is any brought I think it is your place or the Preachers to do it, I shall not bring any myself because you and all the male members ware preseant and heard him make the charge against me and said he could prove it, you heard the proof he maid as well as I did, I made my complaint to you as a leader and one who has the over sight of the church to attend to it, my feelins is hurt with him and his family and so has my property been hurt and now me and my little children has to suffer for it, in shooting of my only work horse it kept me back with my crop ..."
"William NcNeill went and brought a note against me and put it in another mans hands to push me ..." "I can't fellowship them in the church for the preacher thinks tere is nothing that can be brought against them as a chrage that will bear any weight."
"... untill some providential change takes place to make things shine in a better light than they now do you may considder me no more a member of church you are at liberty to arrace my name at your leisure."
Daniel Maupin, Virginia 1817
Letters are addressed to Majer James Mcneal and William M[??], Knox county [Kentucky], and Mager James McNeel in Knox county. Both are written by a Danl. Maupin.
One is a one page letter and one is a half a page letter. The headline on one is September 21st 1818; the shorter letter is May 5th 1817.
I think the writer of these letters is the Daniel Maupin from Albemarle county, Virginia.
Some abstracts:
[1817] "We are well hoping these lines may find you injoying the same. You Rote to me concerning the mill stateing you would by it but I cannot give you answer as yet whether I will sell or not, but I expect to come and see you between now and harvest. You will plese to see that the tax of the land is paid in Knox ..."
[1818] "You rote to me to come to see you this month but you Excuse me for not comeing my self as I am at this time very unwell. Where fore I have got my son Garland D. [?] Maupin to attend in my place and to Recive what money you have in your hands belonging to the astate of William Delaneys ..."
"... you will also send what money you let your farther have by the above and I impwer my son Garland to Recept ..."
One is a one page letter and one is a half a page letter. The headline on one is September 21st 1818; the shorter letter is May 5th 1817.
I think the writer of these letters is the Daniel Maupin from Albemarle county, Virginia.
Some abstracts:
[1817] "We are well hoping these lines may find you injoying the same. You Rote to me concerning the mill stateing you would by it but I cannot give you answer as yet whether I will sell or not, but I expect to come and see you between now and harvest. You will plese to see that the tax of the land is paid in Knox ..."
[1818] "You rote to me to come to see you this month but you Excuse me for not comeing my self as I am at this time very unwell. Where fore I have got my son Garland D. [?] Maupin to attend in my place and to Recive what money you have in your hands belonging to the astate of William Delaneys ..."
"... you will also send what money you let your farther have by the above and I impwer my son Garland to Recept ..."
Friday, April 23, 2004
John St. George Honner in Minnesota to brother Edward W. Honner in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada 1863
Name: Maryjane Honner
E- mail: mjonhermusheen@m33access.com
Okaman (1)
July 19th 1863
My dear Brother I recived (2) the news of your marrige (3) from Mother last week and it gives me much pleasure to know that you have made so good a cohoice (4) and I hope that you will engoy (5) all the happiness that I wish you. Your settling in Canada was a grait (6) disapointment (7) to me for I alwas (8) was in hopes that you would settle in Minnesota but so it is our dearst (9) hopes are oftenst blighted but hoping that it is all for the (10) and that you will do well and prosper and be help and comfort to Father and Mother in their old age.
I am content. The seosan (11) has been very dry here but corops (12) look very well. wheat is very promising, is filling good. will be fit to cut next week. The Indians are giveng (13) trouble yet. there was three stole horses at Northfield. was making there (14) way through the big big Woods when they were seen nere (15) Waterville. the people turned out, came up to them nere (16) duck Lake and shot one dead and wounded one and (second page) was after the other last accounts. Squire went on his place last spring but the Indians was so bad that he came back and is now in York State. Write soon and tell me all the news.
I remain your affectionate Brother J. S. G. Honner "
John Honner was a brother of grandfather Edward Honner" - Notation added to letter by Winifred Honner, granddaughter of Edward W. Honner
1 Okaman, Waseca County, Minnesota
2 recived: received
3 marrige: marriage
4 cohoice: choice
5 engoy: enjoy
6 grait: great
7 disapointment: disappointment
8 alwas: always
9 derst: dearest
10 that it is all for the: probably meant to write "best" at the end of this phrase
11 seosan: season
12 corops: crops
13 giveng: giving
4 there: their
15 nere: near
16 ibid.
Notes: John St. George Honner in Minnesota letter to brother Edward W. Honner in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada - dated July 19th, 1863 transcription by Maryjane Stelmach Honner w/ special thanks for the help of Janean McKay, Redwood Falls Genealogical Society, Minnesota Regarding the envelope and postmarks: The front of the envelope is postmarked Nov 30 9PM (year illegible). However, there are two postmarks on the reverse. One is ---BURG (illegible) SE(?) 2 80 ONT. The second is WINDSOR AM DE 2 80 ONT. Edward W. may have not received this letter until December 1880, perhaps because of the United States being in a civil war when it was posted. The letter may have been lost in transit for quite some time.
John St. George Honner, son of Maria Howard and Edward Honner of Mountrath, Queen's County, Ireland, was born 28 May 1831 in Turin, Lewis County, New York. The family lived briefly in the United States after immigrating, then moved on to Canada, eventually settling in and around Amherstburg, Essex County, Ontario, across the Detroit River from Michigan. JSG Honner's 6 living brothers, 7 sisters, and many cousins developed strong ties to both Great Lakes shipping and lumbering. Brothers-in-law Thomas Hackett and John Sunderland, as well as brother Thomas were all captains and masters of many vessels, the latter lost in the wreck of the Ira H. Owen. Husband of cousin Dorcas Honner was George Ruddiman and husband of cousin Caroline was John Torrent, both lumber barons in Muskegon, Michigan. It is thought that "Squire" in the letter is John Torrent's son Squire, who returned for a time to his grandparents in New York. Both JSG and brother Edward worked as sawyers in Muskegon as young men, probably for Ruddiman and Torrent. While Edward returned to Canada, JSG went on to Minnesota, first to Waseca, but eventually to Brown County, that part now Redwood Falls, Redwood County. JSG was one of the first settlers, and he and his wife were one of the first families in the stockade there. He had married Antoinette Green, who was born in 1842 in Wisconsin, in 1858 in Waseca. In 1865 & 1870, JSG was elected to the Minnesota State Legislature and, in 1872, to the Minnesota State Senate. He was also the county's first Registrar of Deeds. John St. George Honner died 22 June 1888 in Redwood Falls, where he is buried. The 3 of his children who survived to adulthood, Howard, Minnie, and Edward, all moved to Washington State and Oregon where their descendents still reside. John St. George Honner was my great-great uncle and Edward Walton Honner was my great-great grandfather.
E- mail: mjonhermusheen@m33access.com
Okaman (1)
July 19th 1863
My dear Brother I recived (2) the news of your marrige (3) from Mother last week and it gives me much pleasure to know that you have made so good a cohoice (4) and I hope that you will engoy (5) all the happiness that I wish you. Your settling in Canada was a grait (6) disapointment (7) to me for I alwas (8) was in hopes that you would settle in Minnesota but so it is our dearst (9) hopes are oftenst blighted but hoping that it is all for the (10) and that you will do well and prosper and be help and comfort to Father and Mother in their old age.
I am content. The seosan (11) has been very dry here but corops (12) look very well. wheat is very promising, is filling good. will be fit to cut next week. The Indians are giveng (13) trouble yet. there was three stole horses at Northfield. was making there (14) way through the big big Woods when they were seen nere (15) Waterville. the people turned out, came up to them nere (16) duck Lake and shot one dead and wounded one and (second page) was after the other last accounts. Squire went on his place last spring but the Indians was so bad that he came back and is now in York State. Write soon and tell me all the news.
I remain your affectionate Brother J. S. G. Honner "
John Honner was a brother of grandfather Edward Honner" - Notation added to letter by Winifred Honner, granddaughter of Edward W. Honner
1 Okaman, Waseca County, Minnesota
2 recived: received
3 marrige: marriage
4 cohoice: choice
5 engoy: enjoy
6 grait: great
7 disapointment: disappointment
8 alwas: always
9 derst: dearest
10 that it is all for the: probably meant to write "best" at the end of this phrase
11 seosan: season
12 corops: crops
13 giveng: giving
4 there: their
15 nere: near
16 ibid.
Notes: John St. George Honner in Minnesota letter to brother Edward W. Honner in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada - dated July 19th, 1863 transcription by Maryjane Stelmach Honner w/ special thanks for the help of Janean McKay, Redwood Falls Genealogical Society, Minnesota Regarding the envelope and postmarks: The front of the envelope is postmarked Nov 30 9PM (year illegible). However, there are two postmarks on the reverse. One is ---BURG (illegible) SE(?) 2 80 ONT. The second is WINDSOR AM DE 2 80 ONT. Edward W. may have not received this letter until December 1880, perhaps because of the United States being in a civil war when it was posted. The letter may have been lost in transit for quite some time.
John St. George Honner, son of Maria Howard and Edward Honner of Mountrath, Queen's County, Ireland, was born 28 May 1831 in Turin, Lewis County, New York. The family lived briefly in the United States after immigrating, then moved on to Canada, eventually settling in and around Amherstburg, Essex County, Ontario, across the Detroit River from Michigan. JSG Honner's 6 living brothers, 7 sisters, and many cousins developed strong ties to both Great Lakes shipping and lumbering. Brothers-in-law Thomas Hackett and John Sunderland, as well as brother Thomas were all captains and masters of many vessels, the latter lost in the wreck of the Ira H. Owen. Husband of cousin Dorcas Honner was George Ruddiman and husband of cousin Caroline was John Torrent, both lumber barons in Muskegon, Michigan. It is thought that "Squire" in the letter is John Torrent's son Squire, who returned for a time to his grandparents in New York. Both JSG and brother Edward worked as sawyers in Muskegon as young men, probably for Ruddiman and Torrent. While Edward returned to Canada, JSG went on to Minnesota, first to Waseca, but eventually to Brown County, that part now Redwood Falls, Redwood County. JSG was one of the first settlers, and he and his wife were one of the first families in the stockade there. He had married Antoinette Green, who was born in 1842 in Wisconsin, in 1858 in Waseca. In 1865 & 1870, JSG was elected to the Minnesota State Legislature and, in 1872, to the Minnesota State Senate. He was also the county's first Registrar of Deeds. John St. George Honner died 22 June 1888 in Redwood Falls, where he is buried. The 3 of his children who survived to adulthood, Howard, Minnie, and Edward, all moved to Washington State and Oregon where their descendents still reside. John St. George Honner was my great-great uncle and Edward Walton Honner was my great-great grandfather.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Joseph Bloomfield, New Jersey 1802
Joseph Bloomfield of Bloomington NJ Letter (Rev. War, Officer, Attorney, Gov. NJ)
The letter reads:
Trenton,
April 12, 1802
I thank you my dear Sir for your favor of 6th current-for your attention to the case of Lieut. Howard of which I had received notice from Col. Ogden & for ????? of the proposed Judiciary Bill which I hope will pass. A person to whom I had loaned it has given some outlines of it in the Trenton paper of tomorrow & which is enclosed.
I do not wish to be troublesome or impertinently intrusive, in recommending characters, but I will venture to mention the situation & pretensions of Mr. ????? Coxe to the notice of government. The repeal of the internal taxes does away the office of Collector under the Supervisor, by which Mr Coxe will be thrown out of the Collector's office for Philadelphia under the appointment of the Supervisor, and And in a great measure of the means of supporting a most amiable wife & a large family of Children.
The defense of our interests against Lord Sheffield-his view of our revenue -his active & zealous promotion of the election of Governor McKean & the late Federal & presidential elections are universally acknowledged & it is well known that no person has more successfully pursued the investigation of our manufacturing commercial and agricultural interests than Mr. Coxe.
The abolition of the present office & removal from his former office of Commissioner of the Revenue, the first and most conspicuous Sacrifice made of him-his banishment in a great measure from his family connections who have separated themselves from him as ????? of his sentiments and decided conduct in favor of the cause of Republicanism, there will be an inducement to bring him ????? and again into office.
I beg of you to be assured that I have no other interest in writing this letter than a conviction that Mr. Coxe deserves some attention from government-that he be not forgotten, but that his talents & indefatigable industry be usefully employed for the public good. Having no personal acquaintance, I cannot take the liberty of addressing the President in favor of Mr. Coxe, but you have encouraged me to declare my sentiments of Men & public characters.
In writing this I have discharged my duty & you will do what is proper on all Occasions.
The letter reads:
Trenton,
April 12, 1802
I thank you my dear Sir for your favor of 6th current-for your attention to the case of Lieut. Howard of which I had received notice from Col. Ogden & for ????? of the proposed Judiciary Bill which I hope will pass. A person to whom I had loaned it has given some outlines of it in the Trenton paper of tomorrow & which is enclosed.
I do not wish to be troublesome or impertinently intrusive, in recommending characters, but I will venture to mention the situation & pretensions of Mr. ????? Coxe to the notice of government. The repeal of the internal taxes does away the office of Collector under the Supervisor, by which Mr Coxe will be thrown out of the Collector's office for Philadelphia under the appointment of the Supervisor, and And in a great measure of the means of supporting a most amiable wife & a large family of Children.
The defense of our interests against Lord Sheffield-his view of our revenue -his active & zealous promotion of the election of Governor McKean & the late Federal & presidential elections are universally acknowledged & it is well known that no person has more successfully pursued the investigation of our manufacturing commercial and agricultural interests than Mr. Coxe.
The abolition of the present office & removal from his former office of Commissioner of the Revenue, the first and most conspicuous Sacrifice made of him-his banishment in a great measure from his family connections who have separated themselves from him as ????? of his sentiments and decided conduct in favor of the cause of Republicanism, there will be an inducement to bring him ????? and again into office.
I beg of you to be assured that I have no other interest in writing this letter than a conviction that Mr. Coxe deserves some attention from government-that he be not forgotten, but that his talents & indefatigable industry be usefully employed for the public good. Having no personal acquaintance, I cannot take the liberty of addressing the President in favor of Mr. Coxe, but you have encouraged me to declare my sentiments of Men & public characters.
In writing this I have discharged my duty & you will do what is proper on all Occasions.
Saturday, March 27, 2004
F. W. Pitkin to Mary Ann Lewis, c/o Lewis Hotchkiss, Connecticut, 1831
This stampless letter has a circular date stamp for Hartford Ct, a 'pointing hand' PAID, a handwritten 10 cent rate, and is addressed to Miss Mary Ann Lewis, care of Lewis Hotchkiss, Esqr., New Haven, and is a two+ page letter written by F.W. Pitkin.
The headline is East Hartford, April 11th 1831.
The writer was Frances Pitkin, sister of Samuel Pitkin (a state legislator) who married Mary Ann Lewis.
Some abstracts:
"The revival in this place still continues, Mr. Mead numbers sixty that are rejoicing in hope, and many more are anxious. Mr. Hawes of Hartford gave us an excellent sermon yesterday afternoon."
"Formerly he [brother] underwent almost every degree of fatigue and exposure ... rarely returns from New York without a cold, a swat of flaxseed tea however, in his case, effects a rapid cure."
"Excuse me from writing more at this time as it is Monday morning and I am informed that they are waiting for me in the kitchen to commence operations with my patent washing machine, a great and wonderful improvement, saving much time and hard labour, and moreover a very edifying & interesting process to Spectators."
The headline is East Hartford, April 11th 1831.
The writer was Frances Pitkin, sister of Samuel Pitkin (a state legislator) who married Mary Ann Lewis.
Some abstracts:
"The revival in this place still continues, Mr. Mead numbers sixty that are rejoicing in hope, and many more are anxious. Mr. Hawes of Hartford gave us an excellent sermon yesterday afternoon."
"Formerly he [brother] underwent almost every degree of fatigue and exposure ... rarely returns from New York without a cold, a swat of flaxseed tea however, in his case, effects a rapid cure."
"Excuse me from writing more at this time as it is Monday morning and I am informed that they are waiting for me in the kitchen to commence operations with my patent washing machine, a great and wonderful improvement, saving much time and hard labour, and moreover a very edifying & interesting process to Spectators."
Civil War: CHARLES R. COLLINS 27TH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY
CHARLES R. COLLINS~27TH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY~
I presume that we shall be obliged to go front in the spring camping. If so all right, but in less than six months I shall be free, then I shall keep so one day, I think, and let others try it. It is thought by many that we are likely to go with the Army of the Potomac, but it is evident by the move that we shall go soon somewhere, but we are all anxious to see the country.”
Charles R. Collins, March 28, 1864 4-page letter addressed from Camp Near Portsmouth, Va., March 28, 1864 and written to his, “Mother and Brother.”
The letter is written and dated through April 6, 1864, a few short weeks before his capture. a letter written by an Honor Roll victim of the deplorable Confederate prison in Andersonville, Ga.Charles R. Collins was from Chicopee, Massachusetts. He mustered into Company “D”, 27th Mass. Infantry on May 14, 1862. He was captured on May 16, 1864, at Drury’s Bluff, two years later. He died at Andersonville Prison on August 24, 1864. Charles Collins is buried at Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave 6714.
THE COLLINS LETTER
The letter is quoted below in its entirety.
Camp Near Portsmouth, Va.,
March 28, 1864
Dear Mother and Brother-- I shall endeavor to give you a detail of another move on the 19th. We had marching orders. Our two companies was relieved in Portsmouth by a portion of the 4th Rhode Island and on the 21st, the remainder of the Regt., except our Company, was relieved in Norfolk by the remainder of the 4th Rhode Island and the 13th N.H., and on the 22nd we had orders to move. It began to snow about eleven and blew as hard as ever you saw it in your life and about noon we started with all of our worldly effects upon our backs with our guns and equipments. Thus we marched 4 ½ miles to our camping ground. The ground was covered with snow. The boys undertook to pitch tents, but the wind took them down as fast as they could put them up. But fortunately the 10th N.H., Camp was near by.
Our officers told us to seek shelter where we could find it, as they were away to relieve a Regiment that was away on a furlough. We seen rough shelter within this nearly deserted camp. We was wet cold, and hungry, but we took a little stimulent which kept the spirits up alike [with] all soldiers. The snow fell about one foot deep. The next morning you might have seen us wading through the snow with our governments on (that is shoes) to get wood to keep us warm. We went about 1/4 mile…on the 24th we went and shoveled the snow to put up our tents. As luck would have it, our old boards came from our old tent and we stockaded our tent 4 ½ foot high, and we have got a Cibley stove in our tent, but as it has no bottom alike all such, we placed it on the terra firma and thus it will stand. Our family consists of five in number. Therefore, you can see that we have a jolly crew. Our floor consists of a few short boards flung on the ground.
On the 25th it commenced to rain and blow tremendous hard and continued to the most of the night. It drowned out a number of tents, crews, but we was all right. Thus you can see what pleasures the soldier’s experience. But these moves we call excursions, huts we are amongst the observers to be observed and have the pleasure to see the lay of the country and making for ourselves a new home. We have a beautiful camping found now. In front is a long line of breastworks and to our right is encampments at intervals, a number of miles. To our left is a creek. Near the bank is a house which is used for a hospital, still over the creek to our left, the breastworks extend to the River with forts at intervals throughout the entire line in front of the breastworks. The most of the way is a strong abuts which will trouble the Rebs to charge through. Our duties will be light I think. I have had nothing to do yet, but shall soon.
The 26th, it come off clear and nice, but the wind blows alike all March weather. But this morning, it is a beautiful morning. I presume that we shall be obliged to go front in the spring camping. If so all right, but in less than six months I shall be free, then I shall keep so one day, I think, and let others try it. March 29th, as I am off duties, I am compelled to resort to my such palace to shield myself from the inclemency of the weather as you may be fully aware that the weather here is windy and alike that of ours at our northern homes in the month of March, and at those times, loneliness of spirit takes possession of my mind and at those times, I resort to pen and thus give a description of the passing events.
Last night we had orders for the Second Brigade to march with three days’ rations and one hundred rounds of cartridges as our Regt. belongs to thus. You can see how we stood but before we began to get ready the order was countermanded. This is our style. It is thought by many that we are likely to go with the Army of the Potomac, but it is evident by the move that we shall go soon somewhere, but we are all anxious to see the country. April 6th. Yours of the 6th has been received in due time. I have just returned from a march from Trenton. We was two days. We saw no Rebs.
I have just received a letter from Aaron. He sent Laura’s photograph. The children are well. The last letter I had from Chicopee [was from] my little ? was sick with the lung fever, but she was out of danger. Frank Gleason has got his discharge but I have his brother that line and he was agoing to send it to him. I saw in your letter that you had received it so long that you was almost ashamed to write, but I can always find him, so answer letter now if you want to hear form me again very soon. You must write because we expect to take the field soon.
I have made up my mind that I will not write any more letters unless I can have my letters answered. You can take lines in the night or at least on the Sabbath day. I can excuse no one. The women can write. You must excuse all the mistakes and give my love to all, and be sure to write often. You know that you are fine and I am not.
This from a Brother…C.R.Collins.
I presume that we shall be obliged to go front in the spring camping. If so all right, but in less than six months I shall be free, then I shall keep so one day, I think, and let others try it. It is thought by many that we are likely to go with the Army of the Potomac, but it is evident by the move that we shall go soon somewhere, but we are all anxious to see the country.”
Charles R. Collins, March 28, 1864 4-page letter addressed from Camp Near Portsmouth, Va., March 28, 1864 and written to his, “Mother and Brother.”
The letter is written and dated through April 6, 1864, a few short weeks before his capture. a letter written by an Honor Roll victim of the deplorable Confederate prison in Andersonville, Ga.Charles R. Collins was from Chicopee, Massachusetts. He mustered into Company “D”, 27th Mass. Infantry on May 14, 1862. He was captured on May 16, 1864, at Drury’s Bluff, two years later. He died at Andersonville Prison on August 24, 1864. Charles Collins is buried at Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave 6714.
THE COLLINS LETTER
The letter is quoted below in its entirety.
Camp Near Portsmouth, Va.,
March 28, 1864
Dear Mother and Brother-- I shall endeavor to give you a detail of another move on the 19th. We had marching orders. Our two companies was relieved in Portsmouth by a portion of the 4th Rhode Island and on the 21st, the remainder of the Regt., except our Company, was relieved in Norfolk by the remainder of the 4th Rhode Island and the 13th N.H., and on the 22nd we had orders to move. It began to snow about eleven and blew as hard as ever you saw it in your life and about noon we started with all of our worldly effects upon our backs with our guns and equipments. Thus we marched 4 ½ miles to our camping ground. The ground was covered with snow. The boys undertook to pitch tents, but the wind took them down as fast as they could put them up. But fortunately the 10th N.H., Camp was near by.
Our officers told us to seek shelter where we could find it, as they were away to relieve a Regiment that was away on a furlough. We seen rough shelter within this nearly deserted camp. We was wet cold, and hungry, but we took a little stimulent which kept the spirits up alike [with] all soldiers. The snow fell about one foot deep. The next morning you might have seen us wading through the snow with our governments on (that is shoes) to get wood to keep us warm. We went about 1/4 mile…on the 24th we went and shoveled the snow to put up our tents. As luck would have it, our old boards came from our old tent and we stockaded our tent 4 ½ foot high, and we have got a Cibley stove in our tent, but as it has no bottom alike all such, we placed it on the terra firma and thus it will stand. Our family consists of five in number. Therefore, you can see that we have a jolly crew. Our floor consists of a few short boards flung on the ground.
On the 25th it commenced to rain and blow tremendous hard and continued to the most of the night. It drowned out a number of tents, crews, but we was all right. Thus you can see what pleasures the soldier’s experience. But these moves we call excursions, huts we are amongst the observers to be observed and have the pleasure to see the lay of the country and making for ourselves a new home. We have a beautiful camping found now. In front is a long line of breastworks and to our right is encampments at intervals, a number of miles. To our left is a creek. Near the bank is a house which is used for a hospital, still over the creek to our left, the breastworks extend to the River with forts at intervals throughout the entire line in front of the breastworks. The most of the way is a strong abuts which will trouble the Rebs to charge through. Our duties will be light I think. I have had nothing to do yet, but shall soon.
The 26th, it come off clear and nice, but the wind blows alike all March weather. But this morning, it is a beautiful morning. I presume that we shall be obliged to go front in the spring camping. If so all right, but in less than six months I shall be free, then I shall keep so one day, I think, and let others try it. March 29th, as I am off duties, I am compelled to resort to my such palace to shield myself from the inclemency of the weather as you may be fully aware that the weather here is windy and alike that of ours at our northern homes in the month of March, and at those times, loneliness of spirit takes possession of my mind and at those times, I resort to pen and thus give a description of the passing events.
Last night we had orders for the Second Brigade to march with three days’ rations and one hundred rounds of cartridges as our Regt. belongs to thus. You can see how we stood but before we began to get ready the order was countermanded. This is our style. It is thought by many that we are likely to go with the Army of the Potomac, but it is evident by the move that we shall go soon somewhere, but we are all anxious to see the country. April 6th. Yours of the 6th has been received in due time. I have just returned from a march from Trenton. We was two days. We saw no Rebs.
I have just received a letter from Aaron. He sent Laura’s photograph. The children are well. The last letter I had from Chicopee [was from] my little ? was sick with the lung fever, but she was out of danger. Frank Gleason has got his discharge but I have his brother that line and he was agoing to send it to him. I saw in your letter that you had received it so long that you was almost ashamed to write, but I can always find him, so answer letter now if you want to hear form me again very soon. You must write because we expect to take the field soon.
I have made up my mind that I will not write any more letters unless I can have my letters answered. You can take lines in the night or at least on the Sabbath day. I can excuse no one. The women can write. You must excuse all the mistakes and give my love to all, and be sure to write often. You know that you are fine and I am not.
This from a Brother…C.R.Collins.
Thomas Armstrong from John Cardwell, Virginia 1827
This stampless letter has a circular date stamp for CHARe. VA [Charlotte, Virginia], a handwritten 18 3/4 cent rate, and is addressed to Thomas T. Armstrong, Esqr., Germanton, Stokes county, N.C., It is a two page letter written by John P.[?] Cardwell.
The headline is Cumberland cty. Va Sept 29th, 1827.
Some abstracts:
"I received yours the day before yesterday together with a commission to take the depositons of Turpin Dupriest at Campbell C.H. on this very day; which, on account of the late arrival of your letter, I am utterly unable to do; as the distance is nearly or quite one hundred miles."
"Present my respects to Mrs. Armstrong and the rest of your family; I am doing tolerable business and come to N.C. when ever I think myself able to discharge what I owe & c. I must congratulate with you (I almost sd console) on account of your present representation in commons; Tell Mr Shepherd he has depreciated very much since I left Germanton."And he writes about some lost depositions.
The headline is Cumberland cty. Va Sept 29th, 1827.
Some abstracts:
"I received yours the day before yesterday together with a commission to take the depositons of Turpin Dupriest at Campbell C.H. on this very day; which, on account of the late arrival of your letter, I am utterly unable to do; as the distance is nearly or quite one hundred miles."
"Present my respects to Mrs. Armstrong and the rest of your family; I am doing tolerable business and come to N.C. when ever I think myself able to discharge what I owe & c. I must congratulate with you (I almost sd console) on account of your present representation in commons; Tell Mr Shepherd he has depreciated very much since I left Germanton."And he writes about some lost depositions.
E F Alling to Seth Keney, Connecticut 1848
This stampless letter has a circular date stamp for WESTVILLE Ct., a handwritten 5 cent rate, and is addressed to Seth A.B. Keney Esq., Burlington, Ct, and is a three page letter written by E.F. Alling.
The headline is Orange, Aug 5, 1848 (hope I'm reading the last digit in the year correctly, it might be 1840). If I'm correct, Orange was in New Haven county at the time.
Some abstracts: "Once more I feel myself free and instead of taking lessons from tutors & profs I am learning from nature herself. These old hills of ORange, bleak and barre as they are, teach a lesson to me."
"My mind finds a pleasing employment in calling back the memories of those who formerly were with me the p[??] of apple pear & peach orchards, melon gardens ..."
"College commencement went off in good shape. The orations, poem, etc. were good. Among the visitors at the commencement of the Wesleyan were many distinguished individuals. The Gov. of Conn & of R.I. were present with Revs. D.D. L.L.D.'s in any quantity. The graduating class numbered 25. The maj of them have engaged in teaching, some of them at the meager salary of $50 per year."
The headline is Orange, Aug 5, 1848 (hope I'm reading the last digit in the year correctly, it might be 1840). If I'm correct, Orange was in New Haven county at the time.
Some abstracts: "Once more I feel myself free and instead of taking lessons from tutors & profs I am learning from nature herself. These old hills of ORange, bleak and barre as they are, teach a lesson to me."
"My mind finds a pleasing employment in calling back the memories of those who formerly were with me the p[??] of apple pear & peach orchards, melon gardens ..."
"College commencement went off in good shape. The orations, poem, etc. were good. Among the visitors at the commencement of the Wesleyan were many distinguished individuals. The Gov. of Conn & of R.I. were present with Revs. D.D. L.L.D.'s in any quantity. The graduating class numbered 25. The maj of them have engaged in teaching, some of them at the meager salary of $50 per year."
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