Dear
Cousin,
Letter writing is so much out of my line of business
that probably I should not attempt it at this time were I not reminded of my
long neglected duty by receiving two pamplets from you for which I thank
you, but we want to hear something more particular from you. I suppose the
only way is to write first, if this is the reason why you do not write. I
think you are too particular, at least I donot think that I am altogether
the guilty cause taking into consideration my domestic cares and duties from
which perhaps you exempt. Are you free from the cares of life? Are you the
wife of a "rich nabob". Do you roll over the prairies of the beautiful
Wisconsin in your coach and fours? It is far otherwise with me. I do not
wallow in plenty but believing it is the Lord which dealeth out to us our
portion we are therewith content. We live in the southeast corner of the
county. Brother William has a piece of land joining over, our friends at
Galesburg are alive and well. Uncle Norman has a new comer some five or six
weeks old. A daughter which is the ninth child. Our cousin Emily is a proud
school marm. There is supposed to be a contract of marriage between herself
and a Mr. Warren, a man of sterling worth, a student. Uncle N. brags him up
as the son of a Rutland Yankee but his mother was a Chippewa and said to be
among her own nation at this time. It will take Mr. Warren four years longer
to go through with his college and theological studies.
Do you ever
hear from uncle George and Ridge Prairier. There has been so much sickness
and death down there for two years past that it is very much altered.
Old Squire Scott has at length got his oldest three children married off
and Ann has gone to school teaching so I suppose the old Squire will let his
spirit rest a while. McGates has bought your Fathers old Gilead farm and is
or wants to be settled permanent teacher over the school. On the whole Ridge
Prairie has become a very dull place. The brick house Gaskills are all gone
down to the cement factory except George and his wife.
Do you ever
think of visiting this place. We should like to have you do so very much
indeed. I do not know that I ever shall visit your country. The boys talk
about it. We have uncles, aunts and cousins on our Fathers side in the
Territory. I think they are in Jefferson Co.
I have two children the
youngest which we call Nancy Amalia is about six months old. They are both
helping me write you. Must therefore excuse so poor a letter.
Please
to remember me to your husband and friends and write soon. Direct to Middle
Grove, Fulton Co which is our nearest office.
Please to accept this
from your affectionate cousin,
H. A. Perrigo
Dear Caroline,
It
is a considerable time since I have heard from you, but the receipt of the
Wisconsin Argus of March 10 convinces me that you are still alive. I do not
find that your father gets any letters from you: perhaps he never writes to
you not being a writing man.
I was at Kingston Bluff almost four
weeks since. Your father and little Adeline Elisabeth were well; but your
step-mother was suggering from salivation. She is no Thomsonian, but still
does not like to be salivated. But if she employs calomel doctors she must
submit to their management. As to your father, he keeps a set of Thomson's
books which he bought of a peddler for about a dollar, but he never keeps an
ounce of botanic medicine in his house. The Rev. Mr. Darrow, MD informed me
last Saturday that your stepmother had another daughter, and that mother and
child were doing well.
I am just recovering from an attack of
erysipils - not a painful, but a very confining disease.
There has
been considerable sickness and several deaths in this quarter since my last
letter to you. I will try to recollect some of them:
(1) Mrs. Brady,
formerly Amelia McCray, daughter of Calvin McCray. She was a Roman Catholic,
and had Extreme Unction, and all that sort of thing, before she died.
(2) Benjamin Posey, son of Jubilee Posey
(3) Miss Elizabeth
McCoy, sister to Jacob C. Entuman's (?) wife.
(4) Jacob C. Gortuman's
(?) wife himself
(5) Mrs. Deck, daughter of Jepe Renfro
(6)
Mrs. Crononover, daughter of John C. Dugger
(7) Some other children
of John C. Dugger
(8) Mrs. Braley, wife of Philander Bradey,
Collinsville
(9) Mrs. Hutchinson, wife of James Hutchinson,
blacksmith
(10) John Hall, oldest son of Milton Hall
(11)
George Harvis, son of Wesley Jarvis
(12) Henry Clay, junior, son of
John G. Jarvis
(13) John Wriston, son of Tilman (?) Wriston
(14) Samuel G. Bailey, Esq., lawyer, Alton
(15) S. T. Diamond,
Middleton
And a great many others not recollected
Marriages. -
Thomas Camp to Miss Jane Vineyard, daughter of William Vineyard
William Denny to Miss Almeda Allen
Capt. D. D. Collins of
Collisville, to Miss Elizabeth M. Anderson, daughter of John Anderson, my Jo
John.
Michael Welsh (?) merchant of Troy, to Miss Lucy G. Hoxsey
Mr. Andrews, schoolmate, to Miss Elizabeth Black
Izaak Woods, son
of Rev. Samuel Wood, to Miss Reed
Peaches. - These are mostly cut off
throughout the country, but if the weather is favorable hereafter I expect
to have some, as the buds begin to show the red. Wheat looks tolerably well
at present.
Troy is going ahead. It has now 2 churches, and the mend
(?) work of a third is done. 3 dry-goods stores; 2 blacksmith shops; 2
taverns; 1 doggery (?); 2 gunsmith, 1 portable circular saw mill which can
cut 1500 feet of plank in a day propelled by 6 horses; 4 doctors as soon as
Dr. Reiner gets back from the ???; and it is expected that old Doctor Gates
will remove into Troy; and he will make the 5th.
Macdonough Gates has
bought the identical old worn-out Skeamsborough farm on which you lived so
long, near Mount Gilead. Heplays schoolmaster in the old Mount Gilead
church: and I strongly suspect that his object in buying that old farm was
to get a permanent claim to the office of pedayoyme (?)
Cyrus Scott,
jr., who married Paulina Renfro has removed into the house with old father
Jepe Renfro. Squire Scott, who was almost dead with the dropsy, has been so
much relieved by Dr. Gates medicines as to be able to ride about, and attend
to business. Miss Lydia Ann Scott is teaching School at the Land Ridge on
the road to Alton. The Gaskill girls, of the brick house, are still at the
Water Lime Factory under the Bluff in the south part of St. Clair Co. James
R. Jm. Is with them. George W., who married Janany Tita (?) lives in the
brick house. Stephen W. has sold his Maconfirm (?) farm, and bought the old
farm of Thomas S. McMahan. I mean the one having a barn and brick cabin.
Elder James R. Perrigo, Jr., and his wife, Mrs. Hannah Amelia Weeks
Perrigo, have removed to the land I gave them on the N.W. 18, 9 N 4E, Knox
Co, Ill - Post Office address "Middle Grove, Fulton Co., IL" John L. Weeks
goes to college and studies Latin and Algebra! All well at Galesburg. Uncle
Norman fell and broke some ribs, but they have got well. His wife has a baby
called Gabel (?). Martin George has been teaching school near Ognawka, Ill.
Have you made your Vermont trip yet? Are you going to make it?
When is Norman? And George? And Lucene Ann ? and Maria ? and - but I believe
that is all. I see Uncle Temp keeps his card in the Argus while your
husband's is not there. I infer that your husband has business enough
without advertising. C. G. Mawzy has become an Alderman.
Poor John G.
Smith appears to be in a pick of troubles because that previous fellow Bob
Walker proposes a duty on foreign sugar and melipis (?) while he lets in tea
and coffee and salt free! Well - Bob and Polk and the whole visionary clan
of free traders understand which side of their bread is buttered much too
well to lose Louisiana by admitting sugar and milapes (?) duty free, or to
lose the whole union by laying a duty on tea and coffee. They dare not do
it. I wonder whether John G. Smith ever read Mr. Polk's celebrated Kane
Letter by which he carried the states of Pennsylvania and New York. There
was Protection, by wholesale! I think it would ?? mr. Polk to draw up a
revenue bill in conformity with the principles laid down in his annual
message.
Polk and Bob Walker a great favorites with John Bull just
now. Bob's Treasury Report pleased John so well that he got it printed and
laid before Parliament. John will speed his corn laws three years hence
provided we repeal our Tariff now ----- perhaps! No fight about Oregon, now:
Polk and Peel are too loving for that. Polk will knock under at 49 degrees
or things will be suffered to remain in status quo. Then the people of
Oregon will govern that country themselves - as they ought to do. It is too
far off to do the U.S. any good, or to derive any benefit from us - except a
fine office holder. W can never be of any benefit to those who live east of
the Rocky mountains. Let them alone, and Oregon and California will
naturally form a Republic by themselves, friendly to the U.S. and more
profitable to the U.S. than if a colony or member of the confederacy.
Truly
yours.
George Churchill.
Dear Niece,
I was at
Kingston Bluff on the 21st inst. But learned that no letter had been
received from you. In my letter of the 4th, I informed you of the birth of
another half sister. My information was not correct. The new comer is a boy,
weighing 4 lbs., and is called Henry Clay - a big name for so msall a child.
He has to live on cow's milk, which he draws from a sucking bottle, his
mother being still sick, and confined to her bed. I congratulate you on
being sister to Henry Clay.
From present appearances, we are likely
to have a fair crop of cherries, peaches, and apples. The ?? is about two
weeks later than usual. Lilacs now in full bloom. Some peach and cherry
trees, and they of the finer kinds, have been winter-killed and some peach
trees, not killed, bear no fruit this year, yet I think we shall have plenty
of fruit. The growing winter wheat looks well.
I am told that six
married women died on Silver Creek and in Marine settlement last week. I
heard the names of some, viz: Mrs. Jeffreys, Mrs. J. J. Parker, Mrs. Mills,
and Mrs. Wesley Dugger. In this vicinity there is but little sickness at
this time. Old Mr. Henderson is sick.
Alexander West sold his farm,
and went up to Carroll county (the county next south of Galena) to find a
healthy place. But he reports that it was far more sickly there than here,
and has concluded to buy another farm in this region. On the whole, I hear
of only two healthy places: Galesburg, Ill., and St. Croix, WT.
Tell
John Y. Smith that he is now in affair way to be gratified with his hearts
desire, viz: -- a tx on tea and coffee. John L. Weeks is studying Latin and
Algebra at Galesburg. I paper the passed the place of your birth a few days
ago. It is marked by fine large cottonwood trees, and by the blocks on which
the old log house once stood in which your eyes first beheld the light. I
suppose you would be delighted once more to view the place. Colon (?) and
Horatio and Father Wood and Granny Wood and John C. Riggin, are still alive
- although the latter is much the worse for having been salivated, and
otherwise colonized. Dr. P. P. Greene has just removed to Southport, WT, on
Lake Michigan.
The prairie west and northwest of Horatio McCray's is
fast being fenced up.
Will you go to Vermont this year? Or come to
Kingston Bluff and Ridge Prairie and eat peaches?
Your little half
sister, Adeline Elisabeth, is a fat girl with a broad, Cutch-looking face,
and when she gets her tongue started, she can out-talk the Jews. I suppose
Norman will be down on a raft - to St. Louis, by Peach time. Tell him to
come out and feast upon the ?? of the sunny south.
Well I suppose
Wisconsin will soon become a state. A writer in the Galena N. W. Garette
wants to take off some 25 or 30 counties from the north end of Mimon (?) and
add to Wisconsin so as to get rid of paying their portion of our state debt,
I suppose. And for that purpose misquotes the Act of Ci/sion from Virginia.
The fifth article of the Ordinance of 1787 was formally ratified by
Virginia, and that is the law by which Congress was guided in laying off the
new states between the Ohio and Mississippi.
Truly yours,
George Churchill.
Dear Niece,
I write these lines by your brother Norman
who arrived here yesterday from the saw mills on the Wisconsin. I wrote you
on the 4th and 28th of April, but have seen no letter from you this year.
Mr. Washington Parki.nson, near Highland, was assinated on the 15th.
Some person unknown shot him through his window. The ball penetrated 2
inches in the center of his forehead, yet he lived 12 hours afterwards. He
had so many enemies that people do not know which of them to suspect. One of
the suspected persons has volunteered to go and fight the Mexicans. His name
is Brown.
Parkison's daughter sat between him and the window, reading
a newspaper, for some time. At length she moved her position and her father
was immediately shot. He has 2 brothers in your territory, and was generally
considered not so bad as they.
J(?) D. Vineyard's wife is dead. He
courted and engaged her by letter - "unsight, unseen", -- as the pedlars say
- last year.
I am sorry to hear that Martin George has broken his
arm. Please write to your Pa at Collinsville, Madison Co. Illinois. He gets
but few letters, and the sight of one from you will be good for his eyes. We
expect some peaches next September.
Truly yours,
George Churchill.
Dear
Caroline,
Your husband's letter came to hand on the 18th
inst. Your honored Father was here today and I counseled him to slick up at
Kingston Bluff, for I expected he would have a visit from his son-in-law and
lady. He says he shall have a plenty of peaches and apples, and (?) this
time plenty of cherries. Complains of an abundance of rats. I copies from
the June No. of the Prairie Farmer a Recipe to poison them. So I reckon they
will all be gone by the time you arrive. It is said that Lucy Gaskill has
married a man named Frank (not Gov. French) in the Bottom. Pharsalia has a
baby called Helen Minerva. Square Scott doesn't like it because it sounds
like Hell-and-Minerva. Does not your baby's name admit of the same
objections? Your Father has rec'd several papers, but no letter form Monroe.
Levi is fat, healthy, lazy, shiftless, and spiritless, as usual. I have
warned him to go -a (?) before Lady Bingham arrives. People here generally
well. Wheat harvest commenced today at George W. Gaskill's. The Saybold
girls, not married, but Rumor says two of them are "being" courted. The
Gaskill girls will probably get back to the brick house before you arrive.
Old Billy Hall, dead. Sunday people are going to Mexico to "extend the area
of freedom."
Truly yours,
George Churchill
(Note: There is a
four-page letter, but it is all political and probably copied from a
newspaper. It is not included.)
Dear Caroline,
I
have just rec'd from your husband the "American Freeman" of Oct. 24, and (?)
that you have got back from Vermont - if indeed you have been there. If you
have been there, I shall look for a long letter telling all that you saw and
heard in the venerable Green Mountain State.
Some time last spring I
request the publisher of the Republican to send some add Nos. of their paper
to your husband that he might know their terms of advertising. That paper
has a greater circulation than any other on the Mississippi.
I was at
Kingston Bluff on the 22nd inst. Your father was "making business (?) ache."
He had 6 hired men, 8 yokes of oxen, and 2 coal wagons in operation. His 2
coal diggers earned $2 cash per day; and his ferriage was $2 per day. His 2
drivers got up at at 3 o'clock every morning to go to St. Louis, and he got
about 15 cents a bushel. To board 6 men in a log house with broken windows
and no latches to the doors would be very uncomfortable were it not for the
idea of making business (?) aches. Your father had been in debt for wagon
and oxen to the amount of $200; yet from any calculations I could make his
receipts and expenditures were about equal while everything about the plance
retained its old "Capt. Seth Wide-open" - (?) appearances. Your step-mother
was sick with a bad cold, but little Adaline and Henry Clay were in good
health. I expected to find at your father's a long letter from his dutiful
daughter, Mrs. B., but was disappointed.
I passed your birth-place a
few days since, but there was no memorial of past times except thecottonwood
trees, which have attained a good size. The mansion in which you first saw
the light, has been removed.
Your next residence, the Skeamborrough
(?) farm is now in the occupation of Mr. Joseph Macdonough Gates
(schoolmaster) and Mrs. Mary Ann Loviey (?) Gillet Gates. The latter proves
a sickly wife - a very unprofitable piece of furniture in this country.
Your third place of residence on Goose Creek is now owned by Wm. W.
Stine, and occupied by a Mr. Norris, whose wife has been very sick this
year. As to your Middleton residence, I accidentally discovered that it had
been sold for taxes, and informed your father of the fact. He got the money
and set out to redeem the lots, but learning from me that another year was
allowed for redeeming it, he turned back home, and left it unredeemed. He
leaves a stove and pipe in the house - as an inducement for somebody to stay
in it; but I suppose he has not been there for years, and does not know who
occupies it, and gets no rent.
Squire Caswell, though a Whig, has
broken into the Legislature from the Doco Foro (?) country of Greene, Ill.
The Locos got a quarrelling and elected Cornwell to spite each other. He
lives at Greenfield, near the east line of Greene.
Old Madison,
though still a Whig country, has elected one Loco to the Legislature, to
wit, Lawyer Martin of Alton. The other Representatives are Curtis Blakeman
and Wm. F. D'Wolf. Joseph, Gillespie is the Senator. I was not a candidate.
Robert Smith is re-elected to Congress by 2,000 majority over Lyman
Trumbull, the regular Loco nominee.
I have lately rec'd a letter from
Mrs. H. A. Perrigo. She had been sick with bilious fever, followed by chills
and fever. Mr. Weeks had been confined to his bed with sickness a long time,
and was no better. Knox country very sickly this year.
In Madison Co.
we have had much less sickness than in 1844 or 1845. Old Mr. Henderson died
some 10 days since of an affection of the lungs.
Matrimony: Caty
McMahan and Patrick Henry Dixon, who were made one flesh not many months
ago, have separated. Caty swore the (?) against Patrick, and he was in the
Jug at Edwardville about 3 days; but Lawyer Trumbull brought him before one
Dutch Judge Koener, and although Caty still swore that she would be afraid
of her life if Patrick were liberated, unless he left the state, yet the
Judge considered her apprehensions as not well founded, and set him at
liberty. The Judge told him not to (?) to any violence. Pat said, "I never
will, and never did." While Pat was in the Jug, Caty took away her "things",
i.e. the property which was hers before matrimony made it Patrick's.
Dr. Gates had a step daughter called Caroline Moore. She married a rich
Englishman named Samuel Trible. She has left the said Samuel, and come back
to Doctor Gates; and she said Samuel has advertisied "Whereas my wife Sarah
Caroline Olivia Trible has left my bed and board without any just cause" and
so forth. I reckon the lady would rather be single than treble, just about
this time.
The Duncan mob. I suppose you have heard of this mob. It
is supposed there were 60 or 70 men and boysengaged in it. The Grand Jury
have indicted 35 of them for the murder of James Duncan - also for an
assault with intent to kill Adaline Page. The rest of the mob were not known
to any of the witnesses, and therefore were not indicted. Some of the
indicted, and some that were not indicted, had "sloped" before the
commencement of court. 24 have given themselves up, and given bail. Among
the indicted are Guy Morrison, Drs. Hall and Edgar, Squire Leybold, Stephen
and John Gaskill, John and Samuel Teter, and Framing (?) M. McMahan.
Well there are some green folks in Wisconsin and they are trying to put some
queer things in their constitution, but if they submit it to the People,
giving them all a chance to read and think about it, I think it will meet
the fate of the projected Constitution of Missouri. Even in Iowa it took
three trails and the help of the wandering Mormons to ratify a silly
constitution.
As I suppose your Convention is still in session, I
propose for their consideration the following additions to their
constitution:
(8) After the year 1847 no person shall use sugar in his
coffee: and after the year 1849 no person shall use coffee.
(9) After
the year 1847, no person shall use butter on his bread; and after the year
1849 he shall use neither bread nor butter.
(10) After the year 1850,
no man shall wear a clean shirt.
(11) After the year 1852, all
persons in this state shall discard the aristocratic modes of eating,
sleeping, and (?), but shall in all respects imitate the savage of the
forest.
I could go on and write out a grand Loco Toro Constitution,
but have no room. So good bye.
Truly yours,
George Churchill.
(Note:
Written in the margins of the letter are the following notes) I send you
some garden seeds, and would have sent some rice, corn but found it to be
too heavy.
PS: It is supposed Miss Hannah Seybold is to be coupled
with Mr. Albert Wilson. Rev. W. W. Mitchell is our new circuit rider. Misses
G. Baumbank (?) and Mrs. R. Swain have opened a new store in Troy. John
Rufus preached last Sunday and said he had lost seven children. Rev. Mr.
Dawson, a Baptist preacher, has settled in Troy, and they are holding a
Baptist meeting house there. Remember me to all inquiring friends. How is
that boy with the broken arm?
Dear Caroline,
I am
here on a visit. Left home yesterday. All well there and here.
Your
father says he had a letter from your husband dated Nov. 15, but he has not
answered it yet. We have had a very uncomfortable winter: snow - rain,
freezing and thawing - and more changeable than Ie ver knew the weather
before.
John G. Jarvis's wife died Nov. 25. On the 10th Feb. (2 ½
months) he brought home another wife. She is a sister of his first wife, and
was a widow. I did not hear the name.
Widow Blackburn (near
Collinville) is married to John Duncan, brother of James Duncan, who was
killed by the mob last July.
It's said that Miss Mary Ann Minerva
Gaskill either is, or soon will be, married to George B. Judd of St. Louis,
formerly of Marine Settlement. Miss Hannah Seybold was married last fall to
Mr. Albert Wilson. Macdonough Gates lives on the old Skeanborrough (?) farm
where you lived so long. His wife (formerly Mary Ann L. Gillet) is very low
and not expect to live long. Macdonough has sold said farm to his
brother-in-law, Willoughby. Horace B. Weeks came from Galesburg in Nov.
last. In Jan. he was keeping victualing (?) cellar in St. Louis under the
Monterey House, north side old market, in company with Mapes, Webster and
Shipley. Whether he is there now, or not, I think somewhat uncertain. Mr.
Purviance called at the cellar 2 or 3 weeks since and inquired for him, and
was told that he had "gone to his uncle's in Illinois." But he has not been
either here or at my house since the 28th Dec.
John L. Weeks is
teaching school near Payson, Adams Co., Il at $15 per month. George
Churchill is teaching 4 miles north of Galesburg at $14 per month. Emily
Amelia Churchill is teaching a little west of Galesburg at $12 per month. So
you see that Galesburg turns out a great many teachers.
I have a
recent letter from Wm. W. Weeks, Galesburg. His father has had the fever and
ague a long time, but had got about again. He writes that Jimmy Perrigo had
got tired of Geersville (?) because there was no meeting to go to: and both
he and William W. Weeks have the Oregon Fever.
Your father has filled
up his large fireplace with brick and fixed a grate therein, and now burns
coal. He burns wood in an old $2 cook-stove: and has a coal stove upstairs.
Then he keeps the home warm enough. He has got a new brass clock, a new
looking-glass, and whole panes of glass in his windows. Little Adeline and
Henry Clay are fat and hearty.
Coal has fallen to 9 cts. Per bushel
at St. Louis; and as the roads are "awful bad" your father's coal team do
not navigate the Botton at present.
I have rec'd the Wisconsin
Constitution. It is not so bad as the Convention threatened at one time to
make it, but still bad enough. Do the wise men think they can stop the
people from taking small bank notes? The thing has been tried out and out,
in Illinois and Missouri and is an utter failure.
When do you come to
Illinois? When do you go to Vt.? Ex-Gov. Slade (?) of Vt., has been at
Springfield, Il, lecturing on Education. Wants to make arrangements for
sending a quantity of Yankee "School Marms" to the West. Don't you want some
of them in Wisconsin?
Where is Norman? At Monroe? Or at the
Wisconsing Pinery?
Dr. Gates has moved into Troy. Mr. Thomas Camp who
married Jane Vineyard, has also moved to Troy. That town now has 2 wagon
maker shop, 3 stores, 2 taverns, 2 churches, and another commenced, 2 boot
and shoe shops, and 5 physicians.
The north part of Illinois was
unusually sickly last year. The south part not so sickly as in past years.
Please write to your father soon; and I will try to see the letter
before it gets lost.
Truly yours,
George Churchill.
(Added on same
sheet the following letter) Feb 22, 1847
My Dear children I received your
letter about 1st December but partly thought carelessness and a hurry of
business I have not answered it until now. I still carry on farming in
summer and coal business in winter last fall the business was good the
average price was 15cts per bushel. Since that time there has been so much
rain and bad roads that I have not make much having eight yoke of oxen to
feed I shall expect to see you here this summer peaches are ripe in
September aplles in October and November - I looked for you last fall but
all in vain. I am glad to hear Norman is doing well and George I expect them
here this spring
(Handwriting changes) I am in rather delicate health
this winter, this is one of the best (?) of the country only eight miles
from St. Louis the great Emporium of the west, there is some expectation of
having a plank road from the bluff made this summer --- give my love to all
the children - write often.
Yours affectionately,
W. B. Churchill
Macoupin County ILGenWeb Copyright
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