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CONWAY COUNTY HISTORY
Conway County Arkansas Genealogy Trails  Letter of Johathan
Hardin to his brother Joab Hardin
Transcribed and contributed by Mary Lafferty Wilson Conway County
Arkansas Territory
Dec. 20 1826
I regret, my dear
Brother that circumstances over which I could have no control have
prevented me from answering your very acceptable letter of the 9th of
Sept. by my friend Judge Search.
It is not, I assure
you, for the want of fraternal affection, that I have neglected you. On
the contrary, I am overflowing with love and sympathy for which you
with the ties of consanquinity are so eminently calculated to inspire.
I need not tell you
that your letter afforded me most unbounded pleasure, for it heightened
my joy above all things, except a visit from you or a visit to you,
which I cannot under existing circumstance anticipte with any very
reasonable probability of realizing in less than a year or two, as it
would be entirely incompatible with my interest to visit you as soon as
you desire me to in your letter. I am pleased to hear of your
prosperous situation; that your vocation is lucartive and that my old
Mother is yet in the land of the living, and as vigorous as her
declining years will justify, though to hear of her decease soon, would
scarcely surprise of agitate me, as I am aware that she is arriving at
that period of life when according to nature she should become a
Sojourner in a distant and infinitely more happy land, and thought the
dispensation is looked for, the bereavement would I assure to me be
lamentable not withstanding we have been long and widely separated.
I speak
experimentally, for some more than two years ago, I was visited by a
similar loss in the death of my father and her loss would not be less
an affliction.
Our Father died
suddenly and his estate was left in such a situation that I myself have
had no benifit of it. The circumstances are these: To wit; Shortly
anterior to his death (in anticipation of a heavy and malicious
lawsuit) he made the sham sale of his property to a gentleman by the
name of John L (Lindsey) Lafferty, who married our half sister, and in
whom my Father placed every confidence. After the suit was comprised,
my Father died before the trade with Lafferty was cancelled, leaving
him the nominal owner of the property; the July after my father died,
my sister Lafferty's wife was also consigned to the tomb, leaving an
infant son. Mr. Lafferty, I am sorry to say, betrayed the confidence my
Father placed in him and has swindeled us out of the property. I have
no remedy unless I institute a tedious suit in Chancery, the result of
which is at best problematical, and besides he has so mismanaged and
run through the estate that it is now scarcely an object. My Father
bequeathed in a deed of gift to my brother George before his death a
handsome property, consisting of a negro woman and child now two
children and a negro man and some stock. He would, if he had lived made
a similar bequest-- but he is consighned prematurely to Mother earth
and I have been left friendless, comparatively speaking on the wide
stream of life without rudder or compass by way to shape my course. But
I hope for better and have accumulated a tolerable property on which to
subsist.
My avocations have
been various. I have attended some to farming and raising horses and
stock and devoted some time and money to the improvement of my very
deficient education, which it was my fate to receive in the lifetime of
my father owing to a lack of schools and convenience, peculiar to new
countrie. I should be extremely glad to see you, but unless you give me
the pleasure of a visit to my residence, it is a pleasure that is
distant, as I cannot visit you in Tennessee for some time to come, but
shall visit you by letter frequently and hope you will be good enough
to attend to and answer all communication from me and inform me of the
health of Mother and all the relations.
Our Relative here are
all well. Uncle Benj. Hardin's children are all married and left him
but two; viz: Walter and Ewele. Cousins Joseph Hardin died about three
months since, leaving a family of four motherless children and a second
wife, when he had been married a short time before.
The prospects of our
contry are pretty good. Crops were fine tho the staple production of
our country which is cotten is very low. Other produce in
proportionatly low. I could write you a volume of news, tho perhaps of
little interest to you, I shall therefore save you the trouble of
reading myself of writing. Direct your letters in the future to Marion,
Conway County Ark. Territory, where I shall be able to receive and
attend to them.
With affectionate
regard to yourself and Mother, I am
Dear Brother
Very Truly,
Jonathan Hardin
Mr. Joab Hardin.
(Note: Joab
and Johnathan are sons of Joacob Harding and Joannah Peal--Original
letter held by Mary Miller of Arkansas 1995.
Ivannah Hardin born abt 1794, died Oct 1824 in Conway Arkansas the first wife of John Lindsey Lafferty born 20 Feb 1794 in Franklin county, Georgia (son John Lafferty and Srah Lindsey Lafferty.) |