| Madison County Letters© - 21May1844 Copyright 2000 Fredi Perry In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data and images may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for other presentation without express permission by the contributor(s) Ridge Prairie, Madison Co., Illinois, May 21, 1844 Dear Caroline, Martin Jepi Norman Churchill has been with me from Saturday afternoon till this morning. He has now gone to see his cousin Hannah near Highland. He informs that you and Mr. Bingham are going to Vermont this season. If you do, I perceive you will go through Buffalo. Do not fail to visit your Aunt Mrs. Woodruff and your cousins Mrs. Mary W. Timmerman, wife of Benjamin Timmerman, cabinet maker, and his sister Almira Amelia (?) and "Cereeny" - spelled Corinna, I believe. They live in the upper part of the city where it is almost like the country. So this Timmerman says, in her letter of Feb. 18. Aunt Betsey will be tickled almost to death to see you. Norman cannot tell from what part of Vermont your husband hails. Should you go to West Rutland inquire for the children of old Deacon Timothy Boardman. They will probably remember your father and me. They certainly will remember your grandfather, Rev. Jepe Churchill. If you go to Castleton inquire for Stephen D. Eaton*, or his son Milo Eaton. Probably the old man is dead. He had several daughters as Myra, Eilvia (?), Jerusha, but doubtless their names have been changed. Perhaps you may see in that vicinity an old gristmill known as Northrup's Mill formerly owned by Ira Northrup. There your father lived awhile when he was a little boy, and there I used to go to mill frequently from Hubbardton, my native town. Hubbardton was once the abode of a great many of the Churchills and Rumseys, but most of them have departed. Still there are probably many old people there who would make much of "uncle Jepe Churchills" granddaughter - especially when informed that she is a Tucker. I presume there are some Churchills in Hubbardton, children of Amos Churchill who was uncle to Alfred and Joseph W. Churchill of Kane Co., IL. Aunt Eliza commonly called "Aunt Lizzy", widow of Silas Churchill, was alive when I last heard from Hubbardton several years ago. They had no children. Then there was "Uncle Thornid"(?), or Nathaniel Churchill. He is probably dead, but he had sundry children. If you go to Cornwall, Addison Co., please inquire about Rev. Jedidiah Bushnell, and his children. I studied English composition with Mr. B. a short time and I think your father lived with him after I went to Albany. When I was a little boy I used to hear the Rev. Silas L. Bingham preach, sometimes. Was he your husband's grandfather? He lived, I think, at Mount Holly, and it is said his middle name was Long. At any rate he used to preach very long sermons. If you go to Vermont, you will see a thousand things which you have never seen yet. Lush hills and mountains and rocks and stone heaps and stone fences and turnpike roads and gates. Please make up a blank book before you start, and every day set down what you see and hear and when you get back among the Badgers you can make them ? As a general rule, I presume that the generation of Vermonters whom I knew have gone off from the stage, but there is probably here and there a survivor. I was at Kingston Bluff 10 days ago. Your father was tolerably well. Your stepmother and little Betty looked "puny". They have got a fine new clock which cost $2.50 at St. Louis. Also a set of fine chairs, which cost 50 cts. Cash. The place somewhat resembles, out of doors, Capt. Seth Wideropen's (?) place in the Village of Tumble Down which you have probably seen delineated in Peter Pauley's Almanac. We have hard times here. Year before last, grain was plenty; but we could not get enough for it to pay for hauling to market and the ferriages. Last year the winter wheat was mostly winter-killed and the corn crop a very small one. (From here for the remainder of the paragraph, a piece of the letter has been ripped off.) Thing looked well for a time, but the ?. Worm, have come; and whether the w?. All, or least a part, is yet uncertain?.. Weeks past we have had a succession of ?. Rain; and it will probably be a week ? The ground will be dry enough to ?. Mrs. Hannah Amelia Weeks Perrigo has ? Your present of a pamphlet with pictures ? It; and I promise would be glad of more. I paid the postage and read it, and gave it to her one Sunday when she was coming to a protracted meeting at Troy. Troy has now 2 churches with steeples to them: 2 stores, 2 blacksmith shops and sundry diver (?) mechanics. It is, indeed, going ahead. The Gaskills have all left the Creek house except Mr. George Washington Gaskill and Mrs. Nancy Teter Gaskill. Billy Good is dead, and his brother, Mr. John Good. Hannah's husband is a tenant of old Billy Husong who used to hammer the benches at Mount Gileed with his fist while at prayer when you were a little child. They live in a most solitary place. I expect to have a great crop of peaches this year: an article which I suppose the Badger never see. Other fruit not so plenty. We had a snow storm March 29 and 30 which injured the fruit. Peaches were then in blossom. George Churchill (added May 22, 1844). Last night I rec'd a letter from brother Norman full of Abolitionism, political abolitionism, I mean. The news which he sends is as follows. Emily is teaching school at Farmington, Fulton Co., IL. Mr. Weeks is expecting his father and uncle Chauncey to come to Galesburg in about 4 weeks. [the letter was dated May 12}. ?? Seymour Egglerton will not come this fall. "Three families are expected from old Herkima this week. W. W. W. has gone to Chicago to bring down a load of them. ??? Bill must have a hard time of it. Very muddy. Sloosfull. The nasty, stinking Cedar Fork is now a noble river. If such was the case at Galesburg on the 12th, what is the case now for we have had heavy rains until Monday night, May 20. The Mississippi has already got into the ??? under the Market house, St. Louis, and is still rising. The American Bottom is much of it under water. If we have a hot dry summer after this there will be ????? in the Bottom. Norman must have had a tough time going to Jimmy's yesterday for it was a cool day, and one of the Hagley told me that the water was waist deep in the Silver Creek bottom. I hope that he has stopped at Skeanborough with his old neighbor and waited for the flood to subside. *Stephen D. Eaton's first wife was your grandfather's sister. Milo Eaton is your father's cousin. (First letter address to Mrs. Caroline E. C. Bingham, Monroe, Greene Co., Wisconsin Ter. ?. Then added "Per Japet Norman Churchill".) |