| Madison County Letters©
- 10Nov1846 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, Nov. 10, 1846 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 costitution: (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 notesJ 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? |