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Letters© - 13Sep1854 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) Troy, Madison Co., Illinois, Sept. 13, 1854 Dear Caroline, I am well, but do not feel very comfortable by reason of the extreme long drouth and very hot weather - the mercury rising almost daily to 100 degrees. Stack (?) water is dried up, the cisterns are empty, and the well almost dry. We have had no rain since the 15th Aug. which time was memorable for a shower which wet the earth to the depth of 1 ½ inches. Previous to that we had a heavy rain on the 5th of July, and the Spring months and early part of June were very wet. The consequence of such a wet spring and such a dry, hot summer, is a general failure of the corn and potato crops. There may be from a 4th to a 3d of the usual quantity of corn raised. Of potatoes, not enough for seed. The wheat crop is totally good. The oat crop rather below par. Fruit is not so abundant as common. We have some peaches, and they have been getting ripe for about a week: but the quantity is quite small. It is about a month since I was at Kingston Bluff; and I have not hear from that place since. Samson Kingston was then at home; it being vacation at McKendra (?) College. All were well. Your new aunt is a "medium" and receives spiritual communications from her deceased daughter, Miss Ellen Robert, desc', who died of cholera in 1849; also from her former husband and others. I suppose you have a plenty of "Spiritualists" at Monroe; and therefore I need not give you an account of the stand-tipping operation by which a message from the Spirit Land is laboriously eked out. We had a most destructive hail store on the 24th July. A large portion of the ice which fell was in pound balls. James Purviance weighed one of the haill stones of the larger and it weighed a pound. Some hogs, turkeys, and geese, and a gret many hens were killed by the hail. Fruit was knocked off, limbs broken off, windows broken, corn broken down, and the roofs of some of my buildings ruined. The hail stones passed through like cannon balls. The steam mill at Troy, owned by Swain & Brothers, has been burned; supposed by an incendiary. Loss $10,000. Insurance $5,000. Macdonough Gates talks of leaving school teaching and going to college against for two years. Queer - since his is living with his second wife. Hen Cholera - Poultry has been dying off very fast within a month past. They have some disease as fatal as cholera. James Riley Monroe Gaskill is a Doctor, and is settled at Centralia, Marion Co., Ill. John Quincy Adams Gaskill and Marion Purviance are in Oregon or California, supposed to be making money, since they have not time to write to their friends. I get letters occasionally from Wm. W. Weeks, Buteville, Marion Co., Oregon Ter. Charles B. Weeks has come home from California and now living At Galesburg, Knox Co., Ill. ??? Mary G. Weeks Garwood, I suppose, lives at Sumnerville, Cass Co., Michigan. Her husband went to Cal. Last year, and came back again. George Churchill of Galesburg, has, I suppose, set out to make the tour of Europe in company with his chum, a Mr. Wilcox. Now I want you to let me know the post office address of your brother George who was last year reported as having gone to Cal. Has he got rich yet? It is said that a company of four, made $6,000 in one week, 25 miles from Port Orford, O.T. At that rate, a man can soon make his pile. The Ohio & Mississippi R. R. is in operation from St. Louis, via Caseyville, to Car?(?) You can come down the Central R. R. to Bloomington, Ill., thence by the Chicago & Alton R. R. to Alton; thence by steamboat to St. Louis; thence by Railroad to Caseyville, when you will be within a mile of your father's. An omnibus runs between Caseyville & Collinsville. The Atlantic & Mississippi R. R. is under construct from Caseyville to Pocahontas, and several parties are at work upon it. The heat is so great that they make no progress: but it is expected that next year the horse horse will go snorting by the ruins of old Mount Gilead Meeting House. Rememberances to Norman and your sisters, and especially to Judge Bingham, and please write to me soon. Truly yours, George Churchill. (The end of the letters found in a barn in Monroe, Wisconsin.) |