Letter from Thomas Jefferson Weir Sedgwick Co Kansas Genealogy Trails

Transcribed Letter from Thomas Jefferson Weir;

Hutchinson, Kansas, Feb. 16, 1936,

Submitted by: Karen Ayers Weir, 2007

Dear Helen and all; I received your letter a few days ago. Was glad to hear you were all well and getting along as well. Bertha has been in bed for a week, just came to the table for the first time since a week ago last Friday. She had the old fashioned flue and it came near being a case of pneumonia. I think she will be alright now, if it only warms up. It sure has been cold and windy all this month. And the water pipes were frozen tight this morning. George built a fire on the outside meter and thawed it out and it's alright now. The thermometer has registered around zero for a month now. And hasn't been enough snow to protect the wheat and the ground is frozen pretty deep as the ground is so dry. If we had good wet snow it would be good for the wheat and we might have a good crop this year.

Helen; you wanted me to write a history of the family and I received a letter from the Weir's in Fayetteville, Arkansas asking if I could give a family tree and how far back maybe I go a little farther back then, your daddy being older, I will try. I don't know much about grandfather, I remember Grandma Weir better because I was 12 years old when I remember seeing her. Grandpa name was John and Grandma's was Dicey. They moved from Know County East Tennessee near Knoxville and came to Polk County, Missouri and settled 2-3 miles west of Humansville in the year 1844. Only 92 years ago. Seems like I should remember that don't it? They consisted of themselves and six children, 3 girls, three boys. Pa was the old boy and Aunt Armenia was the oldest girl, Aunt Emmie was next, Aunt May was youngest.

Lawson Young was next boy, Oscar Gaines was youngest. Aunt Armenia married a man named Samuel Hansard. They had 3 boys, 2 girls, Aunt Emmie married a man named Thomas R. Hall. They had 3 girls, 5 boys. Aunt May married a man named William Fletcher Rogers., this was the man daddy was named for. All my Uncles and Aunts were married in Polk County, Missouri. Uncle Lawson married Charlotte Williams, Uncle Gaines married Elizabeth Sadler. I will write of Uncle Lawson since 1863 so I don't remember much about them.

Aunt Armenia married Samuel Hansard, 3 boys, Raphael, John and Elbert Hansard. 2 girls, I don't remember their name, they were older than I was. Uncle Hansand was shot down in his own yard by the so called home guards because some of their men was killed in a fight near his home and they killed several of the best old men in revenge. I don't know what became of the rest of the family. Aunt Emmie married Thomas K. Hall. They had 8 children, 3 girls, and 5 boys. Oldest boy, J. M. Jefferson Monroe, Monroe for shot, second boy, John L. called Bud for short. Third boy, Hugh Samuel, the trader for short, fourth boy, William Thomas, the singer for short, fifth boy, Ambrose Seviere, the money man for short, First girl, Charlotte, married man named John Wells, Third girl, Paralee, married Thomas Houston.

Aunt May married a man named William R. Rogers, they were married before pa was. They had 4 boys and 1 girl, named Josephine, 1st boy, John, joined the army. The 14th Mo. Calvary at the age of 16 years, Uncle Rogers moved to Kansas after the civil war and settled at Oskaloosa and John was a machinist living at Lawrence last I heard of them. 2nd boy name La Fayelle, 4th boy named Bascom, that's all I know about them. Now Uncle Rogers were partners in a general store for 6 or 7 years at Mt Vernon, Mo. And I forgot about another boy that got bit by a rattlesnake while uncle was living at Verona. 10 miles out of Mt Vernon running a branch store. Aunt May could not stay there after Jimmy died and my cousin, John Hansand run the store for them until the soldiers got to robbing the little stores and it was closed out.

Pa was the oldest boy. He married the oldest of the Holt girls. Delilah Jane Holt. Her parents moved from 6 miles west of Springfield, Illinois to a few miles east of Humansville, Mo., on the small river called Pomme de Terre in Polk Co., Mo and there were 4 children of us. Laura Josephine, Dicey Ann, Thomas Jefferson, and William Fletcher. Laura married Jacob B. Taylor, Dicey Ann, or Puss as we always called her, married James A. Lockand. He was a farmer, stockman and neither of the girls had children and all of them are buried at Bentley, Sedgwick Co., Kansas where father EPB Weir is also at rest.

And now, for Thomas Jefferson Weir, I was four years old when Pa sold his little farm 3 or 4 miles from his home in Polk Co and moved to Lawrence county, Mo. And started a little country store at what was called Tom back only there a little when when they moved to Mt Vernon where he and Uncle Rogers went into a partnership. They closed their business and Uncle Rogers went to Rolla, a town near St Louis and Pa moved north to near Booneville in Cooper Co, Mo.. We only lived there a year then moved to Saline County, co Mo farmed there a year and General Price came along with an army of 30,000 calvary and they camped with us 3 days and harvested our crops. Then we got together 16 yoke of oxen and 4 wagons with the intention of going to Oregon to get out of the war but the war ws closed before we could go in April 1865.

We moved back to Saline Co, Mo in 1866 or 9 and farmed about 3 miles from Arrow Rock one year then moved 8 miles west of Sedalia. We farmed there two years then moved to Sedgwick's co, Kansas near Mt Hope. The 8th day of Oct 1870 when arrived and we had been in Kansas since E.PB Weir died of heart disease the 1st of Nov 1891. and is buried at Bently. In 1875 I got a hunger for land, went out to Stafford Co and found land that suited me. Entered a 160 acre homestead and timber claim also 160 acre tract and I agreed to put out 40 acres of trees and had 20 acres ready to plant so I put it out and I have about 35 acres of new land that will be extra good when the rest of the trees are taken off. Someone else will do that. I am not able to chop very much wood at a time. My son is on the farm now where he was born in 1882.

A chapter I forgot to tell of my fathers family. There were just 4 of us. My oldest sister wsa named Laura Josephine and she married Jacob Taylor and they both are buried at Bentley, Sedgwick Co, KS. They had no children,. And I was next oldest and was 31 years old before I married. My wife's name was Genevra Armenia Wilhite. She is buried at Stafford. She had been dead ten years. My other sister was named for her grandmother and an aunt on my mothers side, Dicey Ann. She married a man named James A. Lockard. He was a stockman. They are buried at Bentley also. My brother William Fletcher named for Uncle Rogers, Aunt May's husband….he lives in New Mexico. He married Ellen Gray Johnson at Garden City, Texas, McCulloch County.. His address is Monument, New Mexico. He is a ranchman, started as a cowboy at the age of 17 and has stayed with it. He has a big ranch all fenced, keeps grade Herefords. He has 3 girls, 3 boys living, one boy and one girl dead and buried at Monument. The boy died at Cap Dix, New Jersey;, had the flu and it turned into double pneumonia. They brought his body home for burial. My brother was a Texas Ranger and draws a pension of 75.00 a month. His boys are good cattlemen, one of them held a roping record for 3 years. Could rope and tie in 17 seconds. He lives near Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Now I don't know how many grandchildren my brother Bill has. My oldest boy has one boy. He is at state school at Manhattan. My other two have one each, a boy and a girl so I only have 5 grandchildren.