| Madison County Letters© - 4May1842 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 County, IL, May 4, 1842 Dear Caroline, Your favor of April 19 was rec'd yesterday. I am sorry that you cannot find out in what part of Wisconsin Green Co. is situated, and that the little muddy stream running through your mudless country has no name. What is nearest (?) county to you? Is it Lake or McHenry or Boone, or Winnebago, or Stephenson, or Jo Davies? How far from Galena to Monroe? How far from Rockford? How far from Belvidere? "Thos astonishing weddings". Martin Joseph Macdonough Gates to Miss Mary Ann Loving Gillet. Mr. Joel M. Davis whose wife died not quite 3 months before to Mrs. Engor??? Who had already had 3 or 4 husbands. Mr. Tompkins to Miss Serena Morris. Miss Sally Watt to somebody up the prairie. I forget the name. Most of the people have joined the Washington Temperance Socieities. Isaac Hall among the rest. Troy has become a sober town. Mr. Henderson is the President of the Temperance Society there. Where does Felix O'Flynn live? Uncle Temp? and Uncle Thompson? Does your grandmother live at Monroe? Is it a very healthy place? Mrs. H. A. Perrigo's husband has a name handsome enough for any woman or girl, and he is a fine young man, but unfortunately he lived at Shoal (?) Creek till the fever and ague got such a fast hold of him that it seems impossible to eradicate it. He presently has a chill or a shake. Mr. Silvanus Gaskill died on the 29th April, and was buried at Collinsville on the 28th by the side of his wife. So there is a family of orphans. Sam Teter (?) has shot his left hand to pieces with a pistol. St. Louis prices - Coffee, 8 lbs. For $1; Sugar 15 lbs. Do; Wheat 73 cts. Per bushel. Times hard enough, but not so bad as among the poor Badgers. All well at Kingston Bluff. Sister Jane makes a splendid dish of coffee. Little Samson goes to school at Silver Creek. I have built a new bar, stable, and smoke house, and have up the frame of a wood, carriage, and tool house. I have also built a very nice frame house, 8 by 12 feet and 10 feet high, and finished it with a cookstove and other furniture for your Uncle Levi so that he may not be troubled with "noise", and that other people may not be annoyed with his presence. He had been teasing for a house more than three years, and when done he still wanted me to pay for his board in Mr. Perrigo's family. I declined the honor, and let him take his choice: to cook for himself, somebody to cook for him, eat his victuals raw or starve. He was quite "stuffy" and tried starvation about 2 days and then concluded to cook for himself. The house is six rods east of the SE corner of the Pear Orchard where I have fenced in and plowed a quarter of an acre for him to use as a garden. I hope he will gradually alter his opinion that "it is not right for him to do any work." We people here all think he is as able to work as most other people. He lets his beard grow, and looks far worse than Lovero (?) Don. He can make a great deal of money at boot and shoe making and mending if he will only work. He has the best shop in the state. Please write soon. Yours, George Churchill. PS. I do not know who told me you were a school marm. Your old lover, Rev. Samuel Kelly is building a log cabin on Hendershot Hill near the head of Goose Creek. Why do you write "satisfied" for "satisfied"? PS. Remember me to all inquiring friends, especially to Jackson, Giles and the Doctor. |