| Madison County Letters© - 13Jul1845 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., IL, July 13, 1845 Dear Caroline, Your letter of Oct. 9, 1844, is now before me. I have foreborne to answer it hitherto because I expected to see your long letter to your Pa, but it had not arrived when I was last at Kingston Bluff just one month ago. Your Pa was well as usual, and plowing corn on the new farm in the Bottom which last year was about 15 feet under water. Little Betty, alias Elvira, was also as well as usual, i.e. she was "puny" and very bashful and timid. No peaches this year at Kingston Bluff or Ridge Prairie or anywhere in these parts but your stepmother will have some winter apples. It is said there will be peaches in the regions round about Springfield and Peoria. We expect a good many blackberries and they will soon be ripe. Indeed I ate 3 ripe ones on the 29th June. Your Pa and step-Ma talked strongly about moving down to their Bottom farm, and building a house thereon, but I sort o think they will not do it. There has been a pretty considerable flood in the Mississippi since I was at Kingston Bluff, and if the water did not come up to the Bottom farm, it must have come pretty near it. Cahokie (?) and Minors Iowa and the Levee near the latter place were under water. The river is now falling. Of course the suffering will not be like that of last year. If you have not written your long letter to your Pa yet, please be reminded of it when you read this. I expect to visit the Bluff occasionally, and shall there inquire for the long letter. I am sorry you are a little more than 300 miles from Collinsville, by the mail routes, and therefore cannot send and receive five cent letters from the Bluff. Elder Perrigo and Lady and "Nan Tayo's Daby and Sitters" removed to Galesburg last November. They had got tired of Hufsongville where they were surrounded with solitude and Lois Facor, and Dutchmen, and Fever and Agnes, and where they had the misfortune to lose their second child, and when other people's hogs gathered part of the Elders corn. I suppose Hannah does not expect to remain long in Galesburg when the people appear to have little else to live upon besides Learnings and Presbyterianism and Abolitionism. The Elder has a bond for a deed of a first rate tract of land of 80 acres in Section 18, 9N, 4E, about half way from Galesburg to Peoria in a fine settlement which I call Geersville, from 2 to 3 Yankee families living there of the name of Geer. That is about as near as I should want to live to Galesburg which places just far enough from Oghawka on the west, and Peoria on the East to make every thing dear which the people buy at the stores, and to make the cost of transportation take off all the profits on their produce. Now think Geersville a much better town to live in than Galesburg. I have given Wm. W. Weeks 80 acres of land at the same place. Troy Presbyterian Church. The present Elders are Dr. Joel K. Reiner, Thomas Smith, and Wesley Jarvis. Smith is a new-comer. Reiner used to reside at Collinsville. Rev. Mr. Lippincott preaches to them every other Sunday. Lives at Marine. The Scotts - Miss Pharsalia has married a widower named Sanders, in the Bottom near the Land (?) Ridge. Miss Elizabeth Jane having been disappointed by Mr. George Washington Gaskill has married a Mr. J. R. Willoughby, son of John Willoughby. Cyrus Scott, jr., has married Miss Paulina Renfro, daughter of the Rev. Jepe, and lives next east of my school land farm. Miss Lydia Ann having accomplished her education at Galesburg has become a school mistress and is teaching the young idea "how to shoot" as Jeremy Thomson says, near the Sand Ridge towards Alton. Thomas S. Waddle and wife are both dead. They died last winter of what was popularly called the "Cold Plague" which was very fatal in some places. Old Mr. Seybold is dead. I believe all of Squire Sam's children at still unmarried - except the eldest who married David Thee (?). The Gaskils of the Brick House - George W. married Miss Nancy Teter. They occupy said house. Stephen lives on the School land farmed owned by his late father. The rest of them live at Uncle Pickering's water-lime factory in St. Clair Co. Minerva and Cordelia and "lipy" are there, together with the piano, so we have no music here and nobody to "pull it out". None of them married since you left. Uncle David's Gaskills - Miss Julia Ann married a carpenter named Fairbanks. They have removed to St. Louis. The rest remain in status quo. Skeamborough and Mount Gilead - I have not been there for a long time; but think these places do not flourish. Some of Ben Haglin's children are dead, and some married, but I cannot state all the particulars. One of them married George Holme, an English tailor who lives in Troy. In Dec. 1843, I found Cleveland Hagles on Ellison Creek in Warren Co., IL, Sec. 28, 9 N, 3W which he thinks is the best place in the world. Billy Good is dead. One of the Vineyard boys is gone to Essex Co., NY to fulfill a contract of matrimony entered into "unsight, unseen" as the Yankee pedlars say with a young lady of said country. Negotiation carried on and conducted by letter. This information I have from our P.M., Moses Bardley, and suppose it is true - though it is rather a singular measure. Your old beau, the Rev. Samuel Kelley, has moved up North, I think, to Scott Co. My frame house, once occupied by G. Lacy, was burnt one night last winter. Times are very hard here, occasioned by Lou Focoim, which first expanded the currency beyond all reason and tempted the people to run into debt, and embark in visionary undertakings and speculations, and then, on a sudden, contracted the currency to the opposite extreme. The result is that two kinds of the people owe more than there is any probability of their ever being able to pay. Transactions which were considered at the time perfectly safe, have proved ruinous to thousands. The estate of Silvanus Gaskill is likely to be swallowed up in the payment of a debt of the late Ebenezer Pickering, for whom Gaskill was a security. Both estates would have been large and solvent, but for the expansion and contraction of the currency by Lois Taco vetoes and Loi Foco legislations. For my own part, I never supposed the expansion would continue long, and therefore used, as I thought, all possible caution, yet I have been a heavy sufferer. I have lost about $4,000 by investments in Insurance Company stocks and how much in the decrease of the value of property and loss of money lent to persons who have been made poor by the destruction of the currency, it is impossible to estimate. I hope to sell land enough to enable me to pay off my debts, and as this is more than most people can do, I ought not to repine (?). Still I cannot think of Loco Focoism with pleasure when I reflect that it has destroyed the best currency that any nation ever ?? and brought us to our present condition. And as to Abolitionism - poor, miserable, hypocritical political Abolitionism! It is still worse! It has secured the annexation of Texas, the perpetuation of slavery, the subjection of the free states to the slave states, and in my opinion, the ultimate destruction of our republican government, by the course which it took in the late presidential election. But for Abolitionism, Mr. Clay would have received the votes of N.York and been elected. Texas would have remained as she was, a separate nation, slavery would have gradually disappeared from many of the present slave states, and the thirst for more territory would have been effectually checked. But as it is, I look forward till I see the whole continent and adjacent islands annexed to the US and hear the people sigh because there are no more worlds to annex. A republican government never can manage such discordant materials. (Not signed by from George Churchill) (Envelope with #10 in stamp corner addressed to Mrs. Caroline E. C. Bingham and Mr. Noman Churchill, Monroe, Greene Co, Wisconsin T.) (Inside envelope) John Davis has recovered $50 of Moses Bardsley for slander in saying that Davis stole corn from him. I was at Springfield during the winter as a member of the HofR. Pay of members was reduced 25 per cent. I boarded at the house of Mrs. R. G. Francis, widow of Cornin (?) C Francis. Got home March 4, first day of the reign of James III. Was taken sick march 28 and had a long siege of it. Dr. Gates attended upon me. Tom Brady has married Miss Amelia, daughter of Calvin McCray. Macdonough Gates has become a schoolmaster. Keeps in a new cabin south of Gillets. Uncle Levi - Fat as a seal - looks healthy - eats a?? is a real "mangeur delard" as the French say, but don't work much. Troy - 2 churches, 3 stores, 2 blacksmiths, 3 doctors, 1 carding machine, 1 cooper, 2 tailors, 1 tavern, 1 P.O., and a great many carpenters. Remember me to your husband, mother, Counsellor Temp, and your brothers and sisters. Don't forget that "long letter" [to your Pa, of course} W. F. Purviance has got a daughter at last, and is mightily tickled. James Purviance lives on the old Seybold farm. Lately the property of Isaac ??? Truly yours, GC |