| Madison County Letters© -
28Apr1846 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, Apl 28, 1846 Dear Niece, I was at Kingston Bluff on the 21st inst. But learned that no letter had been received from you. In my letter of the 4th, I informed you of the birth of another half sister. My information was not correct. The new comer is a boy, weighing 4 lbs., and is called Henry Clay - a big name for so msall a child. He has to live on cow's milk, which he draws from a sucking bottle, his mother being still sick, and confined to her bed. I congratulate you on being sister to Henry Clay. From present appearances, we are likely to have a fair crop of cherries, peaches, and apples. The ?? is about two weeks later than usual. Lilacs now in full bloom. Some peach and cherry trees, and they of the finer kinds, have been winter-killed and some peach trees, not killed, bear no fruit this year, yet I think we shall have plenty of fruit. The growing winter wheat looks well. I am told that six married women died on Silver Creek and in Marine settlement last week. I heard the names of some, viz: Mrs. Jeffreys, Mrs. J. J. Parker, Mrs. Mills, and Mrs. Wesley Dugger. In this vicinity there is but little sickness at this time. Old Mr. Henderson is sick. Alexander West sold his farm, and went up to Carroll county (the county next south of Galena) to find a healthy place. But he reports that it was far more sickly there than here, and has concluded to buy another farm in this region. On the whole, I hear of only two healthy places: Galesburg, Ill., and St. Croix, WT. Tell John Y. Smith that he is now in affair way to be gratified with his hearts desire, viz: -- a tx on tea and coffee. John L. Weeks is studying Latin and Algebra at Galesburg. I paper the passed the place of your birth a few days ago. It is marked by fine large cottonwood trees, and by the blocks on which the old log house once stood in which your eyes first beheld the light. I suppose you would be delighted once more to view the place. Colon (?) and Horatio and Father Wood and Granny Wood and John C. Riggin, are still alive - although the latter is much the worse for having been salivated, and otherwise colonized. Dr. P. P. Greene has just removed to Southport, WT, on Lake Michigan. The prairie west and northwest of Horatio McCray's is fast being fenced up. Will you go to Vermont this year? Or come to Kingston Bluff and Ridge Prairie and eat peaches? Your little half sister, Adeline Elisabeth, is a fat girl with a broad, Cutch-looking face, and when she gets her tongue started, she can out-talk the Jews. I suppose Norman will be down on a raft - to St. Louis, by Peach time. Tell him to come out and feast upon the ?? of the sunny south. Well I suppose Wisconsin will soon become a state. A writer in the Galena N. W. Garette wants to take off some 25 or 30 counties from the north end of Mimon (?) and add to Wisconsin so as to get rid of paying their portion of our state debt, I suppose. And for that purpose misquotes the Act of Ci/sion from Virginia. The fifth article of the Ordinance of 1787 was formally ratified by Virginia, and that is the law by which Congress was guided in laying off the new states between the Ohio and Mississippi. Truly yours, George Churchill. |