| Madison County
Letters© - 20Jan1853 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, Jan. 20, 1853 Dear Caroline, I am sorry to have to inform you of the death of your stepmother, Mrs. Jane Robinson Churchill. It took place early in Dec., at Caseyville, and was very sudden. I heard a rumor of it soon afterwards, but heard nothing which I could rely on as certain, till yesterday. Little Adeline, and Henry Clay, are motherless, and Samson Kingston is motherless and fatherless. I suppose that Miss Martha Watson keeps house for your father. She is a niece of your late stepmother. I suppose Norman has finished his job in Iowa, and got back to Monroe. Tell him that he can see his cousin Miss Amelia S. Woodruff, at Galesburg. She has left the college, finding that it makes her sick to study as hard as they have to study in College. The papers say that "Mr. Churchill of Iowa" has found an Indian medal with the name of John Quincy Adams on it, date 1825. Was it Mr. Norman Churchill, or some other Churchill? The Pr. Farmer says that good Peaches were raised last year in Lake Co., Ill. You are a little farther North, but perhaps you may sometimes happen to raise peaches. How do your Persimmon trees come on? Did you have a good crop of Sweet Potatoes? Suppose you try some of Mr. Kinney's root, of Rock Island. Nausembuds, (?) I think he calls them. The calculation is to finish, this year, so much of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad as lies between Minorstown (?) and the Ill. Central R. R. Then you can go to Freeport, and be whisked down to Marion Co., Ill. (Central city or "Centralia".) Thence turn to the right, and be landed at Caseyville in a couple of hurries. Then you will be within a mile of your father's. I am told there is a cut 65 feet deep through the Bluff, near Caseyville, and even that did not furnish earth enough for the adjacent embankment. Come and look at it. Marion Purviance and John Quincy Adams Gaskill went to Oregon last year, but finding no public land there which they would take as a gift, they went to the gold mines on Rogue River, O.T. Old man Gallentine Kinder went to Oregon in the same company. The last I heard about him was that he had gone to Puget's Sound to see the country in that quarter. One man in the company, named Andrew Pregge, died on the way out. Wm. W. Weeks started from Knox Co. for Oregon, last spring, with his family, father-in-law, and others. I have not yet heard of their arrival in Oregon, and fear .. they have had bad luck. The California and Oregon fevers are very bad on this country, drawing off most of the young men, and not leaving enough to cultivate our farms. The emigrants on an average might do better here than they do on the Pacific: but as a few adventurers have drawn high prizes, every emigrant thinks he can do so too. The Germans are coming in here, and giving high prices for land. The old Hammy (?) Wood farm might have been sold for $3,000, but the widow would not relinquish her dower. The usual prices are from $25 to $30 per acre. Rev. Wm. P. Rengro, son of Jepe, has a new wife - daughter of John C. Dugger. They have a brick school house at "Skeamborough." Troy - Two schools, one taught by R. K. Dewery, in the Hall; the other by Misses Hatch & Livermore, in a new school house built by Jacob C. Gontersman (?). Three churches - Presbyterian, Rev. John Gibosn, pastor; Baptist, Rev. E. Dodson; Methodist, Rev. S. Mattison. The weather and the roads have been very unfavorable to out door locomotion, and other operations, this winter. I keep pretty close. The Caloric engine, I hope, will displace those murderous concerns, the steamboat boilers. Compliments to your husband. Please write soon and give all the Monroe news. Yours, George Churchill. |