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Jan 11 1885
Flemingsburg Fleming Co Ky
Dear Unkle
I had most dispared of hering from you & family any more was sorry to learn of hard times with you it seemes hard enough here Money is hard to get this years Tobacco is not seling at any price the raisers wont sell at the prices & the buyers wont give any more I hope things will make a change for the better the Boys are most done striping Ike is done I had a letter from Pa last week he
wannted to now if I had herd from you he stated that he had never herd a word from you since you left Maysville. I wish you had went to see him he had so much he wannted to ask & talk about to you that it was a great disappointment to him. & I fere you will never see him aney more his helth is poor dont seem to get any better you must write to him I will write to day & tell him all I now about you that will do him some good Unkle if you had let me kown that you was going to marry I would have went to seen you married you did not now it very long yourself but I herd of you going to Flemingsburg after the Leisen [has 'ee' above this word] & on your return you might have come up & told us but you new best & done what you thought was best I havent a dout & I hope you will live a long & happy life with your Wife if you are happy that is all that is needed & do your duty buy her you are kind harted that I now tell her she is a good ways from home but must not think any thing about that but be good to you & the Dear Children & all will be write Ike & Family are well Charley went to see Mr Suddith he says he never received the papers you spoke of he will see him agan before I send this letter I think he will do you write about it Josh Debelle & Nancy his Mother is fussing over what Unkle Jerry left - She has gon to live with Cath Points - Josh has moved up to Jerries house Haret sold out to him Jerry did not leave Cath Points aney thing that maid Aunt Nan mad She is a very unnatekerel mother they most always wannt ther children to have all they can get I havent seen Bud or wife since you left they sent me word to come to see them they live in Josh house I havent herd from Unkle Louis but once since you left & that was under very unfaberable surstampes he was in Carmel very drunk I was sorry to here of that but poor old man he will never quit that bad habit his daughter married since you was here she married George Beckel-Danelsone I dont now much about him her mother was not smiling for the mart etc So I have herd we have had some very cold wether has bin raining today we have filled our ice house our sisters is done I find it very convenient I am doing my work all except washing & hire it done Frannie has bin very sick is well enough to go to school her & Ollie Ralph is not married & I think will not very soon It is very hard on you to take those little children but you cant help yourself you would not see them suffer Sallie Forwether is dead was berried last week She was sick when you was here Charley has halled some logs since you left Commenced plowing last week I will not close my letter untill Ch sees Suddith again Charly sen Sudith some time ago he had not goten your papers then he seen Bolden Fox he told him the money was redy for you & wonderd why you did not send the papers I will send my letter now & not wait longer hoping your papers will come all rite Ch says he will see Sudith about them & have him to write you about them now Unkle this is a very bad letter but you must answer it hoping times will be better soon with you Love to all EL Jones Tell Tom to stay with you good buy dear Unkle Commentary by Nick Wallingford, 21 September 2008 This is a letter from Eliza Jones to her Uncle Thomas Ginn Wallingford, written 11 January 1885. Eliza Wallingford Jones was the wife of Charlie Jones and the daughter of Hiram and Hannah Ann Wallingford, Hiram being T.G. Wallingford's older brother. Charlie and Eliza lived in Fleming
County, Kentucky, (near Carmel, I believe) while Hiram and Hannah lived in Greensburg, Indiana. Eliza refers to the very depressed tobacco farming market, and they fact that 'the boys' (her husband, sons and several workers who were living in the household with them) were currently
finishing striping the tobacco - removing the leaves from the stalks after the tobacco has been dried. She refers to the fact that T.G. had not gone to visit her father Hiram on T.G.'s trip to Kentucky in August 1884, and the disappointment relating to that. T.G.'s main purpose for the trip
was probably to sort out any inheritances due to his children following the death of his father in law, Lewis Debell (T.G.'s wife - Lewis' daughter - Evaline died about 15 years earlier).
Whether it was planned or not, he also got married to Annie Eliza Tucker on that trip. Based on Eliza's letter, it sounds like the decision may have been made quickly, rather than a long term plan. She refers to her husband Charley and Ike, his brother. Charley appears to have been working on T.G.'s behalf with "Mr. Suddith" who appears to have been the lawyer working on the inheritance issue with the Debell estate. Eliza writes about Josh Debell and his mother Nancy Debell, and the death of "Jerry" (Jeremiah Debell, a brother of Lewis Debell, T.G.'s father in law). (Though she uses the terms Aunt and Uncle, I believe they are simply expressions of 'some' sort of relationship. The various Debells and Wallingfords and Jones were all in the same area of Fleming County for many years...) Nancy was the widow of another of the Debell brothers - Joshua Hutchison Debell, and was living with her son Josh with Jerry and his wife Mary in 1850. Harriet, who sold out her share of Jerry's house to Josh, was another sibling of that 'older' set of Debells, the siblings of Lewis, T.G.'s father in law. I am not certain who Cath Points is. Eliza says that T.G.'s brother Louis (or Lewis) Bean Wallingford was still drinking, an ongoing reference in most family letters. Louis had four daughters, but the marriage mentioned here is not one I have been able to confirm - it would likely have been Francina, but I have not been able to confirm that. The mother of the bride who was 'not smiling' was Cecelia Tolle Wallingford. She refers to some of her children - Frannie/Fannie, Ollie and Ralph. "Bolden Fox" is Baldwin Foxworthy, who had married Sallie Debell (another of Lewis Debell's siblings) and who was a trustee of the Lewis Debell estate. The final P.S. refers to T.G.'s son, Robert Thomas Wallingford. |