Millikins Bend
Revd [Reverend?] John Witherow August 16/81 [1881?]
Dear Cousin after the lapse of several
months since I wrote to you before & not seeing a answer have
come to the Conclusion that I would write to you again as I
have been thinking a good deal about the old folk at home
lately It seems to me the older I get the more I think about
them in first place I wish to inquire how you and your family
is getting along also Uncle George & Aunt Isabella & their
family & their family next please give me all the information
you can how sister Mary Ann & her husband is getting along
also Cousin Mary Ann & her family & brother George & his
family write to him & ask him to write to me & give me full
particulars how he is getting along & how his son is getting
along tell sister Mary Ann to write to me as the [there?] is
nothing on this earth could give more pleasure than to hear
from all of you & nothing in the world would be a greater
comfort to me if only I could leave my buisness [business?]
for a few months & to go over & spend a few weeks with you
though I expect I would scarcely know any of the pathways
that I so often walked over I know there are many changes
since I left 23 or 24 years ago and I suppose a great many
of the old people dead and gone that was healthy & stout
when I left - & I suppose a great many young people grown up
since that was not born when I left it would do me so much
good to walk around the old Bank & brays [braes?] & watters
[waters?] where I was brought up those old places is still
fresh in my memory & forever will be as long as I live Oh
that morning when I left old Gallony [Gallany?] will still
be fresh to me when I think on the morning I parted with my
dear friend Miss Eliza Robinson one who I so dearly loved a
few rods from her fathers house near the old lime kiln with
her dear old mother & father Brothers & sister around us and
a great many of my own relatives also; that moment I parted
with her I felt so bad & as I walked away I felt like I would
never get over it & in a few minutes more when I got down to
Uncles house & bid farewell to Aunt Isabella & all of the
family it made me feel worse that is the reason I shall never
forget the day I left Gallony [Gallany?] but thank God I
cannot say that I ever regreted [regretted?] leaving since as
I think I had tolerable good luck since I never had very many
disappointments & has always been recognize [recognized?] in
good society no matter where I went I am now getting old I
have child a little girl named Ella 2 years old tomorrow & I
expect my wife to be confined every day with the second
hoping to God she will get over it all right our prospects in
#PAGE 2
regards to a cotton crop is not so very good either I am
running three plantations my self [myself?] I cannot complain
I have got a valuable fair crop I have got a man on each
place to manage for me & got my brother W Steward in the
store keeping books for me five years after he was with me
before & like a good many action boys he made a few hundred
dollars with me & began to get big headed a little too much
stuck up so I had to let him go so he is now back with me &
doing well Brother James & his family are [stained] & making
money he has for so [stained] [stained] 200 miles below
[stained] Mississippi River all my sisters is living in
Phialadelphia it is over 20 years since I saw any of them
some of them I have never seen I will now draw to a close as
I felt so [stained} some I have written you these few lines
give all my love to all my relations & friends in the kindest
manner & write to me soon & give me all [stained]
[stained]
about all the old people write me a long letter let me know
how the Landlords & Tennants [Tenants?] is doing how or if it
injures your part of the country much or it is settled yet or
not with love to yourself & family
your cousin
Jos [Joseph?] Witherow
