5 July 1897 Letter from James Monroe Smith to Eva Slaton Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Robert S. Hendrick, 11/2005 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Materials from the Personal Collection of Dr. Robert S. Hendrick, Jr. Transcribed and submitted by Robert S. Hendrick, Jr. ================================================================================= 5 July 1897 Letter from James Monroe Smith to Eva Slaton Smith became the Union Parish Clerk of Court in 1879 and served until 1900, when he resigned to serve as a Louisiana State Senator ================================================================================== ================================================================================== James M. Smith Sr. to Eva Slaton (Addressed to Miss Carrie Manning; c/o T T Slaton) Jas. M. Smith, Clerk Edward Everett, Deputy Clerk's Office Parish of Union Farmerville, LA July 5, 1897 My darling little Eva girl, Your much appreciated messenger of love came promptly Friday evening & made me just as happy as usual. Darling it is mighty good and sweet of you to be so prompt in responding, knowing as you do your failure to send a letter at the usual time would indeed be a great disappointment to one who loves you better than all others. I regret so much dearest that I had to disappoint you this time in not getting your letter today as usual, for if you are as I am, you will feel kinder left when the mail comes this evening & no letter. I am satisfied the delay has worried me more than you'll be disappointed. Yesterday was my day to write you, but being our regular & Church day & having Sunday School service at 11 & then a choir meeting in the evening & service again at night & company besides I could not find the opportunity & was forced to wait until today. I try to be very prompt in all things with my little girl & next to my duty to my God, I feel that it is most sacredly due to my Angel girl. I have consented to preside on University day for the 16th next if I can arrange to get off then, but if the day is the 26th instead, I have no idea I can go then as our protracted begins on the 22nd & will probably continue a week or more & besides Court will be near at hand & will be very busy getting ready. I have mislaid the Chautauqua Annual you sent me but from what you write the date is the 26th instead of 16th which no doubt must be right. Mr. Atkinson in writing me made a mistake & put it the 16th (??). If I visit you before Court or before the last of August or 1st Sept. I will have to do so sometime about the middle of this month. I would like to be there on one of those big lecture days the as Love of Manship (??) or some other. Darling it seems so long since I saw you though it has only been two weeks. I don't believe I have ever been so anxious to see you. Undoubtedly I am the most impatient, restless, discontented fellow anywhere when away from you. It seems that you are already a part of me & know you are in spirit & thought, for you are my constant thought. Surely there are very few moments when not busy & even when busy, that I am not with my little darling. It is ever new and refreshing & inspiring to me to think of that sweetest of all faces, those pretty eyes beaming with tenderest love & affection for me, her winsome ways & charming graces of head & heart, stately form beautiful in its symmetry & forces me to the conclusion that my angel girl & future wife is the very perfection of God's workmanship in this life. Do you know darling that I think the couple indeed fortunate to love each other as fondly as we do, for I think there are so many who don't & are not capable of loving & appreciating each other as they should. I have seen so many couples I thought were unsuited & mismatched, there having no congeniality, no harmony & I was led to believe not much if any love& happiness. Husband & wife should be one indeed in the sense & spirit I Savior intends the very pride & life of each other & when that is the case the marriage state is the very quintessence of perfect love & happiness in this life. Darling I just feel in my heart no couple will be happier than we & I hasten the day when I will have my precious little darling with me & the pride of my life will be her happiness. You say August you will be just as happy as I when the date is fixed, but I doubt that somewhat, I don't know whether you can be or not. I am so lonely without you & darling you must not for one moment entertain the idea of deferring our marriage later than Sept for I can never consent to it. Of course I would much prefer you were in perfect health, but if not it will be all right with me for us to marry any way. I feel that you will be in just as good hands with me & I can & will take care of your health & you will improve just as well. I hope when I visit you again we will be able to fix a date. We haven't had any rain for a month or more & crops are beginning to suffer & there is a fear that we may have another drought, but I am hopeful we will have rain this week. Your advice is very good & wise to make a rousing speech & stock-raising & induce parties to purchase if there was any money in the country, but there being none & the bottom generally out of all kinds of values in our Section, I fear my sales now would be very light. I observe that my little darling has an eye to business & will be quite an acceptable adjunct to me in the near future in every respect. Dearest I am so glad you write me. You are improving every day & hope it is only a question of a very few days until my sweet little doll is perfectly well again. You are right of course darling we are no "common mortals" and as marrying is the order of the day & very fashionable we ought to join the procession or else we will be out of style & out of season & you know that would never do & to be out of style at the beginning of life in its sweet & best sense would no doubt would be a very great mistake. What say you let us join the procession for you know such an extraordinary couple as we are, are bound to cut a most conspicuous figure any time. Yes my friend Price seems to take a lively interest in my welfare & I don't well see how we could have ever learned to love each other & progressed so admirably with our affair without his assistance. There is nothing like having good friends you know. I enjoyed Mr. Crawford's letter to you very much, except of course that post opposing (?) our marriage. He no doubt is a most pleasant excellent gentle man. I regret exceedingly that business of importance prevented my visiting you on my return from B. R. & N. O. you must be a good sweet girl & to "best my presence" till I come again & write me a long letter promptly & give all the news. We will have some Railroad men here looking to see about extending the R. R. from Junction City to our town. With lots of love. As Ever- Yours Devotedly, James ##########################################################################