Hertford County, NC - Letters - Early Bishop Family ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written to Elvin F. Fiers, Southampton Co VA. Granite Canon Wyoming Territory Monday April 27, 1874 Dear Cousin You no doubt will be somewhat surprised to receive this letter from me as I have not heard from you and family for some considerable time only through my friend P. D. Story. I have intended to pen you a few lines which will inform you that I and family are well and that Saphronia, our only child, is married and has two children. She married a Mr. A. W. Haygood from Alabama and is doing well. Hope this letter may reach your hands and find you, cousin, Lucey, Malinda, and Priscilla enjoying the best of health. I have been informed that two of your sisters are with you, Cousins Lucey and Malinda, and "Priscilla" is yet at or near Winton. I wrote you almost two months ago and I learned you did not get my letter. I also wrote to Mr. Thomas Vaughan near Jerusalem from whom I have never had any answer. I am glad you have been one of the lucky ones in the way of doing well, that is, making a good living as there are hundreds and thousands who have been brought to want and poverty by the War. As for my part I have not made much over a living but I kept out of the war on both sides and thought myself lucky to do that as I was in the midst of two fiens on the borders of Missouri and Kansas. I tell you I have seen many ups and down since I last saw you, But so much is life, us we are bound to have our sours as well as sweets. I do not think I can or could think or imagine the many changes which have taken place since I left your section of country. As many of my old acquaintances have passed away to try the realities of an unknown world and soon I and you must go too. I wrote to cousin "Priscilla" two weeks ago, do not know whether she will get my letter. This is no farming country and not much for stock raising. There is plenty snow here yet and the weather is cold and disagreeable. I am 14 miles east of range Rocky mountains and 9000 feet above sea level. So you will see I am up pretty high in this world. This is a very healthy climate and has good water. I can see the snow cap mountains from our house all summer. I frequently hear from Cousin Eliza & B. Britt. Mr. Porter and Mr. Hart’s daughter are dead. Will close by saying you and sisters, also enquiring friends, will take to your selves my best wishes and regards. I want you to write me and give all the news. Will write more the next time. Your cousin, John H. Bishop. ************ Sent to Margaret Nelson by Carolyn M. Haygood, Mrs. Raymond L. Dear Bob and Grace (Boyce): Sunday, February 19, 1978 Your wonderful letter arrived a few days ago, Bob, and of course I was delighted to hear from you These "kissin cuzzins" just do not keep in touch like we should as the years roll by. I am very interested in the fact that you are going back into family genealogy too. The one who is really on it is your cousin Ruth Scott Hocker. She took a summer and drove back to North Carolina attempting to get a run-down on Grandma Bishop's background, more than we now have. She came upon an attorney named Meredith Watson in Murfreesborough, and while we are positive he is from the family line, the time she was there he had gone to Washington or to the state capitol on business. Aunt Nora was with Ruth and she wouldn't hold still until a few days until Mr. Watson returned. Ruth and I plan to get down there one of these days. She also ran into an old, old black man named Sam Watson. Again she felt he was the offspring of one of the Watson slaves. When he saw Ruth, he got up and said, "I declare Miss Ann." When Ruth told him she wasn't Miss Ann but did identify herself, the light and happiness faded from his eyes, he was so disappointed. He knew where the old Watson burial plot was and where the old plantation house stood and the slave quarters were and he volunteered to take her out there next morning when he could get a couple of boys to go along to beat the tall grass to drive out the red mouth moccasin snakes. Again Aunt Nora spoiled the plan and by the time Ruth and I get back there that old (black man) will be long gone pushing up the daisies. Well it was a good try anyway. Maybe next time we will go to the County Seat and look at old deeds, recordings of marriages and births and deaths and really get some place. Ruth has checked in the Genealogy Library in Washington, D.C. and Salt Lake City, Utah, and she has great stacks of papers and information on the Allen Wesley Haygood line. Granfather Haygood’s mother Mary Ramsey Lovelace must have been quite a lady in those days. She is a direct descendant, also you, me and the rest of us, from Sir Willian Lovelace, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I, in 1632, and his famous brother Richard Lovelace, the cavalier poet who wrote the often quoted line "stone walls do not a prision make, nor iron bars a cage, etc." Ruth has a picture of him in armor. She showed it to me and asked "who does this remind you of?" Not only remind me, it was the spittin’ image of Douglas Trapp, Arlene’s son. So you see, if you are truly interested, old Ruthie has the way back dope on the family tree. She is always more than eager to share with others. We have a cousin, a Mrs. Ruth Saep, in West Point, Georgia. She is working on the papers with Ruth and when it is compiled and edited, they plan to publish so that family members can obtain a copy if desired. You perhaps know that in the library in Cheyenne is a book on early Wyoming pioneers, and in that volume the Haygood family is written up. The data was given the publisher by our Grandfather himself, so it should be accurate as to his early days in Wyoming. In our Redlands library I have checked out and read the biography of Laura Haygood. She was Grandfather’s sister who was a Methodist missionary in China. She established the Weslyn (spelling?) Seminary for Women in Shanghi, China. She died and is buried there. Oh yes! We do come from a long line of Methodists, from bishops to itinerant preachers. Now, Bob, getting down to the present generation, I have typed a five generation family tree with the date certified as to accuracy. You will note that each of the Haygood children I have numbered and carried the same number down into their offspring so that you can see who belongs to who. I think Lawrence is very interested in this sort of thing also. The night we came back from Eddy’s funeral, Lawrence and I stayed in Pomona with Arlene and Kenny overnight. We spent half the night talking and looking up old family pictures Arlene has. Hope you will enjoy reading the little story I wrote about Great Grandmother Bishop. It is absolutely true with no embellishments. I have a precious picture of Grandmother and Grandfather Bishop, taken in the back of the old millinery store of 17th Street. It looks like he is holding yarn and she rolling the ball of yarn bass line. They were preparing to go over on the Platt where she caught one of the largest bass pulled out of the Platt at that time. I felt very honored when you told me I reminded you of your mother. Adah used to tell me that I reminded her of Floss, so I guess it must be true that I do resemble her. As a matter of fact all of us have a very strong family resemblance. Ruth should be back here around the middle of April. She sailed on February 8th on the Royal Viking Sea for a two and a half months cruise to Australia, New Zealand and the Orient. They will be the first cruise ship to dock in Communist China. She is with Louise and Richard Nichols. They are lifelong friends from Casper. Richard is a Retired Admiral US Navy submarine service. He saw years of duty in the Pacific so he should be able to point out interesting things to his wife and Ruth. I am so glad she is having this opportunity to go as she spent most of her life taking care of her mother and dad. Anyway, when she returns, she plans to spend some time here with me. If things work out as I hope they will, I will get in touch with you and bring her down to see you. She is a great person and just like you will remember her from little girlhood, I love her very much. I do want to get this off in the mail. If there is any other information I can help with just let me know as I am very interested in this too. And thanks for the nice blow-up of the Haygood family. You probably know that this picture was taken outside the old bunkhouse on Grandma’s ranch. It was the homestead shack Grandfather Bishop built and lived in with Grandmother Bishop when she homesteaded the ranch originally. The Haygoods had to move down there in the night when their house on the upper place burned. I have heard Aunt Nora tell about that day and how they were all just destitute, as everything went up in flames. Adah isn’t in the picture as she never lived at home but was taken by Grandmother Bishop when she was just a baby and raised by her in Cheyenne. Wesley had gone up to Bates Creek by that time. So much for family history for now, old dear. Thanks for writing and do it again soon. My love to you both, Betty (Stalnaker) An enclosure with this letter: Great Grandmother Martha Sarah by Elizabeth McNulty Stalnaker Martha Sarah Watson was born on January 8, 1833 at the old plantation near Murfreesbrough, South Hampton County, North Carolina. She was the only known daughter of David and Cherry or Cherie Watson. Her one brother, Meredith, was well in his teens at the time she was born. Her mother was not a well woman, and so at babyhood Martha Sarah was entrusted to the care of a colored mammy, who she affectionately called "Puss." When she was four her mother died. Her father, too, died about five years later. Her brother, Meredith, together with Mr. Ely Carter, an attorney, became the manager of the three plantations and slaves owned by the Watson family. John Henry Bishop came to the plantation to keep accounts and help Meredith with the overseeing. John's grandfather was one of four brothers who came to America from Ireland and settled in Virginia. John’s father, Lawrence, born on December 2, 1782, married Martha T. Barner, born August 19, 1798. John was born May 9, 1822 in North Hampton County, Virginia. He had two sisters, Cornelia and Virginia. Meredith Watson knew that they were gradually being swindled out of their holdings by attorneys’ fees, but because Martha Sarah was still a minor his hands were tied. If she should become a married woman she would automatically, through her husband, be legally responsible. Therefore, Meredith arranged a marriage between his sister and John Henry Bishop. They were married on the fifteenth day of February 1848 just after her fifteenth birthday. On the 30th of March 1850 their daughter Saphronia Ann was born at the old plantation. In August 1854 a boy, Lawrence, was born, but he lived only two years. Times became difficult for the North Carolina farmers about this time. Long dry spells meant poor crops. Finally one good crop did come along and John, figuring it was a good business deal, sent the entire cotton crop on consignment to a firm in Baltimore, Maryland. Luck was not with him, however, for when the consignment arrived on the docks at Baltimore it was confiscated because the firm there was in bankruptsy (sic). This was the final blow to the Bishop family and John Henry turned his thoughts to the growing West. Many were leaving for Kansas and Missouri to establish new homes. These states were permitting slaves and the land was virgin and fertile so they were told. They sold their lands and possessions and John Henry left for Kansas to prepare a home for Martha Sarah and the little girl Saphronia. Finally the time arrived when Martha Sarah too was to leave to join her husband in Kansas where he had homesteaded near Tecumsah. Old Puss cried and wanted to go along. Even though she was now getting old, she was strong and could help and what would she do without Miss Martha Sarah! There just wasn’t enough money to take her so she remained behind with Sam, her husband. By the spring of 1857, Miss Martha Sarah, with all the gold she had in a money belt around her waist, took her little girl to Norfork, Virginia where they boarded the train for St. Joseph, Missouri. It is told that she was the first white woman to ride this train. John met her with a buckboard and they drove to the homestead near Tecumsah. Kansas. Several interesting incidents of their life on the Kansas plains have come down to us. One experience with Indians was told me by Grandmother Haygood. All three of the family were ill with chills and fever. Martha had been the first to partially recover and was trying to take care of her husband and daughter. One day she looked out to see a group of Indians riding up. There was pounding at the door, she answered even though frightened to death. The Indian Chief demanded water for his men and horses. Martha showed him the water barrels which were empty, and invited him in to her house to see for himself that her husband and child were ill in bed. She made him understand the spring was a good half mile from the house and that she was too ill to get water for him. The Chief grasped the situation and ordered his braves to fill the water barrels after they had drank and watered their horses. Grandmother always felt this probably saved their lives. Before the Chief departed he gave a coin to Saphronia. She told me that coin bought her lots of candy because she would give it to a neighbor to buy candy for her in Fort Atchison. The neighbor bought the candy, but always returned the coin to the little girl. Eventually the homestead was proved and the family moved to Atchison where Saphronia went to school. Martha Sarah established a dressmaking and millinery shop, and took in roomers. John Henry went to Virginia to see his sisters, Cornalia and Virginia, to see how they survived the Civil War. One of Martha Sarah’s roomers was a Mr. John Colville, who drove stagecoach for Ben Holiday. After the Plumbcreek raid the stagecoach was brought back to Ft. Atchison with Indian arrows sticking out all over it like a porcupine. Mr. Colville was given permission to take the leather from the coach and from it he made a small box-like trunk which he gave to Mrs. Bishop. This trunk was in the possession of her grandson Richard Bryan, who died in Compton, California, and apparently is lost to the family. On the 14th of February 1870, Saphronia Ann was married to Allen Wesley Haygood of Fort Gaines, Georgia. He had been a drummer boy with the Confederate Army. After the War he too was seeking the wealth of the West. At the time they were married he was freighting merchandise to Fort Collins, Colorado and to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Marauding Indians burned his wagons and stole his horses. Wesley Allen (sic) then got a contract with the Union Pacific to supply rail ties for the building of the new transcontinental railroad. The family moved to Wyoming and established their home at Granite Canon. In the fall of 1872, John Henry and Martha Sarah came to Wyoming to be near their daughter. Since John had used his homestead rights in Kansas, Martha Sarah homesteaded the famous Granite Springs site near Granite Canon. This is the ranch we remember, for our own grandparents had homesteaded the upper place which burned and then they moved down to their grandfathers homestead shack, where the picture was taken. Part of the property was later divided and the portion where the springs were located was sold to the Union Pacific Railway. The water from these springs was served on all Union Pacific diners. Another section of land was sold to the UP could delete the curve at Sherman Pass. (Probably means to delete the curve.) In 1873 Martha Sarah bought the millinery business in Cheyenne from a Mrs. Marvin. She remained in this business until she died in 1906 at the age of 82. John Henry lived just two years longer. NOTE: The authentic dates are taken from the Bishop family Bible. Beside the written family genealogy in this Bible, there are numerous letters and pictures. The story part has been told to me through the years by Adah Haygood Bryan Boyce Present having been born February 15, 1873. The Bishop Bible together with the Haygood Bible are now in the possession of Ruth Scott Hocker. She is planning to put them in the Wyoming Museum together with the entire family pioneer history. ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Margaret Nelson ___________________________________________________________________