Overton Letter, 16 Jun 1879, Smith Co, TX - Maury Co, TN ***************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Permission has been granted from Howard Bramlette of Nashville, TN, owner of the letter, for submission to the Smith County TXGenWeb Archives by Joel Patrick Childress - londonwildcat@earthlink.net 19 September 2000 ***************************************************************** LETTER FROM E.C. OVERTON TO JOHN F. OVERTON IN TEXAS Columbia, Tennessee June 17, 1879 Dear Brother, I received a letter from you a few days ago informing me of your misfortunes and bad health. I sympathize with you and your troubles. I am in the same condition. As to debts, Buyers has involved me so that it will be sometime, if ever, I get out of it. Yet if I have my health and good luck I think I will recover from it. I am getting old and feeble. I have lost nearly all my teeth and have neuralgia at times and am pestered with pains and cramps. Still, I keep up and am able to work some. I and my boys are going to cultivate forty acres in wheat, fifteen in rye, fifty in corn and twenty in cotton if we can. I may have to hire some to affect it. My boys work well. I saw one of Brother Jim's sons and told him that I had received a letter from you and to tell of Jim to come and see me. He has not come and I have been looking for him every day since, but the weather has been very bad. I am of the opinion that yours is a good bee country. I will now inform you that I am engaged in the bee business. I have for about forty colonies and were all in good condition in October. I may lose some of them this cold weather. I have them in the American gum. I had 22 last spring. I extracted 700 pounds of honey and increased my stock to 44 colonies. I have sold 4 and I expect to run them for honey this year and if it proves a good honey season I am persuaded I will get two thousand pounds. Say I sell at 15 cents or 10 cents a pound it will pay very well. My gums are so arranged that I can look into them at any time. If I find honey I take it out, and if they need feed, I can feed them and if queenless, I give them a queen. This can be done in May, June and July. I extract the honey from the combs and put the combs back in the gums. Should you wish to learn all about the bees and their management you can get the book called The Manual of the Apiary by A.J. Cook for $1 or $1.25. You will send money to Thomas G. Newman and Son, Chicago, Illinois. They will send it by mail, you must inform them of your post office for four weeks. The ground has been frozen all the time, snow and rain and then bitter cold. We have not been able to do any business out of doors, except to get wood and feed our stock. Alfred Lane was down Thursday the ninth and all were well. He went home yesterday. A Negro man who has lived with me for ten years died a few weeks ago. He was owing me $70 which is a dead loss. He was a good hand. I have sown my wheat and cotton and clover land and if anyone makes wheat I think I will. I could get but 3 cents for pork and our finest mules bring $75 and common ones from $30 to $40. Beef from 1 to 1.5. Sheep from 75 cents to $1. Wheat 70 cents; corn 40 cents per bushel. Hogs and stock nothing scarcely. I have a fine stock of hogs and sheep. I sometimes think that our Government will undergo a change before long. The capitalists, money holders, are our masters. They have the power to price our produce as they please and we have to take whatever they are pleased to give us. I am of the opinion that our government is very corrupt, Legislature and Congress. I wrote to you some time ago, informing you that I had sent to all the money I had collected from the Jameson Estate. Except a note Brother Jim give for a horse and mule he bought at Old Man Jameson’s sale. I got him to let you have two mules to pay you a debt he owed you and he had to buy others to make a crop. I and Bill Lockridge stood his security. Well, Jameson sued on the note and Crockett Parks stayed the debt. Jim, Lockridge and Parks took the Bankrupt Law and I was all that was left. So I took the judgment of Jameson as money and gave him a receipt for that amount. So you see how the matter stands. I settled with the Court and charged myself with the amount Jim assigned to you before he took the Bankruptcy Law and a judgment against Ned Lace(?), B.H. Hill and others. They all took the benefit of the Bankrupt Law. I will send you the names of some good of lawyers and receipt of an answer to this. E.C. Overton (Use "back button" to return to the Overton Letters Table of Contents.)