Iowa-Grant County WI Archives History - Letters .....Stephens Family Letters From The 1860s 1865-66 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/wifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Poquette npoq@hotmail.com December 31, 2006, 3:16 am There are at least three letters written in the 1860s on file in the Wisconsin Room of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, in the basement of the main library on the campus of Univ. of Wisconsin at Platteville. They were transcribed by a great granddaughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stephens, Irene Persons Westlin in December 1941 and are given below in an edited version using standardized spelling, although the grammar remains, as they would have spoken. Becky Higgins located this archival material in March 1999. Platteville, July 9, 1865 Dear Husband, “ “It is with pleasure I now sit down to write you a line to let you know that we are all well and hope that these few lines will reach you enjoying the same blessings. I received your kind and welcome letter and was glad to hear that you was well but was sorry to hear that the wages was going to be cut again.” “Grandfather [James Stephens] have been very sick. They have watched up with him for six weeks but he is better now, up and around, but I don’t think he will be able to do anything any more. He have not been in town but once since you left.” “Tim [Tim, Nankivel, one of her three sons from her first marriage] is home from the lake [the Great Lakes, probably in Michigan or Minnesota, the copper mines] and he have been down seeing me, and Joe [Joseph Davey, senior, son of Mary Louise Stephens Davey, and Elizabeth’s grandson] is home from Oregon and he have been very sick and Joe’s brother [John Dyer Davey, junior] he haven’t been down yet but he is coming down as soon as he gets better. He come home a week last Friday.” “They had a lot of trouble coming home, with the Indians. Joe and another man, and Joe’s brother slept three quarters of a mile [from] where there was three men killed with the Indians. And they didn’t know it, and they got up and went on a little further and met some teams. And they asked them awhere they was agoing, and they said they were on they way home. And those men that were in the wagons begged them not to go any further for if they went any further they would be killed.” “And here was a wagon standing by, and they told Joe and Johnny to go and look in the wagon. And they went and looked in the wagon, and they saw three men killed and their heads scalped, and two of them was tolerable young looking fellows and the other was an old man. He didn’t even have a tooth in his mouth. And they [the Indians] put a walking stick in his mouth and pushed it down in his throat and before they buried him it took two men to pull it out of his mouth.” “And after that they went on a little further and two Indians, and they stopped Joe and them, and wanted some tobacco and Joe give them some and they told them they had no more. And Joe told them they could have what they wanted when the teams come, so they pointed. And when Joe and them started to walk, they [the Indians] would follow them, and they had no sooner said that before the teams come in sight. And the Indians left them and went in the woods, and they never seen them anymore. They said if the teams hadn’t come in sight so soon they would have been killed.” “Times is very dull here. Things [prices] is coming down a little. Joseph Endles diggings is started up good and Henry [one of her three sons from her previous marriage] has been out the 3 weeks working dollar and six bits [dollar and 75 cents] a day. Tom Butson’s wife is dead and buried the day after the birth. “I want for you to send some money as soon as you can for you know our circumstances so well as we do. Irene’s husband [her daughter Irene’s husband was a Civil War veteran, Warren Armstrong] is home from the army for good and got his discharge and sends his love to you. He got his money. ?osen and Mr. Robison is gone to New York to speculate. Grandfather sends his love to you. I expect you are satisfied now you are on the lakes. Write as soon as you get this and try and send me some money. So no more at present. All the children give their love to you and accept the same your self, from your wife Elisabeth Stephens to Thomas Stephens. Good night. Write soon.” Thomas Stephens to Elizabeth Stephens: St. Clare Mine, November 26th, 1865 Dear Wife, “I received your letter bearing date November 15th. I feel very uneasy on account of you being unwell. I hope with the help of the Almighty that you will be better when you receive this letter. As for me, I am happy to state that I am in good health at present, thanks be to God for his goodness to me.” “My Dear Wife, enclosed in this I send you a draft of 42 dollars on the St. Clare Mining Company. You would have this draft before now if you only directed your last letter to the Phoenix Post Office instead of directing you letters to Eagle Rive Post Office. I beg of you for the time to come, that you will direct your letters to the Phoenix Post Office. It will save me three or four miles of a journey.” “You never mentioned a single word about George or May. I would like to hear how they are getting along. I never wrote to them while I [was] getting here, and by that means I would like to hear from them in your letters when you do write to me. When you see father [James Stephens], let him know that I will write to him pretty soon. I am very sorry to hear that he cannot get the 50 dollars that he lent to that man to Elk Grove.” “Let Mr. Webster know that I will make it my business to know of John Uren, all particulars about his cousin’s death, and also whether he left any property or not after him, and in my next letter I will send every information that I can hear about him. If times do not get better here than they are at present, I will try some other place in the spring. We are expecting that times will mend hear after awhile.” “As for me, I am doing all that is in my power to help you and the family to live. You must take things in good parts and not work so hard for the time to come. The directions is mentioned to the Phoenix Post Office on my last letter. I hope you will not miss of it. It saves me a great deal of trouble. I been all the time going to the Phoenix Post Office looking for a letter since I told you to direct your letters to the Phoenix and never received none. I hope for the time to come that you will direct your letters to the Phoenix Post Office instead of Eagle River. Direct you next letter to Mr. Thomas Stephens. Eagle River Phoenix Post Office Lake Superior, Michigan I send you and all the family my best respects, brothers and sisters and all inquiring friends. I am your affectionate husband Thomas Stephens.” Dodgeville, July 13, 1866 Dear friend, mother and all, “I now sit down to write you a few lines to let you now how we get along. We are as well as can be expected. I’m very low-spirited. I received a letter from Elesa Shafor [Schaeffer?] and she said that poor Warren [Warren Armstrong, Irene’s husband] was dead. I suppose it is so, mother. I felt so bad I did not know what to do. To think he died and I never saw him. I would give most any thing to have been there to see him die and to go to his funeral. I suppose Irene is almost crazy about him. When you write, let me know how Irene gets along and if Warren died happy, and what he said if anything before he died.” “I wish Mary [Jane’s sister, Mary Louise Stephens Davey] had her baby so that I could come home, for I never spent such lonesome two weeks in my life as I have since I have been up here. I want to come home. May is always in the same fix all the time, almost. You know, mother, I wish Irene would come up here and stay until I go home for I suppose she feels very lonesome since Warren died. Tell Irene to keep up good spirits for it is a happy relief to poor Warren, for now tongue can tell how much he suffered and I hope he is going to a better world for he has suffered enough for to have a world of comfort after this world. I cannot help feeling bad every time I think about him and cry. I have cried every day pretty near since I heard he was dead. I am afraid Irene will take it hard and fret and worry about him and it will make her sick and then she might be taken sick and die. If you have any letters from George send them to me for I wait to here from him. George will feel bad when he hears about Warren’s death.” “I wish I stayed home until after the fourth, for I never spent such a fourth in my life. I went out to Linden with Jo and felt so lonesome all day I did not know what to do. I wished I was home. In about an hour or two after I got there I thought of you and Warren and the rest of the folks. I thought, here I am and perhaps Warren was lying dead home, and Irene home crying and feeling bad, and I not there. But I hope to see you all soon, but oh, it will be a mournful meeting to think that one place is vacant and one love is gone, as for no more to return.” “But I hope we will all meet in a better world to come where there will be no more sorrow but, mother, we must acknowledge the power of our heavenly Father in all things that pertain to earthly matters and pray to him to lend his all powerful arms to support us in our trials. We know we all have to die sometime as well as Warren. Our time have not come yet, but Warren’s has. It was his time to die and he had to go. Our heavenly Father knew best what to do by Warren, mother and we could not keep him. I hope he is in heaven but I am afraid not.” “I should like to see Irene. Tell him to have a talk with her. I know she feels bad. Mary wants for her to come up here and stay a little while. Perhaps she won’t feel so lonesome. When you write, let us know what day Warren died, and if he died an easy death. I suppose Warren’s folks never grieved much about him, for I suppose they are satisfied now he is gone. Warren’s mother has got her wish now and I guess she feels satisfied but I wish I was home when Warren died.” “Ellen and Billy Richards has been here and stayed all the day yesterday and Ellen is going to Mineral Point and stay a week or two and then she is coming down. Billy is coming home a Monday. I suppose he will be there as soon as this letter will. I wish I was ready to go home with him. I don’t expect to stay here for a week or two longer before May will have her baby. I have been here two weeks and I wish it was all over so that I could come home and for it is so lonesome here. Well mother, and all good night and may God bless you all and may we meet Warren in heaven, to part no more. I wish I could see Irene. Send a letter to me if you get one from George.” “Write soon as you get this letter. This is two letters I have written to you Mother and I never got any answer so no more at present from your daughter, Jennie Stephens, Dodgeville. So goodbye mother until I see you. I hope to see you soon all of you. Jo and Mary give their love to you.” File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/iowa/history/letters/stephens26gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wifiles/ File size: 11.5 Kb