The Doss Letters - The Conclusion

This letter is from Elizabeth to her oldest daughter Cora and husband John Hall, still in Kentucky. It recounts the events of the trip home from Dallas after the arrival of Elizabeth and the girls. The excitement and fatigue proved too much for C. L., and they were forced to stop and seek help from the nearest source along the way. George McFall, a thin man with a sweeping white beard ushered them into his home near Wheatland in Tarrant County, and he and his wife Sallie immediately began to care for C. L, in keeping with Southern hospitality.

The letter is largely without punctuation. Some has been added for readability, along with some capitalization. It is lengthy, but it is the most important letter of the set.

Stubble Field. Johnson County. Tx, June 26th 1878

John, Tommie, Cora and my sweet little ones. I have been wanting to write to you ever since we got to Wills. We got here last Frid. night. I think this is the sixth time that I’ve written to you since I left Ky. I sent a card the 18th inst just after Pap died. If you have not been getting my letters and cards this will fall heavily on you. All was done that could be done to save him. Dr Wright said that he had no constitution to build on and that he could not take him through a regular course of medicine. Still I dont think that Wright considered him dangerous until Monday morning before he died Wednesday. I sent for Wright and Dr Armstrong. I was not willing to risk any one physician. Wright dreaded his bowels from the first still they were not much inclined to run off, but his liver did not act after the first three or four days. He did not complain at all. He did not have money with him to pay our expenses Dr bills and so on, and it troubled him all the time. He would talk to Mr McFall and Dr Wright about it they both urged him not to think a care about that, that they were willing to do all they could for him and us and were perfectly easy with regard to the pay. We could not have been better situated, not even with our children. Mr and Mrs McFall spared no trouble, no pains and no expense to wait on pap and see that he had every attention. Mrs Mc would come to our room at all times of the night. She’d come when I was asleep and give pap medicine. They would send to Dallas and get little things they thought he might like and refuse pay when offered to them.
On Monday after we stopped there I sent a note to Will to bring a wagon and come after us and some one come to drive our wagon as we did not expect pap to be able to drive. John Cotton and John Johnston came Wednes. Fannie was just getting over a spell of billious fever and Will could not leave her. We sent everything on by them, Sophia and Alice went too. I kept Mollie to help me wait on pap as I was almost past going with my feet and legs they were so swelled like they used to be, and I thought that she could assist Mrs Mc some and maybe lessen her board. And I did not feel like I wanted to be left alone no how. Mr McFall had no one to help him but hired hands. He had four boys with him, and they lost in all ten days going to Dallas for the Drs and to Johnson Co. 40 miles. He offered to send for Will and Fannie. There was no attention that we didn’t get. Mrs Mc would often say “If there is anything on this plantation that Mr Doss wants he shall have it” Of course they had a great deal more company than if we had not been there. Well on Thursday morning, before we left the next morning, I told Mr McFall to make out his account against us and we would collect the money and send it to him. He said that he had no account against us. When I sent for Will and the rest on Mond. before pap died on Wednes. Will tried to collect some money expecting that we would need it, but he did not have time to look round much, and did not get any, So he talked to Mr Mc about the burial expenses. He told Mr Mc that there was money coming but that he had not time to collect it but he would give him a bill of sale for his mule. He told Will that he did not have much money but that he had a plenty for that purpose and that he would get what was needed if he knew that he would never get a cent for it. Only for the coffin which was $14. Mr Mc put one of his shirts on pap his own were not done up nice and he said he did not want pay for it. I told him that we had been a great expense to him, that we had boarded on him two weeks, that they had a great deal of trouble on our account, that he had hired hands and they had lost so much time for us and I would not be satisfied to take it all and not pay him something. He said that if I thought I’d be better satisfied I might pay him $3.00 for the time his hands lost and that when it suited me. Just any time would do - not to be in a hurry. Mr Tillington who lived near was just as clever as Mr Mc. Mr Mc was before the war a wealthy planter of Louisiana, but he like the most of them had lost his negroes and was ruined twice by overflow. He owns 400 acres of prairie land where he now lives they have no children, lost the last one.
I do not think pap thought he would get well. He said once “By good nursing and management we will get away by Sunday but without it we will get off sooner” When the boys came for us he said to take all his old clothes shoes &c, and he told Mollie to brush up his best clothes. He had taken such good care of his clothes that they were nice enough to bury him in. One thing I regret we could not get any gloves. Mr Mc sent for the coffin in the evening and the boys did not get to Dallas until late in the night when all the stores were closed and they could not get in. pap told Dr Wright to do all that he could for him that he wanted to live for the sake of his family. After he commenced taking medicine he seemed to grow sleepy and sluggish and did not seem to suffer at all. He would mutter and talk in his sleep and at times he would rouse up and appear to be almost entirely at himself but as time wore on he became less and less rational and for several days before he died he was almost unconscious of anything. The day before we looked for Will and Fannie I told him that I thought they would come to see him [I had not told him that I had sent for them] tomorrow. He brightened up and said “all right I’ll be glad to see them” The Dr expected the disease to settle on the brain and that he would be raving but just the contrary. He died as calmly as if falling asleep. When Will, Sophia and Alice came I told him they had come and Will went to him and spoke to him but I don’t think that he was conscious of anything that was said. I have no idea that he knew they were there. He did not seem to be glad to see Alice he never kissed her at all.
Still I believe that the excitement about our coming and the dread of accidents and so on together with fatigue brought on his headache. Aunt C. told me that she never saw anyone make friends as fast as he did. She said “why he just charmed them” He told her that he wanted Alice to have his trunk and if it were not for Ma “He’d want Fannie to raise Alice” and he remarked to her that he longed to rest in the grave. I’m at Wills or at Anderson’s they have gone west. They may not stay here when they come back. If they do not they will want Will and Fannie to keep house for them and there will be room for us too. Still I think I can get a house to myself. I don’t know what to do yet. I dread to go to ourselves. I don’t see how I can stand it. Could it be arranged for Tommie to come as soon as the corn is laid by and if so would it be best? I’ve no doubt he could get plenty of work to do. I wish that he were here now. Still I’ll not try to hurry him. I got a letter from Aunt Martha written to pap. I suppose that he had written to her that we were coming to see her this summer. She was so well pleased with the prospect of our coming. I wrote a letter to her yesterday telling her all. Jim Hix, Aunt Sophia, Alice, Greenbury and Oscar came last Sat. evening and stayed till Sun. even. They heard at dinner of our trouble and started right off. Mr H. has not changed much but Sophia does not favor herself one particle. Not in one single particular. I gazed and looked trying to detect the least favor of the old Sophia I once knew but failed. I felt like I was almost sorry that I had seen her at all. She is very stately and dignified but not the old Sophia I parted with 24 years ago. When I sent for the children the last time that pap could not live Fannie had not quite recovered from her spell and not being able to go see him she was almost crazy and as I feared she relapsed and had to send for the Dr again. She is mending slowly very slowly but I think with care she will get well without further trouble. She can’t set up long at a time. She looks poor and pale more so than you ever saw her. Aunt C appears very clever. She urges me and Alice to come and stay with her till fall. She has a sow to give me when I get time. Alice is wanting to go back to Ky. Grandma would work a whole day to get one sweet kiss from any one of the little ones. Tell them not to forget Grandma. Will said he would walk 25 miles through the hot sun to see Maggie. Tell her so.

Ma

Tommie write to your ma. We’ve not heard from you since we left.

Maggie, for whom Will would walk 25 miles in the hot sun, was my grandmother Bramblett, daughter of Cora and John. She recalled, “That letter came when I was four. I remember Mother sitting on the edge of the bed and reading the letter aloud. When she finished the last line she lay across the bed and cried brokenheartedly. Because I had never seen Mother weep, I was deeply impressed. That is one of my first memories.”