I have another letter featuring the same set of characters. As explained in the Texas Tragedy series linked above, Chilton and his daughter Mollie are already in Texas, saving up money for his wife Elizabeth and daughters Sophie and Alice to join him. This letter was written to "Pap" (Chilton) and Mollie by Cora Doss Hall, Chilton's oldest daughter, married to John, the carpenter mentioned in the letter.
As letters go, this one is pretty ordinary. There’s news about a wedding in the family; "Binie," a sister of Cora's husband married a local boy, John Cotton. A photograph of Mollie was passed around and Cora tells what Lizzie and Maggie, her daughters, aged 5 and 3 respectively, had to say about it.
There was a quilting bee at the neighbors and some gossip about Mollie’s boy friend (though she didn't marry until 8 years later). And in addition to the plans to get Chilton's wife and daughters to Texas, the letter points out that most of the extended family are thinking about coming to Texas, as well. As always, I find the little “back stories” in these documents interesting. Well, at least they are to me.
This is not the whole letter, but what is included is almost exactly how it was written and punctuated.
Sunday, Jan. the 27th 1878
Pap and Mollie,
We rec'd Mollie's letter dated Dec. the 24th a few days ago. We are totally well. The children are having the sore eyes; some are getting well; some are are just taking it. Binie and John Cotton were married last Wednesday (the 23rd). Binie was a beautiful bride; she wore a black alpacca, black gloves, and white ribbon in her hair and on her neck. Had no wedding supper. Bill Adams and Susie Beville attendants. Ma and all of them went to the wedding.
Well Mollie your picture was rec'd and duly inspected and we decided that it was Mollie. I showed it to Lizzie first and she said directly that it was “Aunt Mollie.” Came on in the house and showed it to Maggie and she said it was “Parmie;” I then told Maggie it was Aunt Mollie and she seemed to recognize it then. She said “Aunt Moddie got pitty libbin round her neck.”
We were well pleased with our “new neighbors” so much so that I and Fanny and all the children spent the day and helped the old lady quilt. We got the quilt out. The old lady said her daughter in Texas pieced it. The quilt brought up several reminiscences some of them not very pleasant. I suggested that we put your picture on the opposite side of the quilt facing us and make out like “you were helping.” Sophie said she did not guess that Mollie would ever sleep under that quilt.
It is hardly fair to write about a sprucy young man and not particularize. Do tell his name and all about him. I think times must be getting rather thick, are they not pap?
Our affairs, as you are aware, are in a very unsettled condition. The land cannot be sold before about June and the money will not become due until for six months after, which will throw it near Christmas before the boys can get their money (over $450 apiece). John is determined at the present time to try Texas but we don’t say anything about it much. It is owing to how and when the estate winds up. My private opinion is that the land will not bring near its real worth and the boys may be compelled almost to buy it. John Cotton and John and Billy all three may have to buy it. Cotton’s aim has been for Texas all the time. He is anxious for us to go for Binies sake mostly. We have thought that mammy Hall could be induced to go.
If we come, we ought to come early in the fall ought we not? What is the price of lumber? What can carpenters do out there? John intended writing some but did not have time. He is doing the carpenters work on Rob Dishman’s house and has to work early and late.
Mollie, John said tell you that if you were going to marry to let him know, and the “Devil’s a Dutchman” if he did not come out there and see you off. Well, I am about to run out. Write soon.
Cora Hall
The rest of the story –
John Hall, husband of Cora and brother to Billy mentioned in the letter, is the first-born son of William Warner and Louisa Dickerson Hall - the "mammy" Hall in the letter. William passed away only 3 months prior to this letter, leaving Louisa a widow with 4 children age 12 and under. However, John and Billie are in their mid-twenties, and along with the new son-in-law John Cotton, they all have plans of selling out and heading to Texas (and taking mammy Hall and the younger children with them).
And that’s the “unsettled condition” of the affairs. Selling the property so as to be able to afford the move to Texas. Digging deeper into the files, there is an entry in the Barren County records, dated June, 1879, that states that:
“Louisa Hall, widow of Willam W Hall, and her children and their spouses (John Hall, William Hall, Dilly Ann Basham, Harvey Basham, Jane Basham, Buford Basham, Mike Hall, Biney Cotton, Palmer Hall, America Hall, Emma Hall and John Cotton) sold 146 acres of land to Hezekiah Berry for $2,736.”
I don’t know if that is near its “real worth” or not, or how the money was divided. Hezikiah Berry was, by the way, a half-brother to William.
And did they all make it to Texas? Yes, including Louisa, the “little grandmother” of the Hall family. In the 1880 census, she is living with daughter Dillie in Johnson County, and then with her youngest son, Robert in Scurry County, where she died in 1911 at the age of 82.
And what of Mollie's "sprucy young man?" The record shows that Mollie did not marry until 1886 - some 8 years later, so in all likelihood it was to someone other than the beau referred to in this letter.
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