Dr. Traylor Letter #9

Date: 27 Feb 1860 (and 29 Feb 1860 - leap day!)

Just 4 weeks after the previous letter we see another letter passing from Dr. John Randolph Traylor, Sr. in Louisiana to John Hill in Texas. Dr. Traylor reports apparent yellow fever in his general area. He also comments on some poor crops and poor luck, leaving him poor as is apparently common.

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Transcription:

                        Marion, Feby 27th 1860

Col. John Hill

Waverly, Texas

Dear Sir,

     I wrote you about a month since (since when, I have none of your favours to acknowledge) Informing you of a remittance of between $26 & $27 hundred dollars. Frillsen & Stevenson have acknowledged receipt of it & say they have acknowledged to you. I have also started a draft by C.T. Powell for $1000.00 which amount completes the payment for Coles land. I have sent Mayo's note to him & hope in a fiew [sic] days to have the money for it. I have also sent the note belonging to Mrs. Jackson, I have no instructions from her what disposition she wishes made of it, when paid. I informed you in my last, that, I expected to sell your Lock Land to him, John Steel (?) since when I have twice hered [sic] from him. One time he sent me word he had been sick, the other that he would be over soon & yet he does not come.

     I believe I have no other business transaction of which to inform you. The health of the country is (with the exception of cold) is [sic] very good, but fiew [sic] caces [sic] require treatment.

     I saw Dr. Larkins a week since he says three or four of there [sic] most prominent citizens have died within a short time pased [sic]. He says they died in the same way that his Son Wm did with all the symptoms of yellow fever. Henry Phelps is dead. He lived near Bastrop on the Bayo. It is said of Pneumonia.

     I made a very poor crop of corn & cotton last year. I fear not corn enough to do me & had the misfortune to get 7 or 8 bags burned of my best cotton, which will make me (as I always am) very short of funds. I must beg that you will supply Katie's necesities [sic] & charge to my account. I shall be ready in two or three days to plant corn, I plant 140 acres in corn, have it all beded [sic] with 5 furrows a portion all plowed out.

     I am going to try to plant 200 acres in cotton 55 of it new ground. If we keep healthy & are favoured [sic] with good seasons I hope to make a better show next year.

     Mr. E. George returned from Ala. a short time since with his new wife. We have caled [sic] on them she appears to be a sensible good woman & has seen good society. His children still keep up there [sic] foolish enmity. None of them have caled [sic] on her. We here [sic] that the most bitter and hostile language had pased [sic] between him & they.

Feby 29

     I was too late for this last mail nor have I much time for this.

     Yesterday it raned [sic] all day. Tell Katie I intended to have written to her by this mail, but as Marion wrote by the last & Gus, by this I have concluded to defur [sic] it for a day or two. Tell her that Susan has 75 or 80 young chickens & that her peas are large enough to stick. I expect her aunt Sarah's are blooming by this time. I have not time to write further. Give my love to all & for yourself accept my best wishes for your prosperity & happiness.

        John Traylor