Leonard Stephens Letter, 10 Oct 1854
Beech Woods, Kenton County, Ky. 10th Oct., 1854
Dear Brother William,
You have doubtless become somewhat impatient about this letter, as under ordinary circumstances you ought to have been in receipt of it some two or three weeks ago. But when you hear the facts you will I know forgive all seeming neglect on my part. Your last letter was received I think about the first of Sept. On the 4th of that month I was attacked with a severe case of what I considered old fashioned bilious fever, but the Doctr said Typhoid fever. I was seriously indisposed for three weeks & a part of the time, say ten days, I believe a good many of my friends despaired of my recovery. But it pleased God to rebuke the disease & restore me, so far as the complaint is concerned, as I consider, for I think I am now clear of it. But I am still very feeble and am also nervous, as you will discover, for I fear you will be quite put to it to read this epistle. But I have been waiting untill I am fearful you may think me negligent & have decided to try to make out this letter. But you will please excuse all the imperfections. Inclosed you will find the release of Corlis’s Heirs; it is signed by all that have any interest in the land. There are other heirs, but the old man Corlis willed the land to the individuals that have subscribed to the Release. Consequently the others have no rights in the case.
You will see that R. L. Bristow has signed the release as administrator. Some three or four days after I wrote the last letter to you Majr Respess had a second stroke of Paralises which terminated his existence in some 18 hours afterwards. He died on Saturday the 29th of July & it was thought advisable for the administrator to sign the release as it was carrying out the agreement of the principles. Thus ends this controversy, & of course thus is an end to it forever & I am glad of it, for they would have annoyed you untill they either succeded or failed, & to have had a legal contest about the matter would have been quite a disagreeable affair, as I think. At all events I regard the settlement as being far better than a suit. About the time of receiving your letter I received one from Mr. Harris’s agent in St. Louis enclosing me a check on the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Company’s Bank of Cincinnati for $300, the amount agreed upon, which answered the purpose. During the time of my being sick I got Napoleon to answer Mr. Harris’s agent informing him of the receipt of his letter & check.
Having disposed of this business I will devote the ballance of the sheet to other things. In regard to the Turnpike Stock, should you make a trade with Mr. Joel Garrett I will send you the money whenever notified of the arrangement & will at the same time send the form of transfer for him to sign. I do not wish you however to give yourself any unnecessary trouble about it as I am not anxious no way. Having some stock in the road I concluded I would buy theirs, if it suited them to dispose of it, & will still do so, upon the terms I wrote you provided it does not give you any extra trouble. My own family & those of my children are in the enjoyment of moderate health at present, for which the lord be praised & I think too it is a time of health in this part of the country generally. There was quite a sudden death in Florence on the day before yesterday. An old gentleman by the name of Herndon, a blacksmith, after shoeing a horse & starting to walk fell forward on his face & expired.
There is quite a scene going on at Florence. The Boone & Kenton Fair commenced there today & is to continue the ballance of the week or four days in all. It is for the purpose of shewing Agricultural impliments, all kinds of stock, Ladies articles of domestic manufacture & I suppose that Widowers, Widows, Old Maids, & Young Maids, Old Batchelors, & young men will all shew up to the best advantage. Being a good deal feeble from the effects of my late indisposition I concluded to stay at home & write you this letter. I have, however, sent to know whether my widow is there. Perhaps you will be startled at the term my widow & yet My Dear Brother think it strange as you may, I am inclineing a good deal to make terms with a widow lady, with the view to the formation of an alliance. Well if you will not brake out & say Old Simpleton I will give you a description of her. She is about 40 years of age of medium size perhaps rather slender of an excellent family all old fashioned working folks, no foolish or arristocratic notions, so far as I can see, & she is I think right good looking. She was married to her first husband some 16 or 18 years without having any child. She has no incumbrances of any kind, not even the filthy lucre. But that is no objection. You know all about the family, but as I do not know what may be the result, you will please excuse me for omitting names. Should I progress with the matter to an engagement I will then write you the name. Should I make another marriage arrangement, I shall certainly enter into it, with fear & trembling. For every days experience admonishes me of the danger of jeopardizing ones peace.
It is quite extraordinary to me, that I should fail to speak of Brother Jack’s health to you in my last letter, For having stated to you in the preceeding one that it was so bad that I certainly ought to have spoken of it in my other letter. It affords me great pleasure however to say to you now, that it has greatly improved, & that he is now in a condition to attend to his business, he still however has Chronick Diarreah & which I suppose he will not get entirely well of. For it has been running on him for several years. Brother Ben’s health is also moderately good at this time, he has had some two or three spells of sickness since he was in Missouri. He & Sister Agnes were both at our Association which was held at Big Bone Church which is located in the neighborhood of where old Mr. Huey & old Mr. Mason lived. I think the meeting house has been built since you left this country. I was only there the first day, on account of being too unwell to go back. They were not there on the day I was, but they attended on the two succeeding days. It affords me much pleasure to hear that yourself & family & those of your children as also our other relations in that country are all in the enjoyment of good health.
You speak of the drouth as having been extremely bad in your state. I assure you it has been worse with us than I ever knew it before in my life & the consequence is that there is bound to be a great scarcity of grain here, & its effects are already felt. Corn is selling in the field at three dollars per barrel & it is all laid at more than it will make by at least a barrel in the acre, which, of course makes it cost the buyer that much more. The grass, too, is all dried up & eat up so, that we are bound to have a hard time of it the coming winter. We have very few vegetables of any kind. We have about a half crop of corn in this neighborhood. The small grain & grass crop was tolerably good & well saved. There are many things suggest themselves to my mind to write about, But as my space is about filled I must close for the present. I shall confidently expect you My Dear Brother to continue to write to me. Remember me to all your dear children & for yourself, believe me as ever your affectionate brother till Death.
Leonard Stephens
[Addressed] Mr. William Stephens
Middle Grove
Monroe County
Missouri
Settlement of Land Deficit with Corlises heirs
Florence Ky.
Oct. 20th
Notes:
Typhoid fever is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhosa, spread by contaminated food or water. Return.
The Major had died intestate 29 July, and the widow, Susan, chose "her friend, Reuben L. Bristow" to administer the estate. Kenton Orders 3:225. See above, 10 Jun 1838. Their son, William Corlis Respess, married Reuben's daughter Catherine "Bittie" during the Civil War. See below. Return.
Neither Mr. Harris nor the business matter has been identified. Return.
Turnpikes were a device to encourage private companies to build and operate roads, a responsibility which had proved beyond the ability of local counties, which had to rely on the unpaid labor of residents. The Stephens brothers were active in turnpike company affairs. Return.
Joel Garnett (1819-1878), a son of Anthony, was a neighbor of William Stephens in Monroe County. He had married Amanda Whittenburg in 1841. Return.
Florence was a village on the Lexington turnpike, just west of the Boone County line, a mile or so from Leonard's home, Beech Woods. Return.
Wesley Herndon (1794-1854), a blacksmith from Virginia, was buried in the Florence Cemetery. His relationship to Leonard's brother-in-law, Benjamin Herndon, is unknown. Return.
The first fair in Kentucky had been held in 1816 at Lewis Saunder's farm near Lexington, but the idea was slow to catch on. Thomas D. Clark, Agrarian Kentucky (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1977), 37-39. Return.
Apparently the romance did not progress and the identity of the attractive widow remains a mystery. Return.
Their brother Benjamin was to die six months later on another trip to Cass County, Missouri, following the death of his son-in-law, Sandy Ryle, in a flatboat accident. Return.
Neither person has been identified. There were a number of Huey and Mason families living in the Big Bone Lick section of Boone County. (The Huey name survives on some present-day maps, marking a crossroads west of Union, north of Big Bone Church.) Return.
The drought of 1854, according to Collins, was the worst since 1838, with high temperatures and scant rain. It finally broke on the 14th of September. The aridity returned the following year. Lewis Collins and Richard H. Collins, History of Kentucky (Berea, KY: Kentucke Imprints, 1978 [1874]), 1:73, 77. Return.
