Leonard Stephens Letter, 20 Feb 1866

Beech Woods, Kenton County, Ky., 20th Feb. 1866

Dear Brother William,

Yours of the 15th ult. came safely to hand, & would have answered ere this but for my condition. Four weeks ago this day I was taken unwell with a renewal of my old complaint of Phthisis or Asthma & after suffering with my lungs by coughing and wheezing for over two weeks my throat commenced getting sore on one side & I was greatly distressed for about a week. The soreness was occasioned by my getting a straw or piece in my throat about three quarters of an inch long. It got in about the middle of January and lodged under the tonsils of the tongue. I did not for some time experience but little difficulty from it & perhaps it might not have caused my throat to get sore when it did but for the hard cough I had, which probably made it irritate & produce inflamation. I suffered a great deal from it & almost dispared of recovery. The doctor got the straw out and the sore after forming an abcess broke and relieved me, & is now about well. But I am still very feeble, only able to walk about the house and yard a little, am mending very slowly tho I hope surely & will be able now without some other or additional attack soon be about again, or at least I hope so. The rest of the folks here white & black are well.

Julius Lucien Bristow I

Julius and Georgia Bristow are here. They sold out in Bourbon sometime back and he is looking around to see where they will probably relocate or settle. He has not fully decided whether he will buy a farm & persue the business of farming or whether he will try some other calling. He has gone to Covington today on that business. Their being here now is quite a relief to my feelings as I should certainly be in a bad fix without someone about while I am sick & they are both very good nurses & ready & willing to do anything they can do for Grandpa. The rest of my children & Grand children were all well last week. Napoleon, Statira & Lucien were here several days last week & their folks were about well then. Harriet, Lucien's wife, who has been very sick but is about well again. She had a miscarriage which occasioned her illness. Kate Athey, Napoleon's daughter has been confined by having a baby but had got about again. Her young Athey is a daughter which they call Rebecca after her Grandmother. Kate escaped a [scold?]ing, having come out here on Saturday evening, left here on Monday morning & after having been at homme only a few hours was delivered. I was at town on the 2nd day after & I told her I was mad at her for not having her for not having her baby here so the old Homestead might be famous for children & Grandchildren & Great Grandchildren. Lutie Blackburn's first, Hughes, was born here. Kate or Bittie Respess is expecting to be confined soon with a second child. They are still at Reuben's but are going to live in the neighborhood of Union, Boone County.

On last Saturday week we had a very exciting election. On account of the Military Interference at the August election, Mr. Benton, a radical was elected Senator. Carlisle, his opponent, contested the seat & the Senate sent the election back and the people became fully aroused having found out they were to have a free election. Benton was elected in August by about a thousand majority & on last Saturday week was beat 540 votes. So much for free election. I was not well enough to go & vote for the Union candidate. Our neighbors have sold the balance of their land to Marion Stephens at eighty-six dollars per acre & have bought over in the neighborhood of Union at 65 dollars per acre. They expect to move the 1st of March. We had a very cold snap here last week, the coldest we have had. The Mercury being down to six degrees below zero last Thursday & Friday morning, the 15th & 16th of the month. The coldest weather we had before was not lower than five or six degrees above zero. The idea seems to be that the wheat crop here is about destroyed. There has been no snow to protect it. The snow has not been more than from two or three inches deep at any time during the fall and winter. This morning it snowed as tho it might be deep but now at 12 o'clock it is fair and the snow all gone. It is now about time for sugar weather to commence & looks as if it might begin. I believe the folks are generally expecting to make either sugar or molasses. I am glad you are keeping house for my idea is that old people as a general thing are far more apt to be satisfied to have things entirely within their own control. I certainly My Dear Brother feel thankful to you for your kind invitation to visit & spend a portion of the coming season with you & among your children & Grandchildren & it affords me much satisfaction to know that in the event of having to leave here I need not be at a loss to know where to go and not be regarded as a loafer.

At present I am not in a condition to tell what I may have to do. There are those of my folks still here who say they will remain & make a crop & if they do I shall most likely not leave home. Landy & his wife & child left here the 1st of this month. They are living at the Sterling place near the mouth of the Bullock Pen fork of Main Bank lick Creek going to crop with a white man. I understand that Henry is also going to leave the 1st of March, and they may all do it, for I think folks will try to get them away from their old or former masters. I will, however, keep you posted in regard to my fix & if I have to leave, will certainly, as I now think, come to Missouri if I live. I am however a good deal out of heart about my health which it seems to me has become very precarious.

I am glad your uniform good health continues and sincerely hope it may never be otherwise. Well, having written pretty fully about nearly everything I will now conclude this letter by desiring to be remembered to all your children & Grandchildren. Julius & Georgia & all the rest send their love to Uncle Billy. You will also accept a brother's love.

May God Bless you.
Leonard Stephens

Notes:

Julius Lucien Bristow I (1836-1893), Statira's eldest child, and his first wife, Georgia Ann Conde Corlis (1840-1867), who were married in 1857. He later served as Kenton County Clerk and President of the Covington School Board. Return.

Harriet Riddell (1826-1888), daughter of John and Florenda McKay Riddell, had married Leonard's younger son, Lucien Bonaparte Stephens (1819-1899) in 1849. She was a niece of Fountain Riddell. Return.

Rebecca Athey (1866-1910), named for her grandmother, Rebecca (Hughes) Stephens. Return.

Churchill Hughes Blackburn (1861?- —) was Leonard's great grandson. Return.

Frank Breckinridge Respess (1866-1914) was the son of Leonard's granddaughter, Catherine Sanford Bristow and William Corlis Respess, a cousin of Georgia Corlis. See above. Return.

Mortimer Murray Benton (1807- —), a New Yorker, had migrated to the Ohio valley as a young man. A prominent lawyer, he had served as the first mayor of Covington (1834), and for two years in the Kentucky House, during the war. His politics proved too radical for the electors of Kenton County. Leonard had held the same Senate seat three decades earlier. A sketch of Benton appears in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky (Cincinnati: Armstrong, 1878), 52ff. Return.

John Griffin Carlisle (1834-1910) had earlier served in the Kentucky House, and went on to become Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Senator, and Secretary of the Treasury. He was the elder brother of George W. Carlisle (1838- —), who also served in the Kentucky legislature. George had married Frances Ella Herndon (1844?- —), who was Leonard's grandniece, granddaughter of his sister Polly and her husband Benjamin Herndon. An unusually florid sketch of John G. Carlisle appears in Perrin's History of Kentucky (Ed. 7), 761-763. It is followed by a much more restrained portrait of George.

Their uncle, Robert McClure Carlisle, had been arrested by Federal authorities. See above, 16 Aug 1864. Return.

Francis Marion Stephens (1825-1904), Leonard's nephew, was the son of John Stephens and Frances Faulkner. He and his wife, Louisiana Champion, were enumerated in nearby Florence precinct of Boone County in 1870. A cousin of the same name was living in Carelton precinct, some miles away. Return.

Bullockpen Fork joins Banklick Creek, which drains the area west of Independence and flows into the Licking River just south of Covington. Return.