The following is scanned copies of a letter written May 21, 1897 to my Great Grandmother
Rachel Jane Kimberling Hill, from her brother Lewis Kimberling. From reading this letter
it is quite clear that Rachel Jane has not communicated with any of her brothers, sisters, or parents back
in Mason County, West Virginia, probably since she moved with her husband Enoch Hill and children to
Kansas in 1876.
Date of above picture estimated to be about 1900
I received the Following letter and the above picture of Rachel Jane and Lewis Kimberling from
cousin Evelyn (Happy) Brooks Belford in the early 1990's it
was hard to read and understand till I did the research on the Kimberling family. Another cousin on the
Kimberling side, Joyce Kimberling Kuhnle, provided me with a book of Kimberling genealogy titled
"Kimberling Kin from East to West 1750 - 1983". With this book I could make some sense of this
letter. I will provide my interruption of what I learned and think the letter is telling Rachel Jane.
Phillip H. Pitzer December 2004.
What you see in red are my words for clarification
- Page One -
- Page 1 -
Nat.
William Harrison Kimberling's house was the first Rural Free Delivery, RFD Post office in
U.S.A., It was named "Nat" after his father.
Mason County West Virginia May 21, 1897
Dear sister and family I take the present opportunity to drop you a line in
answer to your letter which I received on the 14th of this month and was glad to hear from you, but
sorry to hear of your bad luck and Now Rach I am not mad, nor have not been, but I think we both have
been careless about writing to each other.
- Page Two -
- Page 2 -
I will now proceed to answer some of your questions, our Father died on the 25th of
last August (1896) and Mother died on the 19th of February, 1892. Father died with a kidney and bladder
trouble, he was troubled with it for a long time, I had to take his water from him with an instrument by
spu for several years. He did not seem to suffer any, but just got weak & weaker.
I' am ashamed of not witting to you about it, but I thought some of the rest had wrote
to you about it. I wrote to all of the rest, and thought some of them had wrote to you
I am not sure what the word "spu" should be?
- Page Three -
- Page 3 -
John Edington died in August 1890 and Jim Edington (their boy) died on the 28th of
April 1892. Eva Edington to died, she married one of Sam Knapp's boys and had 5 children.
Knapp's (they live at Point Pleasant) has 3 of them, the other 2 are dead. Emma Edington,
she married a Blogg, had one child and died before we came back here from Nebraska
Malinda Kimberling, the oldest of Rachel and Lewis's brothers and sisters, married a
Dr. John Charles Edington, and Lewis is telling about her family, but never mentions Malinda.
Other references shows Malinda died July 28, 1898.
- Page Four -
- Page 4 -
Bill and Kate lives where they always did, they have had 14 children.
They have 4 dead.
Bill is William Harrison Kimberling and his wife Kate would be Catherine Williams.
William or "Bill" was the second oldest of Rachel and Lewis' brothers and sisters.
John has been married twice, he has a store and he is a silver smith on the lower end
of Bilts place.
John must have been John Kimberling, William and Catherine's oldest
child and son. Do not known anything about Bilts place
Jude is not married yet.
Jude was the nickname for William and Catherine's second child and daughter, Victoria
Belle (Jude) Kimberling.
Nat is married and lives on 18, on a piece of land that old Williams gave to Kate.
He married a Branon, a school mama, they have 2 children, one dead.
I Suspect Nat is fourth child and son of William and Catherine's, Nathaniel Kimberling.
The "18" refers to a creek, called 18 mile creek. Old Williams, would be Catherine's father,
John Williams.
Pamde is a widow with 2 boys.
No known Pamde, but I suspect Pamde was a nickname for William and Catherine's fifth child
and daughter Prudence Kimberling. At the time this letter was written she had married a Mr. Jacobs in
1892 and had two children. Prudence died in 1898.
No mention of Sarah F. Kimberling the third child, and sister to Lewis and Rachel,
because she died giving birth at the age of 21, in the year of 1864. Rachel would have known this, as
she left West Virginia in 1876.
Lize married Billy Hart and lives over in the edge of Putnam County, no children.
Lize is known to be Eliza A. Kimberling, Rachel and Lewis's sister, she was the fourth
child. What Lewis is saying, is Lize has no children by Billy Hart.
