Tag Archives: Andrew Campbell

The Journal of Hugh Campbell, Part IV: The Voyage Begins (really)

Alright.  Hugh hitched a ride to Amer­i­ca.  How is this shady sit­u­a­tion going to play out?  Let’s find out.…  (If you missed last week’s install­ment, read Part III here.)

17th June

I took leave of my friends in Der­ry with a mixed sen­sa­tion of joy and regret – joy that I had found in Capt. Gale a friend dis­posed to make amend for my great dis­ap­point­ment – and regret that I was per­haps for­ev­er sep­a­rat­ed from every­thing dear to me. It is unnec­es­sary to repeat the oblig­a­tions I lay under to Mr. N. Boyle’s fam­i­ly as they are already known and I hope duly appre­ci­at­ed by my mother’s fam­i­ly. ‘Tis enough to say that his parental advice and kind atten­tion were nev­er more required nor nev­er giv­en with more lib­er­al­i­ty than of late. The impres­sion his friend­ship made will be long remem­bered. This evening, hav­ing all pas­sen­gers in board we dropt down to Cul­more Bay about 6 p.m.  There we were oblig­ed to remain two days until the may­or would go through the cus­tom­ary forms of exam­in­ing the pas­sen­gers and crew. This  cer­e­mo­ny past, we again weighed anchor and sailed down to Moville on the evening of the

19th

The Capt. hav­ing returned to Der­ry to process the nec­es­sary papers was detained there a few days dur­ing which time the ves­sel was under the con­trol of the Pilot. Our sailors were indulged by the good-natured Capt. while at the quay in every kind of licen­tious­ness. Want of sub­or­di­na­tion and dis­obe­di­ence of orders was the con­se­quence. In order to put down this dis­po­si­tion among our crew the first Mate, Mr. Ladieu, beat a stub­born Black sailor
most unmer­ci­ful­ly for some tri­fling fault as an exam­ple to the oth­ers and put him three days in irons.

As an extra pas­sen­ger my sit­u­a­tion was pecu­liar­ly dis­agree­able. It was nec­es­sary that no sus­pi­cion should be excit­ed amongst either pas­sen­gers or vis­i­tors least infor­ma­tion would be lodged and the ship detained. For this rea­son I was sel­dom seen on deck or in the steer­age unless when I wished to con­verse with my wor­thy friend Mr. Reed. I was for­tu­nate in hav­ing this young man for a com­pan­ion aboard. From my first acquain­tance with him I promised myself much sat­is­fac­tion in his com­pa­ny and was nev­er deceived.

I was now in the same place where I part­ed the Per­se­ver­ance and every unfor­tu­nate cir­cum­stance con­nect­ed with that trans­ac­tion returned to my mind with dou­ble force when I com­pared my present sit­u­a­tion in the Phoenix with what it was in the oth­er ves­sel. In the Per­se­ver­ance I had pro­cured every­thing cal­cu­lat­ed to make a sea voy­age com­fort­able. But in this – with­out mon­ey and with­out clothes — I was a com­plete depen­dent on the Capt.’s lib­er­al­i­ty even for my board­ing and passage.

20th June

For the last time I took an affec­tion­ate farewell of my dear broth­er Andrew*, who came down to see me. At this time my state of body and mind were near­ly alike worn down by fatigue. My health had suf­fered mate­ri­al­ly and the sor­row of part­ing my last and best  friend added to oth­er trou­bles of which I had enough in all con­science for any per­son. Con­trary winds and Cus­tom House delays detained us at Moville for sev­er­al days dur­ing which time the pas­sen­gers made the nec­es­sary prepa­ra­tions for the voy­age. Trunks and box­es were fas­tened. Mess­es were formed and reg­u­la­tions were made for keep­ing the ship clean.

A Methodist laid hold of the occa­sion to impress on our minds the awful uncer­tain­ty attend­ing our sit­u­a­tion. For some time his prayer meet­ings were attend­ed to but at length, hav­ing giv­en offense to a cer­tain sect, he met with con­sid­er­able oppo­si­tion. Like all oth­er zealots he con­tin­ued his labors while per­se­cu­tion appeared. But either from want of abil­i­ties in the preach­er, want of vari­ety in the sub­ject mat­ter, or want of amuse­ment in the theme – the preach­er in a few days “ceased his Labours”.

On the evening of the 23rd the Capt. joined us and gave orders for sail­ing ear­ly next morning.

*****

* Andrew Camp­bell remained in Ire­land, and he had ten chil­dren who con­tin­ued the fam­i­ly line.  Hugh did not have chil­dren and Robert did not have grand­chil­dren, so Andrew’s descen­dants were the Camp­bells who received an inher­i­tance from Robert’s estate when his son Hazlett died in 1938.

Next week: Away We Go

This week in history: May 2‑May 8

We’ve post­ed let­ters about the hell-rais­er in the Camp­bell fam­i­ly, Robert and Hugh Camp­bel­l’s niece Bessie Camp­bell.  But even with all the trou­ble that Bessie caused the fam­i­ly, her actions were very lit­tle when com­pared to her broth­ers Hugh Kyle Camp­bell and Robert Boyle Camp­bell.  Iron­i­cal­ly named after their St. Louis uncles, these two were the true source of grief for Andrew and Eliz­a­beth Camp­bell.  Accord­ing to The Camp­bell Quest, writ­ten by the pair’s great-great-nephew, “Hugh Kyle fol­lowed in his father’s foot­steps and became an alco­holic, while Robert Boyle became a bul­ly …” .  These two caused trou­ble in Ire­land, like­ly burn­ing their grand­fa­ther’s will and harass­ing their Aunt Ann so that Hugh Kyle Camp­bell could lay claim to their Uncle Hugh Camp­bel­l’s right­ful estate, Augh­a­lane.  Hugh Kyle Camp­bell final­ly mar­ried, but nev­er stopped drink­ing and final­ly died of “intem­per­ance, one year.  Delir­i­um tremens, one week” in 1877, a year after writ­ing this let­ter.  Robert Boyle Camp­bell came to live with his Uncle Robert and Aunt Vir­ginia for a while, but even­tu­al­ly left and moved west, hop­ing to strike it rich.  He also caused trou­ble for the fam­i­ly in the Amer­i­can Civ­il War.

Today’s let­ter is from Hugh Kyle Camp­bell to his broth­er-in-law (and Patrick Camp­bell Mac­Cul­loch’s great-grand­fa­ther) Hugh Mac­Cul­loch about his Aunt Ann’s death.  He makes is abun­dant­ly clear that he is not hap­py that Aunt Ann left so lit­tle to him in her will, obvi­ous­ly a very wise choice on Ann Camp­bel­l’s part when it came to this par­tic­u­lar rel­a­tive.  The let­ter was tran­scribed by Frank Collins of the Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park in North­ern Ire­land, which now hous­es Robert’s birth­place, Augh­a­lane house.  It was part of a col­lec­tion that Collins and the Folk Park donat­ed to Camp­bell House Muse­um last sum­mer upon the Euro­pean release of the book The Camp­bell Quest.  We hope you enjoy the account from anoth­er ‘black sheep’ of the Camp­bell family!

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Let­ter­bratt
7th May 1876.

Dear Hugh.

Enclosed I send you what you drew up with all the names prop­er­ly signed there was no a dis­sent­ing voice as they all glad­ly signed it. As to those in Amer­i­ca as to them sig­na­to­ries it is not at all nec­es­sary in a legal point of view as to have signed it, at least all but…. & I pre­sume she’ll not object. I con­grat­u­late you on the straight­for­ward man­ner in which all has been con­duct­ed as far as I know,by both you and R Dunn.

This I can say for myself I am the great­est los­er over my Aunt as I can …. And have been the pro­pri­etor of Augh­a­lane only for her & her con­tin­u­al­ly writ­ing to my uncle Hugh. I nev­er knew this until I was exam­ined in Dublin and had I wished to be con­tention at that time I’d at all event pre­vent­ed the sale of it for years but I nev­er opposed it.

She always was my great­est ene­my- all I ever got from her was those £27 and a bed­stead? and cur­tains except I think £2 and I count­ed one of those due me for tidy? cows she allowed me keep the other.

I need not enlarge on this but I trust she may be hap­py as God only can dis­cern our inter­mit thoughts and pri­vate actions and many a one to the human eye here is count­ed God fear­ing  & lend­ing poor moral life by appear­ances, but when laid on the bed of sick­ness and death then decep­tive and for­mer hypocrisy   Tell then in their hard strug­gles not wish­ing to leave this world yet a let­ter? Wished and all as they count­ed it.   I am informed my Aunt did tou­se? the expres­sion very hard.

One thing I do know Mar­garet had the great­est trou­ble with my Aunt. & most cer­tain­ly £100 would not have repaid the trou­ble & sleep­less nights she suf­fered over her sickness.

With kind­est regards to you and Mgt.

I remain Your Affect Bro-in-law

Hugh Kyle Campbell

Mr H MacCulloch.

This week in history: April 18–24

Today you tech­ni­cal­ly get mul­ti­ple let­ters, all wrapped into one!  On April 22, 1835, William Sub­lette start­ed a let­ter to Robert Camp­bell, who was at Fort William.  Sub­lette added to it on May 1.  He made one more addi­tion on May 2, before final­ly send­ing it to Robert.  The let­ter cov­ers every­thing, from busi­ness to fam­i­ly to gos­sip from home. One inter­est­ing and impor­tant ref­er­ence Sub­lette makes is to “Fontinell”.  “Fontinell” was Lucien Fontenelle, a well-known French-Amer­i­can fur trad­er who worked for the Amer­i­can Fur Com­pa­ny, run by John Jacob Astor and the Rocky Moun­tain Fur Co. and Sub­lette and Camp­bel­l’s biggest com­pe­ti­tion.  Sub­lette also tells Robert that “Vir­ginia”, mean­ing 13 year old Vir­ginia Jane Kyle, who Robert would mar­ry in 1841, is doing well and “Mrs Fox also lent Vir­ginia com­pli­ments to you”.  Enjoy this fas­ci­nat­ing look into Sub­lette & Camp­bel­l’s busi­ness and per­son­al lives!

http://campbellhousemuseum.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/this-week-in-history-november-5-november-11/
[Front Cover]
Mr. R. Campbell
Fort William

St. Louis MO April 22nd 1835

Dear Robert,
I received your let­ter from Colum­bia and also one from Lex­ing­ton dat­ed april 18th. I wrote you by the first mail after you left at Lex­ing­ton and also to Inde­pen­dence.  Enclos­ing those notes you wished [spelled wisht] Fontinell to Set­tle, as he refused doing so here but stat­ed [spelled stait­ed] he thought he would Set­tle them when you deliv­ered over the fort to him.  I have writ­ten all that passed between us to you in my let­ter to Inde­pen­dence which I pre­sume you will get before you leave the Unit­ed States although you did not state in your let­ter from Lex­ing­ton whether you had received mine or not.  Galio [?] sent a let­ter to you from your broth­er to Inde­pen­dence and I now also send one let­ter to Fontinell.  Fontinell has only vis­it­ed my room but twice since you left he appears too [spelled two] busi­ly engaged in court­ing or some­thing else that I can scarce­ly get to see him.  On yes­ter­day Mr Fontinell & Beret both came to my room.  I showed them both the part of the let­ter you sent me or so much as relat­ed to their [spelled there] mat­ters and they made [spelled maid] no objec­tions.  Fontinell told me he expect­ed to leave tomor­row but you know him, the peo­ple is all well here gen­er­al­ly, and not much change in affairs.  Since you left Capt. Fleise­he­man is dead and buried, mar­riages Marpy & Shan­ice is both mar­ried, Miss Bil­low also & Miss Cale­na is expect­ed to be in the same sit­u­a­ti­a­tion in a few days etc. etc.

[Pg. Break] There appears to be but lit­tle alter­ation in Mil­ton since you left Sis­ter Sophron­ice Cook is now in St. Louis and expects to leave shortly.

I have received a let­ter from Mr J.J. Car­pen­ter of N.Y. stat­ing our furst is still unsold and that sev­er­al per­sons has been lookng at them but will think them too [spelled two] dear.  The Saulaper­ans are all here as yes but expect to leave in a few days.  Bean Gar­den & Lane all let out short­ly up the Mis­sis­sip­pi sur­vey­ing.  I had word from Edmond Christy a few days since he is well and they say is doing well keeps him­self steady and atten­tive to business.

May the first I have this morn­ing received your let­ters with Andrew from Inde­pen­dence April 21 1835.

I have you will per­cieve by this com­menced [spelled comenced] this let­ter sev­er­al days since.  I have just called on Fontinell and he informs me he will start this evening or tomor­row morn­ing for a cer­tain­ty, Cabanne, came down last night Fontinell has been so busi­ly engaged court­ing gala­vant­i­ng etc. that he has hard­ly been to see Mil­ton but one time since you left (it appears to be fine times with him) Mil­ton has much mend­ed since I com­mence this let­ter I have had him rid­ing out and he is now bout on his crutch­es lest his leg is about the same the lig­a­tures still remain.  Mrs. Ash­ley has been quite unwell but is now bet­ter I have paid but one or two vis­its since you left and I can assure you I feel quite lone­some.  I expect to take Mil­ton to the farm in a few days where I shall stay principly.

[Pg. Break] I have received but one let­ter from your Broth­er but what I have sent you and I enclose it with this I expect anoth­er in a few days, Ran­dolph has vis­it­ed Mil­tons room sev­er­al times I expect there is some­thing on foot as he has been try­ing to get employ­ment and Mil­ton appears dis­sat­is­fied [spelled dis­at­is­fied] with Fontinells deten­tion here and have I believe expressed [spelled expresst] him self.  So I will fin­ish this let­ter by piece meals [?] whilst Fontinell remains.  Robt. this evening I received a let­ter from Hugh stat­ting he will deter­mine in a day or two whether he will vis­it St Louis or no if so he will leave about the first of June his stay will be short and he will return through Ten­nesee, Alaba­ma, and Ken­tucky.  He states he received a let­ter from Broth­er Andrew dat­ed 26th Jany last all friends was well at that date and noth­ing new.

I would send you the let­ter which is dat­ed the 17th of april only it con­tained a list of my fruit trees and a descrip­tion of them etc prinic­i­paly on that subject.

I was at Miss Kyle’s this evening all was well and wished I would remem­ber them in my let­ter to you.  Mrs Fox also lent Vir­ginia com­pli­ments to you there has noth­ing tran­spired since you left worth notice I am get­ting on with my build­ing and farm as well as could be expect­ed Mr Jack­son is now in St Louis I have had a set­tle­ment with him Smith & Ashley.

[Pg. Break, top of front cov­er] May 2 1835 Robert I have just been to see Fontinell he says he will leave pos­i­tive­ly today.  W & Mrs Stephan­son leaves to day for Gale­na.  Mgr Bean also Gor­don is gone.  Miss Cale­na is mar­ried and off to Illi­nois.  Miss Tharp is also mar­ried and so forth,  Beut and Sare­na is still here but will leave short­ly         Your friend W Sublette

[Sec­tion Break, upside down] I intend for­ward­ing our bill on for the goods spo­ken of imme­di­ate­ly I have been wait­ing to hear from you at Inde­pen­dence or I would have done so before now Mil­ton wish­es to be remem­bered & Sis­ter Cook has left and I feel entire­ly at a loss what to do or how to employ myself as you know I have been a bird of pas­sage the last twelve years yours farewell, W.L.S.

This week in history: April 5–10

This week in his­to­ry, both Robert Camp­bell and his son Hugh Camp­bell made their wills.  The two were almost 60 years apart — 1 day short of 59 years exact­ly.  Because both of these doc­u­ments are impor­tant, we are going to post both.

First, we post Robert Camp­bel­l’s 1832 will.  It was entered into evi­dence in the 1938 estate case that would decide the future of Robert’s son Hazlet­t’s $2 mil­lion estate.  By 1832, Robert had already begun to amass a great for­tune.  He knew he was going into dan­ger­ous ter­ri­to­ry out West on a reg­u­lar basis, and want­ed to be sure his fam­i­ly and for­tune would be tak­en care of.  This was obvi­ous­ly not Robert’s final will.  He would mar­ry Vir­ginia Jane Kyle on Feb­ru­ary 25, 1841, and the two would have 3 sur­viv­ing chil­dren.  Robert final­ly died on Octo­ber 10, 1879.  This will shows his thoughts and wor­ries as a young man.

In the name of God, Amen. I Robert Camp­bell at
Present resid­ing in the City of Saint Louis Mis­souri in
The Unit­ed Stat­ed of Amer­i­ca do make this my last
Will and Testament -
Item    I bequeath and device to my Broth­er Andrew Campbell
All that par­cel of Land in the town­land of
Gel­nco­pogagh in the part of Upper Badoney County
Of Tyrone Ire­land held by law renew­able forever
‘Under the heirs of the Honl. George Knox, to have
And to hold said par­cel of land with its apprenten
=ces (as now occu­pied by Gabriel Walk­er) to him and
to his heirs for­ev­er. Pro­vid­ed he my said Brother
Andrew Camp­bell pays one half the amt. of Debt
Due by me to the heirs of Andw. McFar­land Decd. And
To my sis­ter Anne Camp­bell before enter­ing in possession
Of said farm of land in Glencopogagh -
Item —     I bequeath to my Broth­er Hugh Camp­bell my tith
And inter­est in the rents receiv­able under Deed
of Mort­gage from the ten­ants in East Aughalane
amount­ing to 16 pounds Irish cur­ren­cy per annum) to him
and to his heirs for­ev­er. Pro­vid­ed he my said
Broth­er Hugh Camp­bell pays one half the debts
Due by me to the Heirs of Andw. McFar­land Decd.
And to my Sis­ter Anne Camp­bell — before entering
Into pos­ses­sion of the bequest before mentioned
Item —  I bequeath to my Broth­er Hugh Camp­bell above
Men­tioned the pro­ceeds of the expe­di­tion now fully
Out by me for the region of the Rocky Mountains
After deduct­ing the amount due by me to Miss J & A Kerr
Mer­chants of St. Louis Mis­souri say
And also pay­ing the men in my employ the balance
Which may be due by me to them at the time of
My decease — all of which will be deter­mined by
My execu­tors Mr L. Sub­lette and Thos. Fitz­patrick who
Accom­pa­ny me on this expe­di­tion — the pro­ceeds (if any),
To be appro­pri­at­ed in the fol­low­ing manner

[next page]

First­ly    That my said Borther Hugh Camp­bell do
Pay him­self the amount of mon­ey I shall borrow
Of him before my departure
Sec­ond­lyThat my said Borther Hugh Camp­bell ao
pay to my Beloved Moth­er the sum of Five
pounds ster­ling annu­al­ly dur­ing her nat­ur­al life
and if the pro­ceeds should not afford this then me
said Broth­er Hugh Camp­bell to pay to my beloved
moth­er Five pounds ster­ling per annum out of
the rents of East Aughalane -
Third­ly That my Broth­er Hugh Camp­bell pays to my Dear
Sis­ter Anne Ten pounds ster­ling — and should the
pro­ceeds of my expe­di­tion prove more than
repays the above appro­pri­ate­ly — then the residue
if enough to be dis­persed of as fol­lows — to my
Dear Moth­er few pounds annu­al­ly in addition
To the above and the residue to be divid­ed in
Equal parts between my Broth­ers Andrew & Hugh and
My sis­ter Anne one third each -
Item     I bequeath to my Beloved Moth­er the sum of Five pounds
Ster­ling to be paid by my said Broth­er Hugh Campbell
And in case the pro­ceeds of my Rocky Monts be
Suf­fi­cient­ly lucra­tive the sum of Ten pounds in
Addi­tion to the above -
Item    I bequeath to my Sis­ter Anne Camp­bell as
Above Ten pounds ster­ling to be paid her
By my Broth­er Hugh Camp­bell which with
The assump­tion of two hun­dred pounds of my
Broth­er Hugh & myself and fifty pounds which
I pre­sent­ed her when in Ire­land to be paid by
Hugh and myself. I con­sid­er as on equal
Por­tion with my Broth­ers — in case my Rocky
Moun­tain trip affords a prof­it I wish one third
Of the nett pro­ceeds (after pay­ing all oth­er demands)
To be paid to my dear­est sis­ter Anne

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O nom­i­nate and appoint John W Far­land of Culls
=lil­lan part of low­er Budo­ny & Coun­ty Tyrone
and William Wil­son of Eden Der­ry (Leap Mill) in
land Coun­ty in Ire­land as my execu­tors there
and Mr L Sub­lette of St. Louis Coun­ty Missouri
and Thos. Fitz­patrick of the Rocky Monts. And
My broth­er Hugh Camp­bell late of Richmond
Of Vir­ginia but now of Philadel­phia as my
Execu­tors in the Unit­ed States. — I request [miss­ing]
To super­in­tend the set­tle­ment of the mat­ters herein
Named and to direct that each Item shall
Be per­formed (as far as pos­si­ble) with­in two years
After my decease at far­thest and soon­er if
Practically
In wit­ness where of I have herunto
Set my hand and seal this tenth day of
April in the year of our Lord one Thousand
Eight Hun­dred and Thir­ty Two

Signed sealed and declared
By the above named
Robert Camp­bell to be his
Last will and testament
In pres­ence of us who have
Here­un­to sub­scribed our
names as wit­ness­es in the
pres­ence of the testator

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Robert Camp­bell
Will of April 10 1832

This week in history: February 28-March 5

This week we post a let­ter from Robert’s sis­ter Ann Camp­bell.  Ann is in Ire­land and has appar­ent­ly not been feel­ing well.  The let­ter almost makes it sound like she may be on her deathbed, but she would in fact live till 1876.  Ann tells Robert how much she thinks of him and how often he and his fam­i­ly are in her prayers.  Ann Camp­bell lived in Augh­a­lane House, which is now part of the Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park.  Enjoy get­ting all the news from Ireland.

Augh­a­lane March 5th 1856

My Beloved Broth­er Robert
Your affec­tion­ate let­ter did me so much good, it was more to me  than all the med­i­cine in Europe, it real­ly did exhil­a­rate me and  made me so hap­py that I am sure your kind heart would rejoice to  see me.

It is a year since I wrote you and fin­ished my farewell let­ter  that I began the pre­vi­ous Jan­u­ary.  The doc­tors ordered me as  soon as sum­mer would com­mence to go to the shore but on the first week in July I was faint­ing from extreme weak­ness.  I had to  leave the house to get two floors that were bad­ly laid made  right, as I could not endure the noise of the ham­mers; so I went  to Jane McHar­lands’ [McFar­lands?] with Annie’s atten­tion and kind­ness (for her  dis­po­si­tion is like yours) thank God I felt stronger although I  was with her but ten days on 16th Aug I went to Hugh McCul­lough  Margt was also very atten­tive and I was enabled through divine  assis­tance to pro­ceed to [?]_______.  I returned home on 16th  Sept and the day pre­vi­ous to my return

[Pg. Break] I walked six miles with­out much fatigue.  Thank God I have been pret­ty well through the win­ter.  I was not in bed an  hour out of my usu­al time since I came from [?]______ ______ I  had the house [?]________ in March last and paint­ed in Sep­tem­ber  both doors and win­dows are paint­ed white: I thought all my dear  rel­a­tives would have been here before this; that we might meet  again under the roof in which we first breathed and may God grant with bless­ing I may not be dis­ap­point­ed yet I think He will  real­ize this favor to me and should I not be here the thought  that my dear broth­er would [?]_____ on my grave would be a  con­so­la­tion to me now for to what pur­pose was all the expense the pre­pare the house the fine apart­ments that were always neat were enough for me but the hope of see­ing you all did stim­u­late me to every­thing I did and made any lit­tle care I had only delight;  write me on receipt of this and say you will with the Almighty’s  help be here next sum­mer; it might renew sis­ter Vir­gini­a’s health that God may long spare her to you and give her per­ma­nent health is my fer­vent prayer.  I hope the sweet boy Hugh [Hugh Camp­bell, lived to 81] is well and also lit­tle Hazlett [spelled Haslett,  the first Hazlett Kyle Camp­bell, died at the age of 3] and the  oth­er lit­tle fel­low.  I trust he will be as healthy as the oth­er  two are and God grant they may be as great a com­fort to you

[Pg. Break] and their dear moth­er as you have been to me.  I hope I nev­er do go to bed with­out wish­ing a bless­ing on you and yours and I trust I nev­er will and that the hours of prayer will grant any requests for you and your family.

I was look­ing over a let­ter of yours the oth­er day dat­ed 11th May 1833 and the affec­tion and love in it caused tears of grat­i­tude  that you are still unchanged for the same kind­ness that breathed  through it per­vades your last; Oh! that I may be grate­ful to the  great first cause for tis’ pater­nal care to an aged orphan in  giv­ing such broth­ers as He has giv­en me.  In the let­ter I am  speak­ing of Broth­er Hugh in a post­script [?]____ the decease of  your father in law on 5th of same month and adds I have sel­dom  met with a more ami­able lady than his wid­ow; nor more inter­est­ing chil­dren than his daugh­ters; I am sure if there had been ten  daugh­ters there could be none more ami­able than sis­ter Vir­ginia  thank God she  is yours.  I trust her health is restored.

Andrew and his numer­ous fam­i­ly are well; both he and sis­ter Bet­ty are youth­ful look­ing for their age, his sons assist on the farm; they are like their moth­er’s broth­ers, gen­teel look­ing and tall  of their age; Bessie lives with me since I was ill she nev­er  looked bet­ter in her life than she does at present; Vir­ginia is  grow­ing tall and is an ami­able child.

[Pg. Break] Annie has a fam­i­ly of five sons and one daugh­ter all  health a love­ly baby died from her in Autumn; her hus­band is a  decent per­son and doing well the for­mer has fours on and the  lat­ter two daugh­ters and one son; both their hus­bands have a fine share of busi­ness at [?]_____ ______.  Mar­garet is also doing  well and has three sons and one daugh­ter; she is much beloved by  her neigh­bors.  Mary wrote of your kind­ness in reliev­ing her from her dif­fi­cul­ties; poor dear she was a stranger and in debt; the  Lord reward you for what you have done for her and though last  not least dear Char­lotte.  She wrote me late­ly and John nev­er  wrote a let­ter home but he was so good as to men­tion me; he was  always a favorite with his moth­er and I’ve thought there was  some­thing very noble in John even when a lit­tle boy.  Give my  kind love to Mr. Camp­bell [?]_____ & Char­lotte; I am so hap­py to  hear that she has a fine lit­tle child.  I hope it will live for a bless­ing to them, Joseph and Mrs. Camp­bell are well, she does  not vis­it much in Win­ter as she is sus­cep­ti­ble of cold but her  health is good.  I do not know when I shall write my good  Char­lotte, for I have not [?]_____ to do any­thing as before I was sick but she is devare she has my prayers, for her wel­fare.  May every hap­pi­ness be sis­ter Vir­gini­a’s and yours here and  here­after is the prayer of your grate­ful sister
Ann Campbell