Tag Archives: Virginia Jane Kyle

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.

Happy Easter from Campbell House Museum

Hap­py spring every­one!  We hope every­one is enjoy­ing the first few days of April.  With East­er com­ing up on Sun­day, we decid­ed to post a Camp­bell let­ter about the East­er hol­i­days.  On April 7, 1836, Hugh Camp­bell wrote to his younger broth­er Robert from Philadel­phia.  He says that “Vir­ginia, Har­ri­et, and A. Matil­da have been dai­ly mourn­ing your absence dur­ing the East­er hol­i­days.”  The Vir­ginia who was miss­ing Robert so ter­ri­bly over East­er was now 14 year old Vir­ginia Kyle, who Robert would mar­ry in 1841.  Hap­py East­er and hap­py spring from Camp­bell House Museum!

Philadel­phia April 7th 1836
Dear Robert
A few days after you left us I wrote Mr. S. giv­ing my views in oppo­si­tion to your design of vis­it­ing the moun­tains.  I sin­cere­ly hope that both you and he will coin­cide with me and alto­geth­er aban­don every thought of fit­ting [?] out any expe­di­tion which may require your per­son­al guid­ance.  You will great­ly relieve my mind by say­ing that you have arranged mat­ters so as to be enabled to remain at St. Louis.

I called on San­drette on Sat­ur­day last request­ing the trees for friend Sub­lette.  The ice had not then dis­ap­peared from our streets.  Our equal is not yet in oper­a­tion and under all the cir­cum­stances he feared that we could not man­age to send them in any thing like prop­er sea­son for replant­i­ng.  He had not final­ly decid­ed on not send­ing them and I con­clud­ed to leave the mat­ter to his own option.

The woman and child of whom I spoke arrived here two or three days after your depar­ture.  Owing to the dif­fi­cul­ty of con­veyance my canal I have been unable to send them to Pitts­burg.  They are still in the city but will short­ly be off, if in my power.

Your neg­li­gence in omit­ting to write me from Pitts­burg or some oth­er point in your route has giv­en me some uneasi­ness.  I have been ashamed to answer the inquiries of your friends (and real­ly you seem to have a good­ly num­ber) by say­ing that not a line has yet been received from you although you are now 3 weeks gone!  Vir­ginia Har­ri­et and A. Matil­da have been dai­ly mourn­ing your absence dur­ing the East­er hol­i­days.  Our neigh­bors Mr. Miller and fam­i­ly have also been mak­ing kind inquiries for you an din short all our vis­i­tors seem to think there is a void in our soci­ety since you bid us “Good bye”. [End of pg. 1]

[Pg. 2] The great press of busi­ness hav­ing par­tial­ly sub­sided, I have turned my sit­u­a­tion to Mrs. Kyle’s mon­ey [not sure that’s the word] and am not get­ting [?]___ the prin­ci­pal part of the order, which will be for­ward­ed about a week hence.  I will then write them for­ward­ing bills and direct­ing Bess to come down to St. Louis and com­plete the assort­ment from stores in that city.  In the mean­time you will oblige me by call­ing on Mr. Sproule and request him to give me through you a brief abstract or mere­ly the bal­ance on her two accounts.  She has one as admin­is­tra­tor and one indi­vid­ual account.  When I know the state of those accounts I can give such advice as Bess asked for with regard to remit­tances in her last let­ter.  My opin­ion is that if they can spare the mon­ey they should send some to me and avoid get­ting [?]____ (me maybe?) so deeply in debt for goods they order from me.

Mary wrote you late­ly.  She talks of you a good deal and I believe regrets your absence near­ly as much as she did mine.  Both she and Har­ri­et are ask­ing me to request that you will make it a point to be here very ear­ly in the sum­mer.  I think a lit­tle trip to Cape May would be of use to you and should you come on I will make it a point to lay aside the cares of busi­ness for a brief peri­od and go down there with you and Mary.

Mr. Gill con­tin­ues as when you left him — appar­ent­ly in good health but in real­i­ty hold­ing his life by a very inse­cure tenure.  He is quite rest­less under his con­fine­ment.  I fear his first effort to go out will be his last for any excite­ment is like­ly to prove fatal.

Archibald is busy prepar­ing for the cares of house­keep­ing and has already pur­chased most of his fur­ni­ture.  I under­stand he is to be mar­ried with­in a fort­night but hav­ing avoid­ed all con­sul­ta­tion on this mat­ter I am unable to talk any thing of his views.  He will in all prob­a­bil­i­ty imi­tate Mr. Bak­er in his state of living.

It is now late and I am fatigued.  Shake hands with my friend Wm. L. Sub­lette and say some civ­il things to all oth­ers who may inquire for me.  I earnest­ly beg you to write us fre­quent­ly.  We are uneasy on your account and you know it but I have no time to chide you.
Good night!!!   H. Campbell
[End of pg. 2]

[Enve­lope]
[Post Mark] Phila
7
Apr

Mr. Robert Campbell
Saint Louis
Missouri

Happy Valentines Day from Campbell House Museum

With Valen­tines Day on Sun­day, we thought it only fit­ting to post a love let­ter.  This was writ­ten Feb­ru­ary 14, 1841 from Robert Camp­bell to his fiance Vir­ginia Jane Kyle.  The orig­i­nal let­ter is in the Mis­souri His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety’s archives.

Robert is in Philadel­phia, mak­ing his final arrange­ments to go to Raleigh, North Car­oli­na for their wed­ding!  The two were mar­ried just 11 days lat­er on Feb­ru­ary 25, 1841 at her moth­er’s house in Raleigh, North Car­oli­na.  Robert is obvi­ous­ly eager to mar­ry Vir­ginia and have a wife.  In one of his more famous quotes to her, Robert says  “rec­ol­lect you will soon become my coun­cilor and advi­sor and it may be Man­ag­er — that of course I will not acknowl­edge and I feel con­fi­dent you will make “my Yoke easy” and my life hap­py.”  Although this is def­i­nite­ly a love let­ter writ­ten on Valen­tines day, Robert makes no spe­cial remarks as to the date.  Instead this is just anoth­er exam­ple of the won­der­ful rela­tion­ship between Robert and Vir­ginia — Valen­tines or no Valen­tines.  We hope you all enjoy Valen­tines day with your spe­cial some­one!  For those with­out a spe­cial some­one, we hope you some­day find a love as strong as Robert and Vir­ginia Camp­bel­l’s.  Hap­py Valen­tines day everyone!

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Philadel­phia Feb 14th 1841
My Beloved Virginia
Notwith­stand­ing I wrote you yes­ter­day and have not since heard from you, nor of you, I can­not allow Doct. McPheeters to leave with­out writ­ing you a few lines.

Tonight was the reg­u­lar time for a let­ter to arrive from Nor­folk but none came to hand, so I infer either that the Boat did not make her reg­u­lar trip, or that you had left there with­out writ­ing me, and that your next will be from Raleigh.

Should the let­ters which I expect from your Moth­er and your­self not change any present views I expect to leave here so as to be with you by 23 or 24th inst, and shall prob­a­bly be accom­pa­nied either by Mr. Kerr or Mr. Mar­tin — Mr. Kerr had writ­ten to his Lady Love that he would be with her on 24th so that if he be not delayed by the present very cold weath­er, I expect Mr. Mar­tin will be companion.

Mary was anx­ious to accept your kind Moth­ers invi­ta­tion and would have done so, had I insist­ed, but Hugh thought that to under­take a jour­ney of Eight Hun­dred miles to make a vis­it of 24 Hours would be rather too cer­e­mo­ni­ous — Mary I believe will write you.

[Pg. 2] Hugh and I had a long walk this evening and spoke a good deal of your good moth­er and your­self.  He observed that “if Vir­ginia makes as good a wife as her Moth­er has done she will be a pat­tern for the Ladies of St. Louis.”

Hugh told me that he expect­ed your moth­er to come on with us on a vis­it to him in Philadel­phia and that either he or Mary would write her to that effect.  Hugh wrote your Uncle David and expects him and Mr. [maybe Mrs?] Kyle to meet us in Philadel­phia so I hope we will all meet here and pass some hap­py days together.

I have a great deal to say to you when we meet and many lit­tle plans to con­sult you about — rec­ol­lect you will soon become my coun­cilor and advi­sor and it may be Man­ag­er — that of course I will not acknowl­edge and I feel con­fi­dent you will make “my Yoke easy” and my life happy.

Dear­est Vir­ginia you can­not imag­ine with what anx­i­ety I look for­ward to this ter­mi­na­tion of the time that keeps us apart.  I hope to receive a let­ter nam­ing the 20th as I solicit­ed and be assured my beloved one I will hail the announce­ment with the great­est delight.

Give my Love to your good Moth­er and Sis­ter and to any oth­er friend of yours as I am pre­dis­posed to Love all that you Love and pre­pared to dis­like any who has ever offend­ed my beloved Virginia.
Dear Vir­ginia Farewell for a time
Ever your most devoted
Robert Camp­bell [End of pg. 2]
[Pg. 3] I have just returned from Hugh’s and I find Mary has writ­ten you but I know not the sub­ject no doubt about dresses.

Rec­ol­lect I will not lis­ten to any pro­posed mar­riage the first of March or any such dis­tant day, so you may make your prepa­ra­tions for the 20th or any inter­me­di­ate day not lat­er than the 25th.

Again dear­est Vir­ginia Farewell and believe me ever dwelling on the hap­py rec­ol­lec­tion of the few days that I passed with you in Norfolk.

I will write your Uncle David tomor­row night.
Yours,
RC [End of pg. 3]

This week in history: January 7‑January 15

172 years ago this past Wednes­day, Lucy Ann Kyle wrote an impor­tant let­ter to Robert Camp­bell.  The wealthy Camp­bell had sent a let­ter to her ask­ing to mar­ry Lucy’s daugh­ter, 16 year old Vir­ginia Jane Kyle.  Most wid­ows faced with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of mar­ry­ing their daugh­ter to a rich man that loved them in the 1830s would have jumped at the chance.  Robert cer­tain­ly thought she would.  But Lucy was dif­fer­ent from most.  Read all about Lucy’s thoughts on her daugh­ter’s mar­riage and her con­di­tions in this fas­ci­nat­ing and impor­tant fam­i­ly letter!

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[Front Cov­er]
Raleigh
Jan
14
NC
Mr. Robert Campbell
Care of Gill Camp­bell & Co
Philadelphia

Raleigh Jan 13th 1838
Mr. Campbell,
The impor­tant sub­ject of your com­mu­ni­ca­tion of the 7th inst. which now lies before me cer­tain­ly demands an imme­di­ate reply.   My mind was not at all pre­pared to receive such intel­li­gence, it  came like an elec­tric shock.  Tis time I knew of your attach­ment  for Vir­ginia some eigh­teen months ago, but nev­er until [sic]  yes­ter­day did I have the slight­est inti­ma­tion of her feel­ings  towards you.  I have fre­quent­ly endeav­ored in dif­fer­ent ways to  find out, but she would nev­er speak with me at all on the sub­ject but turned it off in some light, friv­o­lous way.  I am at a loss  to con­jec­ture how it is such a great change has tak­en place, and  that too with­out con­sult­ing her moth­er even on the most impor­tant  event of her life.  Mr. Camp­bell you have made a request, no less than the Gift of my dar­ling Vir­ginia, the grant­i­ng of which is  like tear­ing my heart strings asun­der.  I nev­er before con­ceived  I should have such feelings.

[Pg. Break] No I can not give away my child, by so doing my fond  antic­i­pa­tions so long cher­ished would be for­ev­er blast­ed.  Yes  with what a devo­tion of heart have I looked for­ward to the time  of the com­ple­tion of my daugh­ters edu­ca­tion, when we can again be unit­ed around our own fire­side and in our own house and at least for a few years to enjoy their undi­vid­ed con­fi­dence, joys, and  sor­rows.  Think me not hard in say­ing I can not give away my  child, for I ver­i­ly believe all the devo­tion of all the men in  the world is not half equal to a moth­ers love.  Was Vir­ginia of  an age which in my opin­ion would jus­ti­fy her mar­ry­ing, my mind  might change, but as it is I feel bound by the strongest ties of  mater­nal affec­tion to keep her with me.

As to your pri­ma­ry affairs I have no inquire’s to make, wealth  over a com­pa­ten­cy is pro­duc­tive of more evil than good, and I  trust Vir­ginia will nev­er be influ­enced by such a motive, she has an inde­pen­dence of her with which pru­dence will sup­port her  through life.

You say “That you are ware that my only objec­tive  is to see my daugh­ters hap­pi­ly sit­u­at­ed in life,” if you mean  mar­ried and set­tled I beg leave to differ

[Pg. Break] from you, this is the very point at present I most  fear and least desire.  Mr. Camp­bell, I know you admire can­dor, I will there­fore impress one more sen­ti­ment.  It will be use­less for you to urge this mat­ter as I can nev­er con­sent for Vir­ginia  to mar­ry under the age of eighteen.“This res­o­lu­tion has been  long formed and for which I could assign many sub­stan­tial  rea­sons, should Vir­ginia dis­re­gard this opin­ion, she will not  have the promise of her Heav­en­ly father to obe­di­ent chil­dren nor  the bless­ing of her mother.

Very respect­ful­ly,
Lucy Ann Kyle

Happy New Year from Campbell House Museum!

Wel­come to 2010 every­one!  To cel­e­brate the new year, we’re post­ing a let­ter William Sub­lette wrote to Hugh Camp­bell on New Years Day 1837, 173 years ago.  He talks about his health prob­lems and what he thinks of Dr. Beau­mont — appar­ent­ly Beau­mont treats Sub­lette the way Sub­lette treats the Indi­ans he trades with.  But the 2nd let­ter talks a lot about Sub­let­te’s feel­ings toward a cer­tain “coquette” who Robert fell in love with.  Sub­lette is cer­tain that Robert will get over her in just a short time.  The girl is Vir­ginia Jane Kyle, and con­sid­er­ing the let­ters they wrote to each oth­er in their 38 years of mar­riage, Sub­let­te’s pre­dic­tions cer­tain­ly nev­er came true.  Enjoy and Hap­py New Year!

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St. Louis Jan­u­ary the first 1837
Dear Hugh
Your wel­come and inter­est­ing let­ter of Decem­ber 5th came
to hand on last evening which I have long wisht for and this
is the lat­est news we have from Philadel­phia as the roads has
been in such sit­u­a­tion it was impos­si­ble to reach here sooner.
Now just imag­ine you see your friend Sub­lette sit­u­at­ed in
an rock­ing armed chair with a writ­ing desk atacht thereto.
Cross leg­ed for that sit­u­a­tion at the present answers me best
for rea­sons you may guess- My health and strength has im-
proved con­sid­er­able since Robert left here, but I cant brag
much on my fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples for Dr. Beau­mont and
me has a round or so every fieu days. On yes­ter­day he per-
formed a small oper­a­tion and on the extreme it was as severe
as it was small and difi­cult to get at was as severe as any
herto­fore. I have giv­en him his orders to let me rest until
tues­day next when I expect to have a small row with him.
He puts me in mind of my self whilst engaged in the Indian
trade how I fre­quent­ly laid open the mules backs and cut open
the dis­eased parts (poor ani­mals how they suf­fered). But
speak­ing of Beau­mont I am much pleased with him and think
him an exce­lent ser­gent [sur­geon] at present there is not
much prospects of my get­ting out before spring to attend to
busi­ness and I have deter­mined to take it fair and easy for
my can­did belief is all things are for the best as God made us
for his pur­pose and knows best how to dis­pose of us if it
should be for the ben­e­fit of oth­ers, as I am smart­ly enclined
to believe in foreordination.
Times is dull in St. Louis and mon­ey scarce but there is
some hopes of a bank here from our legislature.(footnote 10) Our city
is not as gay this win­ter as has usu­al­ly been and from what
cause I cant say for it has been uncom­mon­ly healthy. Produce
of all kinds is high corn has sold here in mar­ket for $1.25 per
bushel and coal aver­ages about 28 cents pr bushel, those two
arti­cles I am most inter­est­ed in but the roads has been des-
perate.

[P.S.]
Dear Hugh
Rel­a­tive to your part of the let­ter respect­ing Robert I am
sor­ry I was not in pos­e­sion of before he left for my advice to
him would have been dif­fer­ent from what it was from the
acount and descrip­tion that Robert gave me I felt much inter-
est­ed in his behalf and can­did­ly it ren­dered [me] more or
less unhap­py on his account as I dis­cov­ered it praid on his
feel­ings-pressed him to go in com­pa­ny, I went so far as to ad-
vise him to press his address­es that no doubt but that a good
wife was the great­est bless­ing a man ever enjoyed and that
she was young and fool­ish and would soon yield, that a wife
two easy court­ed was scarce worth hav­ing, not think­ing that
Robert could be over come by and blind­ed by love at his age
as I have no doubt but he was. For we in our remarks re-
spect­ing the qual­i­ties of young ladies gen­er­al­ly agreed, and
that of a coquette or of show­ing fad­ing colours I nev­er ad-
mired. I am well aware Roberts sit­u­a­tion at that time was
one that was rather inclined to lead him a stray. Just recov-
ering from a long spell of sick­ness when a man’s mind is
rather week and not oth­er wise engaged in busi­ness the least
kind­ness or atten­tion shown him at that time and especially
by a female was enclined to make the more last­ing impression
of it. But as I think this is not more than the sec­ond or third
time he has been in love and prob­a­bly a long absence may over
come it, not a short one. But I am not capa­ble of judging
for I must can­did­ly con­fess which you may think strange for
a man of my age to say I was nev­er seri­ous­ly in love in my
life nor would I per­mit myself to be so for I nev­er was in a
sit­u­a­tion to get mar­ried as that which I could wish. How easy
this may wear off with Robert I cant say for my belief is that
when a man’s afec­tion is once placed it nev­er can be removed
to that of anoth­er with the same ardor but I think Robert
ought to bless his stairs [stars] he can get out of this scrape
and I will advise him to take a wife in Mis­souri and leave him
to trust to Prov­i­dence as all is for the best.
I admire the char­ac­ter of your coun­try­man Tom Moore in
many respects but in the instance you speak of in your letter
it puts me two much in mind of one of the par­ty now in ques-
tion (V K). I have giv­en you my views as far as I am
capa­ble. Its a pit­ty we both could not get mar­ried to wives
of fifty thou­sand each as I have more need of her mon­ey than
love, at present and in faith I think Robert would have no
objec­tion to the cash, if so, he could keep the wife & give me
the cash. We are get­ting on as well as could be expect­ed but
I think a wife would be of no incum­brance to one or both with
a fieu shillings, if there is one of that kind please send her
to me by Robert. I dont want her too smart for she might out
gen­er­al me and perceve my weak­ness and not be so afec-
tion­ate in case I should spend the mon­ey. Please excuse my
scrib­ling by writ­ing me, and my respects to Mary &c. I will
write to Robert soon.
God bless and pro­tect you are the wish­es of a friend
Wm. L. Sublette
This is the only Newyear’s Gift I have to present you, as small
and unin­ter­est­ing as it may be. My fruit trees have not yet
come to hand.
Mr. Hugh Campbell
Care of Gill, Camp­bell & Co.,
Philadelphia.

Foot­notes:
10 The Bank of the State of Mis­souri was char­tered by act of the
leg­is­la­ture, Feb­ru­ary 2, 1837. The leg­is­la­tors elect­ed John Brady Smith,
pres­i­dent, and Hugh O’Neil, Edward Walsh, S. S. Ray­burn, Edward
Dobyns, William L. Sub­lette, and John O’Fal­lon, directors.