Transcription of a letter from Nancy Jane Parker Pierce to her son Wylie Matthew Pierce.
April 1st, 1866
My Dear Son,
I have received several letters from you lately and I now proceed to answer them. I received the one you sent by [Capt Pollys?] and also one you sent by express dated February 4th both of which I read with great satisfaction. I have written to you once this year and Asa has written also, which I hope you have received and if you have [no, or now] [line unreadable] letter from Tommie since he [arrived] at home. I am glad of it for it was a long letter and contained much information that I know will please you. You request me in your last letter to take a week to write to you and cover sixteen pages. I think that I can give you all the information you wish in less time than a week and on less paper than sixteen pages. Your wish to know [several words unreadable] where they are living [several words unreadable] [telling] you of home [affairs] that will perhaps interest the most -- and endeavor to tell you of all the important changes that have taken place since you left. We are living here just as we were when you left -- that is -- Asa and his family are living here with me and Asa has the entire control of the farm. He has hired three or four freedmen and women and with there help is clear[ing] about twenty acres of land on the [branch] between the old farm and McCoys. He is going to plant cotton on this. He has rented 55 acres from Major Whitfield and has planted corn there. The most of the old farm has wheat growing on it and part of it is very fine. We have four horses here now. I have two and Asa two. I still hold on to [unreadable]. Asa has traded [two words unreadable] a very good horse. We have dug a well near the [several words unreadable]
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and it is excellent water, though perhaps you have heard that before. The children are all anxious for you to come home and scold a great deal at your not coming. They have [grown] a great deal since you left and I do not suppose that you would know any of them. Preston is a little taller than his father but rather slender. Edward is a stout boy of his age. They are both at work this year -- neither one of them going to school though they may go after the crop is finished. Marietta and Hillier can spell very well and there are but few [missing] school that [two words unreadable] spell. They are going to Molton at Shilo. Hicks is a stout healthy little thing. I think I have written all that would interest you about affairs at home, but if I have omitted anything that you wish to know, let me know what it is when you write and I will try to give you the desired information.
Rom and Lizzie are living at the place they were when you left and are doing well. They have four children, two of whom are large enough to go to school and they [will] start [unreadable]. William has moved [unreadable] to his home near Rom’s and is clearing land and doing very [well]. He has two children also large enough to go to school and will start soon. Your uncles Wiley, Foster and Bartley are living where you left them and are all getting along fine. You uncle Wiley and Harrison and Harris are farming the year together. Tommie can tell you for himself what he is doing. Harrison is married as you have probably heard. He married Martha A. Little and is living with his father. I suppose you have heard that Angeline is ma[rried] also. She lives in this county near Jamestown, Smith County. Your uncle Foster has hired several freedmen and is farming on a pretty large scale. He does not seem to regret the loss of his negros at all, on the contrary he seems [unreadable] [to it] and says he gets along better with his hired freedmen
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than he did with his slaves. Your uncle Bartley has hired some negros also to help him to cultivate his farm. I forgot to tell you that Jerry is living with his father. Your uncle Frank is living at the Brown place, which part of which belong to Sallie -- [Eddie’s] widow. He is cultivating Sallie’s part of it which includes the houses. He has hired Tobe -- formerly of Greene County, Georgia -- and his wife. Your uncle Reuben has bought a [unreadable] tract of good land about eighteen miles from here beyond and to the right of Sulphur Springs about 8 miles from [H????]. He has made two crops there and is now doing better than he ever has before since he has been in Texas. Berry Rainwater is living there and farming with him this year. Your uncle Reuben looks a great deal older than when you left and your aunt Frances’ [head] is nearly white. Barnhart is living about five miles beyond Reuben and is considered out of our range and also out of the family. He is married again as you have heard and has an industrious wife (Don’t you pity her and don’t you think she was [unreadable] pleased). Sarah [Ash] has moved [unreadable] Vanzandt. She is the mother of four children. I know of nothing more to write concerning your relatives that I think would interest you. I saw your aunt Sarah Jane this morning and she requested me to send to you to see her brother Isaac if it is convenient for you to do so and learn how he and the rest of her relatives are doing and information her when you write. Your Aunt Frances want you to see your uncle [about 3 words unreadable] get her Ambrotype and bring it to her if [he] is willing to give it up. She wants it herself and hopes that he will not mind giving it up. I have nothing more to write to you as I wish to write [about 4 or 5 words unreadable]. Write to me often and above all things else make your arrangements to come home next fall. I cannot wait any
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[Note: It would appear that the word “longer” is expected. The copyist wrote in the margin “Nothing was cut off here. This is the way my copy ends.”]
More notes on the letter from Nancy Jane Pierce to her son Wylie.
The photocopy I have in my possession was given to me several years ago by a cousin who does genealogical research. I do not know who owns the original. The story I was told is that Wylie served in the Civil War, then stayed in Georgia awhile before returning to Texas. The letter is three pages in length, and was written by his mother Nancy in Rusk County to Wylie while he was in Georgia. The letter bears evidence that someone traced over the original writing in order to make it darker/more legible. I think a few of the unreadable places are words that the person tracing could not make out and did not attempt to trace over. Other spots that are unreadable appear to be where the letter was folded. All [bracketed] words are words about which I am unsure of the correct reading. See below for some of my thoughts on the people mentioned in the letter.
Author and recipient.
Nancy Jane Parker Bates Pierce -- author of the letter, daughter of Emmanuel Parker and Mary Ann “Polly” Astin. Nancy Parker married William Bates 4 Nov 1827 in Greene Co., GA; married Matthew Pierce 30 Oct 1836 in the same county.
Wiley/Wylie Matthew Pierce -- recipient of the letter, son of Matthew Pierce and Nancy Jane Parker. (Name is spelled “Wylie” on his tombstone)
People mentioned in the letter.
Asa – Asa Jasper Parker, son-in-law of Nancy Jane Pierce.
Preston, Edward, Marietta, Hillier, Hicks – children of Asa Jasper and Susan Mary Ann Bates Parker.
Major Whitfield – don’t know
Rom and Lizzie – possibly Romulus and Elizabeth V. Pierce Turner.
William – probably William Bates, Nancy’s son by her first marriage.
Wiley – Wiley/Wylie Astin Parker, brother of Nancy Jane Pierce.
Foster – Robert Foster Parker, brother of Nancy Jane Pierce.
Bartley – Bartley Wallace, brother-in-law of Nancy Jane Pierce (he married Susan Ann Parker).
Harrison and Harris – Edwin Wylie Harrison and Francis Marion Harris, sons of Wiley A. and Elizabeth Carson Parker.
Tommie – probably Henry Robert Thomas, son Wiley A. and Elizabeth Carson Parker.
Martha A. Little – daughter of Lewis and Nancy Little; married E. W. H. Parker
Angeline – Angeline Elizabeth Frances, daughter of Wiley A. and Elizabeth Carson Parker.
Jerry – probably Jeremiah N. Parker, son of Robert Foster and Purtima Simmons Parker.
Frank – Jeptha Franklin Parker, brother of Nancy Jane Pierce
Sallie, [Eddie’s widow] – don’t know, but…We could conjecture that Eddie is William E. Parker (assuming his middle name is Edward AND that the reading Eddie is correct). A William E. Parker married Sarah A. Mabry in Rusk County 15 Sept 1859. Sallie is often a diminutive for Sarah. A William E. Parker joined Captain H. A. Wallace’s company in Rusk County on 10 May 1862. Lots of guesswork here, but if William E. died during the war (d. 1862), and Sarah Mabry was called Sallie, then she may be the widow mentioned.
Tobe and his wife – possibly Tobe and Frances Wallace, a black couple ages 50 and 26 in 1870, lived two houses away from Jeremiah in the 1870 census.
Reuben – Reuben Carmichael, brother-in-law of Nancy Jane Pierce (he married Sidney Frances Parker).
Berry Rainwater – Berry M. Rainwater married Susan Ann Marinda Parker, daughter of Wiley A. and Elizabeth Carson Parker.
Frances – Sydney Frances Parker, sister of Nancy Jane Pierce.
Barnhart – Leroy Barnhart, former brother-in-law of Nancy Jane Pierce; Leroy Barnhart married Sarah Parker 15 April 1842 in Greene Co., GA. After her death he married Mary Jane Abshear, and apparently lived around Linn Flat in Nacogdoches County before moving to Falls County, Texas between 1870 and 1880.
Sarah [Ash] – if the Ash reading is correct this would be the daughter of Reuben Carmichael and his first wife, Elizabeth Spinks.
Sarah Jane – possibly Sarah Jane Jackson, wife of Jeptha Franklin Parker (does she have a brother named Isaac?).
“8 miles from [H????]” might be “Holleman”. At least it seems to possibly start off with “Hol…”
Ambrotype – evidently was a picture. Ambrotype was/is a photographic process that creates a photographic image on the back of a sheet of glass.
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