Transcription of an 1868 letter from Nancy A. Parker Nash to Eliza Jane Parker Vaughn
Text:
Stone Mountain Ga
April 14 1868
My Dear Sister,
This will inform you that your letter dated Jan 19 came to hand in [due] time and you may know that I was glad to know that you had thought of me once more for I had begin to think you had forgotten there was such a being as me. I believe I have no news that would interest you more than we are all well, hoping the same of you. I hope you will excuse me for neglecting to write to you so long after I received yours. I thought I would answer it immediately and I was very busy in the week and had company [by] Sunday, so I could not write. So I told Mr. Nash this morning I would not put it off no longer; I would lay all other business aside and write to you. Dear Sister it has been a long time since I heard from you before but it does not keep me from thinking of you many times and dreaming of you many times. I dream of being with you as we were when we were growing up and seeing so much pleasure not knowing what a few years would bring round with us. Dear Sister I do sympathize with you for the loss of your companion and son. I know something of your feelings. I would like for you to write in your next wheather Wyatt and John died at home or in the army. I have three little children one 7 years one 5 and one near two years old. There names Isaiah Parker, Margaret Eunice, and Thomas [Peitiler]. Willie and Julia wishes to be remembered to you. Julia is living three miles from us. Willie is tending
[page 2]
to a steam saw mill some 5 or 6 miles from here. I do miss Willie and Julia so much. I did hate to give Julia up so bad and She so young but I thought I would say nothing as she has married a [sturdy] and industrious young man and one that will treat her well. I wish I could write such as letter as I want to but I have got to be the poorest hand to compose a letter. My mind is not like it used to be owing to so much sickness. I tell you Eliza you don’t know nothing about what I have went through for the last 12 or 14 years in the way of sickness. But I am now in very good health but can’t walk any distance hardly, though I walked two miles and back one day last week to have a tooth pulled. I did not think I could walk that far but I had been aggravated with toothache till I was tired of it and did not want to stop a plow, so I went and had it pulled but I payed for it that night with my leg. I guess you have heard of my sickness last fall a year ago. If you have not Bro. Tom can tell you something about it. I did not walk alone in two months or more. I had what’s called milk leg. I must close as my feet are very cold. It seems like it is almost cold enough to snow today. I will write to Sister E. C. and [?Tommie/Sammie?] in a few days. Give my love to all your children and [connexions/cousins?] and save a huge portion for yourself. Mr. Nash sends his respects to you. [?nomore?] from your Sister Nancy A. Nash.
[This letter was written from Nancy A. Parker Nash in Georgia to her sister Eliza Jane Parker Vaughn in Texas. All [bracketed] words are words about which I am unsure of the correct reading and put in my best guess. (If I was dissatisfied with my guess, I also put a question mark.) Much of the punctuation of the letter is mine, so some of it may not be punctuated correctly. It is hard to see the punctuation marks in the copy of the old letter. Nancy Parker Nash, the author of the letter, first married Reuben P. Parker in 1850; the Willie and Julia mentioned in the letter are her and Reuben’s children. She married second Larkin Nash in 1859, and the other three children mentioned are her and Larkin’s children. Their ages were hard to read, but I believe I’ve got them right. E. C. is Nancy’s and Eliza’s older sister Elizabeth Carson Parker. Eliza Jane Parker married Wyatt Vaughn in 1845 in Greene County, Georgia, and moved to Texas circa 1853. I am uncertain who are “Bro. Tom” and “Tommie/Sammie” (or whether either of that latter transcription is correct}. When Nancy writes that she “did not want to stop a plow,” she probably means she walked rather than take a horse away from the plowing. RLV]
Replies