In her letters, she also shares details about the people around her and their transactions. I took these snippets from her letters dated November 22, 1918 and January 1, 1919.
“King Hutson paid 3900 for that piece of land after Ans Mathis had bought a strip next to him for 500 dollars, making that piece cost 4400. King Hutson let Samps Henry and Levi Hutson have it. John Jaynes paid 3000 for that strip between then and George Baker.”
King Hutson was Cornie’s father. She married Martha’s son Victor. I don’t know what “Samps” is but Henry and Levi are Cornie’s brother. Cornie had a sister named Cora who married so she would not have inherited the property either. This bit of information sent me on a lengthy search for Cornie’s parents. I had read King Hutson in the letters and knew Cornie’s last name was Hutson and I thought they might be related. However, my information on Ancestry.com did not support that. I started over again today and found that King was indeed Cornie’s father. I also found that all the sisters and brothers I had for him were wrong and had to be deleted. He does have three siblings. Alice and Amanda were spinsters and lived with his family until they died. What I found even more interesting is he is the third child and his name is King Samuel. That’s from the Bible. Although his older sisters have what I think are normal names, his is different, and his younger sister is Queen Elizabeth Hutson.
Martha’s next portion of the letter talks about her holdings and crops.
"Wm you can hardly imagine what this farm will be worth in 4 years from now. The timber and ore. By that time the timber will be scarce and ours will be a price. You can mine your own ore have it crushed or sell it Raise poultry and vegetables. They are leasing to other companies so I am told.
The Suckers where we raised tobacco is green and blooming. I have enough green mustard in the garden for 20 families. lots of garden huckleberries.
Wm, there is scarcely any more logs run, The people saw crossties a run them but not half what they did 2 year ago. Timber nearly all used up. We all have the most timber I know of. Frank Rhea is sawing for the co for 3.50 per day.”
The co (or the mining company) fills a portion of the letters.
“The co has made Henry Hatfield’s land worth something. Henry wont sell. The CO have paid all the second payments. They claim the mineral is fine.
Wm. Times is dull here now, not much doing. The mining people is going slow. wages for common work is 1.50, carpenter 3 or 3.50. They have built 15 swelling houses and is building a large building for the machinery and a large store house. A man by the name of Coberly from Joplin, M.O. is here to setup their machinery. His family is here. They claim to have one million and quarter dollars worth of mineral in sight.”
She writes about the Hatfield’s. They were not only neighbors; her daughter Della married Mack Hatfield, the son of Henry. Mining was the biggest thing in town and one of the reasons my grandmother did not want to live there.
Martha worked hard for her survival but she did well.
No comments:
Post a Comment