OLD LETTERS
Pertaining to Monroe County, Tn.
Submitted by: Pat Ash
This letter was sent from Elizabeth GRAVES Perkins who lived in the 14 th Dist. which was Tellico Plains, Monroe, TN to Joshua Carter and Sally COOPER Perkins, living in Letcher, KY. Elizabeth PERKINS Graves was the dau. of Benjamin and Rachel ASHER Graves, who are listed as living next to her in the 1850 census.
It is dated 1857 and reads as follows:
Der Sister & Brother [1]:
I takee this oppertunity of writing you a few lines to inform you how we all ar(e). We are all well at this time as far as I (k)now. Only myself, I am not very well. I hope thes(e) lines find you enjoying the best of God’s blessing.
I received a letter from a letter you from dated Aprile the 26 which I was glad to where (hear) that all was well. Relickey was married August the 21 to Michle Hanes [2]. He is doing vary well. He is a carpenter. Liddey was married the 8 of January 1857 [3]. She married to a farmer Jessy Jjles. She is busy, vary well to this time. The rest of us is a doing the best we can.
Father is died last December the 27-1856 [4]. Mother is as well as could be expecedct (expected). I want you to writ(e) to me as quick as you can and write to about marthey [5] what (She is a doing we all want to see you all vary bad the winter was the hardest ever that every a was known. The harvest is more) ripe & the labors is scarce. So nothing more at the present. Onley remaining yours to dethe (death).
Elizebeth Perkins [6] [7] [8] to J. C. Perkins.
[1] Joshua
Carter PERKINS and his wife, Sarah COOPER Perkins, were the “Dear Sister
& Brother.”
[2] Relickey
was Elizabeth’s daughter Rebecca PERKINS who married Michael Haines of
Vermont.
[3] Liddey
was Lydia PERKINS who married Jessee Giles.
She bore him two sons, Marion Hollis GILES and Isaac B. GILES. The filmed marriage records of Monroe TN show that Lydia
PERKINS married Jessee GILES on 8 January 1857, as her mother wrote.
[4] Father
was Benjamin GRAVES. In the
1850 census his age was given as 83, and he lived in the 14th
Civil District, Monroe, with his wife, Rachel ASHER Graves.
Elizabeth PERKINS Graves lived next to them, and appears to have been
a widow by 1850.
This
GRAVES family’s history appears under Monroe TN Cemeteries.
[5] Marthey was Martha PERKINS, Joshua Carter PERKINS’ sister, who lived with his family in the 1850 and 1860 US Letcher KY census as well as the 1870 US Fayette IL census.
[6].Elizabeth
GRAVES Perkins is shown in the both the 1850 and 1860 US Monroe TN
census’.
[7] The
GRAVES Family History shows that Elizabeth GRAVES Perkins was married to
Mike Perkins; HOWEVER, death certificates of her children show their father
to be Stephen PERKINS.
There
is another letter, dated 1887, written from Washington College, Washington
TN by Jacob F. Perkins. This
letter was also to Joshua Carter PERKINS who was his cousin. He writes “I believe I wrote you that I saw some of Stephen
PERKINS’ children during the War. Michael
was at my house since the war. He
is a Methodist preacher and thinks he preach and can preach some.”
Michael PERKINS was the son of Elizabeth GRAVES PERKINS. He served as the pastor the Holly Springs Baptist Church in Monroe TN. He, and his family are the 1880 US Monroe TN census, and then in the 1900 McMinn TN Census.
[8] Michael PERKINS was married to Elizabeth C. WEBB, 4 December 1864 on Monroe, TN
His brother, Joseph W. PERKINS, married Nancy Jane Barger on 22 September 1865 in Monroe TN. Some have identified Nancy Jane’s surname as BAKER.