1858 Letter Written by Henry W. Bittick to John R. Bittick

[page 1]

January the 12 1858 St Joseph Buchannan Co. Mo

Dear brother and sister it is with much

plesure that we have the present opportunity of

enforming you that are all well at present

hoping those few lines may find you all

enjoing the same good blesing

I am a folowing my same old traid halling

wood and drinking whiskey I am aliving

three miles above St. joseph in the bottom

some days I make one dollar aday and

some days as hy as seven I have stock

enough to do me very well I have ten head

of catle and two horses and hogs enough to do

me horses is worth from 75 to 100 dollars

catle from 60 to 100 dollar corn is worth

from one dollar to one dollar and quarter per barel

wheat from one dollar to one and a quarter

per birsel flour is worth from four to four

and half per hundred pork is worth from

three and half to five dollars per hundred

write to me who has our land and whether

I could get it by paing the taxes on it or not

and if I can get it I will come to see about

it next fall if there is eney chance to

get it write to me how much it would

take to pay for it you have been

promising so long to come us that I am almost

[page 2]

tired of waiting and I think I will

come to see you I want you to write

to me how edward and his family is

I would be glad to you all and be with you

a while I want you to write to me how all

the folks is that you know of tell them

to write to us I heard from jefisons and

Mariens [?] and hunsmans folks a few day ago

and was all well we live about fifty miles

from them tell james walace that I

have not forgot the fite we had yet and

that I would like for him to come to see me

and see our country I am a liveing on

rented land here and paying 3 dollars an acre for

it and have plenty to eat and a little to

ware and call that doing pretty well

I gets from three to four dollars per cord for

wood we have had a very pretty winter

here so far very warm and good wether

to work we have not had eney snow here

this winter of eney a count which has

brough wood down tolarbon [tolerable?] low

I have not heard from you sinse I lived

in jentry Co that letter that you wrote

after you come back from texis and

wrote letters to you did not get eney answer

and begin to think that you had gone back

to texis again

[Page 3]

tell samuel hockens thit penelope and her

husband live here in about a quarter of mile

of us and they are all well

Susan Jane bittick I will now write a few line

As henry did not hardly finish the letter

Henry talks of coming to see you next fall

and I will try and persuad him thim up

That I can come two henry thought he

was writing about all his traids but

there was one that he left out and that is

plaiy [or plaing?] the fidle but he can not get much

time to play the fidle to night for snufing the

candle to keep a light for us to see how to

write now I must brag some on our boys

we have three boy and one girl I will write

their names Martha and John donathen

and jame thomas and Henry volintine

our youngest child was born november the (missing)

1857 write to us immediately So no more

at present only remaind your effectionate brother

and sister untill death H W bittick and

Susan Jane Bittick to John R Bittick

and Sintha Bittick

Direct your letters to Buchanan Co St joseph po

Mo

******

Original letter owned and transcribed by Ronda J. Snider, 1999

        Henry W. Bittick wrote this letter to his brother, John R. Bittick. The letter was always kept in John R.'s Bible, which was inherited by his son, Milton Taylor. Henry's wife's name was previously transcribed as Susan Pane Bittick. There are no capital "P's" in the part that she wrote, but after comparing the "J" in John R. at the end of the letter with her middle name, it seems to be Susan Jane Bittick. She is sometimes listed in census records as Jane. Edward, mentioned in page 2, was probably Edward Reed. Edward Reed married Nancy Bittick (born about 1816), Henry and John R.'s sister. "Jefison," also mention in page 2, was probably John Jefferson Hawkins who married Drucilla Bittick. Drucilla was another sister of John R. and Henry W. "Marien" was probably their brother, Francis Marion Bittick, born 1829. Francis Marion married Mary Ann Smith, Susan's sister. James Wallace was John R.'s brother-in-law, James A. Wallace. "Samuel Hockens" was probably Samuel Houston Hawkins, brother of John Jefferson Hawkins. Samuel's third wife was Eliza Ann "Lizey" Wallace, John R. Bittick's sister-in-law. "Penelope" was Samuel and John Jefferson Hawkins' sister, Penelope Jane Hawkins; she married Arch Monroe Mackey. In 1853, John R. and Cyntha Bittick removed to Texas; however, they didn't stay long & were soon back in Maries County, Missouri. From the census records, Henry was in Gentry County, Missouri in 1850 and 1860, Buchanan County in 1870, and back in Gentry County in 1880. In 1858, John R. was in Maries County, Missouri.