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I'M THINKING.•rv * .Life Of A PioneerBY AN OLD REPORTERTHE LIFE OF A PIONEER father. He could not write his Referring again to William own name and perhaps never sawR*iM« u-hn ivK hrioflv mftnliftnp/l ihe iliside Ol d bcllllv, blit 1)C ac-. 0 , I** “I1?1* meutl®ed cumulated a large family, two doz-.ai an article published a number el; slaves and over a thousandof months ago, he was born on acres of land by tilie time of his June 10, 1771, in Southampton dea.h. 1,1 is superfluous to say County, Virginia, and (lied annul that he lived well and was highly three miles .southeast of Elm City respected by all classes of socif^ on September 1«L 1850. He was bur- ty in his community, as is alwa.^iF ieci under a cedar in the field be- true of men of enterprise and side the late home of John William sterling character.Sharpe, while his own home formerly stood not very far distant CONFEDERATE LETTER on the opposite side of the road, Danville, Va.two or three hundred yards in the May 17th, 1864direction of Elm City. This was Dear wife Children: perhaps the oldest surviving orig- | rec’d your kind and interesting Inal tombstone in Wilson County letter last evening, which was and was taken to another Location dated the llth ol May. I am now just before the long - neglected at Danville, Va., at the Wayside graveyard was obliterated by the Hospital. I am on my way to my plow. , Regiment, but it seems as if 1 amThe Batts family settled on cut off from my command by the Town Creek in 178;!, and it was Yankees. I shall leave here in a still an undeveloped wilderness short time. They are going to put when William first married about us in a South Carolina Regiment 1800. He started house-keeping in mid send us on to meet the Yanks, a one-room log house with shut- [ was mighty glad to hear fromfcens but no window-panes in the you all, for 1 was uneasy aboutwindows to keep out the elements, home, I can’t tell you where to di-Hus wife did ail the cooking in a ,-ecl your letteV, for 1 do-n’t knowbig open fireplace, with pots and where 1 am going. 1 don’t knowlong-handled iron utensils. Their when 1 shall get to my regiment,table was a barrel with a broad [ can’t tell where W. A. Ellis norboard laid across the lop, and [{. G. Ellis nor WMe Ellis are^fcheur seats consisted of log. blocks r left them near Washington, NTsawed into the proper lengths, c. 1 want you to quit working out11 r• was the most remark- of doors. I want to see you mighty able tiiiLiig of ail, because its frame bad.was supported by posts at two of I am with G. May, Mrs. Barney’s the corners and by the logs of the brother. He stays at this hospii%' cabin at the other two corners. The He has been very kind to me and mattress ’ over the closely laid treated me with a great deal ofslats was only a thick layer of pine respect. He says if I could getstraw, which was covered by a anybody to assist me, f could get bed-rug before the hand - woven out of service. He says that Con-siieets and hand-made blankets or gross has passed a law to clear quilts were applied. ah that have 8 children, and if ITwo healthy young people could could get some influential man to be very happy in those days with attend to it for me, I could get a very little of the goods of this out. 1 wrote to Wash Barnes about world. PrachcaLy everything they it. See I. U. Amerson and get him or anyone else used or wore was to say somdilimg to J. Wilkinson produced at home, and the major- about it, and to look into it for me lty ofttheir neighbors lived in aim- if he pleases. G. May says that ilar circun stances imtd their sit- they are getting out in Alabama, uatton should be altered by the Ret Lie, they are knocking off coiLstruation of a larger house or one^hiixi of the $5.00 Dollaim bills, the acquisition of more slaves or Ycm can’t pass one anywhere until land People lived close to nature they deduct one-third. I left the and had little to worry about,, as blanket and things at Kinston long as they could raise enough with Capt. Groom. You might get food to live on and could have a Mixed Ellis to bring them for decent change of clothes to wear you if- he has not left. I am not to Church on meeteng-days^ Going very well this morning, but I shallto Church and visiting neighbors leave. I see a heap of Yanks pris-or kinfolk were the principal sod- oners here. 1 don’t know what they al outlets For young and old. (I are doing about Richnnond. We sometimes wonder whether these can't hear a word from there.jj A f j- Ui# w “V w * V/l U •* Vrl 11 Ull-UU. C t 1people may not have gotten a lot Give all my children my re-w-more out of_ life than we of today spools and tell thorn 1 have notig )s^}° nevoi* find time to do ail the forgotten them. I was sorry to e- mmgs Uiat oiwvd arouiKl ult;sD hear you were so diardxoeaed, and c W illiam Balts did all the heavy that Sally and Mart were sick, I :e work himself, until he could afford stayed at Greensboro one night: a to buy his first slave, and his wife it was last Saturday night. If It id helped with the light chopping of could have found out where Natw cam and cotton. He gradually lived, I would have gone to see cleared acre after acre of wood- her to have got something to eathe is said to have carried lus wa- You need not send me any mofixey. tor Jin when he was working at a If I can get to the Regiment, I f h*om the house. He work- have got money owing to me: onepo hard and saved his money, hundred dollars or more. s- buying, slaves and increasing the J. R. p. ELLISsmall acreage that came from his Write socm to the Regiment.AROUND CAPITOL SOUARE
Newspaper Details
Rocky Mount Evening Telegram
Rocky Mount, North Carolina, US
Mon, Jun 09, 1958
Page 4
Full Page
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Anonymous
NC, USA 02 Jun 2022
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