Transcription of
1810 (1811)
Letter From Charles Ware In Researched
and written by: Judy Ware Original letter on file at the Rutherford B. Hayes Library ON
OUTSIDE OF FOLDED LETTER
Mr.
James Ware
I received, by our
father, your letter and am glad to hear you are all well - which at the present is the
case with us and I believe all (our) relations.
Winny Webb was married on Tuesday last to Thompson (Matthew Thompson) Scott, a very pleasing match to all
parties. Thompson Ware (brother of James)
talks of building a brick house. He has paid
$90.00 and a horse toward it, but has put it off until next year. William Conn has settled between Thompson
Ware’s and his father. (He) has built a brick house and cleared about 20 acres
of land and put it in corn and hemp. Thompson
has (for the first time) a little hemp agrowing; by the way of speculation. I raised, last year, some better than 2 ½ tons of hemp which I
sold to Capt. John Richardson and son (who has established a Rope Walk on his farm) at seven dollars p. hundred; payable in 12 months,
which will expire the 15th of March next. Hemp
is worth about $6.00 now. It was up for two
weeks only last winter - worth $7.00. I had a
good deal of trouble with (the) breaking of my hemp, having taken it almost all up
before it was well rotted. Notwithstanding, it
passed in great credit. I’ll know better
next time.
My father (James II),
brother
George, and Newland all have undertaken to give the news of your
Your buzzard colt is very large and promising. I
neglected to halter break her last Fall but will do it soon and shall do it with great
caution as I know the danger. I have a very
stout 3 year old (and well broke) wagon horse that I think is just another horse as (good as)
Rainbow was that I can spare very well which I will send to your wagon. If a good opportunity offers, this horse I mean as
a present for the boots you sent me by George, and (I) insist on receiving nothing else for him.
I applied to Mr. Webb who says that he has not a single dollar of the estate money in
hand. Neither does he expect to receive any
soon as those in debt prefer paying interest to paying the money.
I sold my
I have nothing more to say at present. I wish
very much to see you, Harriet, and children, but never shall unless you should visit this
country- which I flatter myself will be the case ere’ very long. I enjoy but a moderate portion of health generally
and not a great share of content.
Tell Harriet she must make haste and increase her family and send me one, as I fear Mrs.
Alexander will not spare any of theirs. Notwithstanding,
give my best respects to her for I always was as fond of her as I was of anybody. Tell Sally and Charles to write to me and not to
forget that they once knew me.
My wife joins me in love to all C. (Charles) Ware When
Cornelia Ware Anker first transcribed these letters in 1945, she was using a very old
typewriter. It’s hard to tell if some of
the misspelled words & grammar errors were due to faulty typing or merely an effort on
her part to be true to the original writing. She admitted freely that “I
have copied these letters as well as I could; most of them are very hard to read. The penmanship is beautiful, but it is small and,
of course, dim with age.” In
looking at the text of this letter and another one that was written by the father of both
Charles & James in 1811, it clearly looks as if this letter was written in 1811 and not
1810. There are several reasons why. In comparing the two letters, I will print excerpts
of the one from James II in green
and the one from Charles in blue. Note the same time frame they are using. (1)
In the father’s letter, he mentions the following – “Thompson
Scott was married to Winny Webb the 12th of the month.” Charles
writes:
“Winny
Webb was married on Tuesday last to Thompson Scott, a very pleasing match to all parties. Several
other references record the wedding date of Thompson and Winny Webb as June 12, 1811. (2)
James
II wrote: “Charles
Ware has written you.” Since
the date on the father’s letter was June
16th
and the one from Charles was only one day later on the 17th
,
the verb tense HAS WRITTEN would validate the same year of 1811. (3)
James
II wrote: “.
. . to go down to Charles
writes:
“My father, George, and Newland all have undertaken to give the news of your (4)
James
II wrote:
“Isaac
Webb has got no money of Charles Webb’s estate in cash in his hand.” Charles
writes:
“I applied to Mr. Webb who says that he has not a single
dollar of the estate money in hand.” (5) In short, all the information that both parties wrote about (even down to the crops and horses) is in the same time period, and it would be highly implausible to think that there was an entire year spaced between the two letters. Thompson,
James, Charles, and George were all brothers. At
the time Charles wrote this letter, he was 36 years old and James III was 40. Their father (James II) was 70. “Winny
Webb was married on Tuesday last to Thompson Scott, a very pleasing match to all
parties.” The
man that
Winny Webb married was, indeed, called Thompson Scott, but his full name was Matthew
Thompson Scott. They were married on June 12, 1811. In
records kept at the RB Hayes Library, it states that,
“Matthew Thompson Scott was a cashier, then President of the Northern bank of “Thompson
Ware (brother of James)
talks of building a brick house. He has paid
$90.00 and a horse toward it, but has put it off until next year.” In
a letter from James Ware II to his son James III in 1812, he mentioned that: “Thompson
(your brother) is very slow lived in his old cabin which I had as leave live in a barn if
could have fire.” Obviously
Thompson did put off building his home for at least another year. “William Conn
has settled between Thompson Ware’s and his father.” William
Conn married Fanny Webb – the daughter of Mary “Polly” Webb and her husband
Charles. Fanny would have been the cousin of
both James III and Charles. Unfortunately, she
died fairly young as her Aunt Lucy wrote in 1830 that her sister Polly had sorrowfully
said, “O, if he (the doctor) could have only
seen Fanny, I think she would have got well.” William was
the brother of James Conn who married Kitty Webb (Lucy & Isaac’s daughter.) Lucy
also wrote that “William Conn has bought James
Conn’s place adjoining him. They live
there (if he ever pays for it) though the payments are quite easy.” James later moved near the Blue Licks. “My
father, George, and Newland all have undertaken to give the news of your There
are other times that “ “I raised, last year, some better than 2 ½ tons of hemp which I sold to Capt. John Richardson and son (who has established a Rope Walk on his farm”). Brief explanation of the crop Hemp Hemp
is the tough, coarse fiber of the cannabis plant, often used to make rope. It is the oldest cult The first
Gutenberg bible was printed on hemp paper. Christopher
Columbus' sails and ropes were made from hemp, and the first drafts of the Declaration of Hemp demands
a rich, well-drained soil such as is found in the Blue Grass region of The following was written in THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER by Dick Burdette (written on March 20, 2000) VERSAILLES,
Ky. - Near the east edge of town, along U.S. 60 at Payne’s Mill Road, there's a
bronze marker commemorating the important role hemp once played in Kentucky agriculture.
It isn't unique. There are similar signs in Boyle, Fayette, In
another article written in the THE
WOODFORD SUN ( “Our flak and oats
will, I fear, not be worth saving.” Brief
explanation of the crop Flax Although
the writer of this letter (or the first transcriber) spelled it “flak,” it is
usually known as flax. This plant, from which
linen is derived, never rivaled tobacco as a cash crop in the It
is highly possible this “Jim” was one of the slaves that came with the Ware
family to help get settled in “I
wish very much to see you, Harriet, and children.” Harriet
bore 6 children to James, but sadly, most died very young.
James W. Ware died at 18 on
board the ship “Herald” that was bound for “Tell
Sally and Charles to write to me and not to forget that they once knew me.” Charles
had (at one time) lived with his brother James and his first wife, Elizabeth Alexander. He wrote in an 1831 letter that “I did not go to live with him until the fall of
1793. We then continued together almost until
I married in 1803 and sometime after your amiable and affectionate Mother had quit this
world for a more blessed aboard.” He
was obviously living with them when they had all their children. Sally (daughter of James and Elizabeth) was Sarah
Elizabeth Taliaferro Ware who went on to marry Sigismund Stribling. The son named Charles (that is mentioned) refers to
the older brother of Josiah Ware who died at age 23. Josiah
was not mentioned in the letter because he would have only been a few months old when
Charles moved back to Charles
was married to Frances Whiting.
Photo: courtesy of Bill LaBach References: Letter
from Charles Ware to his niece Sarah (Sally)Elizabeth Taliaferro Ware Stribling written in 1831. Transcribed and researched by Judy C. Ware April
2009 Transcription
of 1810 Letter to James Ware from unknown author – courtesy of Cornelia Ware Anker. The
World Book Encyclopedia
by: Field Enterprises, Inc. Copyright 1954 |
This site maintained by John Reagan and last updated July 18, 2009 |
ivated
fiber plant in the world. It contains no toxins as it does not require pesticides.
but most farmers and plantation owners grew small amounts well into the 1800's
for their own use.