July 2, 1856

Transcribed by Lucy Prothero and annotated by Scott Stegall

David Coll. July 2. [1856]

Dear Bess,

I got a note from Alick yesterday, saying that he would not send me the crushed sugar we ordered as by the time it reached Charlotte, it would be 14 ½ cts per pound and we could probably get it as low as that. He will send the coffee & candles. I wish you would send Zack round & get me a few samples of sugar both brown & crushed & the price by the barrel  – we want a barrel of each, & as the price is rising had better purchase now than by the small quantity.¹

The wedding took place night before last, not a soul was there from the Hill but your Father, who married them. The fee was ten dollars. I called to see the bride the next morning, she was dressed in a green plaid silk & looked very pretty. Mr C. looked very happy & foolish.²

 

They go down tomorrow on their way to his Fathers, where they will make a visit of a week. Mr. Henderson came over here the other night in a great taking about the action of the Board with regard to him.³ He had just heard of it from Charlotte. He blames the Faculty for not giving him warning, not remembering that Major Hill warned him more than a year ago and he has been abusing him ever since.⁴ Mr Henderson went down to Charlotte yesterday to see Mr Osborne.⁵ He told Mr Lacy that Mr Hunter was going to bring on some of the “schnapps” but he persuaded him not.⁶ He confesses to selling brandy two years ago.

I have not time to write much of a letter, but I believe I have but little more to say. The children are both better. Benny has gotten well of the “running off,”⁷ but it seems to me

 

 

 

there never were such fractious children, it keeps one person busy to keep them from killing each other. Ben was looking at the daguerreotypes this morning, when I was dusting them, as soon as he saw yours, he said “Bess”. We had corn today for the first time. Our snaps have failed al-most [new line] entirely for which I am very sorry as your Father & Kate love them so.⁸ When do you put your celery in trenches? It seems to me that it grows very slowly. I am almost discouraged about my garden, the hogs get in almost every night. They have eaten off every bit of the lettuce left for seed and such a fine kind. Have you had any warm weather in Charlotte, & any thunder or lightning? It has been stinging hot here. Kate says I must give her love to you & Mary.⁹ She & Mr Junkin are going out to Mrs Reads this evening.¹⁰ Any chance of my crib? I don’t see

 

 

 

any waggons passing these days. Send me the price of the lemons. If Dru can get a coarse travelling coat for Two dollars or Two-fifty per-haps he had better get it than the material.¹¹ Love to Mr D & Mary. I am afraid the boys will find it very lonesome here.

Yrs affect M R. L.

 

 

 

1. Zack may have been the 50-year-old slave owned by Thomas W. Dewey, Bess’s husband and Mary’s son-in-law, according to the 1860 slave schedule.
2. Drury Lacy married J.C. Caldwell and Lilla Henderson on July 1, 1856.  Lilla Henderson (Lilly Ann Henderson) was the daughter of James P. Henderson and Harriet P. Wallace. For more information, see Charlotte Daily Observer, February 8, 1903, 9-10; Brent H. Holcomb, Marriages of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina 1783-1868 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995), 32.
3. James P. Henderson (1795-1868) owned and operated a store in the present Grey House in Davidson. Henderson likely sold liquor to Davidson College students.The Davidson College Board of Trustees actually sued Henderson for allegedly peddling alcohol to students. For more information, see Mary Beaty, Davidson: A History of the Town from 1835 until 1937 (Davidson: Briarpatch Press, 1979), 19.
4. Daniel Harvey Hill (1821-1889) studied at West Point and fought in the Mexican-American War. In 1849, Hill accepted a position as professor of mathematics at Washington College. He  married Isabella Morrison, daughter of Robert Hall Morrison, the first President of Davidson College. Later, Hill chaired the mathematics department at Davidson College until 1859 when he accepted the superintendency of the Charlotte Military Institute. Hill served with distinction during the Civil War and attained the rank of Lieutenant General. For more information, see John G. Barrett, “Daniel Harvey Hill” NCPedia, https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/hill-daniel-harvey (accessed October 19, 2017); Dan L. Morrill, “Daniel Harvey Hill,” Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, http://www.cmhpf.org/personalities/dhhill.html (accessed October 19, 2017).
5. James Walker Osborne (1811-1869) was born in Salisbury and later lived with his uncle and aunt at their plantation, Hollywood, on the Catawba River. He studied at the University of North Carolina and was admitted to the bar in 1833. Osborne was the solicitor for Mecklenburg County from 1833-1836, superintendent of the Charlotte Mint from 1849-1853, and judge of the superior court from 1859-1865. Osborne voted for secession at the North Carolina Secession Convention of 1861. He served on the Board of Trustees at Davidson College. For more information, see D.W. Adams, “James Walker Osborne,” NCPedia, https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/osborne-james-walker (accessed October 16, 2017).
6. According to the 1860 census, James McKnight Hunter was a wealthy farmer who lived in the Western District of Mecklenburg County.
7. Benjamin Rice Lacy (1854-1929) was the eldest child of Drury and Mary Lacy. He was born in June 1854. Lacy served as the state Commissioner of Labor and Printing. In 1901, he was elected State Treasurer of North Carolina and served in that capacity until 1928. For more information, see Holt McPherson, “Benjamin Rice Lacy,” NCPedia, https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/lacy-benjamin-rice (accessed October 19, 2017.)
8. According to scholars at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kate is likely Mary Catherine Rice, the wife of Mary’s brother Archibald.
9. Mary Dewey was Bess’ eldest daughter and Mary Lacy’s step-granddaughter. She was born in 1856, the year this letter was penned.
10. Ebenezer Dickey Junkin was a Presbyterian minister who pastored the Concord Synod. He was the brother in law of Stonewall Jackson. For more information, see “Dr. Ebenezer Dickey Junkin,” Frontier Families, http://www.frontierfamilies.net/family/junkin/family/D6EDJ.htm (accessed October 17, 2017).
11. Dru refers to Drury Lacy, Jr., who was approximately seventeen years old when this letter was written and resided with his older sister, Bess, in Charlotte. He was Reverend Lacy’s third child by his first wife.