you wrote to know what provisions were selling at. Corn is worth two
dollars ($2.00) per bushel, wheat one dollars seventy-five ($1.75) to
two dollars ($2.00), pork seven cents (7¢) per pound up here down in the
post oaks six cents (6¢), four year old steers fifteen dollars ($15.00)
to seventeen dollars ($17.00).
We are going to have a hard time of it for a while in Texas. Cotton
cannot be sold at all. Tom has taken Steve down to his place. I have not
heard of your mare as yet. Henry's stock look well except the old mare,
she is thin occasioned by suckling.
I had a line from Josephus yesterday. Nothing new about Wheelock. James
Alexander Cavitt is dead, Josephus has embraced Christianity.
Martha sends her love to all. Remember me to all and believe me.
As ever your brother, Henry J. Caufield.
Three months before this letter the next youngest or Ann's sons by
Andrew, James Alexander, had died. In September this year, Ann Cavett
Cavitt Armstrong's adored son, Sheridan Cavitt, enlisted in the
Confederate Army with the Company mustered in at Wheelock, Texas, by Dr.
Belvedere Brooks.
XXX
John Young married Mary Dunn, sister of James Dunn, Sr. He was
easy-going and "took no anxious thought for the morrow." This
disposition caused him to be slow to restrain is breathy horse from
depredating on his neighbor's crops. "Bald Hornet" was an expert jumper
and visited his neighbor's farms so regularly he grew to be quite a
nuisance. Josephus Cavitt lived within a mile of Mr. Young, and his
field appeared to be Bald Hornet's favorite grazing ground. After
repeatedly getting the horse out of his field and having the owner send
for him, only to have him reappear in the field within a few days, Mr.
Cavitt lost patience. On the horse's next visit he was tied up and word
was sent to Mr. Young to get him and keep him at home. Mr. Young
realized from the tone of the message that Mr. Cavitt meant what he said
and that it was up to him to get busy. He turned to his fourteen year
old son and said to him, "George, I wish you would take a gun and shoot
"Old Bald". George had been called on so often to go and bring Old Bald
home, he had become sick and tired of the job. He went up and got the
horse, led him home and out into the prairie and tied him in a grove of
wild chinaberry trees that grew in the branch a quarter of a mile in
front of his father's house. He then got the gun and literally obeyed
his father's orders. He returned to the house
wearing an air of self-importance and satisfaction and reported to his
mother that Bald Hornet had jumped his last fence and that he for one
was glad to get rid of him. No more surprised man than John Young lived
in Wleelock that night.
XXX
When Mrs. Ann Cavett Cavitt Armstrong's sons were schoolboys, the
Wheelock Community built a log school house with split logs for seats,
as lumber was hard to procure at that time. During one of the terms of
school, one of the boys found where yellow-bodied bumble-bees had built
their nest in the ground near the schoolhouse and reported his discovery
to the other boys. They at once began to discuss ways and means to
proceed. The only way to whip yellow-bodied bumble-bees was to kill
them. They organized a company of tried and true fighters and elected
Dave Wheelock, their "gamest fighter" as Captain. Each soldier was to
arm himself with a stout brush to defend himself and destroy the bees as
fast as they came out of the nest. They made preparations for the coming
battle, sent out spies to locate the enemies' stronghold and mark its
location.
At recess the boys formed in line of battle facing the enemy with their
Captain in the lead. He made an address to his soldiers stating that
each soldier was expected to do is full duty. Then all were ready, the
Captain gave the order, "Charge and follow your leader", which they did
until within fifteen or twenty yards of the enemies' stronghold
--
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The most beautiful things in the world cannot be
seen or touched. It must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
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Wishes, Wants, and Dreams....a few poetic illusions
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7068
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For Links to all my Sites
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7068/mylinks.htm
...It is in silence where music lies...
Yanni
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One ought, everyday, to hear a song, read a fine poem,
and, if possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
Goethe
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