Family History by Robert Monroe Fleming (Sr.)
Unidentified Letter to Iva Fleming, Number 3
Transcribed by Robert M. Fleming Jr.
Dear Iva & Cora ----
I received your letter this morning. was glad you got thru all right. hope you will like it. if C will stay. well I have no news except the news about the Estate. you know I have said right from the first that some one told me when I was there that time that Uncle Tommie had been writing about it. & had a lot of letters. & papers & that he had proved up that his ancestor was the lost heir. & Uncle Tommy died. & left his papers with Emery his oldest son. that was living. he wasnt married. there was only one more boy living Johnnie. & after he died I dont know how long Titia wrote to Emery to send the papers to her. & he was fool enough to do it. & John dont say how long it was after that Emery died. but before he died John asked him if she sent them back. & he said no. so John wrote to her to send them to him. & she wrote back she sent them to Emery & he got them. & J. said he looked thru all of E. Papers. & they were not there. & cant get a word out of her. Johnnie wrote all he could remember about them. & this is what he wrote.some lawyers took it.to get for them one forth. their names were Clay & King. & they sent to England & got tracer of a Wm Jennings & wife & baby boy. started over here on a ship. that was in times that it took 3 months to cross.
& Wm J died coming over. he don't say when they landed. any how she died when that baby was 18 months old. & he was bound out. now cant you guess the rest of it. that baby was our ancestor. they proved it up. & hesaid we were his descendents. he was the lost heir. for a long time when he was grown he went North Caro. & he dont seem to know any more about him. didnt even write his name. well King died and Clay wouldnt go on with it. with any one else. so I suppose it stoped right there. he said a man by the name of Buck drew up the papers. but he is dead. but there is one man living a Mr D Gun wrote several letters to Uncle P. & I sent a long letter to him last night by air mail & told him him to try to get his ad. & send it to me. now you can see just what kind of a person Titia is. she has all the money she needs. but I cant see what good it will do her. she cant get a cent with out us getting ours. he wrote to me to write to her & see what she said. about it he dont think she sent them. he says she may have misplaced them & think she has sent them. I wrote to him to write to her. & tell her to either send them back or write down all the names of places & people in England that was in those letters. & the same in this country. & I told him to tell her that she had no right to send for those papers. & E had no right to send them. fior they were just as much Johns as Emerys. & to tell her it was against the law to take important papers of a dead man. & she may have some trouble if she has lost them. I told him to tell her she should have asked E to send coppies of the letters. & put the others in a bank for safe keepings. if I had those papers we could send them to that lawyer & he could go right on with it.
I sent a letter to the Chief of Police in Cellina Tenn. as thats where all the Jennings lived right on the Ky & Tenn line. part in Ky and part in Tenn. & I wrote to Mrs Ewaldt. one of those that was in that ad. that lawyer told Guy he didnt think there would be such trouble to prove up in it with all I can tell of the ancestors. but I get mad so mad when I think of how she has treated me for so long. & now may cheat us out of that money. Ill give her the bigist blowing up she ever got if she does. but [The last line on the page is below the carbon paper and only the tops of a few high letters show.] business. & she took advantage of him. & now that he is dead & cant defend himself she says she sent them back. I think she lost them & is trying to get out of it. well I hope she will get into trouble about it. maby it would teach her some sense. she used to be bragging about getting an education by working hard for it. but I would sooner have sound horse sense than all of her book learnin. & not have any since at all. I dont know when Iever was so mad. I wrote to Ben & Maggie Jennings Uncle Jimmies children. to know if they can remember of hearing their Father say what his Grandfaters & G Mothers name was. or any thing else. & to write it to me if they could. & I wrote to Aunt Janes two sons, the same. about their Mother she was my Fathers only sister. & as smart as she could be. if they can remember any thing they can but. but it seems like children dont remember now. I mean myself too. when I was back there & visited her in St Joe Mo. & we talked about lots of things. & the Estate too. & if I had had a lick of sense I would have wrote down what she said. but I never thot about it. I wrote to John J to see if he couldnt remember the name of that boy after he came back to North Carol. he had to have a name. or they couldnt have proved up on him. I know what my Father said. his G F & G M name James Samuel & Sara Bonifiel. but I dont like to go beforea notary & take an oath on that. until I find out that boys name. if they have proved that he is an ancestor and his name was some thing else. I might get every thing balled up. but if he had another name I would think he was the Father of my G G F & would be my G G G F. & would give my G G F the name.I think it is.Roy.Allens wife is writing for Thuesa. & she said for me to go ahead & write the names I think it is. she says she believes Im write. she said after she read my letter telling the names. she could remember. those names. & she believed they were my Fr G F & G Mot. well I will wait untill I hear from John. & see what he says. I cant wait to long. that lawyer told Guy he would have to find out who was from England about the Estate. & He will have little enough time. before Aug. ofcourse it may not be settled that soon. but we want to be ready. I am still staying here. & sleeping with H I could go back to F but I have to have help in this Estate. I cantdo it all. & May is no help atall.you know what she told you about Aunt Thuesa having a record. now no one ever heard of that but her.
I think she is still lots like she use to be in immagining things. she use to to tell things & stick up & down it was so. & no one ever heard of such a thing. & she never heard of that either. you know if we had a record. we wouldnt need any thing else. there has never been a record that I ever heard of. the only one I ever heard of is what I have in my mind. I have written letters to this many people since I came here 3 weeks ago. 2 to Francis; 2 toThuesa; 2 tothe Zimmerman boys;(Aunt James boys) 2 to Mary & Effie; 2 to Bon & MaggieJ; 1 to Johnnie J; 1 to the chief of police; 3 to Franks; 1 to that woman in Parts; 1 to to the Lip Reading teacher; 1 to the Assessor about that land; & this will be 19. & the most of them has just as much in as this. & I have one to write to Pearl tomorrow. & thats all I will have to write for a while. but the answers will soon begin to come im. I wrote to the lip reading school to know if it was like the blind school. she wrote no. that they just taught evenings 3 evenings a week. Im sending you the letter I will write. & tell her I couldnt go out evenings. I will have to wait & if I get any money I can get a teacher to come 2 or 3 times a week & teach me. ( as I remember she is almost totally deaf at that time:. & that assessor said things were very dull then and no land selling. said he would advise me to to take any things I could get for it. & the firstday Guy gets off a few minutes he will take me up to that home. & we will talk to them about it. but I dont expect they will take either one. well after I get this business all fixed up. & the attorney has it then I can go back to Franks & stay untill it is settled. & I know how it comes out. but I dont [rest of bottom line is illegible] being able to go out. I cant get up & down the stairs. if I was in Wash. I could get a widow's pension. but Ore isnt like any other state. I dont believe I could live another winter shut up like I was last winter, I never spent such a winter in my life any place. it was just as hard on them as it was on me.
I am going to show you some figuring I have done. -- my Father was born Feb 14, 1818. now he had two Bros older than he. now we will say there were two years between them. then Uncle Billy would be born in 1816. & Uncle Lawson 1814. then we will say they were married a year before Uncle Lawson was born. would be they were married in 1813. then we will say Grandpa was 24 when he married. that would be 1789. when he was born. & then 1765 when his Father was born.
If it was any one else but Johnnie Jen he would prosecute Titia. for she had no more right to take those papers than she had to take a will. but he is one of those easy going fellows. & I dont expect will do any thing. If he never gets a cent out of it. but he dednt like it. & said Emery didnt ask him but just sent them. well this is the last letter I am going to write. Until the ans begins to come in. this is 25 I have written since I came here 3 weeks ago. I thot it was 20, but its 25. I want to send this & one to Pearl J this even. its to bad you didnt wait untill this week. the cherries are getting fine, big black bings. & R. ansr. write soon if its only a few line.
Love to both. Mama.
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©2009 Robert M. Fleming Jr.
This page was last revised on 26 December 2009.