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Presents
Transcription of 1862 Letter
from "Kelly" in Cono, Iowa County, Iowa,
to Abraham Byrd, Webster, Darke County, Ohio
Cono January 26th 1862
Dear Uncle,
I know not whether I ever wrote you a letter or not. If I have written
you before, still I feel that this will make none too many; and if I have
not, I am certain this none too soon. It can not interest you to hear of
all the vicissitudes that have lain in my path since you and I parted; but
of all that befell me, the breaking of my right arm just below my shoulder,
19th of July 1859 was apparently a great misfortune, but such it did not
prove to be; for in a few days I was able to write letters and was never
past dressing myself and otherwise helping myself, and in a few weeks I
recovered the entire use of it. to the war, the subject is an old one with
us all, I shall say no more than that it has withdrawn many of our young
men and other citizens from among us, my Stephen for one, he volunteered in
the early part of July at Desmoines and is at Rolla, Missouri. I get
letters from every week. He has good health and likes the service very
well. I come now to a subject, (that of Rail Roads) on which I acknowledge
myself prone to amplify; but then we remember that eight years back there
was not a Rail Road within one hundred miles of here, we may well express
surprise that for the last four months there has been one each side of us,
both within hearing and one of them within sight. The nearest one was made
last fall and passes 2 1/2 miles north of me and has two depots near me,
one 4 miles off and the other 2 1/2 miles from me, due north. The other
was made one year ago last fall; passes through Marengo and in its progress
west, it passes 7 1/2 miles south of me, and there, due south 7 1/2 miles,
there also is a depot: so that if Rail Roads are of any use, certainly this
River Valley is favored beyond any place that I have ever seen. I have 160
acres due south, 2 1/2 miles this side the depot on the south Rail Road.
Times are extremely hard and money scarce here, but a couple of young men
who moved from Miami County here, were back to Ohio since Christmas and
returned here last week, and they say that it is but little better in Ohio.
There was a vast amount of surplus produce here, but the two staple
articles, wheat and pork, both sold so low as not to pay expenses of
production. The crop of pork was, both in quantity and quality, the best
that I ever saw in any county, but sale of it was, by some farmers,
pronounced a dead loss, but it seems to me that the loss would have been
still plainer and greater if there had have been no pork to sell. Last
winter was remarkable for the amount of snow that fell, but at present we
have a snow almost as deep as any I ever saw in Iowa. The winter however
is different than last; the weather was much colder last winter than this
has been so far. It is just cold enough to keep the snow from melting, so
that almost all the snow that fell this winter is now on the ground,
amounting to 15 to 18 inches. Last winter was very blustry and cold and
drifted the snow, so as to render many of the roads impassible. This
winter the weather is calm and does not drift the snow, but as the snow
falls, the roads are beat and broke, so the sleighing is constantly kept
good. Yesterday a rabbit hunt was held on the opposite (the south) side of
the river, sixteen men caught 101 rabbits. Two more hunts are talked of;
one next Saturday in this vicinity, the other on next Saturday week on the
south side, five miles above here, where they hunted yesterday. I written
twice to James Bayman and got no reply; do urge them to write and write
yourself. I am extremely anxious to hear of Mother since both she and I
are certainly approaching the period when we shall hear nothing more of
each other. This is a family letter for all to read and all to answer.
Kelly
I believe that "Kelly" is the last name of the letter writer and that the writer is Rebecca (Hottel) Kelly. REBECCA HOTTEL/HUDDLE was born March 26, 1816 in Rockingham Co VA, the daughter of Frederick Hottel/Huddle and Magdalena Byrd.
This letter indicates that the family moved to Cono, Iowa, about 1854, and that Stephen Kelly enlisted in the Union army at Des Moines, in early July, 1861. The letter is strange in that there is no mention of Austin Kelly and it appears that Rebecca is living alone. However, the 1860 Cono Twp, Iowa Co, Iowa, census shows Austin Kelly, age 67 farmer from PA living by himself, with no mention of Rebecca or Stephen. I could not find either Rebecca Kelly or Stephen Kelly in the 1860 Iowa census. Perhaps Rebecca was separated or divorced from Austin Kelly in 1860 and she and Austin were missed by the census takers. I cannot find Austin Kelly, Rebecca Kelly, or Stephen Kelly in the soundex for the 1880 Iowa census.
This was contributed by (12/1997)
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Iowa In the Civil War
