Letter from Lucy Battle to William H. Battle,
August 15, 1856
Chapel Hill, Aug. 15th /56
My dear Husband,
Richard
says that I cannot have my letter ready in time for the mail today, & it
may be, that I cannot, but I have no work ready, & 'tis too late to
begin any this late in the day on Saturday, so I will try anyway. I received
yours, the day after I wrote you before, on Wednesday, I believe, was glad of
course to hear of your safe arrival, also for the prospect of a short court. I
fear that you have been uneasy about Pattie — so I will begin with my news at once, & she
she shall be the first subject. I received a letter from Kemp on Thursday,
stating that she was a great deal better — that she was free from
disease, but very weak — he stayed with her until Monday, hoping that
she would get strength sufficient for a ride to Raleigh on Thursday, but as
she strengthened so slowly, he thought he would return without her —
she wrote me one page of the letter — so affectionately urging me to
go & stay with them & you
next Jany. I had invited her to come here, to be
sick, but she prefers to be in Raleigh. K. is still in the notion of buying Maj. G.'s
lot. I made the proposition to her, so early, because I thought perhaps she
would prefer to come here & that they might be prevented from buying hastily, a lot, which they might regret,
afterwards. —(Monday Morning) I had written thus
far, when Mrs Wheat came & after she
left, it was too late to send by Saturday's mail. Miss M Spear & Miss M S came in on Wednesday
& stayed until last evening. We heard two of Mr Lee's best sermons, yesterday. I heard that our boy
Horace was very sick, so I called at Dr Wheat's on my return from
church to see him. The Dr was called to see him on the
night before. I found him with considerable fever — he is teething
& has something like dysentery. I have sent to enquire how he is today.
Lizzie was sick yesterday & the day before, but is up today. The Dr has not been here since you left, he told me last night
that he would come over to see Judy today — she has had several chills
lately, but has been more engaged at work, than usual. Ben has been sick too
with Diarrhea — looks weak & thin, but says he will try to go
in the garden to work today. The garden, yard, & every thing else about
the lot shows the want of a man, yet, we have not seen Snipes yet —
looked for him, all last week. Wash told me that he would be here, this week. The well is at status quo. I suppose it is
about 17 or 18 feet. Mr Brown told me on Thursday night
that he was compelled to work on the road on Friday & perhaps Saturday
— it is now about 9 o'clock & he is not here. I fear he is
sick. I have not paid them any thing yet, so he will doubtless return. I have
given you an account of the home concerns so will turn to the concerns of the
village. There is one piece of news, that I am surprised at myself, that I
forgot to tell you in my last. I didn't regret it much, as I know that it will
worryyou no little — it is that the dear
old college bell has ceased its musical tones, for ever. It is probably, that
you have heard of the loss of the Belfry & bell before this —
perhaps not, so I will tell you, that on Saturday night (week) the boys were
throwing fire balls — one lodged on the top of the belfry —
blazed there awhile & apparently went out — between 1
& 2 o'clock, it was discovered to be on fire, & then too late,
to save that or the bell. We have heard various reports & conjectures
— some think the ball was thrown up, on purpose — some say,
that some one or two of the students prevented a servant from trying to put it
out, when he might have done so — some say that some of the students
sat up & watched for the fire to break out, from the ball that was
thrown up before 10 — it is believed by every one, that there was no
attempt made to prevent it. Charlie
Mitchell seemed to speak positively as if he almost knew, that the ball was thrown up by the son
of one of the trustees. I didn't ask him who, for really I don't care
to know the author of so base an act. The bell melted entirely — the
clapper is entire & is all that is left, except the ruins. Every one, as
you may suppose is troubled. The one that is now used is an old one that was
used before this last, (the pride of our village) was purchased. It is a very
poor affair — perhaps you may remember it. Junior didn't get to
prayers, in time to answer to his name, the morning after the bell was destroyed
— as we didn't hear the one that now rings — tho' we were
both listening. We did not know of the loss until returned. He has missedno duty so far, & is quite studious. Rd thinks Wooster is rather superior to J., he has been
prepared for College, some time. I have so high an opinion of J.'s talents, I
cannot but believe that he will equal him, if he tries long enough.
I must now tell you about the Fair. We had quite a pleasant time. Every body
seemed to enjoy themselves — every thing to eat & drink was
nice & good — every body behaved well. Every body almost,
seemed interested for us, & were kind in rendering assistance. We had
quite a pretty show of work & other articles, & we made clear.
Ah! That is the chief thing, you would like to hear bout — $294!
Mr. Mickle told
me that he was pretty sure that all the debts had been paid & that there
might be a few more dollars which we might yet receive. Mr. Foster Utley thought the room over Carr's store would not
be safe for a large crowd, so we were compelled to use Mr. Mallett's new
warehouse. We had the supper table up stairs. I do not think that I ever was
more fatigued than I was on Thursday night — really, so much so, that
I couldn't sleep, until an hour or two before day. We were there again on Friday
— made I think nearly $100 that day, by selling ice-cream,
lemonade, cake, &c, & renducing off a few articles that we could
not sell otherwise. We have sent R. Saunders our money — $350. Now
say, that ladies can do nothing, & I will
tell you that singly we cannot or do not, but in a body, we
can. Kemp enclosed $5 to Sue, to purchase
a pretty present for me. I have two of the
best— things there for his money. One I purchased, because I thought
you would like it 'tis a likeness of H. Clay, framed prettily (Mrs. Wheat's contribution).
I read yesterday a pamphlet — a large one — sent you as a
delegate to the G. Convention — a correspondence between the Bishop of Massachusetts & Dr. Croswell & Bp. Southgate, Rectors of the Church of the
Advent (Boston). The
difficulty has been existing for 10 years, I think (you know Dr. Croswell died a
long time ago) is about customs practiced there such as turning to the Altar the
furniture of the Chancel &c., &c. — favoring the Bishop thinks of Tractarianism. I found it quite interesting tho' I am very
sorry that such a difficulty exists. I cannot but think too that the Bishop has
acted wrong, in some respects.