Letter of 1867

The following letter (and copies of it photographed) is from a grandfather to first his granddaughters, then to their aunt Lucy, who was taking care of the orphaned children.  Lucy and children were living in Galveston, TX as far as I know.  Lucy Granger was sister of Mary Granger Phillips and William Phillips.  The granddaughters are Zulieka and Ada Granger.

                        Laurel Hill

                                January 12,  1867

My dear daughters

        I received your letters of the 26^th ult.(sic) by last mail which pleased me very much.  I hope your grandma & your aunt will learn you both very fast: and I also hope you both will be good children & obedient to your grandparents & uncle & aunts.  I want you to be the smartest & best little girls in Galveston.

        I have sent all your things that you wanted up to the ferry to send to you by a barge going to Sabine Pass; but the overflow in the river has prevented the bargeman from starting; he says he will start about the 20^th.  I am sending your bed, & bedding & your clothing in a trunk with your trinkets.  The bargeman will carry the things safe to your Uncle Sweet.  You and your Aunt Lucy will find letters in the trunk.  I send them in the trunk thinking them more safe than by mail.

                Your affectionate

                        Grandpa

                        Samuel Gainer

Ms. Zulieka G.

Ms. Ada G. Phillips

(second page, probably on reverse side of sheet)

Ms. Lucy, I thank you for your letter with the girls’ and will be pleased to receive letters from you every month informing me of their welfare & progress in their studies.  They are yet too young to the information I desire; I must therefore request the favor of you or your father or brother.  Immediately after my arrival home I learned from Mr. Haynes at the boat landing that Mr. Smith was going to Sabine Pass with a barge & would carry freight.  I put the children’s clothing in a trunk, & rolled the bed, matrass (sic) & is up hed (?) the bedstead together & sent them up to the river to have them shipped, but owing to a high overflow in the river he has not yet got off, but I understand he will start about the 20^th next.  I wrote letters to the girls & you, giving general directions or requests in their training up.  You will find the letters in the trunk.

                Very respectfully your friend

                        Samuel Gainer

Ms. Lucy E. Granger

        Galveston

Samuel Gainer (1796-1867) was a lawyer, born in North Carolina, and I am just starting to learn about his parents.  His second marriage was to Mary C. Phillips (1803-1866) her second marriage also.  She came into the marriage with 2 children, Marion and William Phillips.  William was my great great grandfather.  So Samuel was a step-father to my great great grandfather.

In looking at 1840, '50 and '60 census reports, there are no other children in the Gainer/Phillips household. The oldest child, Uncle Marion Phillips, never married, but did have some correspondence with the children and later their children, in Galveston.

The Gainers moved from Georgia by the 1860 census. They lived in Tyler County Texas, and the location of the census reports is Spurger.  Their graves are in a small (6 grave sites only) cemetery called Hickory Hill, in Spurger TX.  I don't know where Laurel Hill might be, the site that Samuel Gainer wrote this letter from.   It could have just been his farm.

It is noteworthy I think that his daughter-in-law, Mary Granger Phillips is also buried in the Hickory Hill cemetery, though she died some distance from the Gainer's farm, and had written some letters from Town Bluff, Tyler County, TX. Mary Granger met and married William Phillips in Galveston TX in 1855. But as of the 1860 census, she and her husband were living in Spurger Texas with her in-laws.  Their own farm had just been started at the outbreak of the Civil War, wherever it was.  It must have been near the Neches River going down to Sabine Pass, as mentioned in the letter above.