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In the same letter, Joseph says: “Miss Ageline I wont you to write me soon send
me word when you are going to get maried if you are not marrid and I will Just
step over to the weding.” This is quite enough evidence to identify the
“Respected uncle and aunt” to whom Joseph was writing. His mother, Delilah
Allred, had four brothers and six sisters, listed HERE Martha Ann “Patsey”
Allred, who married James Patterson, had a daughter named Martha Angeline.
In a letter dated 30 October 1858, addressed to “Mr. Allred,” James A. Phillips
described, in nearly perfect English, the new lands in which he and his
brother had settled:
“I do not know that I ever told you exacly what kind of a country
we have. Our country has about one tenth timber, which is situate
along the streams and the rest Prairie. The Crops are fine a great
many fields of corn grew from fifty to seventy five bushels of corn
to the acre 50 bushels was an averedge Crop ecept on Sod. Wheat
from fifteen to twenty five bushels to the acre. Oats was not an
average Crop. Our Country is rapidly filling up we roll about 800
votes and our population increasing every day. The difficulties
which have so long agitated the public pulse of Kansas have about
subsided though there are a number of rogues in the Country. ...
Yours obsequiously, James A. Phillips
P.S. direct your letters to Paola Lykins Co KS”
In a letter dated 9 May 1859, Isaac Allred, son of John Allred and Amelia
Armstrong, wrote to Mr. James Allred of business transactions with his uncle:
“To let you know how my mules worked they work very well. ...
I want you to find out what a good strong two horse wagon can be
bought at for me I would like to buy after laying by time or next
fall I do not like the crooked sort ... Isaac Allred”
In a letter dated 15 November 1864, addressed “Dear uncle and ant,” Jesse A.
Miller wrote of his desertion from the Confederate army:
“I have tried camp life a little and I dont like it at all and I
am on my way to the other Side ... Tell all the folks goodby and
right to Jo that I am gon to the Yankes and tell him goodby and
all of the rest I dont Never expect to see any of you any more
good by to all ... Litle Johny Millr got crippled and hant walked
for three weeks Mother Says Shee is bound to go in thee Spring if
Not Befor to the Yankes it is only A Bout 100 Miles the nearest
place in the Mountains ... Jesse A Miller”
This has to be Jesse Miller, son of Alfred and Jane Miller of Stony Fork, Blue
Ridge, Watauga County, who enlisted at Boone, North Carolina, in Company B,
Thirty-seventh Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, on 14 September 1861, for a
period of one year. In March or April of 1862 he reenlisted for two additional
years. Eight consecutive military records from January 1863 onward state that
he had enlisted for a period of three years (altogether). In the record for
July and August 1864 he was “Absent with leave.” His next record states that
he had enlisted for the duration of the war, and accuses him of being “Absent
without leave since 15 Sept 1864.” Further records show that he received a
“G.S.W.” (gun shot wound) at Sheppardstown (sic) in 1862, for which he appears
on a Roll of Honor; that he was last paid on 30 June 1864, while in a hospital;
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