[Autograph Letter, Signed by John R. Boone, Reporting on His Crops, His Health, and His Negroes]

Pleasant Hill, Tx: April 13, 1851. Very good.. [2]pp., on a folio sheet. Old folds, minor wear. An informative manuscript letter from early statehood Texas, with interesting content related to personal health and a brief mention of slaves. The author, John R. Boone writes to physicians Dabbs & Rone, letting them know where he is and thanking them for their help in extricating him and his wife from a difficult situation with a loan and promising to repay them as soon as he is able. Boone writes that he is indebted to them "both by gratitude by honour & trust- I have used all means to get the money for your that is in my power." He says he had (truncated) hoped to get the money from his brother, but "his cotton and two other houses took fire ten days before he got home and burnt up so he lost all his crop...." Boone says that his own crops will hopefully bring in enough to cover his debt by Christmas, as he has seventy acres in cotton and fifty acres in corn. He relates that his wife thanks the two men for saving her life: "she is fat and harty [sic] her eyes are well and she looks like a new woman and she is well pleased with Texas. My negroes are all well satisfied and I have but little trouble with them. My arm is well but my hand is not it has but little feeling in it." He mentions other acquaintances -- Sherod Fenner who was to have ten head of cattle from his wife's herd; Deck & Atkins; and Hay & Dingram, to whom he was also indebted.

The author of this letter may be John R. Boone (1818-1853), who was born in Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. By 1850, he and his wife were living in Harrison County, Texas according to census records. His brother Jacob Hickham Boone (1820-1908), a farmer, was also a resident of Harrison County by 1850. Dr. Christopher Dabbs (1805-1868) was a well-known physician, politician and planter in Monroe, Louisiana at this time.  Harrison County, in east Texas, was created from Shelby County in January 1839. Many of the early settlers were cotton planters from the southern United States. There was considerable upheaval in the area during the Regulator-Moderator War between 1839 and 1844 until Sam Houston persuaded the two sides to sign a peace treaty. (Inventory #: 5836)