25 May 1863: “I am glad to see by your let-ter to me that Mr. McKay is a gentleman…”

Item description: Letter, dated 25 May 1863, written by Charles L. Pettigrew to his brother William.  The letter discusses the engagement of their sister Annie to the Reverend Neill McKay and William’s plans to leave the town of Winston for Summerville, North Carolina.

Item citation: from folder 263 of the Pettigrew Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Item transcription:

Cherry Hill May 25th 1863

My dear brother,

Your letter having [the?] the 7th of May and directed to me at Greensboro, was not received by me until Sunday last.

I was already made aware of the engagement of Annie by a letter, which was received by [Mary?], some days before.

I am glad to see by your let-ter to me that Mr. McKay is a gentleman and a man of consideration in his own country; and that the engage-ment meets with your entire approbation.  I beg you will with my love to Anne express to her my best wishes for health and happiness and thus she may have many years of as much enjoyment as falls to the lot of any mortal. I suppose Summerville is a healthy and pleasant place.  I have never heard of the place before, but I am only very slightly acquaint-ed with thos part of the state.  I have not any means of know-ing who Mr. McKay is, but I am aware it is a good name in thos part of the state.

I see by what you say, you will abandon your contemplated residence at Winston, and make it at Summerville; that will doubtless be most agreeable to Anne as she would otherwise be thrown among strangers.

We are all about at Cherry Hill, some complaint among the children, all however are well again.  Carey asks me to give her love to Annie and yourself, Mary does not know of my writing.  She is well.

I shall always be glad to receive a letter from you or Anne, so as to know something of your movements. I am

Your affectionate brother

Charles L. Pettigrew

I have just seen Mary and she asks me to give her love to Annie and yourself.

This entry was posted in Southern Historical Collection and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.