CHAPTER VIII



            THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849



  NOVEMBER 21, 1848.--Having made all needful prepara-

tions for a winter's tour in Texas and a visit to my old col-

lege classmate, Guy M. Bryan, I started for Bellevue this cold raw

morning with bag and baggage, taking with me Cyrus Thompson

to return the horses and buggy.  At 4 P. M. took the cars for

Sandusky City, arriving there at supper. In the evening with

Joseph Williams to hear the Hutchinson Family sing their

glorious songs.

  Wednesday, 22.--Spent with Dr. L-- and friend Lane and

doing chores.   Evening at a division of "the Sons [of Tem-

perance]."

  Thursday, 23.--Railroad to Mansfield.      Thence by stage to

Mount Vernon. Saw Miller Moody (an old classmate) at a small

village nine miles from Mount Vernon, keeping a dirty tavern and

looking "hard"; a fit sequel to his college life.

  Friday, 24.--Stage to Columbus; a cold, rainy day; roads

"mud and slush." Farnham and a queer girl (a silversmith's

daughter in Columbus) for company.

  [The rest of November and the first week of December were

spent at Columbus, visiting his mother and sister, paying calls,

and reading new books. His uncle, Sardis Birchard, arrived

December 3, and a row in the Legislature held their attention.

Both sides were stubborn and "possibly no organization this

year." Then-]

  Thursday, [December] 7.--Making final preparations for our

departure; bidding good-bye to friends, "posting up" in legis-

lative views, etc., etc. [At] 7 P. M. Uncle Birchard, Rev. Henry

Richards, an Episcopal clergyman, gifted with a liberal share

of the free and easy qualities, and a crowd of us take the stage

for Springfield. A pleasant moonlight evening, but showery after

                         (235)









236          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



midnight. From Springfield railroad to Cincinnati, reaching there

at 10:30 A. M.

  Friday, 8.--Tumbled into quarters at the Pearl Street House;

outside coating of dirt scrubbed off. Find friend Jones as warm-

hearted and joyful as ever.  Evening with Jones at the theatre;

stupid, except old Logan. A goodish, or ratherish, or rather-

some goodsome panorama of the sea views about Newport.

  Saturday, December 9.--Raining "multitudinously." Slip out

between showers and buy an umbrella; run over the "yaller-

kivered" literature at a "literary depot," falsely so called, but

finding nothing "taking" am not taken in.  Pore listlessly over

the "Sketch Book" until "dine." Evening spent with Stem and

lady at Mr. Erner's.

  Sunday, 10.--Cold and cloudy but no rain. Heard Mr. Blake

at Christ Church.   Same old voice, gestures, and expression of

phiz as when I last heard him at Gambier. Our travelling com-

panion, Mr. Richards, read service. Dine with Geo. W. [Jones]

at Miss M. Johnson's.     A  delightful little family gathering.

How exquisitely she looked! Evening at Mr. Erner's.

  Monday, 11.--Cold, but bright and pleasant winter weather.

Visit the slaughter pens where "blood flows like water," only

more so. Visit Covington with Jones. See McNickle. [Observe]

the funeral of an Odd [Fellow], a Son [of Temperance], and a

Mason, attended by all those orders.  Call at Governor More-

head's to see Miss E.     "Love's labor lost" (no love either).

Ditto, P. M., up street in the city. Tea and evening with uncle

of Miss-. All night with George W [Jones]. Ring lost and

found.

  Tuesday, 12.--Engage passage to New Orleans on the steamer

Moro Castle. Call on Miss Johnson. Buy "Now and Then,"

Dickens' "Christmas Tales" and "Italy," Bulwer's "Last of the

Barons," etc. A lovely day. All Fourth Street swarming with

the fashion.  Sup [and] sleep on board.--Mem:  Never pay

your fare until your boat is off. Steamboats never start on the

river until forty-eight hours after time.

  Wednesday, 13.--As bright a day as ever opened.  Up at

the old court-house heard Storer arguing the Hathaway lunacy









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          237



case. Saw French, Hoadly, and Collins. Ten minutes before

4 P. M. leave Cincinnati. A clear cold evening; scenery "of the

kind we read of."  The hills on both banks fold gracefully to

the river. Play chess with a stranger, Mississippian; quits, or

"game and." Make the acquaintance of Isaac Larmon, a rough,

shrewd Kentuckian, now living at Madrid Bend in Tennessee;

also an old Connecticut Yankee who boasts his temperate habits

and sound health,--evidently a libertine in his day, now an

exceedingly polite, knowing old gent.

  Thursday, December 14.--Clear, pleasant weather. Reach

Louisville at 9 A. M. Wander over the city; not half so thriving

in appearance as Cincinnati. The old court-house half finished.

Pass over the rapids about noon. "Some pumpkins," but not to

compare with Lachine in [the] St. Lawrence. Toll through

the canal for our boat would be one hundred and seventy-five

dollars. Thumped once or twice on boulders but no injury done.

During the afternoon sail pleasantly along through a fine rolling

country. The weather mild and soft. Play chess until tea with

my Natchez acquaintance. After tea walk the deck with friend

Richards until dark. Evening, rainy.

  Friday, 15.--Cold and cloudy; wants to snow but can't. At

daylight opposite Owensboro; at 10:30 A. M. at the mouth of

Green River. Green River very high. The Ohio much higher

than above. Banks low, only a little above the water. General

Lane's residence, a plain two-story white frame house, on the

Indiana side a few rods from the bank. Evansville at II A. M.

Pass a beautiful island just below the mouth of Green River.

[At] 2 P. M., still cloudy but much milder, at Henderson, Ken-

tucky.

  I like this sort of life. Table equal to our best hotels. Captain

Scott more resembles a landlord with his smiles and jokes than

[the] haughty autocrat of a Western steamer.        In the after

part of the cabin are four or five ladies with their children, one

apparently an unmarried lady, and the other a widow. The latter

is the object of the particular attentions of a fat, self-sufficient

old nabob whom Uncle styles "Old Soap-grease" (Van Vorhees

a stage owner of Ohio). Two ladies and two gentlemen generally









238          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



play cards in the after cabin (ladies'). Next, towards the bow

 [is] another table of social card-players, consisting of a loud-

talking, boastful youngster (a Jew, Moses, of Cincinnati), whose

garb and gab alike proclaim a volunteer officer; a good-natured,

laughing Hoosier; a third only remarkable for his height and the

prodigious length of his arms. I noticed him today at dinner;

he reaches like a well-sweep to all parts of the table, gathering and

storing away an unheard of quantity of provisions. Next for-

ward, a table of chess or chequer players, with a few gaping look-

ers-on. Next is a group of nondescripts, quite at a loss how to

bestow themselves; some dozing listlessly in their armchairs,

waiting patiently for the next meal, others reading cheap tales of

pirates, "love and murder," etc., etc. Last group forward, four

professional gentlemen busy at poker for money.

  I have read Warren's "Now and Then," Dickens' "Battle of

Life," and am now doing Cooper's "Bee Hunter." I read, play

chess, walk the deck, [and] study the map and chart occasionally.

Mem:  This is not a talking boat.  Altogether pleasant--very.

  Saturday 16.--Below the mouth of the Tennessee; cold and

cloudy. River almost a mile in width. Pass Cairo at 12, noon;

then into the "father of waters." The color of the water of a

deeper dark than the Ohio, which is now a bright yellow like the

gutters after a recent rain in a clay soil. The weather clears up

warm and pleasant in the afternoon, and I spend all the time on

deck, getting acquainted with the Mississippi.

  Sunday, 17.--Finds us, with the weather of a lovely spring

morning, forty miles above Memphis. The river full to its banks.

Islands, bayous, chutes, etc., give the river the appearance of a

lake filled with islands. Often difficult for a stranger to tell where

the true channel of the river is. No gaming allowed on board

today; all as quiet as a New England Sabbath. [At] 11:30 A. M.

stop fifteen minutes at Memphis; part here with our fellow

traveller, Mr. Richards. The city presents a fine appearance from

the river. Naval establishment here.

  Monday, December 18.--Morning warm, cloudy, and foggy;

clears up at about 10 A. M. Saw the finest plantation with its

little village of white cabins in two rows; also first live-oak.









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          239



Today saw the first cotton standing, and cut the first cane one

hundred and fifty miles below Memphis. River and its banks,

same as yesterday, except more frequent settlements. Had a

mock trial of a young Jew for smoking in the cabin; our sport

marred by the Jew's anxiety to escape the penalty.

  Tuesday, December 19.--Below Vicksburg. Morning warm

and foggy; clears off about 10 A. M. Woods on the shore look

like ours after the first frost; leaves dropping but not dead, and

large patches of green foliage.  Grand  Gulf.  Here are the

highest (indeed almost the only) hills yet seen on the Mississippi.

The town a rotten borough. So called [Grand Gulf] from the

singular bend in the river.

  Mem.:--Last night a bit of a row at one of the gaming

tables. A small, villainous-looking professional gent accused by

Lieutenant Moses of cheating; the lie given; pistols cocked. No

blood shed but gambling probably done for.

  Mem. 2:--Our tall Hoosier dreamed of being in a free fight

(excited by the events of the evening), plunged at his visionary

antagonist from the upper berth, badly bruising cheek and eye.

  Wednesday 20.--Thirty miles above Baton Rouge. Morning

foggy; clears off [by] 9 A. M. Went ashore at Judge Chaney's

sugar plantation. Yesterday heard frightful stories of cholera in

New Orleans. Reports dwindling away with every boat we meet.

Saw General Taylor's residence, a neat, one-story, long cottage--

porch all round--on a pleasant hill. Saw an old white horse

quietly feeding near the house, supposed to be "Old Whitey"

[the general's famous war-horse]. Baton Rouge is a fine town;

beautiful State-House building. At a sugar plantation land two

hundred and fifty barrels. The overseer on reading in the letter,

enclosing bill of lading the words "Dear Sir," broke out with

great warmth: "'Dear Sir' as if he knew me!"  After this exhi-

bition of himself, I was not surprised to find that he couldn't

count the barrels!

  Thursday  21.--Arrive  at  New  Orleans, a city of ships,

steamers, flatboats, rafts, mud, fog, filth, stench, and a mixture

of races and tongues. Cholera, "some." [At] Planters' Hotel.

Mem:--Never get caught in a cheap tavern in a strange city.









240          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



At evening taken desperately sick of an acclimating fever; toss

and roll all night. Dr. Hunter administered quinine [with]

good effect. Rev. Mr. Blynn calls on me.

  Firday 22.--Fever gone. Abed all day. More quinine. Well

again.

  Saturday, December 23.--Dine with Rev. Mr. Blynn. The

cholera on the increase. The alarm and excitement too great

for enjoyment. Planters' Hotel a miserable place.





                    STEAMER MORO CASTLE,

                      MISSISSIPPI RIVER--NEAR CAIRO,

                                December 16, P. M., [1848].

  DEAR FANNY:--As I am writing for the family I will give

you a sketch of our movements, diary fashion.  Friday, 8th, ar-

rived at Cincinnati, 10 A. M., after a comfortable ride.

Weather cold and clear. I hunted up Jones, and Uncle fell into

the hands of Stem.  Spent the evening at the theatre (mem.:--

small potatoes). Saturday, 9th, cold rainstorm; housed up read-

ing newspapers all day. In the evening called with Uncle on

Mrs. Stem (I mention her, she being the principal). Sunday,

10th, cold and cloudy. Went to church with Jones, dined with

Miss Maggie (what a nickname) Johnson, who is keeping house

for her father in C. Sunday is a hard day at the best but most

of all away from home, but we survived it. Monday, cold and

cloudy. Visited the slaughter-houses and witnessed the whole

business of converting a drove of hogs into mess pork, keg-lard,

stearine candles, glue, and bristles.  I'll not describe it.  It's

a bloody, brutish business and is all done in less time than it

would require to tell it.

  After having thus prepared my mind to do the agreeable, Jones

and myself went over into Covington and called at Governor

Morehead's on Miss Bell E. "Not at home." Gossip: I re-

marked that if I were a Governor I would have a better house to

receive the beaux of my pretty sisters-in-law. Jones replied that

if I drank as much and was as fond of cards as Governor More-

head, I probably couldn't afford a better house. P. M. called at









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          241



Mr. Graham's in Cincinnati, where Miss Bell should have been,

but again, "not at home"; so didn't see her. Slept with Jones.

[He] told me how he courted Miss Tibbots, granddaughter of

the General Taylor whose death you have noticed and grand-

niece to Old Zack; how he fetched her and how he was to be

married about New Year's--going to Havana as a wedding tour

and how he wanted me to wait and go along, etc., etc.

  Tuesday, 12th, cold and clear. Called on Miss Johnson; bid

good-bye all around. Bought Warren's new tale, "Now and

Then," Cooper's "Bee Hunter," Dickens' "Italy," Bulwer's "Last

of the Barons," besides some chicken-feed pamphlets, to read on

our way down. [At] 4 P. M. went on board our steamer which

was to have started Monday evening without fail but didn't start

until Wednesday, 4 P. M. Mem.:--Never believe a Mississippi

steamboat's notices, judged by the symptoms, as to starting time.

  Wednesday evening was as pleasant as a cold evening could

be, and the fine scenery below Cincinnati did its best to look

charming, but I couldn't feel very sad at the prospect of finding

a warmer sun. Thursday morning, 14th, found ourselves at

Louisville. Cargo tumbled into a lighter to let us over the

rapids. Meantime, rambled over the town. Many fine residences

but, all in all, not near equal to Cincinnati. It has the air of a

fading beauty.  At noon went over the falls--the weather warm

and pleasant, the river roaring full. Many flatboats, loaded with

coal, hay, flour, whisky, etc., of all shapes and dimensions pass-

ing down every few moments. Passage not at all frightful but

highly exhilarating. Friday morning, 15th, at Owensboro, a

short distance above the mouth of Green River. Weather, cold

and  cloudy; wanted  to snow  but couldn't.      River growing

rapidly. Banks, low and wooded with an occassional farmhouse

and clearing. Saturday, 16th, below the mouth of Tennessee

River; cold and cloudy; river much grown since yesterday. At

12 M. passed Cairo, Dickens' Eden--"when found make note

of." As we passed out into the Mississippi, the sun drove the

clouds away and it is now warm, pleasant spring weather. This

river, the junction, etc., etc., are just as I supposed in appearance,

scenery, and size.

  Reading the above items would leave the impression that this

   16









242          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



is dull travelling. No such thing. It exceeds anything in my

experience for solid comfort and enjoyment. Our boat is about

an average one in all boating qualities, such as speed, neatness,

size, etc., etc. The captain is one of the most social, companion-

able men alive. He looks and acts much like John Miller the

auctioneer of the roses at your fair. Any passenger can get

from him all he knows on any subject, not to speak of his good-

natured smiles, which are sprinkled about on everybody and

everything. So much for Captain Scott.

  The passengers are of all sorts, but decidedly agreeable as a

whole, five ladies with husbands; a lot of children about the size

of Willie and Lollie; a widow, bright and pretty and wanting

a husband; a young lady, nothing in particular about her; two

old gentlemen, widowers--one tall, garrulous, excessively polite

to everybody, distressingly so to the ladies in general, and awfully

smitten with our widow; the other fat, autocratic, nothing to say

to nobody on no account, but nevertheless determined to get the

widow in spite of our polite friend, No. 1; (Uncle has dubbed

the latter "Old Soap-grease") ; a gentleman who plays chess

just well enough to make it hard work for me to beat him, which

I do twice out of three times; some interesting river men, owners

of hay-boats, flour-boats, etc., etc.; some merchants; some gam-

blers; some invalids; and the rest may be styled "chinking and

daubing."

  The sleeping is like all steam-sleeping--abounding in cataracts,

precipices, snakes, and other dreamy figments of the brain. Eat-

ing, unparalleled; the best cooks, the best waiters, and the best

eatables I've ever seen anywhere.      As soon as  the tables are

cleared, the passengers, if the weather is disagreeable, as it has

been much of the time, group themselves as follows:--One long

cabin extends from stem to stern. At 9 o'clock P. M., the ladies

are cut off by folding doors. At the stem a few ladies and

gentlemen are reading or lounging in a lazy way on the sofas;

next two ladies and two gentlemen playing whist; then a bevy

of gents talking politics around the stove; then a table at which

chess and chequers are going off, with some lookers-on; then

settees with gentlemen reading and others writing at tables; then

the loafers' stove, where those who are too bashful to go near









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849         243



the ladies toast their feet and read stories of robbery, murder,

etc., with horrid pictures; then a table where four or

five are gambling at all hours, with ten or a dozen lookers-on;

and last the barber's shop. All this is in one room, and nothing

is pleasanter than to promenade from one end of it to the other.

There is nothing but civility and good feeling ever exhibited, so

far as I have observed. I really think I could live this way a

month without growing sick of it. When it is pleasant, as it is

now, it is delightful to walk the deck and wonder where all this

water comes from. The water, the river, is the only thing which

can be called scenery in this flat, wooded country, but that is

enough. We are now hitched up to the Tennessee bank getting

wood. I will mail this at Memphis, where Mr. Richards leaves

us. You may look for another letter from New Orleans.

  Sunday,  17th.  Below  Memphis.--Didn't mail my letter as

I intended. Parted with Mr. Richards at 11:30 A. M. Stopped

only fifteen minutes. Lovely spring weather as ever the sun

saw. No gaming of any kind today; all as quiet as a New Eng-

land Sabbath. The river here is over its banks; a stranger cannot

tell where the main stream is; full of islands, bayous, chutes,

and bends, so as to resemble a great lake full of islands. I spent

the day viewing the waters and reading "The Last of the

Barons."

  Tuesday, 19th 2 P. M.--A few miles above Natchez. The

weather is as warm and bright as June. I have been sitting out

on [the] boat's balcony in an armchair, the twin of yours, read-

ing in the same way I would on your porch in the summer.

Many of our passengers have left us and we enjoy the lazy

weather in the laziest and most luxurious way. The rapid change

from the cold to warm weather is most grateful.  I am too lazy

to write more till some rainy day.

  Thursday, 20 [21].--Foggy morning but pretty day.  Arrived

at New Orleans, a town full of ships, steam and flat-boats, mud,

fog, filth, and stench, and just now a sprinkling of cholera. To

avoid which we shall leave the first opportunity. This will not be

mailed until we are off so you may feel sure that we are safe out

of harm's way if this reaches you. A boat leaves in two or

three days. The sickness will spoil our visit here. Aside from









244          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



that and the causes of it, this is a princely city. The weather is

quite warm; winter clothing is not uncomfortable, but I am sitting

at an open window, and one sees no fires.

  We became acqainted on the boat with a very intelligent Pres-

byterian clergyman, resident here, who is acquainted with Blynn's

brother by whose aid we shall certainly see 'em. The clergyman

mentioned preaches today (Thanksgiving) in Mr. Blynn's pulpit.

  The last three or four hundred miles of the Mississippi banks

is a lovely country to view from the water. Pretty little white

cottages and an occasional grand edifice for the planters, and

rows of neat, whitwashed cabins for the negroes are always in

sight.  Didn't see old Zack but saw his neat little white cottage

with its portico all round and surrounded by evergreens, and

also "Old Whitey."

  Saturday evening, 23.--We sail in the Galveston for Texas

in the morning.   It is perfectly healthy there which is quite an

advantage over New Orleans. We dined with Mr. Blynn today

--a fine man, fine wife, and pretty little ones.    The little girl,

about three years old, inquired at once about Uncle William and

her little cousins at Columbus. Thank Mr. Blynn for me for

that acquaintance.--Good-bye all.

                                                R. B. HAYES.

  P. S.--Packing up, we just had a laugh over one of Pease's

shirts!  How these stolen shirts rise up in judgment!

  MRS. W. A. PLATT.





  Sunday, 24.--[At] 9 A. M. go on board the fine ocean steamer

Galveston, bound  for the port of the same name.        Weather,

warm and foggy, clears off bright and pleasant.      A  delightful

and rapid sail down the river, passing the palaces and gardens

which line the banks.    General Worth and staff on board; an

exceedingly agreeable, fine-looking man, medium size, of a plump,

upright person, with good features, a bright piercing black eye

(Bishop McIlvaine's), a bushy head of gray hair, affable and

easy in his manners. "No other marks or brands perceivable."

  Monday, 25.--Christmas passed on the Gulf, having left the

mouth of the river early in the morning.  Weather cold and









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          245



pleasant.  A  fine body of passengers.  Some pro- and some

anti-slavery out of which [fact] arose, naturally enough, discus-

sions by the quantity. Among others Atcheson, formerly of the

Law School.  Seasick a trifle.

  Tuesday, 26.--Reached Galveston in the afternoon, a neat,

fine town on a sand beach and apparently healthy.  What a

glorious contrast to the disease and filth of New Orleans! A

most noble hotel, the Tremont House.





                      GALVESTON, TEXAS, December 26, 1848.

  DEAR BROTHER:--Thinking you might feel anxious about us

after what I wrote from New Orleans about the cholera, etc., I

will send you a few lines before we leave here.

  We had an exceedingly pleasant passage on a fine steamship

loaded with passengers running away from the cholera. General

Worth and staff were on board and brought a physician with

them to be ready for the worst; but there was no sickness. Here

it is fine weather; a dry, healthy, pleasant town and one of the

best hotels I am acquainted with.  It is sixty miles to Bryan's

and we leave in the morning. We anticipate returning here to

spend some time.    We hardly expect to find another place so

much to our liking as this in Texas. It is built on an island, is

high and sandy, resembling Cleveland, only not near so large

or rich, and is every way a good pleasuring winter retreat.

   No time to write more. Will write again from Bryan's. Love

to all.

     to all.       Your affectionate brother,

                                                 R. B. HAYES.

   WILLIAM A. PLATT,

     Columbus, Ohio.



   Wednesday, 27.--Leave Galveston for the Brazos on steamer

S. M.  Williams.  Pass around Galveston Island by San Luis

over a shallow bar into the Brazos about 5 P. M., at Velasco, a

faded town; dilapidation and ruin.      Manhattan or Maumee

River like [the Brazos].     About sundown pass Mrs.  Jack's

plantation, the only one yet seen.    Wild prairie, low grassy









246          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



banks, chocolate-colored water, cattle, and buzzards, the striking

features of the scenery of this part of the river.  Mrs. Jack's,

a pretty place; saw "the belle of the Brazos" on the porch; as-

sociation and first sight of this place I've so often heard Guy

speak of, very pleasant.

  About dark landed at Aycock's. Found Mr. Perry's "Sam";

took his mule myself and Uncle borrowed a horse of Aycock.

Through a level, muddy country, mostly wooded, trees weeping

from all their abundant foliage and gray hanging mosses, two and

one-half miles to Mr. Perry's.  Hitch our horses and are met

by a bushy-headed, fine-looking boy who resembled Stephen so

much that I shook him heartily by the hand, supposing him to be

my old friend Stephen, [but] a connection. A cordial welcome

by Mr. Perry [Guy Bryan's stepfather] to his most hospitable

home.   Stephen and Guy gone to a horserace.  Return early

in the evening. Make the acquaintance of Mrs. Perry, Eliza (an

agreeable girl of twenty-one or thereabouts), and spend the eve-

ning till midnight talking over old times. Been a wet, gloomy

month; country shows to the worst advantage, we are told.

  Thursday, December 28, 1848.--Day wet.  Housed up.  [Dis-

cuss] politics, old friends, sweethearts, etc., etc., with Guy, mak-

ing the day seem short. The home is delightfully situated in

the edge of the timber, looking out upon a plain on the south

extending five or eight miles to the Gulf. A large and beautiful

flower-garden in front, trimmed and cultivated under the guard-

ian eye of Mrs. Perry.

  Friday, 29.--Day spent in talking about and primping up for

the party in the evening. [At] 2 P. M. gentlemen and ladies

begin to arrive.--Thos. Harrison, of Houston, Dr. Arthur, etc.,

etc. Gentlemen and ladies on horseback, through mud and rain,

ten, fifteen, or twenty miles. An exceedingly agreeable, gay, and

polished company. The ladies particularly noticeable for the

possession of the winning qualities. Merriment and dancing un-

til 4:30 A. M. Like similar scenes elsewhere. Sleeping arrange-

ments for all got up in all manner of ways, but comfortable.

Told that when a gentleman and lady "tete-a-tete," bite gloves

or handkerchiefs or the like, [it is a] sure sign of somewhat.









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          247



  Saturday, 30.--Guests breakfast from 10 till 11:30. All off

by 12 M. Weather bright, warm, and spring-like. Look for-

ward to a delightful visit, judging by what I see. Frightful

stories of the cholera in several Texas towns.

  Mem.--Introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Austin Bryan, Joel Bryan

and lady, Miss Harriet P. Jack, [Miss] Harriet Gothern, [the]

Misses Lewis (three), Miss Emily Jones, Miss Ella Eggleston.

  Sunday, 31.--Fine weather. Spent at home talking, reading,

etc.

  Monday, January 1, 1849.--Ride with Eliza and Guy over

to Mr. Westall's to visit Miss Emily Jones, a modest, pretty

Buckeye lassie of seventeen. A grand day for a gallop over the

prairies. A good visit. A long queer yarn from a Philadelphian

(Mr. Davis) about a flirtation he had in St. Augustine with

Maggie Worth. Return home after dark.

  Tuesday, January 2, 1849.--Start on a visit to the Misses

Lewis, but learn that they are absent from home. Weather fine.

Return and afternoon take a ramble with Henry after deer. Saw

seven, also a wild hog. Had two shots at too great a distance

to do hurt. Saw "Gus" "rope" (lasso) a wild cow. Exciting

and somewhat perilous, in the eyes of the uninitiated. Home at

dark and had chess with Henry until a late hour.

  Wednesday, January 3.--Fine weather. Spent at home, writ-

ing letters, pistol firing, and playing chess.





                      PEACH POINT, TEXAS, January 1, 1849.

  DEAR FANNY:--A happy New Year to you and all your

household!

  We arrived here, at Bryan's last Wednesday evening and

have enjoyed life to our hearts' content ever since. The country

here is quite new and thinly settled, much more so than I had

supposed. The morning after our arrival, one of the negro men,

who was sent out for the purpose, killed two deer before break-

fast. One of Mr. Bryan's brothers killed a panther only a fort-

night ago. I mention these sporting items as showing the wild-

ness of the country. This plantation is a very pleasant one in









248         RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



all respects. Looking out of the window before me I see a

garden filled with the richest shrubbery, roses blooming and

birds singing as if it were the first of June instead of January.

The family consists of Mr. Perry, a sensible matter-of-fact sort

of man, full of jokes and laughter, and of course a great friend

to Uncle; Mrs. Perry, an excellent motherly sort of woman,

whose happiness consists in making others happy; Eliza Perry, a

young lady of twenty, a fine girl, free from silly notions, and

agreeable company as all such girls are; Stephen, the business

man of the establishment, you remember him; Henry, a fine

romantic boy of seventeen who it at home from school to spend

the holidays with one of his chums of fewer years,--both spend

their time visiting the girls and hunting. Guy, Uncle, and myself

complete the white portion of the family. Within two miles there

are perhaps four families, the nearest a mile off.

  Friday evening we had a great soiree and dancing party here.

The ladies were like ladies anywhere else; fewer wall-flowers

and more life than is usually found in our gatherings, owing

doubtless to the greater frequency of such things here.

  Wednesday, January 3.--Immediately after writing the above,

I commenced with Miss Eliza and some one of her brothers

calling on the various new acquaintances made at the soiree.

This is a very different thing from calling in Ohio. It is a fine gal-

lop over the prairie, with an occassional adventure, crossing a

swale or great mud-hole, a dinner, a supper, and a moonlight ride

home.  A  dinner here is "some."  Seven or eight kinds of meat,

sweet potatoes in two or three shapes, half a dozen kinds of pre-

serves, and pastry in any quantity. It is quite surprising to find

the refinement one meets everywhere in a country newer in ap-

pearance than any part of Ohio you ever visited. Every place

you find the planters ready for company and "seemingly" ex-

pecting you.  Mem.:--Henry killed two deer yesterday.

  I saw a wild cow lassoed. It was quite an exciting scene. The

pictures of the same thing in La Plate which you find in the

geography are graphic and true.

  It has just been decided in family council that Henry is not

to return to school on account of cholera in the villages. This is

good news for us. He is a fine sportsman, a capital chess player,









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          249



has never been out of Texas, and I am quite in love with him.

He and Uncle are now out hunting. We already have invita-

tions to make ourselves at home at enough places to spend a

twelvemonth in Texas. No doubt they would all be pleasant

homes, but we are too well pleased with present quarters to be in a

hurry to change.

  The brothers all have sweethearts, even to Henry. The manner

of courting here is "some" also. For instance, Stephen will start

in the morning for the county town on some real or fancied busi-

ness; goes six or eight miles out of his way to visit his lady-love,

dines, sups, and stays all night; goes on in the morning to town,

returns in time for tea, remains all night and till after dinner

of the third day, and home to tea. This appears to be the every-

day quick trip of a youngster in love. In the meantime, the

errand, if of importance, has been attended to by a negro sent

for the purpose by some of the family who are in the secret.

  Bryan sends good wishes; says, "Tell ye Mother that if the

cholera gets you, you'll be taken just as good care of as if you

were at home in Ohio." We have but little fears of the cholera

spreading into the country. In '32 it came in the hot weather and

yet did not find its way to but a single plantation in this county

although it was in all the towns. It has not yet touched this

county but is spreading rapidly over the State, so that it is

"town talk" everywhere.

  "Gulf Prairie Post Office, Brazoria Co." is our address and

the only one we shall have in Texas. Mails never go or come

here. So you need not expect to hear from us unless there is

something urgent, with any regularity. We can dispatch a

negro to Galveston whenever we are anxious to communicate

rapidly. A letter reaches Columbus in ten or twelve days from

Galveston.

  Both of us are in the best of health.  Good-bye.  Love to all.

                                                R. B. HAYES.

  Guy says lots of love to the two Hatties.

  MRS. W. A. PLATT.



  Thursday, January 4.--Ride with Eliza and Guy eight miles

over to Mrs. Jack's beautiful home on the east bank of the









250          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



Brazos. Found there Miss B. L. Hardiman ("Teenie"), Miss

"Hally," Mrs. Jack, Mrs. McKinney, and Thomas Harrison.

During the ride talk over with Guy all college jokes, Society

contests, etc., etc. Mrs. Jack is a large, noble-looking woman,

benevolence, kindness, and humor beaming from every feature,

shedding sweet influences on all around her. Miss Teenie, an

agreeable girl of twenty from Tennessee; Miss "Hally," a blonde

of singularly pleasing manners, graceful and handsome; Harri-

son a witty, sensible, educated, and moral young lawyer of Hous-

ton.

  Friday, January 5.--Housed up at Mrs. Jack's. Chatty and

pleasant; sleeping late and eating much.

  Saturday, 6.--Ditto, only better acquainted and more familiar.

A lovelorn swain riding with his sweetheart over one of these bald

prairies, at a loss for anything else, says, "A fine hill for turkeys

just here." "The Bible is a good book."--Guy. Mem.:--Re-

member to send engravings to Miss Hally and Eliza.

  Many delightful hours spent in that old office on the Brazos.

"No poultry but a smart chance of chickens."

  Sunday, January 7.--Ride home. Wet by a warm spring

shower.

  Monday, January 8.--Cold and cloudy. Hunt without much

success, A. M.; P. M., afoot with Guy down to Joel's. Get lost

on Guy's home farm. Guy "bored," of course. Little Perry, a

lad of eight years old, "ropes" hogs, chickens, etc., and rides like

a Pawnee. To keep his brothers still, [he] ties them. They

struggle stoutly but when roped bear it without whining. Uncle

hunts wild hogs with a heavy rifle unloaded (which Guy retorts

on him for the last joke) and rides a runaway chase after wild

cattle. Evening at Joel's. A fine, lovely moonlight, reminding

me of the night I left Columbus.

  Tuesday, January 9.--Clear and bright, but the coldest day

of the winter in this part of Texas. Bishop Freeman with three

attendant clergymen [here] making his visitation.  Preaches in

the schoolhouse church to a congregation of thirteen gentlemen,

six ladies, and five children. [The] bishop travels his somewhat

extensive diocese, to-wit, Arkansas, Texas, and the Indian Terri-









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          251



tory, in a stout cart, covered with canvas, drawn by a pair of

large mules, driven by a stout negro, who cooks, etc., etc. At

dinner much joking on the wandering turkey and its motto, "a fine

hill for turkeys."

  Wednesday, 10.--At home and hunting.  Stephen and Uncle

start for Chocolate (Liverpool) where Stephen seeks his fortune.

Weather of the best.

  Friday, January 12.--A high wind with rain during the night;

clears off bright in the morning.  Spent at home as usual.

  Saturday, 13.--Spent in assisting Guy to make out lists of

lands belonging to the family in other counties, [amounting to]

a [square] league [and] forty-four hundred and fifty acres.

Labor [slaves(?)] one hundred and eighty. Weather pleasant.

Eliza sings her sweet "Good-bye," of which I have become very

fond.

  Sunday, 14.--Rainy and unpleasant.  [Uncle]  Birchard still

absent at Chocolate.

  Monday 15.--Start for Austin Bryan's, on Oyster Creek.

Spend afternoon and night with Mrs. Jack.  Story of their run-

away negro; his honor in showing himself next morning accord-

ing to promise and then running away.  Swift chocolate-colored

current in the Brazos.

  Tuesday, 16.--One of the new steamboats passes down with

its load of four hundred bales of cotton, pecan nuts, etc.  In

the rain with Mr. Harrison over to Mr. Bryan's.  Ride over to

a point of timber; see an abundance of deer but get no shots. A

large blue crane killed flying, Guy and Harrison both shooting at

once. On cutting it in pieces found by the size of the shot who

(Harrison) killed it.

   Wednesday, January 17.--Glorious weather.  Hunt all day

without success.  Row the skiff three or four miles to find a

canoe, but somehow miss it.  Find a lot of fishing tackle and

steal the net. Prairie all covered with sea-shells. Bottom of

the Brazos filled with fossil remains. Petrified trees in Burleson

County. Harrison, crossing on a raft, left for home.

  Thursday, 18.--Guy and self swim our horses over the bayou

and home.  Find Uncle home from Chocolate in great spirits









252          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



and full of jokes.  Colonel Hansboro told Stephen:   "You are

not an educated man, sir. You have neither travelled nor read,

sir. But Guy Bryan is the best educated man in Texas."

  Colonel Kinney was vain of his horsemanship, and being

Senator from San Patricio and a candidate for United States

Senator, took pains to exhibit his horsemanship by riding through

the streets of Austin in every variety of posture; and [he] was

also voted a bore for making harangues intended to be impres-

sive and eloquent. To cut his comb, Williamson, of Washington

County, nicked "Three-legged Willie," after one of Colonel

Kinney's efforts, rose and replied:   "The gentleman from San

Patricio is a great man, the gentleman from San Patricio is a

very great man. He rides at a swift gallop through the streets

of Austin, standing upright upon his horse--he is a great man;

the gentleman from San Patricio is a very great man. He can

swing himself from side to side of his horse when galloping at

full speed--he [is] a great man. Mr. Speaker, the Senator from

San Patricio is a very great man.   I have seen him while riding

swiftly stoop from his saddle and pick up a dollar on the ground

and safely regain his seat.    Oh,  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman

from San Patricio is a great man!--he is a very great man."

  Replying to a member from Galveston, "Galveston," said he

["Willie"], "what is Galveston?      An isolated portion of the

North American continent! Formerly it was the haunt of the

slave stealer and the pirate, and now it is the abode of the most

graceless set of vagabonds that these two blue eyes ever looked

upon!"

  Canvassing for the Legislature, his competitor, a military hero,

boasted of the exploits he had performed in wars with the

Comanches and Mexicans. Willie asked him how many he had

killed. "Oh," said he, "that I cannot tell--it was in battle and

I took good aim; but come, Willie, how many men did you ever

kill?"  "I don't know," said Willie, "how many I've killed, but

I've killed two that I got!"--He had shot two men in duels.

  So far [I] have seen few villages, no mechanics, no public

improvements.    Country appears very new.      Many finely im-

proved sugar plantations in this part of Texas.









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          253



  January 19-23.--Laid up with a sore foot from sprain and

coarse wet boot. Uncle kills a young leopard. Perry gets lost.

I read "Pilgrim's Progress," "Don Quixote," Lieber's "Ethics,"

"Two Years in Mexico," etc., etc.

  Wednesday, 24.--Ride with Uncle and Guy over Gulf Prairie

to the mouth of the Bernard, to fish and eat oysters. A glorious

day.   Deer, cattle, cranes, wild geese, brant, ducks, plover,

prairie hens, and the Lord knows what else, often in sight at the

same time.   The roar of the Gulf is heard for miles like the

noise of Niagara.   Staked out our horses with "lariats," eat old

Sailor Tom's oysters, picked up shells, fished and shot snipe until

5 P. M., then rode home through clouds of mosquitoes thicker

than the lice or locusts of Egypt--like the hair on a dog's back.

Notice the eagle's nest on the lone tree in the prairie, and reach

home glad to get away from the mosquitoes.

  Thursday, January 25.--Still at home waiting for Uncle to

improve before starting on our tour.     These Texans are essen-

tially carnivorous.  Pork ribs, pigs' feet, veal, beef (grand),

chickens, venison, and dried meat frequently seen on the table

at once. Two little black girls for waiters pass everything pos-

sible around, and take the plates of the guests to the carvers,

never failing to get the right name. Mem.:--All Texans famous

for name memories.

  Friday, 26--Spent limping around after buzzards. Speaking

of buzzards: Mr. Perry, who has a world of good jokes and

anecdotes, told of a Frenchman.  "Some people, be gar, say rat

pies are not good, but it is all prejudice.    Rat pies are good,

and frog soup is good, and some snakes, be gar, are very good.

But buzzard soup is not good and it is no prejudice."

  Saturday, January  27, 1849, and Sunday, 28.--Still lame.

Housed up. Read "Patent Report" on sugar, etc., etc. Received

letter from Fanny full of alarm about cholera.      Uncle goes to

Oyster Creek.

  Monday, 29.--Ella Eggleston goes over to Matagorda. I ride

a few miles with Guy towards Brazoria. Return and read Wal-

pole's "Letters to Horace Mann." Still limping.









254          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



  Tuesday, 30.--Ride with Mr. Perry over to Sterling McNeal's

plantation. A shrewd, intelligent, cynical old bachelor "full of

wise saws and modern incidents [instances]"; very fond of telling

his own experience and talking of his own affairs. Living alone,

he has come to think that he is "the be-all and end-all here." The

haughty and imperious part of a man develops rapidly on one

of these lonely sugar plantations, where the owner rarely meets

with any except his slaves and minions. Sugar hogsheads vary

from eleven hundred to eighteen hundred pounds. White and

black mechanics all work together. White men generally dis-

solute and intemperate. Returned, found Uncle Birchard re-

turned from Oyster Creek with the trophy of a successful on-

slaught upon a tiger-cat. Glorious weather. One little shower.

  Wednesday, 31.--Weather fine; warm  and  windy.            Read

Bulwer's "Rienzi." Good. Scott's "Black Dwarf"; so-so only

for Scott.   Lieber's "Ethics," again.    Uncle  and Eliza ride

down to Joel's after brandy peaches and return joking each other

about their intemperance. Mem.:--Uncle not quite well yet. A

fortnight since I had my boots on.

  Thursday, February 1, 1849.--Despatch a letter to mother

by my old classmate, Ed. Austin. Uncle and Guy busy getting

ready for our trip to the upper country.





                    GULF PRAIRIE, TEXAS, January 27, 1849.

  DEAR MOTHER:--We  are about starting on  a tour through

northern and western Texas, and as we shall be constantly on

the go, and as there are no mail facilities worth naming in the

interior, you will not hear from us again until after our return

to the coast, a month or six weeks hence. After the receipt of

this, let your letters be directed to Galveston. We shall get them

there sooner than here.

  Since I wrote last we have been riding about this neighborhood

visiting, hunting, fishing, etc. The weather has been warm with

frequent rains, which have kept us under roof a large part of the

time.   Mr.  Perry and  Uncle are constantly together telling

anecdotes, talking politics, playing backgammon, and attending to

the business of the plantation. They are as well suited to each









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          255



other as John Anderson and his wife in the song. Guy, Eliza,

and myself visit the young ladies when it is pleasant weather,

and read, play chess and games when it rains. It has now

cleared up for good, so they tell us, and is beautiful May weather.

We were down to the Gulf fishing, shooting, eating oysters, and

fighting mosquitoes. You have no idea of the effect of this fine

weather on one's health and feelings. It is really intoxicating.

Uncle is getting [as] fat as a seal. It has but little influence

on me in that way, although I have the health of a mountaineer.

  We anticipate a good deal of pleasure in our trip up the

country. We have now become pretty well acquainted with the

sugar-growing part of Texas. The life of a planter who has a

fair start in the world is one of the most independent imaginable.

We here find the pleasures of fashionable life without its tyranny.

I doubt, however, whether a person of Northern education could

so far forget his home-bred notions and feelings as ever to be

thoroughly Southern on the subject of slavery. We have seen

none of "the horrors" so often described, but on the other hand

I have seen nothing to change my Northern opinions. It is often

thought with us that Southern ladies have an easy time of it

with their "help," but it is not so. A good "manager" here has

quite as much "vexation of spirit" as ever you have who are

changing "girls" once a fortnight. Mrs. Perry, for example,

instead of having the care of one family, is the nurse, physician,

and spiritual adviser of a whole settlement of careless slaves.

She feels it her duty to see to their comfort when sick or hurt,

and among so many there is always some little brat with a

scalded foot or a hand cut half off, and "Missus" must always see

to it or there is sure to be a whining time of it in the whole

camp. Besides, to have anything done requires all time. It may

be I am mistaken, but I don't think Job was ever "tried" by a

gang of genuine "Sambos"!

  January 28--I have just received Fanny's letter of the 3rd

inst. Of course, we cannot but regret that you should have been

forced to feel so anxious on our account, but we could not help

it. I wrote to relieve your anxiety as soon as possible after we

reached the danger and again from Galveston, when we were out

of it. The ravages of the cholera, both in New Orleans and









256          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



Texas, were so much confined to people of exposed or intemper-

ate life, that I have never felt a particle of apprehension from it.

It has now entirely disappeared in Texas and nearly so in New

Orleans. You need not fear for us on that score. We shall

not go where it is again, even if we take the overland route to

St. Louis or the sea voyage to New York when we return. Feel

no more trouble if you do not hear from us. We are going west

and you will not hear from us for six weeks--perhaps more.

Bryan goes with us. Our trip is through the healthiest part of

Texas and, indeed, of the world. I do not believe there is a

healthier place than this, summer or winter, on the continent.

  My little fever at New Orleans was an acclimating fever

brought on by change of water and air. It lasted but a few

hours and would not have caused much trouble to any one but

for the sickly place and time at which I happened to have it.

We are both free from colds and all manner of disease. Uncle

just started off on a bear hunt. We shall wait a few days for

Guy to get ready. When I began this letter we did not expect

his company.

  I was very glad to get your letter. I had not expected one

before, and when "the boy" (all men slaves are "boys") went

down to the landing this morning, I told them all that I would

certainly get a letter and offered "to gamble" on it. (N. B.--

All betting is here called "gambling"). I hope the little folks

will get safely through with their whooping. One of the worst

barriers between childhood and "grown folks" will then be

passed.

  I was a little amused at Fanny's account of the way she kept

my horrible little note from you for fear it would injure you. I

really think you bear such things the best, and in future if I

have any choice item of awful import, I shall try to convey it to

you first and let you break it to Fanny as fast as she can bear it.

  29th.--A pretty May morning. I have an opportunity of giv-

ing my letter a fair start for Ohio. Even that is not an every-

day occurrence.--Love to all.  Good-bye.

                        Your affectionate son,

                                              R. B. HAYES.









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          257



 February I.--Just fixed for "a go."  Glorious spring weather.

Be sure to write us so that we shall find two or three letters from

you on our return to Galveston.  We will send you papers from

the western country, but it is not likely you will get them before

a month or two after they are mailed.--H.

  MRS. SOPHIA HAYES.





  Friday, February 2.--A pleasant ride with Miss Eliza over to

Mrs. Jack's. A lively evening. The best thing got off was a

description of Miss Proserpine Random's manner of preserving

her presents--gifts, annuals, and elegantly bound volumes of the

poets--by carefully stowing them away in their wrappers in one

of her mother's cast-off candle boxes; also a description of the

"toplofty air" of one of Miss Random's beaux.

  Saturday, February 3, 1849.--Too wet for Eliza and self to

return home. Chat and chit and read in the office in the 18th

Niles' Register the account of the Missouri Compromise, also

"Life of Rienzi." Tease Eliza about her beau (really Miss

Hally's), Mr. William Pitt Ballinger.

  Sunday, February 4.--Very wet cold "norther." Mr. Harris

calls. At noon, with Miss Hally and Eliza, start for home against

a fierce norther. Reach home safely; find Joel and all the others

gathered around a fire.

  Monday, February 5.--Cold and clear.  Forenoon spent with

Stephen and the ladies; music and flirting. Afternoon rode up

to Major Lewis'. Three agreeable young ladies, Louisa, Cora,

and Stella; music, singing, and dancing,--city refinement and

amusements in a log cabin on the banks of the Brazos, where

only yesterday the steam whistle of the steamboat was mistaken

for a panther!  Slept with Stephen.       Stephen's town called

"Sngar-acky-town."

  Tuesday, February 6.--Rode back to Mr. Perry's, all except

Stephen and his Mexican who went on to Chocolate (Liverpool,

P.O.)

  Wednesday, February 7.--Uncle, Guy, and self left Mr.

Perry's for a trip through northern and western Texas. Guy

   17









258          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



mounted on a high Mexican saddle covered with a red sheep-

skin on Joel's mule, a grand beast; Uncle on a stout bright bay

-"Hotspur"  (Guy's favorite horse), a fine animal; and I on a

tall, gaunt, black, awkward, frisky piece of horseflesh bought out

of one of the Kentucky regiments, sent to Mexico;--all with

saddle-bags, overcoats, and ropes for lariats. Mem.:--My big

"Rosinante" "nicked" "Nimrod." Road, or route rather, watery,

muddy, and blind ten miles to Brazoria, a small village of two

hundred people on the west bank of the Brazos. At the hotel

introduced to E. M. Pease; said he was of the old Salem stock

of Peases with whom the first-born son was always called John.

Also an intellectual and most interesting man from Paris, Ky.,

who was insane, W. B. Victor. Queer how he was frightened by

Uncle enacting the ghost, "Cold Huckleberry Pudding."

  Thursday, February 8.--Cloudy and warm.  Ride fourteen

miles on a good dry road on the banks of the Brazos. Dine at

Mr. Adrance's in Columbia, a pleasant village of one hundred

and fifty people. Horses shod; chat with the postmaster, Mr.

Duncan, who was in the battle of Ballville [near Fremont, in the

War of 1812]. Evening at Colonel Morgan L. Smith's plan-

tation.

  Friday and Saturday, [February] 9 and 10.--Housed by a

wet norther: delightfully spent with Colonel Smith who talked

incessantly, telling of his improvements, sugar refinery, "vacuum

pans," etc., his travels in Europe, political affairs in New York,

mercantile operations in Texas, etc.

  Sunday, [February] 11.--Started out in the norther, muddy

and wet. "Like travelling in Ottawa County," until we reached

a prairie in which there was a mound about fifty feet high, oval

and swelling from a base of one hundred acres. It has stone in

it, although no other stone is to be found in many miles. It is

at Damon's, on the line of Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties.

Counted one hundred and eighty-five deer on the now rolling

prairies. Reached Colonel David Random's just at night, forty

miles from Colonel Smith's. A lovely place on the high, rolling

banks of the Brazos. A laughing joker of Indian blood; keeps

fine horses for racing and always wins.









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849         259



  Monday, February 12.--Cold and clear.  Today ride over a

high, rolling prairie, "most glorious to behold."  Mem.:--Last

night saw the prairie on fire.--Grand.  In the course of the

day passed the house of the identical man whose chickens come

up in the spring and cross their legs to be tied, so strong is the

force of habit--their owner having moved once a year a day's

journey (or week's) until he reached Texas, all the way from

Kentucky!

  Tuesday, 13.--Over a charming New-England-looking coun-

try to Mr. Brown's in Austin County, on Mill Creek.

  Wednesday, 14.--Ride to Colonel Gillespie's in Washington

County to dinner. Thence to Captain Fuller's on the stage route

from Houston to Austin. Weather lovely until 11 A. M. when

on a sudden our lovely June breezes were changed to a norther,

colder than December, accompanied by sleet and snow.

  Thursday, February 15, 1849.--Weather-bound at this fine

inn with a crowd of queer people from all parts of the United

States. Good eating, good sleeping, and fun a plenty. Snow

three inches and ice and frozen ground.

  Friday, 16.--A  bitter cold ride of thirty miles to Cunning-

ham's, an "old settler," originally from Massachusetts. Bastrop

County.

  Saturday 17.--Clear and cold but bearable. Twenty-six miles

to Colonel Chambers'. Through the village of Bastrop. First

sight today of the green Colorado, with its picturesque hills and

beautiful, wide-spread meadows. Ascend Guy's future home, one

mile south of the village of Bastrop. He calls the hill on which

he wishes to put his mansion "Bald Knob." It overlooks a lovely

bottom, in horseshoe shape, of one thousand acres.

  Sunday, February 18.--Clear and bright, but still cool weather.

Thirty-three miles to Austin over a fine rolling country. The last

two days, pine and cedar in abundance--the country looking like

one which suffers from the drouth; hills covered with small round

pebbles, some places to the depth of four or five inches; under

this layer, a rich black soil. Austin is an inconsiderable village

among the [trees(?)] on the Colorado, with "large expectations."

Governor's office, judges' rooms, etc., are little log cabins sixteen









260          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



feet square; not more than one or two passable buildings in the

city (?). Town full of discharged "Rangers," officers and sol-

diers of the United States army, gamblers, and others. Costumes

of every variety--Indian, Mexican, Christian, civil, military, and

mixed. All armed to the teeth. Fierce whiskers, gaming, and

drinking very abounding in all quarters.

  Monday, 19.--Cloudy, but pleasant. "Surround" the city with

Uncle afoot. Cross the lovely blue Colorado. The capitol is a

low frame building on the top of a gravelly hill overlooking the

village. The hotel consists of a number of log cabins, and is

very comfortable, all things considered. The landlord is one

of the famous and dreaded "Rangers," Captain McCulloch. Gen-

eral Harney is in town. In the evening, peeped in upon a Cali-

fornia meeting, held in the hall of the House of Representatives

--a room with two ornaments, a map of the Holy Land, and

another of the wanderings of the Jews. Called at the room of an

old law student of Delaware, Royal T. Wheeler, now a judge

of the Supreme Court. His office as judge, "den," as he called it,

being a log cabin about fourteen feet square, with a bed, table,

five chairs, a washstand, and a "whole raft" of books and papers.

Visit the Supreme Court; consists of three judges, Hemphill,

---, and Wheeler. Hearing land cases under their shingling

system of entries.

  Tuesday, February 20.--Weather warm and balmy, but cloudy.

Walk with Uncle over the Colorado to Barton Spring, named

after the Barton who sent word to the commanding officer of a

company of Regulars, sent out to guard the frontier, that if he

didn't withdraw, "he would let the Indians kill them."  [The]

spring is large but not unusually so. P. M., ride to the top of

Mount Bonvel, north of Austin--a steep, high hill overlooking

the valley and affording a fine view of mountain scenery, stretch-

ing off towards the northwest.      Evening spent with  Judge

Wheeler, talking over old times.

   Wednesday, February 21.--Misty and threatening  but no

rain. Set out for San Antonio. Cross the Colorado and ride over

a high dry prairie without much timber to San Marcos, on the

beautiful stream of the same name; and the county-seat of Hays









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          261



County. Visit the spring. The water spouts out of the foot of the

mountain in streams of a foot in diameter.

  Thursday, 22. -- Weather A. M. as yesterday, clearing off in

the afternoon.  Ride twenty miles over a fine rolling country,

looking old and cultivated with its orchards (mezquite trees),

meadows, flocks and herds, but no houses, to New Braunfels.

Stop at Millet's a "ho bone" place.  This is a German village of

two or three thousand people at the junction of two of the most

beautiful streams I ever saw, the Guadaloupe (pronounced Wah-

loop) and the Comal. The Comal flows from springs in the same

manner as the Comal [San Marcos?]. The water is so transparent

the fish seem hanging in the air.

  Friday, February 23. --All day spent in viewing the lions with

Judge Dooley-- the pleasure ground on the hill, the deep hole,

the spring, and mountain, where I gathered mountain laurel and

buckeyes.

  Saturday, 24. -- Off over high, dry, rolling prairie thirty-five

miles to San Antonio. Stop at Mrs. Shelton's. Visit the Alamo

with Mr. Bean; visit the grave of Walker and Gillespie, [and]

the Alamo and find a party of California emigrants cooking in the

room where Crockett fell.

  Sunday, 25. -- Early in the morning go to mass at the Church

of the Cracked Chimes. Mexican girls of all colors, with no

bonnets, but shawls gracefully thrown over their shoulders, kneel-

ing reverently on the ground floor. Attend Mr. McCulloch's

church A.  M.    Sacrament administered and  a description of

Christ's crucifixion by a ghostlike, consumptive gentleman from

the North, with one foot in the grave, in the most eloquent and

impressive style imaginable. Singing by officers of the army.

P. M., walk about over this old ruined Spanish town--one or

two American houses only. In front of one see General Worth

walking about. Evening, entertained by Mrs. Shelton with her

piano, which had "the heaves," and her asthmatic voice; gives us

her pedigree  and  biography.    Wandered  from  New  Haven

through all the Southern cities, first teaching school and after-

wards keeping boarding-house, until now on this frontier she con-

templates going on to El Paso!









262          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



  Monday, February 26.--Visit the Mission houses, San Jose,

Concepcion, etc.,-- ruined castles with statuary, carved work, and

painting, built for worship and defence in the most magnificent

style; now in heaps of ruins affording shelter to bats, Mexicans,

and venomous and filthy reptiles.  Evening attend two "fan-

dangos." Girls not very pretty but exceedingly graceful. [You]

pay a dime for a figure and refreshments for your doxy, who

instead of eating prudently stores her cakes, etc., in a basket to be

taken home for the family. This town [is] the scene of more

bloody fights than any other on the continent.

  Tuesday, 27.--Warm and pleasant.  [At] 2 P. M. leave San

Antonio and. ride twenty miles over a rolling prairie (not a

house or farm seen)  to  McLelland's.      Met  Peacock of the

Mississippi Expedition and a good-natured Missouri Son of

Temperance with whom we spent the evening pleasantly enough.

In the morning find a lot of horses stolen-- fortunately not ours

among the number.  Peacock and the Puke off after them.

  Wednesday, 28. -- Threatens rain, but set out through Seguin

where the smallpox rages dreadfully. Stop in the prairie at 12

M. and take a dinner with John Pollen, a waggoner of Victoria,

--the fiercest temperance man I know of. Stop at night at old

man  West's, thirty-five miles  from  McLelland's.  Listen to

divers yarns and go to bed in the worst quarters I've seen in

Texas. Uncle said he would have been obliged to the old gent

if he had put him in the corn-house.

  Thursday, March 1, 1849. -- Rain threatened, but start on

over a lovely country of hill and valley, "mottes" of timber and

prairie, to Gonzales to dinner. Met James Rose's twin brother

who forgot to pay his bill and went back to do it. That night

at widow Burkett's on [the] Gaudaloupe--thirty-five miles.

  Friday, 2.-- Threatens rain. Down the Gaudaloupe through

a  country  of  increasing beauty  to  Mr. Burns'-- a fine old

gentleman pioneer. A lot of daguerreotypes of the whole tribe

the chief topic of conversation until we turned it into the trail of

Indian warfare.-- Thirty-three miles.

  Saturday, 3. --Same as yesterday as to weather. Now on the









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          263



flat prairies again. Stop at Ingraham's in Victoria. Saw Delano,

Judge Allen, Mr. Bikel.

  Sunday, March 4. --With Delano to the ferry. P. M. Spent

in Delano & Allen's office, talking politics, hearing yarns, etc.,

etc. Evening again at Delano's office; hear L. Jones talk of

everything most entertainingly. Read of Richter.

  Monday, March 5. -- Ride over a level, boundless prairie, out

of sight of land. Think of the Inauguration and talk of it as

Uncle and I eat our dinner under the old live-oak. Stay all

night on [the] Navidad at a large old gentleman's, (Mr. Suther-

land) --thirty-five miles; two hundred and ninety deer.

  March  6.--Thirty-five miles over level boundless prairie to

Elliot's Ferry on [the] Colorado.--Two hundred and seventy-

six deer.

  Wednesday, March 7. -- Hunting, etc. Jolly Englishmen with

guns a plenty.

  Thursday, March 8. -- Thirty-five miles. Now in the lower

country. Lost in a canebrake. Thirty-five miles to Mim's Ferry

over the Bernard. Saw a deer at thirty steps-- not frightened.

  Friday, March 9, 1849. -- Reach home at Mr. Perry's, ten

miles. Find letters from home, etc.

  Saturday, 10. -- Spent at home with Mr. Dupuy, of Kentucky.





                             GULF PRAIRIE, March 10, 1849.

  DEAR FANNY: --Just back again. Find here your letters of

January 13 and February 3 and several newspapers, for all which

many thanks. You can't think how amused and pleased I was

with Lolly's letter. "Willie had the hooping-cough and Fanny

had a Christmas present," etc. How natural  Be sure to im-

press her with proper notions of my gratification at being num-

bered among her correspondents.

  We have had a most delightful trip riding over the prairie

hills of upper Texas.    It is no part of my intention to trouble

you with a descriptive letter, for I should be driven to extremities

in attempting to spread before you the singularly picturesque









264          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



appearance of most of the upper country.  It has the clear run-

ning streams of New England, skirted with heavy timber, high

hills of smooth greensward, soil, rich and deep to the very top,

here called rolling prairie, occasionally dotted with "mottes" of

timber, resembling old orchards in an old cultivated country--

except in the absence of buildings, fences, and improvements.

We  often rode thirty miles without a house.      The Colorado,

Guadaloupe, and San Antonio are the prettiest rivers I ever saw.

  The towns are without interest except two or three.  Austin,

the capital, is not near equal to Sunbury. I there saw Royal T.

Wheeler, formerly a law student in Delaware and now [a] judge

of the Supreme Court of this State. I spent three or four hours

with him most pleasantly.

  New  Braunfels is settled wholly by Germans.       It is settled

by peoples of every grade,-- noble and plebeian, nabobs and

paupers.   I never was in Germany on the Rhine before; but

there at the junction of the beautiful Comal and still more

lovely Guadaloupe, in the most delicious climate I've ever imag-

ined, these fair-haired Teutons have built in a short three years

the most prosperous, singular, and interesting town in Texas.

I'll describe it when I see you.

  San Antonio is an old Spanish town built in Spanish style,

peopled by Spanish Mexicans with all their vices, amusements,

and worship.    Curious and strange enough, the whole of it.

I'll tell you about that town, too, if you should desire it.

   10 P. M., Saturday evening. --Uncle is in bed and all the

household, including visitors, dogs, and guinea hens, are "as quiet

as a nest-egg." The only good time to write letters! I could

write a love letter this fine moonlight night; don't know how I

shall succeed with an ordinary family affair.

   Speaking of Mother's advice as to carrying phials of cholera

medicine always in our pockets, Uncle wishes me to tell her that

on our late trip he did so and found it a great preventive.   He

had frequent recourse to his bottle stowed away in his saddle-

bags where he could get it without dismounting from his horse.

It was, however, neither peppermint nor laudanum but excellent

 fourth-proof brandy!

   Mrs. Joel Bryan and Miss Eliza Perry are probably going









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          265



North with us. If they do we shall not leave here until the first

of April and not reach home until some three weeks after start-

ing. We shall know tomorrow or day after their determina-

tion. Should they not go with us, we shall be with you fast

on the heels of this letter. There is little doubt of their going.

Mrs. Bryan is a lively, agreeable woman and will be excellent

travelling company. Eliza is a matter-of-fact girl who is fond

of seeing, laughing, and talking in the Leonora style. They will

stop with friends in Kentucky. Uncle will not call at Columbus

but push on home.

  We saw at Victoria a gentleman from Toledo who was in

Lower Sandusky the middle of February.         [He] reported  no

deaths but much sickness from the influenza.

  My respects to John Little. Don't let him "go off," till I'm

there to see.

  The California fever is not likely to take us off.   I think the

Mexican War in every view was a better way of scattering one's

wild oats.  There is neither romance nor glory in digging for

gold after the manner of the pictures in the geography of dia-

mond washing in Brazil.

  I've seen and enjoyed more, ten times over, since I wrote you

last, than during my previous visit in Texas, but I can't select

the choice morceaux from such abundance and variety without

more time and leisure than I can now command. The only plan

of sending it [to] you would have been to write twice a week,

as you say H -- does, and that was utterly unpossible, travelling

as we did and in such a country.

  We had an adventure with a crazy man the first night out,

[and] a chat with one of the soldiers, who fought the battle

which makes Mr. Valette's farm in Ballville classic ground, the

next day at noon. The next two days we had a "norther" which

weather-bound us at the house of a gentleman, former Mayor

of New York City, who had made the tour of Europe, had the

conversational powers of Franklin, and talked the greater part of

the forty-eight hours, stopping only to sleep a little, eat a good

deal, and to ask us if we were not tired of listening.

  We next rode to a celebrated horse-racer's, who told us all he

knew in the happiest style. Thence forty miles farther to a pious









266          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



old Baptist gentleman's plantation, who thought Providence had

specially interfered to promote his earthly happiness and furnish

him with all the necessaries and most of the luxuries of life. I'm

glad he thought so.    But for that pleasant delusion, I should

have thought him an object of sympathy.       He had nothing to

eat but burned hoe-cake and "a fry" (slices of crisp pork float-

ing or submerged in a sea of gravy), washed down with thick,

strong, black coffee without milk or sugar; a house that you

could throw a cat through at random, on a bleak hill where the

"northers" blow four months in the year; thirteen dirty, cross

young ones (of whom, to prove how he had been blessed with

health, none had been sick), and a wife, dirtier and more cross

than her whole thirteen colonies.

  From there sixty miles to Captain  Fuller's, who had great

Yankee fires (by this time another "norther"), a pleasant wife,

a pretty daughter, two clever boys, and a lot of guests who

could tell frontier stories of hunting and fighting and make time

pass rapidly and pleasantly.   "And so on" to the end of the

chapter.

  I've not yet carried you half-way on our seven-hundred-mile

ride; have only named the items, and am at the end of the sheet.

-- Good-bye. Love to all.

                                                R. B. HAYES.

  MRS. W. A. PLATT.





  Sunday, 11.--Evening, Joel, Guy and Austin, all talking of

California.

  Monday, 12. --Uncle and Guy over to Mrs. Jack's.         Dupuy

and self shot at alligators in Jones Creek.  Dine with Mrs. Joel

Bryan.

  Tuesday and Wednesday, 13 and 14. -- At home, reading "Life

in Mexico" and writing land contracts for Mr. Perry.

  Thursday, March 15, 1849. -- With Guy and Bostwick through

the wet prairies and boggy bottoms of the Brazos and Oyster

Creek to Chocolate (Liverpool) on Pleasant Bayou, as Stephen's

home is called.









             THE TRIP TO TEXAS, 1848-1849          267



  Friday, 16.--With Guy for Houston.  Get lost and finally

bring to at C. L. Dell's stock farm. Mr. Dell said he could not

accommodate us; beds all packed up for a move to Houston next

day. Asked him as to the road to Houston. Said it was the

worst road in Texas. "You can't go on. Come in, gents, you

must be accommodated." And [he] treated us like a prince.

  Saturday, March 17. --Ride into Houston; fine town on a

muddy flat at junction of two bayous forming Buffalo Bayou.

Academical style of architecture prevailing.   Dine with Baker

and his pleasant family. Visit Tom Harrison. Capitol House

is a capital house. Play chess with Mr. Blunt.

  Sunday, 18. -- Hottest ride yet, thirty miles over to Dr. Mil-

ler's near Richmond on [the] Brazos in Fort Bend County. Dr.

Miller keen and eccentric; a great "Son."

  Monday, 19. -- Fine weather. Through Richmond to Mrs.

Bell's, a fine, pious old lady. "Old settler."

  Tuesday, 20. -- To Shelby McNeil's and home to Mr. Perry's.

Find Miss Hally. Mrs. Anderson and half of widow's prairie

over there.

   Wednesday, 21. --A long good-bye to this pleasant home.

God's choicest blessings on all beneath the hospitable roof!

Eliza, Guy, Uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Perry to Velasco by way of

Joel Bryan's.   Self and Stephen dine with Mrs. Jack and so

down to Velasco. Evening at De Gauthiere's. Laura, Roana,

and Harriet --and the songs [to be] remembered long.

   Thursday, 22.--By  stage with Eliza through San Luis to

Galveston Island. Ride on the beach. Do not reach Galveston

till midnight; trunks slip off and divers calamities.



   [Two days were spent at Galveston "at that grand hotel, the

Tremont House." March 25, good-byes were said to Mr. Perry

and Eliza and the steamer Palmetto was taken. New Orleans was

reached two days later and, the cholera still prevailing, Hayes and

his uncle started immediately on their uneventful journey up the

Mississippi, pursued by cholera alarm until they had passed Mem-

phis. They arrived at Cincinnati April 6. After three days there









268          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



Hayes went on to Columbus, where he lingered for several days.

It was not till the very last of April that he finally reached home,

where the next few months were spent in preparations to remove

to Cincinnati. The Diary has the following undated summary of

the summer's activities.]

  Last of April, 1849, return from Texas home to Lower San-

dusky. Settle up and finally dissolve with Buckland preparatory

to bidding adieu to Lower Sandusky. Prevented by cholera in

Cincinnati from going there. Fourth of July, picnic and ride.

  First Monday in August, 1849, cholera panic; general

stampede; a week spent in flitting about the country; then off to

Delaware. At Gambier, commencement day, August 8. Met

with the old Phi Zetas that evening. Find myself a college boy

again. [Then] back to Berkshire. [At] Mr. Gregory's with

Uncle, Mother, Fanny, William, and the chicks.

  August 23, [go] with George Wood Little from Harts Spring

down to Columbus. Saw Doctors Case and Little and also

Till [the] 29th playing chess, in Delaware; then back to Harts,

with brother and sister a day and a half. Return to Mrs. Was-

son's, [Delaware], and Friday [the] 31st, home to Lower San-

dusky.

  September and October spent at home boarding at the Fre-

mont House and winding up affairs preparatory to leaving for

Cincinnati.  November  [10]  (the day  Pierpont Marsh  was

buried), left Fremont [to which the name of the town had recently

been changed largely through the interest and activity of Hayes in

the matter] for Columbus with Uncle Birchard. Remained all

night with Jesse Stem in Tiffin. Monday, railroad with W. G.

Lane [ ?] to Springfield; same evening to Columbus. Laid up with

quinsy. Tuesday evening Ella Espy married but could not attend

on account of said quinsy. Waited on A. B. Buttles with Miss

Mary Sisson the evening of his marriage to Miss Lizzy Ridgway.

Next morning, Wednesday, November 29, went to Circleville, day

after to Lancaster, day after to Chillicothe, and Sunday, Decem-

ber 2, home.

  [The letters of this period that remain are not numerous nor of

great significance.]









             PREPARING TO LEAVE FREMONT, 1849          269



                              LOWER SANDUSKY, May 4, 1849.

  DEAR FANNY: -- At home again and enjoying myself. Was at

a very lively wedding party last evening. The happy pair were

two of our best young folks . . .

  Pease and his wife are living just as you would suppose two

such people would live. . . . Pease is mad with the plank

road fever. They have commenced the plank roads south and

west and will finish enough to test their value this season. If

anything can save the place from utter worthlessness and desola-

tion, this is the work that will do it.

  Mrs. Valette and family are well. She is just the wittiest,

thriftiest and (to use one of Lollie's superlatives) smilingest

woman in this country. She sheds happiness around her as the

Arrowsmiths did chilliness.

  I am boarding at one of the hotels. It is a very decently kept

house. Uncle bore up against the bad weather as well as could

be expected. It confined him to the house a few days, and he

no doubt felt its ill effect, but he is now well and very happy in

the prospect of having something more to add prosperity to the

apple of his eye --this village.

  Our good people are busily engaged cleaning up for a proper

reception of the cholera. Every one expects it to visit us. . .

                            Yours,

                                                R. B. HAYES.

  MRS. W. A. PLATT.

                             LOWER SANDUSKY, June 27, 1849.

  DEAR MOTHER: -- I received your letter and brother William's

last evening. We are all quite well. No cholera has yet made

its appearance in this neighborhood. When it does so, we shall go

into the country. I am sorry you have not all done the same. It

may be as well, but really it seems to me a needless exposure.

Nothing about the cholera is more certain than that it does not

visit the farmhouses. If there is anything in the new theory-

ozone--the sulphur springs will protect Delaware from the dis-

ease. With your constitutional tendency to cholera morbus and

diarrhoea, it will require particular care on your part to avoid the

disease. . . .









270          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



   We shall expect to hear something from you often.  I am not

myself so apprehensive of cholera as many people. Cheerfulness

and regular habits are, I think, pretty good preventives. But do

 write.

                             Your son,

                                               R. B. HAYES.

   MRS. SOPHIA HAYES.

                              FREMONT, August 27, [1849].

  DEAR MOTHER:-- You must put up with another short letter.

You know that all is well when I say nothing or but little. Uncle

is quite well again and all other friends. I have been busy, and I

think useful.

  You have met some great losses in Columbus which are every-

where spoken of with the same feelings which I suppose prevail

with you. I hope you will not do so much with the sick as to

make yourself an invalid. . . . How strangely the cholera

goes. Delaware and Mount Vernon, cities of refuge heretofore,

are no longer places of safety. No sickness here, none antici-

pated. . . .Don't be nervous at my silence.  It is either the

mails that are to blame or I am well.

                              Yours,

                                              R. B. HAYES.

  MRS. SOPHIA HAYES.

                               FREMONT, September 9, 1849.

  DEAR FANNY:--I suppose the fine cold weather we have had

during the last few days has frozen out the cholera and sent you

shivering home.

  I found Uncle and our other friends well. The only change

was the addition of a son to Pease's family. . . This is not

the only piece of good luck among our kith and kin. Austin

Taylor's wife has presented him with a pair of 'em! Whew!

Isn't it horrid to reflect upon?

  No other news of any sort. Will Lane, who worked like a

Turk in the cholera hospital at Sandusky, is said to have fallen

in love "at sight" with a pretty "ministering angel" he happened

to meet there. Not stopping at that, it is further said that they

are engaged, etc. A very pretty bit of romance, but as I chanced









             PREPARING TO LEAVE FREMONT, 1849          271



to know more than a year ago that he had a "sneaking notion"

after this same damsel, his looking sweet towards her when he

met her in the hospital didn't strike me as remarkable.

  Uncle has been busying himself dividing lands with Dickinson's

estate. I help some at this, practice law a little, and read a good

deal by way of preparing myself for "coming events."

  Love to all. Write soon all the news.

                     Your affectionate brother,

                                                           R.

  MRS. W. A. PLATT.

                               FREMONT, September 23, 1849.

  DEAR FANNY: -- Notwithstanding your good-natured humor

on the subject of my former letter, I fear I shall not be able to

get off one today which will be an improvement upon it either in

quantity or quality. Women can write clear around most men,

supposing the raw material of equal abundance and interest to be

within their reach. In the case of you and I, you have, not only

the advantage of a woman's readier skill in epistolizing, but also

an infinitely greater amount of good subjects to work upon. You

have a houseful of changing, improving little folks in whom we

feel an interest, as many grown-up people as there are of the kin

here, and a whole cityful, big and little, in whose gossip we claim

a right to be instructed. Now, only think how scantily I am sup-

plied with topics. Uncle and his affairs, -- one little description

of them will do them for a whole year. Pease and his little wife

and heir require if possible less watching; the only event hap-

pening in his household since the advent of the baby is the arrival

of a rocking-chair like the one in your parlor. And Austin Tay-

lor and his tribe suggest no very pleasant trains of recollection or

thought, though his wife does look young and pretty, remark-

able as it may seem. Then, there are Valette, Buckland, and their

families to be spoken of once in a while, and I am at the end

of my roll.

  We have a new landlord, and I think an improvement. The

old one was good enough but for a deficiency in his kitchen cab-

inet or "diet." Under his administration our biscuits were never

warmed clear through, and cold dough doesn't seem to agree









272          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



with me.  On the contrary, those we had last night were just

about heated through, an important gain seeing that cold weather

is coming on apace.

  Besides doing what business I have in hand, being about half

enough to occupy my time, I am brushing up my law reading

and mustering as strong a force of inducements and provocatives

to ambition as possible, so as to be able to survive the two or

three briefless years which probably await me at Cincinnati.

Though the prospect is by no means a glowing one, gilded as it is

by the dreams of my hopeful imagination, divers are the plans,

which are chasing each other through my brain, of spending that

period pleasantly and improvingly. When thinking of the great

change which must come over my habits of life upon mingling in

the throng of a great town, some fancies, or rather half-formed

convictions of duty, force themselves upon me which have been

absent from my thoughts since long, long ago. Believing in the

essential verities of religion even with my weak, half-skeptical

faith, there seems something inexcusable in neglecting this subject

when seriously thought of. But I suppose that, instead of em-

bracing the opportunity given me by a change of life and friends

to attend to suggestions like these, they will as hitherto be post-

poned to a more convenient season.

  Church bell rings and I am a-going. A short sermon must

do you this time. I was some amused with your account of

certain matters.--Love to all.

                         Affectionately,                    R.

  MRS. W. A. PLATT.

                              COLUMBUS, November 25, 1849.

  DEAR UNCLE: -- I merely write to relieve you from any anxiety

you might have on account of the bad cold I had when you left.

It continued bad in spite of Mother's and Mr. Platt's remedies

until finding it was making my throat quite sore, I commenced

using my old remedy, cod-liver oil; since then it has steadily

improved and I think I shall soon be clear of it altogether.

  I found some three or four cases in the clerk's office of this

county showing the old practice to be as we claim. I shall go to

Lancaster and other places this week. Mr. Tilden says Mr.









             PREPARING TO LEAVE FREMONT, 1849          273



Meline is to be up here from Cincinnati in a short time, when

our matters can be talked over.

      . . I will write you again as to my success at Lancaster, etc.

                        Your nephew,

                                                R. B. HAYES.

  S. BIRCHARD.

                               COLUMBUS, December 4, 1849.

  DEAR UNCLE:--I returned from my  trip to the southern

counties Sunday evening. I made more of a trip than I at first

intended to, in consequence of finding that in Fairfield County

Mr. Ewing's notices were all correct and regular. But in the

other counties, all the notices were similar to ours. Our list of

cases now numbers about thirty which is quite enough to settle

the practice. Judge Lane is here and we are engaged on the

argument. There can't be any doubt about the case.

  In the Legislature the Whigs of the House came down as

sensibly and with as little fuss as possible. In the Senate the

struggle is going on without much violence. I do not see how

the Whigs can fail to get a majority eventually in that body if

all the Senators remain true. No one here seems to feel sus-

picious of Randall. It is for his interest this winter to be with us.

  My cold has quite left me. Judge Tilden's letter tells me that

Mr. Meline is to be up here in a week or two. I shall, of course,

wait here until I see him if he should come within a reasonable

time. All well. Regards to Mr. and Mrs. Valette.

                           Sincerely,

                                                R. B. HAYES.

  S. BIRCHARD.

                               COLUMBUS, December 6, 1849.

  DEAR UNCLE: -- Your last two letters have been duly received;

also the eighty dollars due from Patterson. . . . .

  We are still at work on the argument; it will be ready for

printing tomorrow; it is short but good.

  So far, things have gone all right, or as near right as was

possible, in both houses of our Legislature. There is a rumor

that Randall is bought by a promise of Galloway's office if he will

cave in. It is hoped that there is nothing of it.

   18









274          RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES



  Court in banc have made no decisions. They are tied on

questions in which banks are concerned. This seems to be a

great year for ties in public bodies.

  Whitney lectured on his railroad scheme last night.       I am

satisfied that his scheme and his route are the best, and perhaps

the only ones, to accomplish the work. He looks more like

Napoleon than any other man who ever lived; not even excepting

Mr. Worthington.

  Judge Lane thinks I had better remain here until Mr. Meline

comes up. I shall want no money until I go down. All well

except Lollie, who has had a little turn of fever but is getting

well. I did write to your Wisconsin lawyer. Love to friends.

                           Sincerely,           R. B. HAYES.

  S. BIRCHARD.

                              COLUMBUS, December 16, 1849.

  DEAR UNCLE:--Our argument was printed and sent off to

Washington day before yesterday. I have now nothing to keep

me here longer and am anxious to start for Cincinnati as soon as

possible. Judge Tilden has not made his appearance here, and

as Judge Lane is to be in Cincinnati within a week or ten days,

I have agreed to meet him there at that time. . . .

  In the Senate there are as yet no signs of "caving in," settle-

ment, or compromise on either side. I rather guess that, event-

ually, Randall will give in, but he has not shown the white

feather as yet.

  Court in banc is fairly at work at last.  Judge Spalding is

certainly a very able judge. I think there would not be the least

danger of your case before the present court.  An opinion was

delivered day before yesterday as to the validity of a defective

entry in the Virginia military lands, in which the court went out

of its way to state pretty strongly the necessity of upholding

ancient proceedings although erroneous. . . . .

  My health was never better than now. I have no fear on that

score. If I can only get into business within a reasonable time,

I shall not be much troubled about colds or sore throat. . . . .

                          Sincerely,

                                Sincerely,      R. B. HAYES.

  S. BIRCHARD.

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