To Neill Brown, Esq.

Robeson County, North Carolina

Maury County, West Tennessee

March 25, 1810

Dear and Affectionate Brother,

Last Saturday, Brother Hugh received a letter from Brother william of a very late date, which furnished the pleasing information of the welfare of your family amidst considerable mortality. I am sorry to hear of the melancholy situation of Mr. McNair, but hope it will terminate for his good and that of his people, and am fully persuaded that a tour of this country would measurable relieve him, yea perhaps entirely and would be glad that you would tell him that it would rejoice me very much to see him at my cabin, determined to stay two or three months with us. I would be equally glad to see Daniel Smith, if I thought the limestone water would suit or agree with his constitution and if he would spend this summer with us. It would be a sufficient experiment on the subject, and we have, through the bounties of a kind providence, provisions so plenty that they could not exhaust our store. I housed between three and four hundred barrels of corn last fall, which will be a hundred barrels more than I can reasonable use by next fall.

The income of Brother Hugh's mill is at this time more than supports his family and whole stock. I have put twenty acres under wheat and am now putting in my oats, about nineteen acres. Although we are bounding in plenty, Brother Hugh is dissatisfied with the country. The coldness and the muddiness of our winters disgust him. He expects to visit the Black Warrior and Tom Bigby this spring. Sister Katy and her son William visited D. McCallum, D. Brown, J. Smith, and Rev. J. Gillaspie, ten days ago and spent several days with them. They and families were in good health. William Gillaspie has seven children - two sons and five daughters, the youngest a daughter near three months old named Polly Jean. He is doing well with respect of the things of this world.

We have appointed to administer the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper at our meeting house on Rutherford's Creek, Sabbath week, at which place our Presbytery will meet on the day following, and at the same place, immediately on the close of the Presbytery, the Missionary Society of Tennessee will meet; so that our meeting will continue for several days. We humbly hope it will resound to the Glory of God and the salvation of souls. Although we have no such revival of religion as the Northern States can boast of, yet appearances are somewhat hopeful among us. And we thrust a few are earnestly pleading for an out pouring of the Holy Spirit, and now and then a hopeful conversion takes place among us.

By the blessing of God we have now eight children, five daughters and three sons. Our youngest son born on the eighth day of February, as we have not yet had an opportunity of dedicating him to God in baptism, we are not determined what his name will be. Although his mother had a safe delivery, her recovery has been slow.

Old Mr. Carr, one of our Elders, dropped the clay tabernacle, last Friday week. He left us rejoicing in the God of his salvation, age 63. Two weeks before he died, he attended society at Brother Hugh's, being in a very low state of health. He lay on the bed and exhorted the young people to hearken to the words of a dying man, who that day attended society for the last time, his. Monday morning before his departure, he called me to his bed and conversing on the plan of salvation, began to rejoice. His physician told him that if he did not desist, he would exhaust himself immediately. He replied, "Doctor, I will praise Jesus while I live."

All your friends and acquaintances here are in good health, except John Buchanan, who it is thought is laboring under a consumption, and it appears that all that family are constitutionally ______.

Your Affectionate Brother,

Duncan Brown

Original: Lacy C. Buie; published in Daily Herald Columbia, Tennessee

Transcribed by Bradley M. Buie, January 2000