No. 67

Chas. in 1883 & Cunningham

Stewart King c/o

John C. Davant, Attorney

501 Cleveland St.

Clearwater Florida

December 16, 1938

Dear Stewart,

Stewart, do you remember Casin as your father’s business partner? He was also a witness or administrator in Bath to the will of your grandfather’s Henry Brother. Val mentioned here was your uncle Valentine. Val and Hank got along finally when they were separated in business matters. The Justice of P. position for Val was a natural fit as he liked regulations and inside desk work due to his poor health.

May 1, 1883

Dear M—Before Casin leaves for Bath, remind him get Hank to recall his promise to hold back Morgans. If he visits Sutherlands, send sympathies for us all. Val writes that he is filling in as Justice of the Peace and of all times now with Hank’s rumbling and plans. At least Val can keep eye on Cunningham.

– Yours, Chas.

Cunningham was the town drunk. Had a lovely wife and community prominence but was lost to vice after the Civil War. Everyone loved his delicate wife, and watched her nerves as she saw her husband's decline.

Cunningham's wife was also the sister of Val's best friend, who died in the war. Your mother said that Val could avoid the war in part because he was older but hired a substitute as the mills, and the whole town, that is, could not survive without him. Val was in a unique position to stay and maintain the family reputation and still do double duty at home and in the mills, as well as church.

She said, “As for Cunningham, the town gave him and other veterans just like him plenty of grace and a place to stay. Many fundraisers to build the veteran's home there on the old grounds of the our family mill! Oh, Lord, so many men came back broken in the head, addicted to indecent talk and women, restlessness, or burst of violence, well, you name it, all the lice and vice mixed up with vice and lice."

Cunningham's wife sought comfort with Val’s Achilles’ heel. Val continued to give way for her to cry on his bench. Everyone tried to help Cunningham. The Baptist preacher told the wife to pray harder and at one time even convinced Cunningham to give a talk in front of the congregation about the evils of sloth. When it was his time to give his testimony, he approached the lectern loose and wobbly. Next thing, Cunningham screaming outside of church and the courthouse about the evils of intemperance but later reined in to sober up in a field, tied up, though for the authorities to find in him in the morning for a hosing down. It was Val who was the one to pick up Cunningham and store his horse at his personal expense.

I enjoyed focusing on your ancestors, for I could not know my own. I imagined Cunningham's wife seeing how Val led away the neglected horse by the reins; at least the horse would eat and could recover as it was its nature to love himself, the horse, that is. And the wife must have been satisfied that the horse was going to be filled and brushed by Val as he waited for Cunningham to turn over.

When I asked your mother about what Charles meant by “Hold back the Morgans,” I thought it would be about another family, with the surname of Morgan, and another lawsuit. Your mother said, “No, dear, that would be a breed of horses. I don’t want to talk about that, the horses in Kanona, as it just went so wrong for our family to get wrapped up in that business.”

--Miss Minnie

2025 Copyright Christine Friesel