Seminole, Texas 1911
Seminole, Texas

"...drovs of antilops and perriary chickens and heaps of wolves and perriary dogs."

I live in Mayfield, Kentucky, but was raised in Northwest Tennessee not too far from Reelfoot Lake. Recently I had to put my Dad in a nursing home and I have been going through his possessions and I found two letters that were written to my Great Grandmother, Hallie Carpenter Posey, in 1910 and 1911 from a friend in Seminole, Texas. Evidently the friend had once lived in the area and had moved to Seminole.

However, my Great Grandmother was from Scottsville, Ky and it could have been that they were friends there. My Great Grandmother's folks got burned out in the Scottsville area during the Civil War and I have records showing her being in Northwest Tennessee around 1871. She was born in 1850 and passed away at the age of 99 in 1949 there in Northwest Tennessee. Her friend, Mrs. Lettie Abshure wrote some very long letters to her during this time and described Seminole in detail. Please find [the following] excerpts from the letters and let me know if anyone may know of her.

The excerpts are copied exactly as written and provide some insight into the language, spelling and history of the times. If I can be of further service, do not hesitate to contact me. - Kenneth M. Smith, Mayfield, Kentucky, November 15, 2006

From Seminole, Texas March 20, 1910
Here is one especially interesting letter from a dear friend of my Great Grandmother Hallie Carpenter Posey. It is written by a lady by the name of Lettie Abshure:

"Hallie I always heard Texas people were wild and rowdy but you wont find it so their is as good a people as I every lived a round and so many good christens people to but every thing is high hear and no good buildings through this part of Texas that is out in the country some people still live in dug outs hear. Corn is from ninty to a dollar a bushel meat eighteen to nineteen cents a pound and hens are thirty five to forty cents a peace there is a heap of cattle in this country and you can see great droves of antilope hear anytime and wolves are thick to. I have planted part of my garden and it is up. We live in Gains County where we live now and every foot of the six hundred and forty acakers is good land only one hundred acakers fenced there is no timber hear all the wood you get is dug from in under the ground but this part of Texas is fine looking and almost level it is not settled up much it is eighty one miles to a railroad but there are severl small towns closeer it is offle losome out hear we have only two neabors in a mile half of us and the rest is four and five miles. I would like hear well if we were close to school and church it is five miles to church at Seminole. The children haven't got to go to school this winter but there is going to be a school house built hear close this year. But it is a healthy country to live in my children were haven chills every day when we came to Texas and they never every had more than one or two after we came out hear and has never had any since and are as healthy looking children as you every see".

Follow Up letter from Seminole, Texas in 1911:

I know you would not like to live out hear. We have very little cold weather and some snow and ice but not like there is back their and I don't think I have every seen the ground froze hear. But any one cant stand what cold weather there is hear like you can back their for it stay warm so much in the winter and when it dose turn cold it is such a change so suddenly it almost freze any one and no timber in a 100 miles or more to brake the wind if anything stock suffers hear a heap on the account of the wind blowing so much and hard some days you cant see anything out of doors for the wind blowing sand the ear will be full of sand and you will just halft to stay in the house and ever thing in the house will be covered with sand to, the worst place to keep thangs in the house clean in every lived for you can go to work and clean of all the sand and maby before you get through the wind will blow so hard every thing in the house is covered with sand agin and it always takes two to hang out cloths when you wash one to hold clothes while the other fastin them on the line and then some of the time they will be to wash agin before they can be used on the account of sand being blown before they dry and no one can rais much hear for the wind blows sand until it kill so much of the little plants as they come up and covers them up to. And most people wate till late to plant crops for the wind don't blow so much in the summer, but then it to warm to do much good you plant and we have hot winds in the summer time they will just blister your face and hands in the house or shade and will make young corn just twist and dry like fall of the year althow there is not much farming done hear some cor cotton milo maze and caffa corn raised mostly a stock country land is fine ever foot of the 640 acres we have is good land and if it wer not for the wind blowing sand it would raise fine crops. But we are not agoing to live hear any longer than we can sell or land it is healthy hear but I don't like there are a heap of people a living out under the ground like sellars. Lumber is so high and far to hall it to. Lumber is $50 a thousin now and sometimes higher. You asked me what I named my baby we called him Walter Watson after my father. I will close hope to hear from you soon. There are a heap of animals hear. You can see drovs of antilops and perriary chickens and there are heaps of wolves and perriary dogs just ruin some land people are trying to get them all killed out, but I don't think they will every get them all killed for they are to many.- Your Friend Lettie Abshure

See Seminole, Texas
More Texas Towns | Texas Ghost Town | Texas