Letter from Kezia Payne DePelchin at Memphis to her sister, Sallie Payne, December 19, 1879 [Digital Version]

Bibliographic Information

DePelchin, Kezia P. (Payne), 1828-1893, Letter from Kezia Payne DePelchin at Memphis to her sister, Sallie Payne, December 19, 1879 (December 19, 1879)

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Title: Letter from Kezia Payne DePelchin at Memphis to her sister, Sallie Payne, December 19, 1879 [Digital Version]
Funding from: Funding for the creation of this digitized text is provided by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Author: DePelchin, Kezia P. (Payne), 1828-1893
Statements of responsibility:
  • Creation of digital images: Center for Digital Scholarship, Rice University
  • Creation of transcription: Amanda York Focke, Asst. Head of Special Collections, Woodson Research Center
  • Conversion to TEI-conformant markup: Amanda York Focke, Asst. Head of Special Collections, Woodson Research Center
  • Parsing and proofing: Fondren Library, Rice University
  • Subject analysis and assignment of taxonomy terms: Melissa Torres
Publisher: Rice University, Houston, Texas
Publication date: 2010-06-07
Identifier: aa00184_21
Availability: This digital text is publicly available via the Americas Digital Archive through the following Creative Commons attribution license: “You are free: to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work; to make derivative works; to make commercial use of the work. Under the following conditions: By Attribution. You must give the original author credit. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.”
Notes:
Digitization: Page images of the original document are included. Images exist as archived TIFF files, JPEG versions for general use, and thumbnail GIFs.
Provenance: This collection was given as a permanent loan from Charles McBrayer of the DePelchin Faith Home in 1973.
Description: 3 handwritten pages, back in Memphis, visits the graves of those who died, on her way to Houston
Source(s): DePelchin, Kezia P. (Payne), 1828-1893, Letter from Kezia Payne DePelchin at Memphis to her sister, Sallie Payne, December 19, 1879 (December 19, 1879)
Source Identifier: Kezia Payne DePelchin letters, MS 201, Box 1, letter 21, p. 165-167, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University
Description of the project: This digitized text is part of the Our Americas Archive Partnership (OAAP) project.
Editorial practices
This text has been encoded based on recommendations from Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Any comments on editorial decisions for this document are included in footnotes within the document with the author of the note indicated. All digitized texts have been verified against the original document. Quotation marks have been retained. For printed documents: Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved. No corrections or normalizations have been made, except that hyphenated, non-compound words that appear at the end of lines have been closed up to facilitate searching and retrieval. For manuscript documents: Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved. We have recorded normalizations using the reg element to facilitate searchability, but these normalizations may not be visible in the reading version of this electronic text
Languages used in the text: English
Text classification
Keywords: Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus
  • Correspondence
Keywords: Library of Congress Subject Headings
  • Yellow fever--Mississippi River Valley--History--19th century
  • Yellow fever--History--United States
  • Disease outbreaks--History--United States
Keywords: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
  • Memphis (inhabited place)

165

Memphis.

Dec. 19, 1878

My dear Sister

Here I am once more. Of course in the Chambers House,
the same Hotel that did not refuse to give me a room when
I so greatly needed one; I arrived here yesterday morning,
left my trunk at the depôt as I shall start from there
this afternoon 5 o'clock. Yesterday morning, I called
at GenGeneral Smith's Office for a pass. he was not in town
I was told where to find Mr Johnson. he told me it
should be attended to; to call this morning; I then
went out to Elmwood; I find the nurses who died since SeptSeptember
16 have all been buried in a lot purchased by the

166

Howards; there are two long rows. not far distant
are the Doctors. I found the graves of several I had
known in life, but one or two I looked for, I could not
find: they had died in that week I mentioned in one
of my letters to you as being so fearful, that time
is now spoken of as the 'terrible days.' I looked on those
graves, the shadow of the monument to Mattie Stephenson
can fall on them; like a guardian angel; from all
places they have come not for fame but for love to
fellow men. It made me think of the time when from
the East and the West, they shall come and setRegularized:sit down
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of
Heaven. Noble souls! the graves in the National cemetery
awakes our admiration for their patriotism, but the
contemplation of these, bring forth a nobler sentiment.
This morning I called for my pass. Mr Johnson gave me
a ticket to Texarkana and a letter [...]
in acknowledge—
mentRegularized:acknowledgement of my services, duly signed, and sealed,
by himself and the Secretary Mr Smith, not GenGeneral
Smith, but you know it is not a very remarkable
coincidence to meet with two of the name
of Smith in the same city. I also received a

167

letter from Senatobia. Signed by Mr Massey and
Dr French requesting railroads to pass me free. —
therefore I do not anticipate any trouble. I went with
one of the ladies of the Christian Association to visit
two of their institutions. At one place a room
is provided for lodging women who are alone and
have no home. an intelligence Office is connected
with this. then the home for reformed women.
I intended to go to Leath Orphan Asylum to see
Arthur but it is so far; I have not been able, but
I hope to hear some of his relatives have taken
the poor child. I expect my next letter will be
from Houston. I shall take some money with me. —
but send back what I do not use for actual
need. I have been today and I can given the
most of it where I thought it the most needed.
The money was sent to the poor of Memphis to
them it belongs and not to me. I should fear
a curse like that which fell on Gehazi if I
took any to keep to enrich myself. —

Your loving Sister
K.

Rice University
Date: 2010-06-07
Available through the Creative Commons Attribution license