The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960 Page: 299

notes ard DocUmceqts
rhomas W. ell Ceters
Edited by LLERENA FRIEND
[The following is a continuation of the letters of Thomas W. Bell,
the first section of which appeared in the July, 1959, Quarterly.]
JONES P.O. AUSTIN COUNTY REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
DEAR FATHER, July 23, 1840
It is with unfeigned gratitude I can answer you that I feel
towards you as a son should ever feel towards a parent who has ever
been the guardian of my infancy and the giver of my existence. I
would be basely wanting in gratitude did I listen with a deaf ear
to a parent or parents who have ever shown their love to me by their
counsels and advice. Often have I felt the need of parental advice and
affection while sojourning in this land of strangers; And how often
how often! do I experience the want of that solacing balm described
in that best of all books the Bible. I cannot tell why I have not
embraced it long ago not for want of religious instruction and a
good example, for I have been blessed with both. Your brief com-
munications at the last of my brother's letter have at length met
my eye but not before some one else had perused it. I left Austin
City before Christmas last winter and my letters being directed
there I never received them until now and the one in which your
epistle was enclosed was sent from Austin to Rutersville26 by some
unknown friend and was there taken out and read by Aunt Mary
King. As to what John A. King owes it is a very dull chance about
getting it now for he is making very little and is worse than nothing
in Miss. which I foresaw before I left. I may get it but it will be
in such a way that it will look like nothing when I do get it. Prob-
ably the hint he received from reading your letter may push him up
a little. As to my trip I started here it was with the most flattering
26"Rutersville is a town six miles south-east of Lagrange. The tract upon which
it is built, was purchased in the spring of 1838, and a town laid off, for the
purpose of erecting and endowing a college. Since that time about two hundred
houses have been erected; a charter has been procured for the institution, and it
is now in successful operation. It is one of the most pleasant situations in the coun-
try, and surrounded by a rich and very abundant neighborhood."-Bonnell,
Topographical Description of Texas, 58.