The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 83, July 1979 - April, 1980 Page: 48
464 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
farmed with his stepfather until his marriage. He and his wife, Rachel C.
Allen, raised nine children in Washington and Waller counties, where
Allen worked as a carpenter and farmer. He died near Hempstead on
August 13, 1911, and was buried in Field Store Cemetery in Waller
County. The graves of Elba Byrd Allen Sorsby and William Arrington
Sorsby are also in this cemetery, as are Allen's wife and other family
members.
George W. Allen wrote to his family" in a hasty, casual style with little
regard for punctuation or other formalities. To facilitate reading, some
minor punctuation has been added. Otherwise, spelling, capitalization,
and punctuation have been retained with no corrections.
[Postmarked July 29, 1862, Little Rock, Arkansas]
To: Mr. W. A. Sorsby
Washington To From: G. W. Allen, a private
Washington Co in Capt Kennards Co.
Texas Col Nelsons Regt
Arkansas
Camp Texas,6 July the 24th/62
Dear Parents
Your kind favor of the 7th of July came to hand today. I was very glad
to hear from you all. You can not imagine the pleasure it gave me al-
though it brought me the sad news of the death of my Grand Mother7
for it was the first lines that I have received since I left you on the 1 ith
of April. I had been long looking for a letter but I looked in vain. I was
certain that you had written but they was miscarried. I was very uneasy
for I had been dreaming about you all and I almost knew that some one
was dead. I was telling some of my Mess mates about it a few days ago and
GThe three letters published here are in the hands of descendants of the Byrd family.
One is held by Mrs. Johnie K. Spruiell of Coolidge, Texas, one by Mrs. Hubert S. Kirk-
patrick of Augusta, Georgia, and the last by James Tris Pollard of Fort Worth, the hus-
band of the editor of these papers. All three are great-great grandchildren of the original
settler, Micajah Byrd, whose first grandson, George W. Allen, wrote these letters.
6At Camp Texas, about five miles from Little Rock, many of the ill stayed to regain their
health. Benjamin M. Seaton, The Bugle Softly Blows: The Confederate Diary of Benjamin
M. Seaton, ed. Harold B. Simpson (Waco, 1965), 17, 20.
7Hannah Bradbury Byrd Waters Gray was Allen's maternal grandmother. Austin County
Court, Austin County Succession Records File # 3 (23), Bellville, Texas.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 83, July 1979 - April, 1980, periodical, 1979/1980; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101207/m1/68/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.