MySource:GayelKnott/Reece Family Letters II

Alexander Reese

22 July 1852 to Mary E. Graham

My dear Cousin,

I was very glad to hear from you and as early as possible after reception of your last letter I sit down to reply. I am sorry to learn that your Ma and Pa are in such bad health. I was in hopes when I heard from you they would be entirely recovered.

Since I wrote you last we have recived sad and distressing news indeed. You ask me about Father! My dear cousin how shall I tell you? I have no father. It is too true! Little did I think when I grasped his hand at the river this spring and bid him farewell that I should never see that dear good old father again in this world. That I should never again meet him till that time when I hope by God’s grace to met him in the mansions of Eternal rest. The circumstances of his death are briefly these: Father reached New Orleans the 8th day of May. His health was very good and he took passage, as he informed in his last letter, on board the “Caspian”, a Red River packet bound for Shreveport. His design was to cross over into Texas with the intention of of hunting a place to locate if he liked the country. The last letter he wrote was dated New Orleans May 11th – The next day we suppose the boat left for Shreveport. Father said that he was threatened with diarrhoea but thought it was nothing serious. That was the last we heard of him till about two weeks ago when we received a letter from the clerk of the boat informing us that “Mr. John Reese had taken passage on board the Caspian, that on the night of the 13th he took unwell and died on the 14th at 3 o’clock P. M. He had cholera”. Such was the purport of the letter. The Clerk Mr. I. M. Thompson, also stated that he had received all the attention in their power. He stated that he died easy and was willing to meet his God. He was buried 3 miles above Grand Ecore. The clerk said he had written to us once before but we never got the letter. I wrote to him immediately instructing him where to ship his trunk and gun and desiring all the particulars of his death and his burial. I have as yet received no answer to my letter.
Genealogy, Reese Family I, Box 3, Folder 10, John Kennedy Graham Papers, M166, Historical Society of Indiana Letter, 22 July, 1852, Hanover, Ind, Alec W. Reese to Miss Mollie Graham/Mary E. Graham, New Albany, Ind.