MySource:[email protected]/Letter of David H. Franklin Riherd

Dear Niece:

I wrote Mary Beals all I knew about my progenitors, sometime ago. If I has known the importance of these things. I could have gotten a large amount of information along those lines.

Uncle Morgan Taylor took a lot of pains and time to compile an account of all his kin on both his fathers and mother's people. He was a fine hand to do such a job. If I had seen that it would have been of great interest to all us young folk.

Grandmother was a Durham, born in 1812, a large portly woman. Blond with light blue eyes of a reserved nature had two brothers, Rodney and Ezekiel. Uncle Ezekiel was a physician and lived at Fountain head, Tenn. One sister named Nancy. Grandmother's name was Lousa. She married David Wareham Taylor. The had eight children: William, Zorintha Permilia, Lucy Ann, Thomas Franklin, David, James Morgan, Albert Claudiius and Louisa. William died when about grown. My mother was born 1835. The old bible you have shows you that.

Grandmother was related to Lord Durham of England. Uncle Rodney lived at Bethfrage, Tenn.

Grandfather Taylor was of Scott-Irish blood. He was raised an orphan boy. He was tall and rather slender build. He had the biggest ears of any person I ever saw- fine conversationalists.

I have heard him tell many incidents of his life which would be of but letter interest to you. he was a practical joker in his younger days. He died in 1880, at the age of 75. He was a farmer the most of his life. A Republican in politics and a Baptist in religion. Almost all of his children were lovers of books and several were educated.

The Riherds were quite a different kind of people, they were of German origin.

The original name Rinehart, I don't know where they came to U.S.- -very eager I am certain. I feared that we came out of that crowd of Hessiens that George the Third hired to come over and fight father George Washington but to my great relief I learned to a certainty that they were here long before that time.

Far back in the dim and distant past there was an Adam Rinehart. He was not the Adam of Garden of Eden fame, however. He died before I was born, being an octogenarian. I am also an octogenarian would make his birth near 175 years ago. I think this son, who was Jacob, came from Pennsylvania, I think he married a woman name De Haven. I have got mixed up in the above. Adam's son Jacob died before I was born at the age of over 80. He was my grandfather. He sasses through the rice Smiths Grove Co. and settled on a farm near Garnolical in Monroe Co. He could have bought 200 acres of this rich country for the horse he rode but there being no water there he could not have existed there.

He had three sons, Isaac, Lewis and Eli, on daughter Linnie. Isaac went to Missouri and raised a family there. Aunt Linnie died in early womanhood. Se had a "growth" on her neck and a doctor cut it out. Surgery was a primitive nature in those early days and of course, he killed Aunt Linnie.

Uncle Ed married young and father and grandfather Jake and Eli all lived together. The two brothers worked together and they raised a lot of tobacco. The would ship it down Barren River, on into Green River, and into the Ohio and down the Fathers of water to New Orleans. There they sold tobacco, flatboat and all and returned by steamer.

They were industrious and prosperous. Father married at the age of forty and mother was seventeen. I guess your father has told you all that would be of interest to you. Glad you had so nice a trip to Florida.

                   Uncle Frank

Riherd Genealogy John Riechardt 1715-1787. Came from the Rhine Valley or Palatine, Germany. Sailed from Rotterdam, Holland. Touched ports in England and landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Conrad Richards, 1747-1807. Probably from that part of old Augusta, Now Pendleton Co. between the forks of the Potomac and disappeared from records about 1807.

Jacob Richards, 1771, born in Virginia, now West Virginia, about 1771. Left there about 1804. He was in Tennessee in 1820. Received land grants on Long Creek. Summer Co., Tenn. in 1826. Isaac, Eli, Lewis.

Issac Richards, 1802 born in Virginia in 1802. Was in the 1830 census of Sumner Co., Tenn. Also, 1840 but his name was spelled "Richard". In 1840, he had three sons and three daughters. Lived in Schuyler Co., Missouri in 1860. In 1880 he lived near Lancaster, Prairie Township.

The three sons of Isaac Richards were John Lewis Riherd, Eli Riherd, and David Riherd.

Lewis or rather John Lewis Riherd was born in 1830 in Tennessee. Noah Arthur Riherd, his son, 1858-1918, born March 10, 1858 in Schuyler Co., Missouri. Emigrated to Erath Co. in 1871. Married Jan. 12, 1882. Died Jan. 18, 1918 at Rotan, Texas. Buried at Lower Greens Creek near Harbin, Erath Co., Texas.

Paul T. Riherd is the one whom I wrote some few days ago.