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William Holland Thomas Letter
Raleigh NC
July 24th 1877 Mrs D.A.Sherrill
Junaluska Jackson County
Dear Angeline I am still at this place but hope to leave here in time to reach home the first week in August In
the mean time I want John W Terrell Esq to complete the 25,000 shingles he contracted to make. Have them stacked up
so that they can season. The plank Frank Gibson was to saw I presume he has finished I would like to have it piled
and covered as that it can season to lighten transportation. Arrangements will be made in August to settle the Gibsons
debt to Ute Sherrill if he desires payment in that way. If you have the opportunity let my son Terrell and Gibson
see this letter. Some turnips ought to be sowed at once. I presume you can get Mr Moody to do that. The piece
of swamp land broke up In the orchard would I presume bring good turnips, if the land be well prepared, My ankle
continues to improve but after the swelling has been removed I have a faine prospect of regaining strength in it so
that when I get home I can again enjoy the pleasure of riding on horse back, My health with the exception of my ankle mental
as well as physical is a good as it has been since the way. I presume James is going to School to
Mr. McCarthie , He should learn all he can, He may not have as good a teacher as Mr. McCarthie again soon I have
directed Major Stringfield to keep my horse at his house until I return For Little Sallie to ride before and for me
to ride home after my return, I will very probably travel in the Stage from the end of the Railroad Henry Depot at
the foot of the Blue Ridge to Waynesville. Give my respects to the family and enquiring friends.
Yours truly WH Thomas
Source:
JACKSON COUNTY, NC - MISCELLANEOUS - Letter from Col. William H. Thomas
to his daughter Demarius Angeline
THOMAS/SHERRILL
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The above is
a transcription from a copy of a orginal letter sent from Col.
William Holland Thomas, (my 5th great-grandfather) sent
to his daughter,
(my 4th great-grandmother), Demarius Angeline THOMAS/SHERRILL, during his
committment to the
Insane Asylum in Raleigh, North Carolina. This letter
was written 2 months after the death of his beloved wife, Sarah "Sallie"
LOVE/THOMAS.
Editor's Recommended Reading: Western North Carolina: A History from 1730 to 1913
(Hardcover: 679 pages). Description: From
the introduction to the appendix, this volume is filled with interesting information. Covering seventeen counties—Alleghany,
Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, Mitchell, Swain, Transylvania,
Watauga, and Yancey—the author conducted about ten years searching and gathering materials. Continued below...
About the Author: John Preston Arthur was born in 1851 in Columbia, South Carolina. After
relocating to Asheville, North Carolina, in 1887, he was appointed Secretary of the Street Railway Company, and subsequently
the Manager and Superintendent until 1894. Later, after becoming a lawyer, he was encouraged by the Daughters of
the American Revolution (D.A.R.) to write a history of western North Carolina.
Advance to:
Recommended Reading:
The Civil War in North Carolina:
Soldiers' and Civilians' Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865. Volume 2: The Mountains (Civil War in North Carolina) (Hardcover). Description: As with The Civil War in North Carolina: Soldiers' and Civilians' Letters
and Diaries, 1861-1865. Vol. 1: The Piedmont, this work presents letters and diary entries (and a few other documents) that tell the experiences of soldiers and
civilians from the mountain counties of North Carolina during
the Civil War. The counties included are Alleghany, Ashe, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Cherokee,
Clay, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, McDowell, Macon,
Madison, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Surry, Transylvania,
Watauga, Wilkes, and Yancey. The book is arranged chronologically, 1861 through 1865. Before each letter or diary entry, background
information is provided about the writer. Continued below...
The Civil War
in North Carolina: Soldiers'
and Civilians' Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865 (Volume 2): The Mountains, is the soldier's story. It is an A-to-Z compilation
of what the "rank and file soldier" experienced during the American Civil War. The Western
North Carolina soldiers express their hearts to their loved ones and friends, thus allowing the reader
the most intimate and personal view of the war. From triumph to tragedy, the "soldiers' letters" express what few authors
or writers can achieve--realism. According to cartographic and demographic studies, Southern
Appalachia comprised a unique indigenous people, and by isolating these rare letters it allows the
reader the most detailed insight to their experiences. The soldier experienced various traumatic stressors in the conflict:
such as witnessing death or dismemberment, handling dead bodies, traumatic loss of comrades, realizing imminent death, killing
others and being helpless to prevent others' deaths. Plain, raw and to the point: The
reader will witness the most detailed insight to the so-called American Civil War. Intimate and personal: diseases, privation,
wounds, loneliness, exhaustion, heartache, and death are all explored. This book includes a lot of information about: Western North Carolina Civil
War History (North Carolina mountain troops), soldiers' photos (some
tintype photographs too), and rare pictures. For example, on page 143, there is a photo of Gov. Zeb Vance's brother,
Robert, at Fort Delaware Prisoner of War Camp; he had been captured by Pennsylvania cavalry in East Tennessee. You may see
a rare photo or letter of an ancestor. The maps, which reflect the region, have keys which place each regiment
to each respective western county (where the troops were raised). The soldiers - collectively - also
present a detailed North Carolina Civil War History. By reading the letters, you will easily form a timeline that is
filled with first-hand facts. To be very candid, it is not only filled with primary accounts of the war, but it is one
of the best books to read about the war...Creates an indispensable historical timeline of events of the brave
men from the Old North State.
Recommended
Reading: Touring the Western North Carolina
Backroads (Touring the Backroads). Editorial
Review: This guidebook, unlike most, is so
encyclopedic in scope that I give it as a gift to newcomers to the area. It is also an invaluable reference for the visitor
who wants to see more than the fabulous Biltmore Estate. Even though I am a native of the area, I learned nearly everything
I know about Western North Carolina from this book alone and it is my primary reference.
I am still amazed at how much fact, history and folklore [just enough to bring alive the curve of the road, the odd landmark,
the abandoned building] is packed in its 300 pages. The author, who must have collapsed from exhaustion when she finished
it, takes you on a detailed tour, laid out by the tenth of the mile, of carefully drawn sections of backroads that you can
follow leisurely without getting lost. Continued below...
The author is completely absent from the text. The lucid
style will please readers who want the facts, not editorial comment. This book, as well as the others in this publisher's
backroads series, makes an excellent gift for anyone, especially the many seniors who have relocated, or are considering relocating
to this fascinating region. It is also a valuable reference for natives, like me, who didn't know how much they didn't know.
Recommended
Reading: Shook over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress,
Vietnam, and the Civil War. Description: Eric T. Dean Jr., a lawyer whose interest in the Civil War prompted him to return
to school to obtain a Ph.D. in history, makes a unique contribution to Civil War studies with his research on the psychological
effects of the war on its veterans. Digging through the pension records of Civil War vets, Dean documents the great number
who, suffering from severe psychological problems triggered by intense combat experience, were dutifully provided with disability
pensions by the U.S. government. Continued below...
Dean's central thesis--that these veterans provide a mirror
for the experiences of their counterparts in Vietnam a century later--is supported with lucid reasoning. Of particular interest
are the many stories of intense Civil War combat and its psychological aftereffects, including many cases of Civil War veterans
committed to asylums well into the 1890s--case studies seldom found in standard histories which offer painful testimony to
the war's enormous impact on the nation.
Recommended
Reading: This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American
Civil War. Editorial Review from
Publishers Weekly: Battle is the dramatic centerpiece of Civil War history; this penetrating study looks instead
at the somber aftermath. Historian Faust (Mothers of Invention) notes that the Civil War introduced America to death on an unprecedented scale and of an unnatural kind—grisly,
random and often ending in an unmarked grave far from home. Continued below...
She surveys the many ways the Civil War generation coped
with the trauma: the concept of the Good Death—conscious, composed and at peace with God; the rise of the embalming
industry; the sad attempts of the bereaved to get confirmation of a soldier's death, sometimes years after war's end; the
swelling national movement to recover soldiers' remains and give them decent burials; the intellectual quest to find meaning—or
its absence—in the war's carnage. In the process, she contends, the nation invented the modern culture of reverence
for military death and used the fallen to elaborate its new concern for individual rights. Faust exhumes a wealth of material—condolence
letters, funeral sermons, ads for mourning dresses, poems and stories from Civil War–era writers—to flesh out
her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait of a people torn by grief. Copyright © Reed Business
Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Try the Search Engine for Related Studies: William Holland Thomas Letter, Cherokee Chief, Jackson County
North Carolina History, Western Insane Asylum Raleigh Broughton Hospital North Carolina, Letters, Diary, Personal Memoirs,
Papers
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