Susan Smith Preston Radford to John Preston Johnston, November 24, 1839

[Susanna (Susan) Smith Preston Radford (1805-1857) at Greenfield, Virginia, to John Preston Johnston at West Point, New York, November 24, 1839. Box 26, Folder 13, Robert Morton Hughes Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529. This is my rough transcription. Extra paragraph breaks added for easier reading.]

My dear Preston

I have been entirely to blame for not writing to you sooner, be assured of one fact my dear child that my silence has not proceeded from want of affection. When I received your letter I was engaged in nursing your Aunt Sarah in her confinement which lasted a month she is now quite well and her boy William Radford his name is a very stout fine fellow.

Your uncle Radford has just recovered from quite a tedious spell of fever he was not very ill but sick enough to keep his bed for ten days he was prevented from taking his long promised trip to Missouri, Mr. Bowyer & Mr. Peyton have just returned. Your uncle Bowyer disgusted with every thing he saw in that country, poor as it is. He says your uncle William Preston’s family is buried alive they have no society nearer than St. Louis a distance of 50 miles and not a great deal there; he had four daughters grown and quite pretty but not very polished of that you are to say nothing about.

I received a letter yesterday from Opelousas informing me of the death of your grand mother Preston. She died of Yellow Fever she was only sick four days, singular coincidence of her having the same disease and dying in the month and the same day of the month (viz. the 15^th) that your uncle Edward did. Your uncle’s widow and child were alive but the last accounts from there the fever was still raging.

I have not heard a word from your sister since she left us last August she has not yet returned to school, I am afraid your uncle Edward is doing a poor business this session he has only nine schollars [scholars] – he has himself to blame for it, as his course was a very injudicious one last summer. He suffered the girls to run wild and to do just as they pleased he was frequently told of but made no alterations in his rules until the whole country was talking about the girls; the consequence was that all the parents kept their children at home, if they had have had last session the same regulations that they now have & the same assistants (Frederic[k] Johnston & Lady) I have no doubt there [their] school would have been very large. There is a report I know not how true it is that the school is to break up at Christmas I hope it is not the case.

I hope dear Preston you continue to be pleased with your situation, and that you will continue to act in such a way as to be able to retain your situation with honour everything depends upon yourself attend strictly to all the rules a[nd] regulations of the institution be just and honest in all your dealings and above all do not forget the religious instructions you have received from your kind relation Mrs. Carrington.

I wish my child you would write often to me and let me know every-thing about yourself your uncle would be very glad to get a letter from you he is not at home to day or I am sure he would add a few lines to my letter.

Your little cousins join in love to you and wish very much you were here to join with us in sating apples & drinking good cider.

      May God bless you my dear child is the

               Prayer of your affectionate

                      Aunt Susan

[Susan = Susanna (Susan) Smith Preston Radford (1805-1857)

Preston = John Preston Johnston/aka Johnstone (1824-1847), fifteen-year-old plebe cadet at the US Military Academy (Class of 1843).

Aunt Sarah = Sarah Radford Preston Bowyer (1806-1848)

Your uncle Radford = William Moseley Radford (1810-1873), husband of Susan.

Mr. Bowyer = Henry Morton Bowyer (1802-1893), married to Sarah.

Mr. Peyton = either William Madison Peyton (1814-1868) or General Bernard Peyton (1792-1854), then serving on the Virginia Military Institute’s Board of Visitors with General Peter Carr Johnston (1793-1877), general in the Virginia militia.

William Preston = William Radford Preston (1799-1846), married to Elizabeth Ann (Eliza) Cabell Preston (1799-1889).

Four daughters = their daughters included: Pauline, Marion, Aurinthia, Elizabeth, Isadora and Rebecca.

Opelousas = in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.

Grand mother Preston = Susan’s stepmother, Elizabeth Ann Carrington Preston (1768-October, 1839).

You uncle Edward = Edward Carrington Preston (1812-1837)

Widow and child = Mary Edmonia Hawkins Preston (1817-?) and Edward Carrington Preston II (1836-1886).
Your sister = Eliza Mary Johnston (1825-1909)

Your uncle Edward = Edward William Johnston (1799-1867), forty years old, was attempting to run a school at Botetourt Springs (now the site of Hollins University) on the property formerly owned by his uncle Charles Johnston (1769-1833).

Frederic[k] Johnston & Lady = Frederick Johnston (1804-1893) and Elizabeth Ann Carter Burwell Johnston (1810-1861).

Mrs. Carrington = possibly Elizabeth (Eliza) Henry Preston Carrington 1796-1877), married to Edward Codrington Carrington (1790-1855), or someone from the same extended family.

Little cousins = Elizabeth Radford (1832-1898) and Mary Anne Radford (1833-1878).]

[Many thanks to Sue Davis, William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration.]