Name/Title
AU Harris, Paul Joseph Jr. - 1990-07-25 letter to Ronnie and Marlys StuartEntry/Object ID
1991.2.13Context
3923 Seeley Avenue
Downers Grove, IL 60515
July 25, 1990
Dear Ronnie and Marlys,
Just a short note to let you know how much we enjoyed meeting you at the reunion in Lancaster. I really appreciate your letting me copy the materials from Morgan County and am forwarding the originals with this letter. I had the 1875 map of Marion Township enlarged and am enclosing an additional copy.
When we were together I had mentioned how I thought that the eighty—three acres that Reece had on the map was the result of my great grandfather's move to Athens County. My grandmother, Bertha Elizabeth Lambert, daughter of Daniel Webster Lambert, writes in her autobiography, "My father was married March 31, 1859 to Deborah Vernon Embree. Their first home was in a log house built on the forty acres given to father. This farm was later known as the Reese Lambert farm. ...father felt he should have more land in order to carry on farming as he should, so he sold his little farm and bought eighty acres one mile south of the little town of Plantsville."
She also writes, "...the six children who lived on adjoining farms. It was like this: my father lived the farthest south on the road to Chesterhill; Uncle Abner's farm joined father's and
Aunt Hannah's joined his. Aunt Elizabeth came next, then Uncle Reese and last Aunt Mary."
Daniel sold his farm north of Plantsville in the spring of 1863 and bought a larger farm south of Plantsville, in Athens County, which explains why his name does not appear on the 1875 map of Marion Township. I believe Bertha's reference to the sequence of farms is after this move since she was born in 1872. That would probably put Abner's farm in Athens County also, with Hannah's (Mrs. Jesse Fawcett, whose husband was the court
appointed guardian for Daniel, Reese, and Elizabeth when their father died in 1850) farm just north of Plantsville. Elizabeth's forty acres are still shown in her name nine years after marrying Isaac Endicott, who owns the narrow strip of land between his wife and her mother, Elizabeth Stanton Lambert, who was still alive in 1875. Aunt Mary's farm is just north of Reese's, in her husband's name, James Edgerton.
I am enclosing a short autobiography written by Elizabeth Stanton. I did not realize that you had not seen a picture of her so I finally got of my duff and printed the story with room to reproduce the one and only picture I have of her. I hope you enjoy it. As you probably know from "Apple Blossoms" she was considerably crippled after breaking her hip in 1881 and lost her eyesight in 1883. She would spend ten weeks at a time with her
six children who lived on adjoining farms and died at the home of
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her oldest child, Hannah Fawcett, on 15 Jan 1885. She was buried on 17 Jan 1885 in the Friend's Cemetery at Chesterhill.
After leaving Lancaster we went to Dodgeville and spent the night so PJ and Abby could do some swimming. The next morning we went to the House on the Rock and were duly impressed. Later, a stop at the Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mound gave all of us our first subterranean experience. It was very interesting and a great way to beat the heat. We drove home from there, arriving about 9:00 PM on Monday. The kids were disappointed that there wasn't anyone their age at the reunion, but both admitted that they had a good time anyway and enjoyed meeting such nice relatives. I'll add my ditto to that.
The children's mother, Cathy, is scheduled to undergo monthly treatments soon with a return to M. D. Anderson in Houston in about four months for surgery. Thank you for your concern and prayers.
As I have time to go over the information you gave me, it will create more questions than it will answer. We must keep in touch because we all have a lot of information on the Lambert family that would best be served by collection, organization, and publication. There is a huge job ahead of us, but the Harris-Lambert Family Archives will prevail!
Please keep in touch and if you are ever passing near the Chicago area, please stop by for a visit.
Your cousin,
Paul J. Harris, Jr.
