McFarland-Russell Letter, January 7, 1880 - Page 2

Oh yes Mr Smith staid all night with
Brother Wm, he made a very good crop last
year, but his eyes are very bad, he wants to go
farther west, he is hiring now in Robertson &
he says his is [bonding or tiring?] with a widow
woman in a mile of the Penitentiary and gets to
see Frogger once a week, Brother said sis
would work hard and make nice quilts
trying to have something and Frogger would
trade them off in a horse trade. He went off
wrote Sis a note bidding her farewell, was gone
several months when he wrote to her again telling
of his being in Jail, and she followed,
There is a man at Brothers that says he is
a second Cousin of ours, Thompson is his name
he is dieing with consumption, Poor man, but
there is where the consumption comes in our
family, from the Thompsons,
I am going to write to Brother to day,
You speak of not hearing from Ed, I do not
hear from either of the boys, I wrote to you about
going down I have not seen nor heard from
them since only what you wrote about Sam