1864 - In a flirty letter, a young woman recovering from an illness in Missouri writes to a young man in Kentucky slyly fishing for compliments and suggesting he invite her to visit after she fully recovers

Glasgow, Missouri to Rodgersville, Kentucky, 1864. Envelope or Cover. Very good. This four-page letter from "Mollie" in Glasgow, Missouri, to Dick [Richard P.] Baston in Rodgersville, Kentucky is dated January 25th, franked with a 3-cent Washington stamp (Scott #65), and postmarked on the 27th. The letter is in nice shape with a rough upper edge, and the envelope was used to pencil some mathematical computations. A transcript will be included.

Mollie's letter reads in part:

"It has been sometime since I received your kind letter. . .. I was taken sick and do not sit up all day yet though I am improving very fast now. I have kept (truncated) your letter in my pocket ever since I received it and read it I don't know how often. . .. I laughed . . . where you spoke of Lizzy the last time I seen her she was very friendly I asked here when she had hird from you she said not since you left. But was talking a great deal about you. Is it posible that you have not writen to your darling? What ails you. I suppose you are enjoying your self finely with so many pretty girls. I don't see how you can think of the Missouri girls or write to them either. I know you had a nice time travling in the ladies car. . .. Ma nor Pa will not even let me go to the door and look out [but] pick me out a nice eseechair I am coming to Ky some of these days. I don't think though I could make any impression where there is so many lovely girls. . .." . While Mollie's background is unclear, Richard Baston was the son of a slave-owning, but Unionist farmer from Glasgow, Missouri. Richard Baston must have been an ardent Unionist because he had fled to Kentucky, fearing for his safety after being threatened by Clifton Holtzclaw, who along with William Quantrill, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, and their gangs of Confederate bushwhackers, terrorized civilians throughout Missouri who sided with the Union. (See item 20 in our Catalog 23-2 - April 2023 for other Baston correspondence.)

A rather forward letter for the time. (Inventory #: 010040)