Comanche County, Texas

LETTER FROM JOHN NIGH

transcribed by Donna Nigh Jones

INTRODUCTION

John R. Nigh was born in Hagerstown, Maryland about 1832 to Samuel T. Nigh and Elizabeth Rench. The Nighs came to the United States from Holland or Germany. The story passed down through the family was that two brothers arrived from Holland with the name Neu pronounced Nigh. One brother decided to keep the spelling and change the pronunciation and the other kept the pronunciation and changed the spelling. What gives the story credibility is that a couple named Nigh visited my mother in the hospital at one time and told her that the same story had been passed down through their family. John R. Nigh served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was a school teacher and a circuit preacher. He moved to Indiana and married Josephine Louisa Matthews Hinton. Louisa had been married to Asher Hinton in Kentucky and had several children. After her husband died, she moved back to Greencastle, Putnam County, Indiana. John and Louisa had three children, William Daniel Nigh, Margaret Inez Nigh, and Samuel Fowler Nigh (my grandfather). About 1875, John R. Nigh left on a trip west to find a place to move his family. He supported himself by teaching school along the way. The letter posted on this site is the last letter from John R. Nigh and the last time the family heard from him. Louisa, with her grown Hinton sons, finally moved her family to Newtonia, Newton County, Missouri. We would like very much to know what happened to John R. Nigh. Attempts were made, but relatives were told that the courthouse burned down with the records of that time.

Donna Nigh Jones

TRANSCRIPTION

Comanche, Comanche Co., Tex.

Jan. 22, 1878

Dear Louisa,

I have again stopped in this co. and gone to teaching. My health has improved and, I am able to labor again, but my life is very little better than a beggar. I have no money and cannot get any just now, but I live in hope. I am in a much more convenient county here than McClennan Co. There is timber, water, rock, land and health here and plenty of land that can be bought from 1.50 to three dollars per acre. If you succeed in selling your land in Ky, I would advise you to invest your money in this part of Texas somewhere. You do not need my formal consent to sell the land. If you and the children agree to sell it and invest the money somewhere else, that is your business not mine. This county is not so rich as it is farther east, but it is rich enough and large bodies of it is covered with rock and timber that can never be cultivated, which will always be a range for hogs and cattle. Three years ago this was the frontier. Now the counties are organized 100 miles west of this, and heavy settlements. You may have some idea how fast this country is settling when I tell you that for 4 months at one toll bridge over the river Leon, there was an average of forty families per day and it only one of the bridges that are within ten mile of each other on the same stream besides the hundred other roads by which they are coming to the west. It looks strange to see deer and wolves in a county that votes 1600 votes, yet it is so here and in three years will double that the game is disappearing very fast and soon there will be none. There is buffalo 150 miles from here and most every family in this neighborhood has plenty of buffalo to do them. They take a team and wagon and go to buffalo range and kill them until they fill their wagons with meat and then come back and dry it like bacon. It keeps better than beef. I have been living on it for 4 weeks, and it is real good. I am glad that you have all determined to come to Texas, for here you can get good homes and cheap. I know I will not be with you long after you come, but it will be a satisfaction when I die to know that you have a home of your own. Now, if you can sell, let me know and I will pick out some land for you to look at when you come. Comanche is only 135 miles from Dallas, and there is no railroad any closer, but there will be a railroad through this county in a few years. The church and school is only a question of time. Every community gets one up as soon as they can to induce others to stop with them. Three years ago, here where there were only three families on 8 miles square, there are now 80 children and nearly every 150 acres has a family on it. God directs for our good. I know I can select 4 quarter sections in this county all together for you and the children of as good land as ever was with timber, water and rock, and it will not cost over $3 per acre. I am very much out of heart, but what is before me I must endure. I know it won’t be long until my time comes, and if I can do anything to help you to a home before I die, I will be glad. The winter here is mild, grass green and growing stock lives without feed, onions and lettuce will soon be fit to eat.

Direct your letter to Comanche, Comanche Co., Texas.

John R. Nigh

To see the original 3-page letter, click here

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Format c2009 Tim Seawolf-Self and Barbara Peck.