EXHIBIT "B"

LETTER NUMBER TWO

JOSEPH SMITH WING WRITES TO HIS WIFE, REBECCA


This page is dedicated to Jane Bonny who was the first to find these letters in the courthouse at Pittsfield, Pike County, Illinois. Thanks to Jane and her generous spirit of sharing her discoveries, we can all enjoy these letters and get a peek in Joseph Smith Wing's character. Thank you so much Jane.


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Feb the 12th 1854

Dear Rebecca If you will alow me to call you so I now take my pen in hand to write you a few lines I am well and hope these few lines will find you enjoying the same I hardly know how to commence to write to you I doubt not that you have heard of my conduct in Iowa If you haven't you must prepare yourself to here news more savere than to hear of my deth on fifth of last September I was married to a girl in Iowa by the name of Frances E Jarrad She was a girl of good behavior and of good standing, fine appearances and very intelligent but we have parted never to meet again this side of the judging of all things. I am near green bay, among the Indians, a great way from settlement. I am among the tall pines where the fascinations of the world are obliterated*.


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The snow is about 2 feet deep. It lays on from first of January until first of Aprl. I shal be home as soon as the river opens Becca I know I have forfeited all my claims on your affections as a wife or eaven as a friend I shal send you some money as soon as the rivers open. I want you to consider the matter well and if you want to get a divorce I shall not try to hinder you I think I have caused you enough trouble all ready. Peace and contentment I neaver expect to see I expect to finish the remainder of my days a wanderer upon the earth. If it was-ent for Adelia and byron the sooner my days were numberd the better I should be satisfied. I was a doing well in Iowa, making money with the anticapation of enjoying my self with my family but what did I here you was running to Georges and had had another talk with Tip


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right against my most particular requests but you disregarded them and I became reckless of the future and if it wasent for my children and for mother I should never visit Pike Co again. I have wrote you some letters before this I went to see the Mores and wrote stephen a letter to tell him all the particulars I left the business with a lawyear by the name of Everett in washington and sent his receipt in a letter to stephen from Brighton Becca, I dont intend to deceive you I thinke you done rong very rong in disregarding my most particular requests but it is all past there is not any youse in crying for spilt milk all I can say or do is to ask your forgiveness and advise you to live a Christians life and prepare to enjoy the future as you have had so much trouble in the past but I want you to take particular care of


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the children and try not to be so severe with them and I candedly say that if you take them among the Davises when I come home in the spring I will take them where you will not cary them among them for a one while for goodness sake be mild withe the children good yousage and gentle words will do more than harsh ones will or the rod either give my love to mother tell her I dont forget her to her I expect a friend when all others forsake me give my love to all enquiring friends write as soon as you get this direct your letters to Black River Falls Wisconsin to Dr J. W. Smith on the envellop So I must stop for want of paper So I remain the most wreachead of men and thanks be to old Eave I would not live allways
To a fathfull Loving but ering one
Rebecca
From an unfortun-ate creature J. W


Now, Joseph Smith Wing is my great-great grandfather, but honest to God, he shows more personality changes in this letter than some folks do all day long. I am afraid that if I am anything at all like Rebecca, I would have had a major fit when I read this letter. Here is a guy who has been gone since the spring of 1853. Rebecca is at home with two little kids under the age of three. He is off, as my mother would say, galavanting all over creation, marries another woman and he lectures her on what he thinks she has done wrong. Give me a break.

What is even more insensitive is the way he describes his "wife," Frances Jarrad, in the glowing terms of admiration, which could only have served to hurt Rebecca just a little bit more. Speaking for myself, I think I see a little less apology and a lot more blame going on in this letter. In fact, he basically tells Rebecca that it is her fault that he married someone else while he is still married to her.

But, aside from my outrage and my pain for my great-great grandmother, this letter (the 4th page in particular) indicates that this was when he started calling himself a "Doctor." Mind you, he was a cooper prior to this and now he is telling Rebecca to address her letters to Dr. J. W. Smith. God, didn't she think that was a little strange? Did she catch on? Or did she even care in view of all of his other indiscretions?

I do not know who Joseph Smith Wing is referring to when he talks about George and Tip. He could be referring to her brother, George Washington Davis when he mentions "George," but I don't have a clue about "Tip." It is obvious that he harbors some long standing grievance against Rebecca's family, the Davises...but what that could be is unknown at this time. I have a hunch that it could have been that Rebecca had a habit of running to her family when things weren't going her way, giving her own side of the story, but then returning home to her husband. Rebecca had six half brothers and three full brothers, who may have been stirred to enough anger to confront Joseph Smith Wing. Either way, he might have been a little leery of that possibility.

As much as I hate to admit this, I am also a descendant of my great-great grandfather...and he gets pretty saucy in his letter to her...brazen even. If he is afraid that she will show the letter to someone else, all he has to do is imply that she is mean to her children and he might think that she will hesitate to share that side of her personality with anyone else. That's what I would have done if I were him. Not to say that I am going to expound on Rebecca's virtues as a mother...the woman gave both of her children up to the Wing family, but I want to believe that it was hardship...at least for now...until I find proof that I am wrong.