BRADFORD
Rebecca I now take my pen in hand to address you a few lines ; I am well and hope this may find you enjoying good health & was glad to heare from you and to heare that your little family was well I was sorry to heare that your health was poor but this life is frought with ills but the physical derangement of a person is nothing in comparison with the sorrow of disapointed anticipations when I reflect back a few yeares of the past and recall the once happy imaginations of future life painted as it was upon my imagination & see how suden it was blasted I can not help exclaiming Hope is but a truant jade it leaves its climb in despare but its all past and cannot be otherwise becca my most precious demands were not respected by you in my letter to you I have ever exorted you to keep from the davis gang but you heeded it not as for your self your at liberty to go where and when you please but I shal try to have the children put where they can be kept from the cursed gang your conduct is unpardonable with me I strictly forbid your associating with them but you heeded it not I have no objection to keeping up a corespondence by letter with you providing you dont call your self my wife any letter signed so I will not answer I shall be home in the sping if I live , to take care of the children for I love them and in them I expect to see somebody greate and good if they can be kept from the infernal gang my purpose is fixt & unalterable only by death and the least said soonest mended this is a very sickly country and ver hard for a man of family to get along in goodby

All of the letters in this series were discovered at the Pike County Courthouse in Pittsfield, Pike Co., Illinois. They were first discovered by Jane Bonny who was generous and kind enough to write me and send me copies. Since that time I have visited the courthouse myself and have had the opportunity to hold the original letters in my own hands.

Silly as it sounds, the letters do disturb me and and cause me to feel genuine pain for my great-great grandmother, Rebecca Pierce Davis Wing. Obviously the Davis family had done something (real or imagined) to Joseph Smith Wing that he was unable or unwilling to forgive. According to the history by the family of Mary Josephine Allen, Joseph Smith Wing's 4th or 5th wife, Rebecca would not leave her family (the Davises) to join Joseph Smith Wing in Wisconsin. Whether or not that is true may never be known.

The tone of this letter (at least to me) is a mixture of self pity and deep, deep anger. When he tells her that he doesn't mind keeping up a correspondence with her as long as she doesn't call herself his wife, he makes me angry. God only knows how angry he made Rebecca. Additionally, this letter starts out in a tight scrawl, bending almost to the left, then the writing is looser and slants to the right but the last three or four lines are written in a very large, sloppy script until he writes, "BECCA," and "JO," which are both bigger than any of the previous writing. It seriously makes you wonder if he was hitting the whiskey bottle while he sat in his cabin in the wilderness all by himself.

In his instructions to Rebecca at the end of the letter, he tells her to give his love to his children, Adelia and Byron Wing and to his brother, Stephen Wing and Stephen's wife, Olive. He also reminds her of the $6.45 that John Hosford owes him by old Sam Hosford. John Hosford was married to Eunice Hatch. Eunice was a daughter of Elizabeth Wing and Eddy Hatch, which made Eunice the niece of Joseph Smith Wing, even though she was a year older than he was. At this time I do not know who "old Sam Hosford," is.

When he mentioned John Hosford, he must have thought about his niece, Eunice, which made him think of his sister, Betsy (Elizabeth), because he wants Rebecca to give her and the girls his love. In fact, Betsy (Elizbeth) had 4 daughters and 1 son...perhaps the son had passed away. He also includes Charley's folks in his loving messages. Charley would probably be his brother, Charles Wing who was married to Helen Foreman.

He wants Rebecca to "right," (write) how "old bina got along," and to tell "Lib, how do you do for me." I have no idea who Bina or Lib might be.

I do hope that if anyone has anymore information, letters, pictures, insight, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks to all of the generous people who have found this website and shared their discoveries, their knowledge and their databases, we have come to know this branch of the family very well.