USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
88 The first settlers on bayou Boeuf were: Charles and Joseph Mathews (1800); Louis L'Ardoise (1800) likely a relative of Antoine Vachard dit Mimi L'Ardoise, and perhaps of Charles L'Ardoise of Illinois, who came into the Span- ish country in 1799; Eli (or Elijah) Fords (1800); John Johnson (1800) from Kentucky, and large slave owner; who afterwards removed to bayou Tesson in lower Louisiana; Abraham Bird, senior (1802), bought property two miles from mouth of the Ohio, had five sons, one of whom, Abraham, junior, was in the military service under Solomon Thorn.
80 Residents of Prairie Charles (Carlos) were: Alexander Bailey (1801); William Talbot (or Talbert) (1801); Jesse and William Masters (1802); Jesse was appointed justice of the peace; Joseph Smith, senior and junior (1801; Abner Masters cut hay here in 1802.
90 These settlers were Jean Berton dit St. Martin (1791) bought mill prop- erty of Pierre Latour, who were both in New Madrid and on the St. François; Michael Byrne (1791), adjacent to James Williams; Charles Bergand dit Jean Lours (1791); John Becket (1789) on St. Georges river, came with Colonel Morgan; Nicholas and James Cuny (1789) on St. Georges river, and came with Morgan; James Dunn (1789) St. Georges river, and one of those who came with Morgan; John Gregg (1789) St. Georges river, came with Morgan; Fran- çois Reneaud dit Delorier, a resident of Vincennes in 1780, seems to have been in this district; Louis Valois (1791), a resident on the river Zenon (Hubble creek) and in 1792 at New Madrid; Antoine Vermet (1791) possible Bermet; François
165
NAMES OF SETTLERS
joined note we give the names of some who settled in different sections of this district, cultivating land or engaged in business.
Boyer (1792); Pierre Christien (1792); François Charleville (1792); Joseph Dubee (or Dubez), from Vincennes, died prior to 1791, his wife Marianne DeRozier; Etienne Drouin (1791); Elizabeth Dachurut (1792); Guillaume Ispain (1792) on Lake St. Martin; Joseph Janis (1792) son of William Janis, from Kentucky, slave owner, sold a pirogue to John Harvey for $40; Carlos St. Marie (1792) on Lake St. Martin; Walter Bealle (1793); Catherine Cam- pagnot (1793) ; Baptiste Collel (1793) Pierre Etier (1793); John Gilkinson (1793); Andrew Giroux (1791); Pierre Guittar (1793); Absalom Hooper (1792); John Hunot (1792); Bele (Billy) Jones (1792) mulatto, hires himself to Joseph Ber- thiaume for two years, the first year he was to receive only food and clothing, the second year sixty piastres in money, peltries or merchandise, but during the two years to be furnished in tobacco and shoes; Charles Law (1793); Bazil Lachapelle (1793) from Kaskaskia; Thomas McKibbin (1791); John and James McCormick (1791); Samuel Morris (may be Norris) (1792); Patrick McGlough- lin (1793); George Onrow (Unruh) (1793) German, on lake St. Eulalie, also St. Isidore and St. Mary, and seems also to have been at St. Charles; James Norflet (1792); François Portine (1793); Manuel Serrano (1793); Antoine Bolsi (1794); Jean Baptiste Louis Chemin (1794); Anthony Drybread (1794) spelled also "Tumbroad"; Alexander Douglass (1793); Michael Keely (1794); Auguste Roch (1794); Rouette (1794); Racio (1794); William Toulay, junior (1794); M. Ventura (1794); Mathew Cormeck (1795); Frederick Hoffmann (1795); Michael Laccaigne (or Lacassaigne) (1795), a trader; Isiah Packard (1795) may be related to the Isaac Packard of the Ste. Genevieve district; Juan Somors (John Summers) (1795); Pierre Loissiere dit Deloge (179-); James Mack (1796); Daniel Mulline (or Molene) (1796); Marianne Romagon (1796) widow of Jean Baptiste Cardinal; George Ridley (1796); John Shanklin (1796), ensign; Jean Baptiste Carron (1797), laborer; Daniel Brant (1798) also in the Cape Girardeau district on White Water in 1802; George Costero (1799); James Carothers (or Caruthers) (1799); William Marche (1799); Joseph Saxton (1798); Juan and Mathew Villars (1796); John McCoy (1800), twelve miles from New Madrid on the Mississippi, has a man by name of James Hill arrested for stealing property from him and boat crew; John Neely (1800); Thomas Ortes (Ortiz) (1800) sailor on the galere l'Activa; William Patterson (1800) on the Mississippi; Pivolen (1800), an Indian of the Shawnee tribe, sold a negro slave to Jacques Cotter, named Chakolekoy, he was accompanied by Hiacynth Berthiaume, interpreter of the Indian language; Jonathan Stotler (or Stoker) (1800); Peter Van Iderstine (1800) on the Mississippi; Etienne Bouilleau (1801), trader making a trip into the country with peltries; Jean Byred (John Byrd) (1802); Nancy Ferguson (1802); McHindgey (or Hudgens) Harris (1802) on Big Lake; Petten Holsen (1802); Jean Haas (Hoos), commonly called Jean Roberts (1802) from Kentucky, settled at Brushwood Prairie, mar- ried Molly Jarret, also Jean, junior; François Jacob (1802); John Lewis Lefevre (1812) on the Mississippi; Pedro Lefevre of the post of Arkansas bought property here in 1793; Joseph Mantauvert (1801); Sarah Williamson (1802) on the Mississippi; William Winkson (may be Hinkston) (1800); J. B. Brant (1803); John Custeau (1803) step-son of Conrad Carpenter; William Jackson (1802) claimed grant for services rendered; John Block, six miles northwest of New Madrid, in 1806 married Mary Woodruff; Holmon Bank- son; Thomas Crispin, of Grand Bayou, native of Berks county, Pennsylvania, a wheel-wright; in 1800 sold to James Binkston; Martin Coontz, twelve miles northwest New Madrid; Joseph Doiron (Dorion) one and one half miles south of Little Prairie, here in 1802; Jacob Devore, on the Mississippi; John Ward Gurley; James Kerkindall, on Big Lake and the Mississippi; Nicholas Kely; Jacques Maxwell; Jean Moise Malboeuf (or Malberry); McCologue; Antoino Molina; Sieur Mejagat (1802), German; Norris Mundy, of New Jersey, was arrested in 1804 on complaint of Jean Byrd, for theft in connection with contract
I66
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Many of these settlers became Spanish subjects and took the oath of allegiance.91
between them; Samuel Masson; Abuces Marten (1802); Jean Montmirel, mar- ried Margarite Ravallee, their son Jean Baptiste was baptised in 1804; M. J. Peigny (Payne) (1802), on the Mississippi, probably same as Joseph Peigny; James Novins (1802), Willow Swamp; John Neil, laborer, eleven miles south New Madrid, a John Neely here in 1800, and Thomas Neely; N. O'Farrell; James O'Carroll, on the Mississippi two miles north of Little Prairie; Joseph Payne, on Mississippi six miles south of New Madrid; Joseph Perrillot (may be Peridot) (1802) merchant of New Orleans, bought slaves in New Madrid; Jacob Priee (or Prue); Elisha Patterson, sergeant of garrison, married Jane Myers, daughter of Jacob Myers; Marie Joseph Robert; Philip Shackler, twenty-two miles north of New Madrid; Eli Shelby, fifteen miles north New Madrid, son of David; Thomas Thomson, eight miles southwest New Madrid; one Demint took up his residence on bayou St. Anthony in 1799. In a settlement known as Cypress swamp, Robert Wiley (1801) was probably the first resident; John Hortes (1802); John and James Shorter (or Shooter) (1802); Amos Cox (1803); Louis Roy lived in this swamp on small bay Portage. West of New Madrid on what was known as Black Water, fork of White Water, near what is now known as Como, we find located in the primeval woods James Vincent, surgeon and major in the Spanish service; Antoine Nicolas, François and J. B. Janis, not certain whether related to the Janis family of Ste. Genevieve and Joseph Guinolet (or Guignotely), all bear hunters of unenviable reputation, if we can believe the accounts of François V. LeSieur. Still further west of New Madrid, on the Big island of the St. François, in what is now Dunklin county, Pierre Saffray a trader of New Madrid lived in 1795, perhaps the earliest trader in that county; Peter Power and James François Chattingney also resided there in ISO1. These early inhabitants of Dunklin county likely were all hunters and trappers; we also find the name of Choachican (1804) a Shawnee Indian; Bap- tiste Dietramble (1798); Beaugard Canonier (1798); François St. Pierre (1798); Wingsay (1798).
91 The oath of allegiance (names spelled as found in the Spanish archives) was taken in 1793 by Christoval Roque Marco, Pierre Duncan, Francisco Cayole, Nicholas Esdien, Jean Baptiste Moyso, Benjamin Miller, Jose Casa Grande, Enoch Bodwell, George Myer, Juan Masedt, Peter Droullard, Joseph Thompson, Stephen Burk, Patrick McLaughlin, Philip Boyle, John Gill, Bar- tholomew Mclaughlin, George Junnex, Lucas Desperentreioux, Philip Du- comb, Noel Antoine Prieur, Jose Barbier, Johann Klein, Baptiste Monix, Lor- enzo Abeemo, Barthèlemi Tardiveau, Pere Gibault, George Wilson, Jacob Bogan, Juan Collins, James Congwell, John Ward, Cornelius Tecon, James M. Miller, Joseph Bogard. In 1794 Sam Hill, François Caperon, Alexis Thipet, Michael Ryard, James O'Bryan, Charles Tela, William Pillsnoeth, John Elliott, Demaiseuire, A. Breard Briand de Breville. In 1795 Samuel Lloyd, junior, Joseph McCourtney, Charles Campbell, F. Birin, Cornelius Seeley, Sam Frisor, I. Buzenet & Gidou, George Ruddall, Robert O'Hara, Isadore Dupuy, Louis Gerard, Pascal.
CHAPTER XV.
District of Cape Girardeau-Boundary of-Probable origin of name-Location of the Post of Cape Girardeau-Louis Lorimier established there in 1793 by the order of Carondelet-Biography of Lorimier-His first wife Char- lotte Pemanpieh Bougainville, a Shawnee half-blood-Traded in Ohio in 1782 at Laramie's Station-The Miami Company-Lorimier in Ste. Gen- · evieve in 1787-Moved to where is now Cape Girardeau in 1792-Letter of Trudeau-As Spanish Agent Lorimier visits Ohio and Indiana-His grant made in 1795 by Carondelet-After death of his first wife marries Marie Berthiaume-Lorimier dies in 1811-Barthélemi Cousin his Secre- tary, Deputy Surveyor and Interpreter-Prosperity of the Cape Girardeau District during Spanish government-First residents of the Post of Cape Girardeau-Water mills-American immigration dates from 1795 -- Andrew Ramsay and others settled near Cape Girardeau in that year-The Byrd settlement-Settlement on Hubble Creek-German settlement on White- water-Settlements on Castor River and various other points-Lorimier grants three hundred arpens to each member of Cape Girardeau Militia Company.
The Cape Girardeau District during the period of the Spanish government was bounded on the north by Apple creek; and on the south until 1802 the Tywappity Bottom was vaguely considered the boundary between this district and the New Madrid District.1 To settle the southern boundary definitely, Casa Calvo in that year made an order fixing the limits of the District on the south five leagues below the post and running thence west, and Don Antonio Soulard, the Surveyor of Upper Louisiana, was directed to make a survey of the line. This boundary line ran east and west four or five miles south of the present town of Commerce, Scott county.2 The western boundary of the district was also uncertain and this led to a controversy between Lorimier and Peyroux, the latter objecting to grants made by the former west of his post on the St. François, claiming that all this river was within the New Madrid District, also charging that Lorimier made unauthorized grants of land of a league square in that locality. To this DeLassus replied that
1 According to Stoddard the Cape Girardeau district extended from "Ti- wappaty bottom on the Mississippi to Apple creek, a distance on the Mississippi of about thirty miles, and without any definite boundary to the westward." Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 214.
2 General Archives of the Indies, Letter of Don Carlos DeLassus to Soulard, dated Nov. 25, 1801 ;; letter to Don Carlos DeLassus, dated Jan. 30, 1802 ; letter of DeLassus, dated May 20, 1803; letter of Soulard, dated Oct. I 1802; letter of Peyroux, dated Jan. 11, 1803.
167
I68
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Lorimier had no right to make grants of land of a league square to any one, but that the St. François river could not be located in any one district on account of the course of its branches which extended as far as the neighborhood of New Bourbon.3 Subsequently DeLassus ordered Peyroux not to interfere with Lorimier's German grantees on the forks of the St. François west of Cape Girardeau. The New Madrid District seems to have been bounded on the southwest by White river, but since the right to trade with the Indians was granted to Lorimier, and he was made Spanish agent for the Indians as far as the Arkansas river, it is also probable that his jurisdiction as Cape Girardeau Commandant was recognized as far south as that river. According to Stoddard the jurisdiction of the Commandant of the post of Cape Girardeau extended "without any definite boundary to the westward."
Before a settlement was established on the Mississippi within the limits of the present county of Cape Girardeau, this stretch of the river was designated on the old maps as "Cap Girardot," and so known to the voyaguers passing up and down the river. On the map of Lieutenant Ross, published in 1765, we find the bend of the river above the site of the present city named "Cape Girardot, " and yet no settlement existed at that time in this region. How this locality received the name of "Cape Girardot" cannot now be definitely known. It is conjectured by Mason 4 that the name is derived from that of an ensign of the French troops named "Girardot," who as early as 1704 was stationed at Kaskaskia. The supposition is that a person named "Girardot" removed from Kaskaskia to the west side of the river and took up his residence in the charming woodlands ex- tending to the water's edge on the promontory above the present town, trading and trafficking there with the Indians, and that thus the name was bestowed on this river promontory by the early voyageurs. No authentic information is now available as to this point. The church records of Ste. Genevieve give the name of one "Girardot" as an ancient inhabitant of the country, residing in 1765 at Fort de Chartres.5 It should also be observed that the name is spelled on
3 See letter dated March 8, 1800, in New Madrid Archives, Vol. 2.
4 Kaskaskia and its Parish Records, p. 11, (Chicago 1881).
5 From the Church records of the Parish St. Anne of Fort de Chartres it appears that one Sieur Jean B. Girardot, October 14, 1721, was an ensign of the " troupes de Marine" and marries Therese Nepveu, had son who was baptised July 30, 1726, and named Pierre, God-father was Mons. de Liette, commandant of the province of the Illinois, God-mother, Marie M. Quenal.
169
LOUIS LORIMIER
the ancient maps " Girardot" and " Girardeau," and also "Girardo." Perrin du Lac in 1802 spells the name "Girardot." In 1797 the settlement which had grown up around Lorimier's residence was also referred to as "Lorimont" by some of the petitioners for land," but this name did not supersede the traditional name.7
Evidently the beauty of this location and landscape attracted early attention. In 1789 when Colonel George Morgan with his party of adventurers traveled through this territory, many persons urged him to establish the capital of his supposed principality on the western shore of the Mississippi about twelve leagues above the mouth of the Ohio, as near as can now be ascertained, at the present site of Cape Girardeau. Hills gradually sloping upward from the river bank to undulating high lands, extending for many miles northward, made this place a natural trading station. From this point the St. François basin stretches south 300 miles along the Mississippi river, and west 60 miles to the St. François and Black rivers. Isolated hills rising like islands in a sea, the remnants of a once continuous chain of highlands, which by the constant erosions of centuries had been washed away, leaving only these detached hills as evidence of its former existence, arise here and there in this alluvial district, and arrest the attention of the careful observer. Through this basin also run, generally north and south, numerous low, black and sandy alluvial ridges of marvelous fertility. Where the last out- runners of the Ozarks gently slope in a southeastern direction to the river and the low lands of the St. François basin, a region, at the time of which we speak, full of game and fur-bearing animals of every variety, Louis Lorimier established his trading post in 1793. The uplands extending north and northwest from his settlement were then covered with a growth of towering oaks. Here only on the west side of the Mississippi in an isolated belt extending about twenty-five miles from his trading post, and sweeping in a southwest circle to the St. François and Black rivers the leridendron tulijera - the tulip
Pierre de Girardeau, "ensign d'infanterie, fils de feu Mons. Jean Pierre de Girardeau, officier des troupes detachées de la Marine," married Madaline Loisel, widow of " Mons. Andre Chevalier, garde magasin pour le Roy au Fort de Chartres." In 1782 her son Jos. Chevalier, by her first husband, married Marie de Guire. daughter of Andre de Guire at Ste. Genevieve, her second husband, Pierre de Girardeau, then also deceased.
8 See Requête of John Giboney in 1797 for land; also that of John Randall in 1798.
7 In Stoddard the name is spelled "Cape Gerardeau" .- Stoddard's Louis- iana, p. 214.
170
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
tree - the magnolia of the north - grew to immense proportions, - from five to eight feet in diameter, and one hundred feet to the first limb. Beneath these forest giants grew the ash, the hickory, the hackberry, the elm, the sassafras, the mulberry, the pawpaw, the hazel, and the beech on the edge of the low lands spread its wide ex- tending branches over the fertile soil. Blue-grass was the natural growth of the country. The creek bottoms were filled with cane. Numerous springs broke from the hill-side and meandered their way through the woods to these creeks running the whole year through with clear and cold water.
In this favored spot Louis Lorimier established himself in 1793 under authority of Baron de Carondelet, as follows :
"Baron de Carondelet, Knight of the Religious Order of St. John, Colonel of the Royal Armies, Governor, Intendant General, Vice Regent of the Province of Louisiana and western Florida, Inspector of the Army, etc.
Know all men by these presents, that in consideration of the true and faithful services which Louis Lorimier has rendered to the State since he became a sub- ject of his Catholic Majesty, we permit him to establish himself with the Dela- wares and Shawnees, who are under his care, in such places as he may think proper in the province of Louisiana on the west bank of the Mississippi, from the Missouri to the river Arkansas, which may be unoccupied, with the right to hunt, and cultivate for the maintenance of their families, nor shall any commandant, officer, or other subject of the King hinder them, nor occupy of the land for him and the said Indians, sown, planted or laid out, so much as is judged necessary for their maintenance; and be it further understood that in case they should remove elsewhere, the said lands shall become vacant, and as for the house, which the said Sir Louis Lorimier has built at Girardeau, it will remain in his possession, nor can he be removed for any causes, except those of illicit trade, or correspondence with the enemies of the State.
In testimony of which we have given these presents, signed with our hand and the countersign of the secretary of the Government, and caused to be affixed our official seal at New Orleans, the 4th of January, 1793.
The Baron de Carondelet.
By order of the Governor : Andres Lopez Armesto."
Under this broad and extensive grant Lorimier exercised control over these Indians in the territory between the Missouri and Arkansas until the change of government.
These Shawnees and Delawares first began to migrate in consider- able numbers, to the west side of the Mississippi in about 1788 8 and principally it is thought through Lorimier's efforts were induced to leave the United States. He was connected by marriage with the Shawnees, his first wife, Charlotte Pemanpieh Bougainville, being a half-blood Shawnee.º This marital relation gave him great
8 Harmar Papers, Vol. I, p. 478.
9 As shown by the inscription on her tomb in the old Cape Girardeau grave- yard. From the name Bougainville, it would appear not improbable if we are allowed to speculate, that she may have been a natural relative of Louis de Bougainville, Chief of staff of Montcalm
171
LORIMIER'S STATION
influence with these Indians, and those allied with them. He understood their customs, knew their prejudices, was a perfect master of their language and possessed their unbounded confidence. One Lorimier, likely the ancestor of this Louis Lorimier, under the celebrated St. Luc de la Corne, General of the Indians, had command of the Shawnee and Delaware contingent at the siege and capitulation of Fort William Henry.
Lorimier was born in 1748 at Lachiene on the Island of Mon- treal. A Lorimier family resided there at an early period in the his- tory of the colony. These Lorimiers were undoubtedly descendants of Captain Guillaume de Lorimier, a son of Guillaume and Jeanne Guibault de Lorimier, natives of Paris, and who came to Canada in 1695.10 Louis Lorimier and his father before him traded with the Indians at the Portage of the Miami and Maumee rivers at a place called Pickawillany, in 1769. In the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, the exact place where Lorimier's store stood is described as follows: "thence westerly to a fork of the branch of the Great Miami river running into the Ohio at or near which fork stood Laramie's store, and where commences the portage between the Miamis and the Ohio and the St. Mary's river which is a branch of the Miami which runs into Lake Erie." 11 The name is often spelled "Laramie" because "Lorimier" is thus pronounced by the French. The Lorimier trad- ing place in Ohio in 1782 was known as "Laramie's Station," and also as "The Frenchman's store." During the Revolution Lorimier was a violent Tory. His place was the center of Indian and British intrigues, and many Indian foraging expeditions were equipped
10 Guillaume de Lorimier came to Canada in 1695. He was born at St. Leu and St. Gilles diocese of Paris, son of Guillaume and Jeanne Guibault; on his arrival in Canada he was appointed Commandant at Fort Rolland, in 1705 married Marguerite Chorel, born 1666, a name well known in Canadian annals - and died at Montreal July 27, 1709; Madame Lorimier seems to have been in good circumstances. In the Jesuit Relations it is said that she loaned money on personal property, thus to a man on his shirt. 67 Jes. Rel., Burrough's Ed., p. 69. She died March 28th, 1736. One of his daughters Marie Jeanne, mar- ried Joachim Le Sacquespée; one of his sons, Claude, born 1705, married Louise Le Pailleur, January 7, 1730; his other sons were named Nicolas and Guillaume. The children of Claude and Louise Le Pailleur were named respectively Marie Marguerite, born 1730, at Lachiene; Catherine Elizabeth, Marie Louise, Marie Hypolite, married Benjamin Mathieu D'Amours, Jos. Ant. Guillaume married Madaline D'Amours, and Francois Thomas married Marguerite De Sabrevois. His son Jos. Ant. Guillaume also lived at Lachiene and had several children. Francois Thomas de Lorimier was sieur de Verneuil. That Louis Lorimier was related to this family may be inferred from the fact that he named one of his sons "Verneuil," and who was generally known as "Verny."
11 Harvey's History of the Shawnee Indians, p. 121.
172
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
there. On one occasion, in 1778 accompanied by forty Shawnees then living on the Miami, and hence misnamed Miamis, Lorimier and D'Aubin made a raid into Kentucky, attacked Boonesborough and captured Boone and took him to Chillicothe, the principal Shawnee village on the Little Miami. "Laramie's Station" was known on both continents. General Clark and his Kentuckians, in 1782, surprised, captured and plundered the store, and Lorimier barely escaped with his life. He never re-established himself in Ohio. For a time seems to have lived at Vincennes-and from there removed west of the Mississippi. General Wayne afterward in 1798, built a fort on the main fork of Auglaize at a carrying place which was known as "Laramies Encampment," likely at the place where he had his store before driven away.
A letter on file in Ste. Genevieve in a suit instituted against Lori- mier there, by the Miami Company, in 1787, makes it clear that the Lorimier of "Laramie's Station" is the veritable Louis Lorimier who established the Spanish post of Cape Girardeau. This Miami Com- pany was a fur trading concern with considerable capital. George Sharp and Thomas Sheperd managed its affairs at Post St. Vincent, by which name Vincennes was then known. Both these worthies have long since faded into perfect oblivion. A letter, however, gives us a glimpse of long forgotten matters,- the reasons that seemed "pretty good" to Mr. Sharp why Lorimier left the country, why they advanced him "a few things" and also definitely advises us that Lorimier went to the country of "the Spaniards" with the Shawnees and Delawares. Hugh Heward, too, who had his habi- tation at the "Mouth Illinois," and evidently a man in authority in the Miami Company, has vanished completely, even as the Miami Company. But here is the letter :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.