A Handshake Across Time: Mr. Mason’s Lost Horse

“You may let me know your expenses and I will send you the money please deliver hous at once and oblige”

Pull up a chair, friends, because I’ve come across a real little treasure from our own backyard. It is a letter dated April 9th, 1875, written right here in Charleston, West Virginia. It is just a single sheet of lined paper, but it feels like holding a piece of the past in your palms. You can see where it was folded up tight to fit into an envelope, and there is a big old yellow stain in the bottom corner—maybe a coffee spill from a long-ago morning or a bit of rain that caught a traveler on the road. The ink is a beautiful, flowing cursive that tells us exactly how folks used to take care of business with a pen and a prayer.

In this letter, a fellow named Nich. Mason is writing to Leheu Guinn about a bit of unfinished business. He has sent along eight dollars—a fair bit of money back then—in consideration of getting a horse, though he spells it ‘hous.’ It seems a man named William Johnson moved away and left his horse behind with a neighbor named D. Hart. Mr. Mason is authorized to get that horse and asks for it to be brought down to the depot. You can almost hear the clip-clop of hooves on the dirt roads of old Charleston just by reading his urgent request to have the animal delivered at once.

But there is a little more to the story tucked away at the bottom. In a quick postscript, Mr. Mason asks if that same William Johnson has managed to get any property together so he can finally pay off a debt. It is a tiny window into the struggles of life in the late 1800s, reminding us that folks back then were just like us—worrying about money, looking after their animals, and trying to settle their scores fairly.

When we look at a crumbly piece of paper like this, we are not just looking at old handwriting. We are looking at the threads that bind us to the people who walked these streets before we did. It reminds us that history is not just about big battles or famous speeches; it is found in the simple, honest dealings between neighbors and the care taken to see a horse returned home. It is a reminder to treat our own daily chores with a bit of that same gravity and respect.

Original Transcription

Charleston W Va April 9th 1875
Leheu Guinn Esqr
Dear Sir
please find inclosed eight dolles in consideration
of which you will please send Rof hous to
the depot, in your posetion, I allso
herewith outhorize you to get the hous
shoan of by you in posetion of D. Hart
and left by Wm Johnson when he mooved
away, You may let me know your
expenses and I will send you the money
please deliver hous at once and oblige
very respectfully yours
Nich. Mason

N.B.

have Wm Johnson acumulatet any property
so that a dept could be made out of
him