A Bitter Wind from Kanawha: A Brother’s 1870 Letter

I am sorrow to know that I have any relative in this world who thinks as you do.

Pull up a chair and gather round, because today I’ve pulled something truly remarkable—and a bit heartbreaking—from our old files. It’s a letter dated October 29, 1870, sent from right here in Charleston, Kanawha County. When you hold it, you can feel the weight of the past. The paper is brittle and worn, covered in those deep brown blotches we call foxing, likely from sitting in a damp attic or cellar for a century. The ink is dark and the cursive is tight, though the stains make you squint to read the words of a man writing to his own flesh and blood.

This isn’t a letter about simple family pleasantries, though it starts that way by mentioning his wife and three little girls. Quickly, the tone turns sharp. The author is celebrating a local election victory for the Democratic party, which he calls the white man’s party. He is absolutely jubilant that the Radicals—the Republicans of the time—were defeated. He goes so far as to claim himself and his family as members of the K K Klux, showing just how deep the racial animosity ran in our hills during the Reconstruction era. He even scolds his brother for siding with the Republican party, saying he’d rather see his own heart’s blood than have a family member belong to such a party.

To understand this anger, we have to look at what was happening in West Virginia in 1870. The state was in the middle of a massive power shift. Men who had been disenfranchised after the Civil War were getting their voting rights back, and the Radical Republicans who had run the state since its birth were losing their grip. You can see it when he mentions the C & O Railroad and the newly elected Governor John J. Jacobs. For the writer, this wasn’t just politics; it was a total war for the identity of the country, and he was ready to cast his own brother aside over it.

Looking at this stained piece of paper today reminds us that history isn’t always a neat story of progress. It’s full of real people with real, often ugly, passions. This letter serves as a sobering window into how deeply the wounds of the Civil War and the struggles of Reconstruction divided neighbors and even brothers. It’s a heavy piece of our local heritage, but one that we have to look at honestly if we want to understand the road we’ve traveled to get to where we are today.

Original Transcription

C. H. Charleston Kanawha Co
Oct 29 1870
Dear Brother
I recd your letter & was glad
to hear that you are all well
we are all well hope this may
find you all well
I will give you our number
in all myself and wife and
three little girles all good
Democrats also a addopted
daughter after the same
and all jubilent over
the Election that is to say
over the defeate of the
negro party which you in part

from the tone of your letter
I would rather see my own
harts blood than have one of
the members of my family
belong to any such negro
sun of bichs of a party as
yours [crossed out: and my own]
family negros may
be good enough for you
to assocate with but they
are not good enough for me
and my family I am
sorrow to know that I
have any relative in this
world [crossed out: wish] who thinks
as you do that is to say
that negro is as good as
he is you may vote with
the negro and sleepe with
if you wish but for me
I shall vote with the white
men of this country

the Election is over and
we still live I mean
the K K Klux and your
negor party left here
yesterday for salt river
ded as hell, you spoke
a bought a C & O R Road
being made by rads dam
the rads the hole of the
contractors is democrats
and the president of the
road is our new Elected
govonor Jacobs when you
say that rads you mean
in to our pockets to steal
what little we can earn
in the way of taxation
at least tha hav bin doing
so for som tim past
but we feele like tha
will stop now since
the die yesterday