A Neighborly Warning from the Old Depot

“I will Expect you to pay the rest of your tax at the July Court which is the first Tuesday in July.”

Pull up a chair, friends, because I’ve found a little piece of our past that feels like it’s still whispering today. Imagine holding a sheet of cream-colored paper, thin and soft from the years, with the pre-printed letterhead of the Longdale Iron Company right at the top. This letter traveled from Sewell Depot back in June of 1885, and even though the ink has faded to a light, ghostly grey, you can still feel the weight of the message W. M. Tyree was sending to his neighbor, Laban Gwinn. Tyree’s cursive is loose and wandering across the horizontal fold lines of the page, and you can even see where he crossed out a few words, trying to get his warning just right before signing off.

The message itself is a bit of a friendly nudge about a serious matter: unpaid taxes. Tyree tells Laban that he’s got until the July Court—that’s the very first Tuesday of the month—to get things squared away. If he doesn’t, his land is going to be marked as delinquent and returned to the state. It’s the kind of letter a man writes when he wants to make sure a neighbor doesn’t get caught in the gears of the law. You can almost see Tyree sitting in a dusty office near the coal and coke works, looking out at the Fayette County hills and hoping Laban makes it to town in time to save his property.

Looking at this today, it reminds us that while the world changes, the small struggles of keeping our homes and meeting our obligations stay much the same. In 1885, Sewell Depot was a hub of industry, a place where the work was hard and the deadlines were firm. This letter isn’t just a legal warning; it’s a snapshot of a community where everyone’s business was intertwined with the local court and the land they lived on. It’s a humble reminder that our history is built on these quiet, personal exchanges between people just trying to look out for one another and keep their roots firmly planted in the soil.

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