A Stained Scrap of Paper and a Big Decision in Blue Sulphur Springs

“I have all but yours now but they all have to have the money that their lots bring pleas send it rite away and oblige”

Pull up a chair, friends, because I have found a real treasure tucked away from our local past. It is a letter from October 1874, sent by a man named Ballard Caraway to his neighbor, Mr. Labin Gwinn. Ballard was in a bit of a hurry, writing from Blue Sulphur Springs to ask Labin to sign a title bond. You see, there was a legal settlement—a compromise, he called it—that was being held up. Ballard had gathered signatures from everyone else, but he needed Labin’s word to make sure the money for their property lots could finally be paid out to everyone.

The paper itself tells a story before you even read a word. It is written in a dark ink on old lined paper that has been folded many times, likely tucked into a pocket or a desk drawer for years. There is a large, mysterious purple stain on the bottom left corner that hides a bit of the text, but the message still shines through. Even with Ballard’s phonetic spelling—writing things just as they sounded in his mountain voice—you can feel the polite urgency and the respect he had for his neighbor.

This letter brings us back to a time when Greenbrier County was a place of close-knit ties and important land deals. In 1874, Blue Sulphur Springs was part of a world where a single missing signature could hold up a whole community’s progress. It shows us that history is not just made of grand speeches, but of small, honest efforts to settle debts and do right by one’s neighbors.

Looking at this today, we are reminded that our own lives are made of these same small threads. Every note we write and every promise we keep becomes a part of the history of our home. Ballard’s letter is a gentle reminder that we are all connected, and that the simple act of looking out for one another is what truly builds a community that lasts through the centuries.

Original Transcription

Blue Sulphur Springs
Greenbrier county W va
Oct 23th 1874

Mr Labin. Gwinn pleas sign
the title bond inclosed and
send it back to me as soon
as you can as Mann will not
close the compromis tell all the
Rights is secured. I have all
but yours now but they
all have to have the money
that their lots bring
pleas send it rite away
and oblige
Yours Respectfully
Ballard Caraway
N B I will be down as
soon as our court is