Neighbors, Debts, and the Wollowhole Land

“I am about to get into a Land Suit and it takes money to Law as you are well aware”

Come on in and sit a spell while we look at a real treasure from the archives. This here is a letter from the winter of 1885, penned by Mr. W.G. Flanagan. It’s a beautiful thing to hold—the paper has aged to a soft, golden hue, and you can see the sharp, tidy creases where it was once folded tight. The cursive script is just lovely, though you can tell he was writing with a bit of a purpose that day in Sewell.

Mr. Flanagan was writing to Laban Gwinn about some surveying work he’d done out at the Wollowhole Land. It’s a wonderful peek into how folks handled business back then. He explains how he had to sort out the bill between Laban and another man named Sam, tracing the lines from Mr. McGuire’s place down to the road. He was being more than fair, too—he took the legal fee, knocked off a third, and then offered an even deeper discount to just seven dollars if Laban could send it by registered letter right away.

You see, poor Mr. Flanagan was facing a “Land Suit” of his own, and as anyone who’s ever had to deal with the courts knows, legal trouble sure does eat up your pocketbook. In those days, your land was your life, and keeping your boundaries clear was the most important thing a man could do. This letter shows us the real, human side of those old property maps we see in the courthouse.

What I love most about this piece is how it reminds us that we’ve always been in this together. Even when money was tight and a legal battle was looming, there was a sense of neighborly respect and a desire to settle things square. It’s a little slice of 1885 that feels just as honest and familiar as a conversation over a backyard fence today.

Original Transcription

Sewell
Jan 10 1885
Laban Gwinn Esqr
Dear Sir
I must rais Some money
Soon and thought I would Send my
account for Surveying the Wollowhole
Land. I donot know whether I have
charged you right or not as yours
& Sams was Mixed Together. I charged
you with all on out side lines except from the Cornear
the Road at Mr McGuires to Patterson
line & then to the Road, Those lines & the
inside lines I charged to Sam
I made off the fees as allowed by
Law, and then deducted one third leaving
$9.60 Which my usual charge. But if
you will Send me by registered letter
or by Express $7.00 at once it
will be Satesfactory, I am

about to get into a
Land Suit and it takes
money to Law as you are
well aware
Yours With Respect
W.G Flanagan