Partin, Robert L. The Forbes letters, 1847-1866: manuscript, ca.1949.
Title:
The Forbes letters, 1847-1866: manuscript, ca.1949.
Manuscript, ca.1949, containing fifteen edited letters, arranged chronologically, of the Forbes family. That family originated in Canton, Conn., but two of the primary correspondents moved to Sparta, Conecuh Co., Ala.: Sherman Guy Forbes, who wrote 12 letters, all from Sparta, and his brother Solomon S. Forbes, who wrote one letter from New York. Sherman Guy held several local political offices and was a planter, while Solomon became a medical doctor after finishing medical school in N.Y., N.Y. The other two letters contained in the manuscript were written by Lucy Forbes, their sister, who lived in Ansonia, N.Y., and S.F. Forbes, a physician, who lived in Toledo, Ohio. The letters themselves contain information on the family, financial transactions, Solomon's medical education, Ala. and national politics from 1848-1856, though usually briefly; a cholera outbreak in 1849; economic conditions in Ala.; the action taken by the Ala. legislature in early 1850 to begin rebuilding the capitol and to change the court system through the Probate Bill, the latter of which displaced Sherman Forbes from his position as Conecuh Co. court clerk; business activities by Sherman Forbes, including his renting out of two of his slaves; 1852 medical treatment prescribed for Sherman Forbes, as well as his buying a plantation of 340 acres near Bellville, Conecuh Co., Ala., in 1855, and then quickly expanding it to 1,060 acres and 15 slaves. He gave a good description of that plantation to his brother S.F. Forbes, as well as discussing the tight economic situation in Ala., and his election as assessor of Conecuh Co. Of special interest is the letter, 1866 July 30, from Sherman Guy Forbes, Evergreen, Conecuh Co., probably to S.F. Forbes, describing post-Civil War conditions in Ala., including sharecropping agreements with freedmen, and health matters.
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