I found another letter that my great grandfather
wrote. He mentions several area people. The letter was written to his sister
Elizabeth Trover Russell and her husband Frank Russell. Frank Russell was the
grandfather of Judge John Russell of Carlinville, IL. Frank and Elizabeth
married June 4, 1863 in Macoupin County, IL. My great grandfather Edward Trover
married in 1877 when he was 37 years old. He also tells of the courthouse and
hotel being completed.
March 10th, 1870
Dear Brother and Sister,
I seat myself to let you now(sic) that I am well at present and hope you all
the same. I received your letter and was glad to hear you was all well. I have
not heard from you for three or four months un till I received this letter. I
have riten (sic) two letters to you and got no answer. I could not imagin(sic)
what had become of you all. I have not much news to write you at present times
are vary(sic) hard here now. I am out at Aunt Ann's now and has bin for some
time and sparking the girls like cats a fighting you had ought to be here and
see me go for them. The reason I did not get this letter sooner I have bin in
the country and it laid in the office some time before I got it. I will send
them cands(sic) of fruit the first time I go to town. I think I will go to town
in a few days so look out for them. Do you think you will stay where you are
this yeare(sic) if you do not let me now(sic). I have got several letters from
Pap this winter he was well when last I heard from him and wanted to see you
vary bad. I was awful glad to receive a letter once more from you. I had come to
the conclusion you had entirely forgotten me. I would love to see you all very
much but as I cant I will write and hope for the better. Tell Walter and Ida I
would love to see them and hear them talk some. Aunt Ann's family is all well
and wants to see you vary bad. Her children is all grown but one a girl 9 years
old. You said you wanted me to come on a visit I guess I can't come times are so
hard and money scarce. I wish you was back heare(sic) so as we could se(sic)
each other when ever we wished and as often. Rebecca Snow is well and wants to
see you. Mrs. VanKirk is well and wants to see you and wants to see you vary
bad. The small pox has bin in town not vary bad though. Will Manns family was
well when I herd from there last. He is doing well I think I will go out to his
howse(sic) in the morning to go a hunting and kill some ducks and geese and then
I will have a rost (sic). You must come over and take dinner with us. The court
howse is nearly done it is a nice house shure and certain the new hotel is done.
It is a vary nice building they have got town lit up with gas. It looks real
nice there now shure Aunt Ann's Polly is living here now. She wants to see you
and wants you to write to her. Polly's last man's name is Fletcher. You now
(sic) Tom Long died during the war. She says for you to write to her and she
will write to you. Aunt Ann has bud (sic) one child married. Jo and Fena the
twins is grown and wants to see you. Bud and John Barnett is working on the
railroad. Old Mary is living yet she is blind and can't hardly walk she looks
awful old. So I will have to stop writing I have told you about all I now (sic).
Be shure and write soon a big fat letter like this. So no more your Brother,
Edward Trover to Frank Russell and Family.
Contributed by M. Trover
From an article written May 21, 1905, and probably published in a Carlinville newspaper. The article was kept by M. Trover's cousin, Carolyn Metz, of St. Louis, MO. She was the granddaughter of Ed and his wife, Julia Morris Trover. Besides Carolyn's mother Bessie, the other children were Morris, Ed, and Sep Trover. Many of the readers will also remember Sep Trover who ran Trover's Wholesale which was a tobacco and candy store on the north east corner of the square in Carlinville. M. Trover's father, Cullen Trover, took over the wholesale business after Sep's death and continued the business until 1971 when it was sold.
Ed Trover: I claim the distinction of being the oldest tinner
in point of service rendered one firm in the state, having been in the employ of
the S. S. Woodward Hardware Co. continuously since 1861. I will celebrate my
66th birthday tomorrow at my bench where I have been for forty years without
cessation.
I came to Carlinville from Shaw's Point (my parents being
originally from Kentucky) and commenced to learn my trade under my brother John
Trover, who I think, started one of the first repair shops in the village of
Carlinville, as it was then. This was about 1854. I was about eight years old
when I took up my residence here. I remained with my brother some six or seven
years, when he sold out, went to California and joined the regular army.
Then I went to work for S. S. Woodward and have been with the firm ever since.
There was not much of this town as I remember it first. My brother's shop was in
a little, two-story building where the Sourmash building now stands, and I
remember in my boyhood days the superstition that was prevalent about the shop,
occasioned by a man named Aaron Todd, who was murdered. His body was said to
have rested in the second story of that building after the murder was committed
on the prairie, and a spot on the ceiling was said to have been his blood.
However that may have been, there were few about the shop who would sleep in the
second story.
I remember well the Nash suicide in the old log jail which
stood where the Weiss hardware store now stands. I was working for my brother,
and John Drennan and I went to the jail to see Nash hung, and my brother gave me
my first real good whipping for so doing. There was a great crowd in town to see
the murderer hanged, but he committed suicide before the reprieve came, by
hanging himself. I can go to the spot, where in the old courthouse, his body was
laid after it was removed from the jail. It was near where the east gate of the
park now is. Nash lived for some time in an old tree covered with grape vines in
Shaw's Point township, known as the Giberson neighborhood. His home was in that
neighborhood. He went to Tennessee finally, where he was arrested and brought
back. I have seen his house many times. The murder was committed at Old
Zanesville. He was a good man until he got drunk, in which state he was when he
committed the murder.
My brother John was back in his old home in 1877,
having quit the army, but soon tired of civilian's life, went back, re-enlisted
and died some five years ago. He had been in the soldier's home in Washington
City for some time. I remember the C. & A. construction. John O'Niel and I, now
deputy sheriff, and other boys used to borrow the hand car and ride up and down
the road. John and I got into a scrap one time and he bit one of my fingers off.
I remember him very distinctly. The first engines the C. & A. used were those
old, big-topped smoke stacks, and burned wood. John O'Niel's father was the
section foreman.
In those days in early Carlinville horse racing, fights,
drinking whisky and going to dances were not uncommon. The vast prairie was only
dotted here and there by a log house. I have made much money in my life and
saved little. I never spent any foolishly, but have been too liberal and gave it
away. I was married 28 years ago, and if I had married sooner I would have been
worth more money. I never called for a drink over a bar in my life and never
purchased but two pints of whisky in my life and that was for medical purposes.
Three sons, one daughter, my wife and I, compose the family. I could tell you
much of the early history of men and measures in Carlinvillle.
Sep
Woodward was a good man and he and I always agreed, save as to little
differences, which don't count. His son, Charles, is a chip off the old block
and when he gets old it will be difficult to distinguish one from the other.
Contributed by M. Trover
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