"But I have forgotten that I started to tell you that 30 of these demons ["border ruffians"] entered my house at midnight opened the trunks by eschewing the locks pretending that they were hunting Sharps rifles but my wife had been too smart for them. She that day had buried our money in the earth. But to show their bravery they shot down from the upper story of the house down through both floors. Your mother has become a great heroine. She is known all over the Territory and nine men out of ten says that she aught to draw a quarter section of land for her bravery that night in defending a lone traveler who had stopped for the night. The pistol that had been shot down through the floors was cocked to shoot him, but she demonstrated so bravely against them taking the life of a lone traveler that they let him alone and shot off their pistol down through both floors. My wife kept sending me word every day not to come home. So I was fifteen days away from home although living in six miles. If I had went home I suppose they would have killed me as they did Barber* a near neighbor. And all this because we were from free states."
Letter courtesy of LSLeister.
* Thomas W. Barber:
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/thomas-w-barber/11730
========================================
Father:
Abraham "Abram" Thompson
b. c1776 in Virginia
d. 2 Oct 1819 in Washington Co, IL
Mother:
Elizabeth "Eliza" Brown
b. c1776 in Virginia
d. Bef. 1850 in Illinois
---------
Eliza's maternal Grandfather:
Hezekiah Brown (1738-1821)
"But I have forgotten that I started to tell you that 30 of these demons ["border ruffians"] entered my house at midnight opened the trunks by eschewing the locks pretending that they were hunting Sharps rifles but my wife had been too smart for them. She that day had buried our money in the earth. But to show their bravery they shot down from the upper story of the house down through both floors. Your mother has become a great heroine. She is known all over the Territory and nine men out of ten says that she aught to draw a quarter section of land for her bravery that night in defending a lone traveler who had stopped for the night. The pistol that had been shot down through the floors was cocked to shoot him, but she demonstrated so bravely against them taking the life of a lone traveler that they let him alone and shot off their pistol down through both floors. My wife kept sending me word every day not to come home. So I was fifteen days away from home although living in six miles. If I had went home I suppose they would have killed me as they did Barber* a near neighbor. And all this because we were from free states."
Letter courtesy of LSLeister.
* Thomas W. Barber:
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/thomas-w-barber/11730
========================================
Father:
Abraham "Abram" Thompson
b. c1776 in Virginia
d. 2 Oct 1819 in Washington Co, IL
Mother:
Elizabeth "Eliza" Brown
b. c1776 in Virginia
d. Bef. 1850 in Illinois
---------
Eliza's maternal Grandfather:
Hezekiah Brown (1738-1821)
Family Members
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George Washington Wakefield
1821–1866
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Mary Ann Wakefield Willard
1823–1903
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Martha Ann Wakefield
1825–1855
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Emily Brown Wakefield Terry
1829–1910
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Eliza Jane Wakefield Snyder
1831–1901
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1LT William Harrison 'Thompson' Wakefield
1834–1913
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John Allen Wakefield Jr
1836–1865
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Thomas Jefferson Wakefield
1838–1890
