The following letter was penned by Augustus Caesar Hoke (1825-1910), the son of John Henry Hoke (1796-1876) and Anna Margaret Byers (1801-1857) of Greencastle, Franklin county, Pennsylvania. Augustus—a farmer by occupation—was married to Rachel Lucinda Stamy (1830-1893) in 1850 and soon after relocated to Seneca county, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his days.

Augustus actually wrote the letter for his illiterate friend, John Young—a 21 year-old black man, also from Greencastle, Pennsylvania. John Young was the son of Eli Young and Mary Simpson, both most likely former slaves born and raised in Maryland. Greencastle is located a few miles south of Chambersburg on the Mason Dixon line. There were a large number of free blacks living in the county by the time of the Civil War but it was still a very dangerous place for blacks to live in the 1840s for fear of being captured and sold into slavery even though they may have been free. Certainly in the mid 1840s, it would not have been without risk for a black man to travel from Pennsylvania to western Illinois by way of an Ohio and Mississippi steamboat without being accompanied by a white man who might be assumed to be his owner.

We learn from the letter that Augustus and John had traveled to Cherry Grove, Carroll county, Illinois, by steamboat. Mt. Carroll is just a few miles east of Savannah, the Mississippi river port where the young men would have entered Illinois. They were living with Daniel Arnold (1798-1857), a former resident of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Daniel and his wife, Betty Price, came to Cherry Grove (northeast of Mount Carroll) in June 1840, purchasing a 240 acre tract of land. Daniel was a community leader and a forceful minister in the Dunkard (German Baptist Brethren) Church. It isn’t clear from the letter what employment Augustus and John were engaged in though it may have been related to transporting mail.

Transcription

Cherry Grove [Illinois]
May 31st 1846

Dear Sister,

I received your letter May 24th 1846 and was pleased to hear from you all that you were all well at present. I am living with Mr. [Daniel] Arnold from Chambersburg and gets $10.50 per month for three months. We were about two weeks too late to get big wages. Some men get $12 per month. We have to stay till July 14th, then our time will be up. We will not leave this till some time in August (towards the last of it). Hoke has been at me to go with him to Texas when we leave here but I cannot promise him. He said if I go, he will but I think I will come home sure this fall in time to attend singing the succeeding winter. If I come, he says he thinks he will unless he can get some other company to go to Texas. He appears to talk of nothing but traveling.

We have both been very healthy since we left home with the exception of a few days which we did not just feel so well. The camp meeting girl says she will not have the beau she had last year. Perhaps she may find a better one. If I could be at camp meeting, I should be with some of them Pennsylvania gals. A. Hoke and I goes partners in everything and in squeezing the gals. We have been taking sets with some of those Illinois gals since we have been here. There is some fine gals here. I must stop about gals. We must have one apiece tonight sure.

I am sorry that you were uneasy about us before we wrote home. We were so well contented on the boat that the time passed round so quick we did not think of writing. But I will continue to let you hear from us regularly from this till I leave for home—that is about three months yet. I intend coming to Cincinnati by water and then travel through Ohio by land. Perhaps I will buy a horse. If I do, I will come the whole way by land.

We have preaching here and singing all in the forenoon and singing in the afternoon. But I say three cheers for Old Pennsylvania gals forever. We are very well pleased with the country and the people that are in it [ink spill obliterates handwriting]…well, but there will not [illegible]…Corn is short yet but it has not been planted more than three weeks. Wheat is selling here for 40 cents per bushel, corn 16 cents per bushel, oats 16 cents per bushel, potatoes 12,50 cents.

The Dunkers have a big meeting at West Grove today but Hoke and I did not take the time to go to it. (I upset the ink after Hoke had wrote the letter but you can read it.) It is 35 miles from where we work. We could have had went in a wagon but we would have lost Saturday and Monday so we did not go. We have been buggying in 2-horse wagons to Mt. Carroll, preaching after night on Sunday evenings, gals and all in the wagons. Each man must hold his girl from falling although the road is smooth—or at least each has his army around the gal’s waist.

On the boats we lived first rate, $1 per day, & roast beef and turkey. We weighed when we landed in Mt. Carroll. Hoke weighed 198 pounds. I weighed 156 pounds. We are the same Old Coons yet and tell Will [that] we have both got our flannel pants and roundabout. He said we would come home with so we have made preparations.

My love to Father, Mother, brothers and sisters. I send nothing more but I remain your brother till death, — John Young

Dear Miss Mary, I write to you for John. He is present and tells me what to write. John & I are together every Sunday and gets along very well among all the Ladies & Gentlemen. And next Sunday we have preaching and singing where if you come to preaching and singing, you will find us if we are well. My love to you, your family, and all the Ladies and Gentlemen. Nothing more but remain your friend & well wisher. — Augustus Hoke