Letter signed William McDaniel and Jane McDaniel, Caswell County, N.C., to their Grandson [John F. Darby]. Describes the quarrel between John McDaniel and Colonel G.B. Stokes, which resulted in the killing of the latter by the former. After John McDaniel failed seven or eight years ago and had to give up all his property, he was still considerably in debt. The fact that he had married a woman with property made no difference because in a pre-marriage contract all her property was settled on herself and arranged to revert to her four children by her first marriage. In addition John had his wife constituted a free dealer to keep her crops from being confiscated to pay his debts, all of which created hard feeling. Moreover John’s wife had trouble with their near neighbor, Colonel Stokes, in getting him to transfer the guardianship of her children to her. Colonel Stokes thereupon sought trouble by claiming three acres which had been in dispute, and his murder was the ultimate result. Persons mentioned include Widow Joanna Mobley, Thos. Wright, and John Van Hook. Places mentioned include South Carolina and Chester District, S.C., 1827 Dec 15

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 8

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

This collection consists largely of the papers of John F. Darby and his wife Mary F. Darby, and relates mostly to the political, social, and business history of St. Louis. The papers also include family correspondence with relatives in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Missouri, and correspondence regarding legal and business matters. Of special note are the minute books of the Jefferson Society and the St. Louis Debating Club (1827-1828), both regional debating societies of which Darby was a member; letters of Mary F. Darby; correspondence with Montgomery Blair, William T. Sherman, and George Caleb Bingham; and fragments of a history of the Mormons by John Corrill, dated 1839.