Letter signed Graff von Phul, St. Louis, to Mary [Maria von Phul], Lexington, Ky. The Ohio is so low as to prevent the Independence from descending, and the heat and flies prevent my encountering the prairies. In St. Louis we hear nothing but croaking about the ruinous condition of everything connected with business. Mattes must be sadly out of joint with the merchants and banks for they seem to be almost in despair at the accounts received from every other quarter. Mrs. Saugrain has had the misfortune to lose her father. Your good friend the Bishop has been very ill at Bois Brule near Ste. Genevieve. (Gift of John Richardson Thomas and Henry von Phul Thomas, St. Louis, January 1954), [1819] July 19

Item — Box: 1

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The collection contains family correspondence, mainly letters of Anna Maria von Phul, Sarah von Phul (Jordan) Mason, and Graff von Phul to Henry von Phul in St. Louis. The letters mention family news, Anna Maria von Phul’s artwork, soldiers in Lexington just prior to the War of 1812, Henry's business affairs, an 1819 flooding in St. Louis from Chouteau's Pond when the dam gave way, the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, and the Civil War. The collection also contains Graff von Phul's extracts from the first lecture of Sir Joshua Reynolds, delivered at the opening of the Royal Academy on January 2, 1769; a deed of emancipation of Richard, dated August 30, 1844; a bill of sale of an enslaved girl dated November 2, 1858; poems, newspaper clippings kept by Anna Maria von Phul, land surveys, Von Phul family genealogy, and a detailed biography and accounts of Henry von Phul.