Andrew Richey, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, to his family, Ireland, 30 December 1831
Description
Andrew Richey writes to his parents after recovering from his illness with typhus fever, thankful of the care and correspondences from his family. He assures them that though not belonging "to no religious sect yet" and "cannot say I am religious" he is a moral person and if in need of "advice in the midst of a world where little but sin abounds" he will ask his father. He gives news of James's store business, though "sales not near so brisk as formerly" due to the "dull" times, he has opened a store with a partner named Duncan in a small town called Princeton. While America is not so healthy as Ireland, Richey believes that it "to be ten times its superior for the farmer" and not the "distressed country in which you live". He gives news of the weather, crops and that "the farmers have an abundance of Indian corn, upon which the[y] depend for food as much as the Irish do on potatoes". He concludes with the news of Uncle Alex Richey surprising him by walking into their store "on foot & in no very decent repair" who stated that as his wife was dead "he had nothing to bind him to his own country".
Title and transcript by Professor Kerby Miller. This transcript includes handwritten corrections to original transcript from PRONI, made with reference to original letters. Letter description by University of Galway.