Part 24 (1/2)

I a an account of the presentation and acceptance of your honored father's portrait ”Honor to wholad to see any indication that virtue and integrity and intellectual ability are held in high esteeht proret, that in these days, so much of the reverse is prominent If I had known it in ti occasion, I should have gone down to the Court House, but I do not take a daily paper and did not know of it

I reenial and kind to all, both old and young; and that he belonged to a noble set of suchto Staunton in those days

I have read the pah (I had read the account in the papers), and have mailed it to Sam and the boys

Your old friend, LOUISA DUPUY

Many other interesting letters have been received frouished persons in all parts of the State, from the South and West, but space does not admit of their introduction We feel the less difficulty in o froes of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio, Hon R Taylor Scott, Col Jesse E Peyton, of New Jersey, R L Parrish and other eminent men and lawyers, because they knew Mr Peyton only by reputation, not personally

MRS JOHN H PEYTON

We have omery Lewis The happiness derived from this auspicious union was such that ittheconclusion to this co sketch of Mrs Peyton is appended:

A the early part of the present century--our co Southern heroines--was the subject of this sketch Reraceful and accomplished taste, the extent and variety of her literary attainenerosity of her heart, and her unostentatious charities, no one was , or was ht and useful career, struck down by the hand of death Nor is there one of those departed Matrons--the peerless woinia,--whosewhoood fortune to be at once the life and joy of her faht particular star”

of the society in which she moved, and the pride and ornaoinia, in the year 1802 Her father Major John Leas ainherited this extensive and valuable estate from his father, Col William Lewis, commonly called the ”Civilizer of the border” Major Leas a distinguished officer of that branch of the military forces of the ”Thirteen United Colonies,” styled the ”Continental line,” and served under Washi+ngton until the close of the revolutionary war A little more than two years after the surrender of the British Army at Yorktown, by Lord Cornwallis, October 17th--19th, 1781, naton relinquished the cos where he spent the rest of his life, i the society of his friends He hter of Col Williaomery

Mary Preston Lewis is reported to have been a woreat personal charms and of uncommon vivacity of intellect, and of varied accomplishments As spirited as beautiful, she was one of the true type of that Virginia character which has hout the world[28]

[28] When little Anne Lewis left the Sweet Springs for Mr C's school, she bore the following letter fros, July 23rd, 1811

_Mr Crutchfield_:

_Dear Sir_--With the sincerest pleasure I sendwill happen, not even an indulgence of ain shortly, for to you, I confide with confidence her entire education, and I hope your labors will be croith success by Hiive abundantly

It has been with etting Mr L's consent to Anne and Margaret Lynn being sent to you

I need not say anything as to Anne's temper and disposition I know your penetration is sufficient, and in your judgment and tenderness [to improve both] I have entire confidence You can do more to improve her than I can and I know you will I have ood, both in mind and manners, that have accompanied your exertions towards my family

Heaven bless and prosper you, is the wish of your friend, MARY P LEWIS

P S My respects to Mrs Crutchfield I have sent a cot and bedding for Anne and Lynn

Mary Preston Lewis died at an early age, leaving a large fa children, and it devolved upon the subject of this sketch, as being one of the oldest, to act the part of mother and sister towards the to theoer brothers In fact it became the home of her sisters, three of ere subsequently, at different periods, aret Lynn, to John Cochran, of Charlottesville, Va, Sarah, to her cousin, Col John Lewis, of Kanawha, and Polydora, to John Gosse, of Albeer brothers, John Benjamin and Thomas Preston, also resided with her several years while attending school in Staunton

Anne Lewis, the third child of Major John Lewis and Mary Preston, and according to contemporaneous accounts, the most favored of them all; was entered in her ninth year at the school--a school in great repute at that day--of Mr Crutchfield, situated in the Falling Spring Valley near the Peytona Cascades, Alleghany County[29]

[29] The following letter froives a brief account of the death of his sister, Mary Preston Lewis

Greenfield, Botetourt County, Va, February 8th, 1824

_Dear Sister_:

The painful duty of infor you of the death of our beloved Sister Lewis devolves on me She expired on Wednesday the 4th, (Feb 4th, 1824) at her hoered for soerous symptoms appeared in her complaint, nor was any alarm excited

She, however, became suddenly worse, and sent for Mary Woodville, who set out instantly and took with her Doctor Patterson, of Fincastle, but before they arrived she was struggling with death She died with all the fir on the merits and mediation of an all-sufficient Saviour, and declared that her hope and confidence were so great that death presented not one solitary terror to her, but rather that he appeared to her as a friend as to conduct her out of this into a far better world that she had long looked forward to with ardor--and called on her relations and friends around her to witness hat composure a real Christian could die, and actually closed her eyes with her own hands