On the Money Trail and its Trials

As we continue to travel onward with MDB, we encounter money problems resulting from the changes in the Southern economic climate in a healing country.

Letter and Draft

Hand-written

By Martha Dandridge Bibb

Montgomery, Ala

May, 1897

Dr. G. B. Fowler
Dear Cousin,

"I wish to ask your kind offices in regard to a matter of personal interest. For several years past my finances have been growing 'small by degrees and beautifully less' from the various causes, among them shrinkage values, stringency of these hard times, heavy taxation,  etc..."

 Sound familiar? She goes on to say--

"so I am seeking to build up my broken fortunes and knowing first of all your kind heart and enquiring mind and consequent knowledge of what is transpiring in the great world. I think you can give me some valuable information, and aid me in disposing of some relics and a few pieces of old coin. I am prompted to do this by the clippings, which I enclose. Some years previous to the War, my father came in possession of a fifty cent piece of silver with the date of his marriage, 1819, and gave it to sister Lou as a souvenir. It has on one side a head with the word “Liberty” above the date. It also is the date of Alabama’s admission into the United States. I have a gold dollar, which Dr. Rives received at Washington, Ga., after the surrender of the Confederate Army, dated 1853..."

Her list continues citing specific coins and stamps. I don’t know if she ever mailed the letter or if she simply pondered the idea. Her plight parallels present struggles in today’s fast lane. Not only the trying economic times, but her methods of attempting to “build up broken fortunes” resemble mine. Several of my family treasures have gone into an assortment of hands for various amounts to help in these troubling times. I have discovered Civil War relics maintain their lure and can be good money-makers. One day I may regret parting with James D. Porter’s spurs given to him by General Otho F. Strahl prior to the Battle of Franklin and the General's death. For now, I am grateful he got them, I got them, and someone else got them who appropriately reveres them. Letting go is part of my journey. Who knows what might be next?