I received from my aunt a packet of letters and papers that I have been deciphering. The following is the oldest of the group. It is a letter to Thomas Towles (1784-1850) of Henderson, KY., from a friend in Russelville. The letter is in very poor shape, but enough remains of the "envelope" side of the letter to determine that it was addressed to Thomas Towles, Esq., Red Banks, Henderson. There is no postage mark that is visible. Nearly all of the letters have been sealed with sealing wax and have no envelopes. The letters were folded and the address was written on the back. Russellville, 25th Febr. 1809 Dear Towles, I failed to write to you by Mr Blue, partly from want of time & partly from indolence. Since then, my House has been thrown down, whilst I & my family were in bed, & we all escaped almost miraculously with our lives. On the night of the 17th last we were visited by a tremendous storm which almost wholly demolished several housed & did considerably damage to many others. Among the principal sufferers are Mr. Hunter, Mr. Boyle, Fredrick Weller & myself. A part of Wellers house was thrown down to the ground. If you were to see the ruins, you would hardly suppose it possible that the inhabitants could have escaped death. Providence has been no less signal in his mercy than dreadful in his chastisement. For my own part, I esteem myself particularly fortunate that all my family escaped without personal injury. Myself & my wife lay below stairs; two young ladies lay upstairs. The chimney & roof of the House fell down with so much violence as to break through the second floor in several places, & some of the broken timber rested upon the bedstead in which the girls lay, & yet they remained unhurt! If they had been in any oher part of the room , ro if they had been alarmed time enough to jump out of bed to run, they must inevitably have been crushed. We are now crammed into a room about six feet square, where one must remain til my House( which is hardly worth it) is repaired. Your representative has, I suppose, returned by this time, & given you the news of the Session. You will have heard of the alteration in the time of holding Muhlenberg Court ( to the 2nd Monday in March) & will , of course, be there. It seems Hopkins Court is to be held on the 3 ? Monday in March & Livingston (which is now added to Brodnax's Circuit) the 4th. This arrangement will make it convinient for you, & perhaps myself, to attend the latter. The law giving defendants a right to repl___ 5 months seems to excite more interest than any others which has ___ passed this session. It will operate very se__ile ___________; for altho' they may have the same benefits from the law that their debtors have, yet their failure to make remittances on that account must injure their credit & in a great measure put a stop to their trade. I should, for my part, have little objection to the law, of it did not extend the right of repl__ing to those debtors who have already repl__ied their debts. I don't know whether it will be a prejudice to the lawyers or not. In all cases where debtors are of doubtful responsibility creditors will commence actions, if not to collect their debts, to secure them. I shall see you, I expect, at Muhlenberg, in a fortnight, until then, adieu. Christopher Tompkins