Note by Phyllis Brown:  Hugh Linton was a cousin to my great-grandmother,  Frances Barber Linton Montgomery.  They corresponded for several years – sharing their love of genealogy and family.  Hugh was the son of  John Wesley Linton and  Emma Adelaide Proctor.  Frances was the daughter of  Edward Edwards Linton and Catherine Elizabeth Taylor.  The following is one of Hugh’s letters, dated October 5, 1934.  I love reading and re-reading them!  I love the close relationship the cousins enjoyed!

Dear Cousin Frances:

We got home at 8:30 Sunday night, all feeling well and especially pleased that we had gotten to know you and your fine family, and to have the pleasant recollection of your hospitable home.

This is the first day I have had time to copy the partially complete family tree I mentioned to you, and I am enclosing it.  You will of course see I didn’t have but four of the children on it, out of the ten you have listed, as the direct offspring of Captain John Linton whose grave you showed us.

You will see where the Sawyer family comes in.  Dr. Moses Linton, of St. Louis, died I think in the early eighties, a prominent surgeon in St. Louis, Missouri, and one daughter you notice married a Sawyer, I think a doctor, and two of the Sawyer girls are now connected with the Mayo Brothers Hospital of Rochester, Minnesota, and from whom we hear now and then.

As I mentioned Sunday, my family and I visited Cousin Lucy Woolridge, at Stewartville, Minnesota, in the summer of 1928 – that is about 16 miles from Rochester.  She and her brother Thomas Densmore were down here in 1902 to see us.  Cousin Densmore then lived in the State of Oregon, and died not many years later.  Cousin Lucy W. has visited my father and later others in the family since 1902.  She is a very fine and intelligent lady, now getting up in years.  We correspond regularly yet.  When I got home, I wrote her a letter about our visit to  you and Cousin Alice and about the grave yard and other facts we had just learned.  She has a shelf in her book-case in her parlor in which she keeps all her mementos from Kentucky.

My great-Uncle John practiced medicine in Iowa.  My great-Uncle William visited Logan County in 1893, with his daughter Mattie, from Iowa, later moving to California, where he died many years ago.  I remember Aunt Lucy Thompson quite well.  Uncles Burkett and George went to Iowa before the Civil War and moved back to Logan County about 1885 or 1886 I think and bought a farm next to our own, and I knew them both well; neither was ever married.  Upon their death my father John W. Linton was appointed their administrator and in making distribution of the estate we got quite a lot of information, then made necessary about the descendants of Benjamin F. Linton, my great-grandfather, who you tell me died in your county, at the home of his daughter, Millie Edwards.

I am very glad indeed that we had the good fortune to get to see you all on this trip and to visit the old grave yard.

The baby, Frances, now 2 years old stood the trip quite well.  She had never traveled so far as this before, and I think she got lots of enjoyment, although she was a little tired and not on her best behavior as we got ready to start home from your house.

Don’t conclude that Mary Adelaide is going to overlook sending something for your rock garden.  It is raining again today with us, but I am sure it will be dry again soon.

We shall be glad to have you write us.  Give our best regards to Mr. Montgomery, Robert and Cousin Margaret and Cousin Alice.  Get them all together some time and come down to see your relatives in western Kentucky.

With best wishes for you all.

Sincerely yours,

Hugh