Dear Andrew,
Today we received the letter and picture of Peter both of which we were happy to receive. I have been planning to write to you for some time and have often composed letters in my mind but have never got to the typewriter - typewriter because you would have almost as hard a time reading my handwriting as your father did that of my father. As time permits I would like to share with you some of the stories about our family and in the event that I never get to put them down elsewhere on paper, you might like to file these away for future reference. I myself keep a file of all letters I receive and have been asked to make provision for them to be turned over to the Indiana Historical Society or at least for copying. Over the years I have had correspondence with many of our relatives regarding past history of the family. This was the reason Fred Griffin the county historian for Harrison County, Indiana asked me to make such arrangements. I hope you will find them interesting and some times informative- I have been told that mnay people do. I like to think that this is an inherited attribute from my great great grandfather Aaron Patrick McKim. I am only sorry that his letters have disappeared. He went off to the Civil War-on the North side and died in Columbia, Kentucky from measles. During this time he wrote to his wife and I have been told that m;y great great aunts and uncle use to pour over these on rainy days. You see after he died Grandma Mary Jane Smith McKim married again and had ten additional children so letters could be anywhere, but I think that they crumbled apart from age and lack of care. Grandfather Aaron's son our Grandfather James I McKim was my mother's grandfather. Mom always thought that there was no one so important as her grandfather McKim. I remember as a childhow his letters would always bring joy into our household and each one usually had a poem. Grandpa had several of these published in the local newspaper. He was a Republican, but the poems were published in the Corydon Democrat because it was one with more circulation and actually it still is published whereas the Corydon Republican no longer exists. I only saw Grandpa McKim once when I was ten, but he has had a far greater influence on me than any other family member. He died the year your Aunt Patricia was born and he so wanted to see her for she was she was his first great great granddaughter. When he visited us he took my sister and me to see a Shakespearean play and since then Shakespeare has always been one of my favorites. Don't expect my letters to be properly organized, because I do better when I rattle on and on.
Saturdays trip to Lexington included these photos:
My Great Grandfather William Henry Shickel Lexington Pleasant Hills
My mother Alice P Shickle Bloomington EastLawn
My Aunt Leora Zelma Maude Shickle Bloomington East Lawn
My Uncle Paul Eugene Shickle Bloomington East Lawn
My great grandfather had two families. The first wife provided my grandfather and sibelings and later he married Minerva Brown and this is the family plot of the second group of children located in Pleasant Hills Lexington, IL.
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