July 23, 1914 letter from (names have
been underlined and locations bolded)
O. C. Carden - Shelby, Iowa to (by Trish Carden
to make it easier for researching)
Rev. T. A. Carden - Joelton, Tennessee
Dear Mr. Carden,
I have just received your very interesting letter and will now hasten
to write you again. The information which you sent me regarding your
family was all new to me with the possible exception of the names of the
brothers of your great grandfather. I note that you say the names
of the five brothers who originally came from England were James,
your great grandfather, William, Lewis, Larkin, and
Robert. I would like to ask if you know for certain that these
are the right names of these five brothers. I have wanted all along
in my investigations to secure without a doubt the correct names, and from
other letters which I have received I have understood that their names
were James, Robert, Leonard, Reubin, and John.
There is evidently a mistake somewhere, and if you know for sure that the
list you sent me is the right one I will have my mind satisfied on that
point. I know that two of them were named James and Robert.
Robert has two sons named Leonard and Robert George.
This latter was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. He died in 1876
and left two sons by the name of Frank B., who is now living, I
think, in Decatur, Ill., and the other R. G., is in the railway
service at Coffeyville, Kansas. Be sure and tell me about
this in your next letter.
I cannot quite make out the names of all of your brothers that you sent
me as the writing is slightly blurred and some of the punctuation marks
are omitted. Please send me their names again in your next letter.
I shall appreciate this very much for I am doing my best to compile a chart
of all the Cardens, and, of course, want every name to be exact.
I note that you say your grandfather's name was Reubin and that
he had one brother named Lewis. This Lewis was the
father of Anderson V. Carden who now lives in Los Angeles, Cal.,
but formerly of Manchester, Tenn. I have received quite a
few letters from him in the past year. It has been my understanding,
though, that your grandfather, Reubin, had other brothers besides
Lewis. Is this correct or have I been informed wrongly on
this point? I understood from the letters' of Robert C., of
Manchester that he had five brothers named Lewis, Robert,
John, James, and Leonard. John was perhaps
the oldest as he was born, according to the dates that I have, in 1784.
James went to Missouri or Illinois just before the Civil
War. He had one son named David. Robert went
to Arkansas, while Leonard had three sons named John L.,
Leonard, and Santford. One of the sons of John
L. is named Homer, who is living at Trenton, Alabama.
Please tell me what you know about your grandfather's brothers, for I am
especially interested in learning the exact number that he had and their
names as well.
I have written letters to Arkansas but for some reason I cannot
get an answer. I am sure that my letters have reached some Cardens
for they had my return name and address on them, and as I never received
them back am sure that some Carden got them all right. I don't know
why it is that so many of the people that I write to refuse to answer as
I should think it would be a pleasure to give information, especially to
one interested in securing it like I am.
I am almost sure that my great grandfather, John., who died in
North Carolina in 1834 was a son of one of the five brothers who came
from England. I wish there was some way of finding out which
one was his father. I hope to learn this definitely in my letters.
I do not remember exactly where I heard the story, but from _?_ I learned
that these five brothers came to this country from England as soldiers
of the British Army fighting against the American Colonies in their struggle
for liberty, and that after the war was over, they decided to remain rather
than go back among their friends defeated. Do you know if there is
any truth in this or not?
A few days ago I received a letter from W. H. Cardin of Pulaski,
Tenn., telling me that he had three brothers, J. L., B. H.,
and H. M., and one sister. He did not give me their names,
but merely their initials so I have written him again for their full names.
W. H. said that his father was named Lewis and that he [his father]
had three brother named James, Larkin, and Billy who
are all now dead. Do you know this W. H. Cardin of Pulaski?
A layer by the name of D. Frank Carden in Dallas, Texas,
also wrote me a few weeks ago that he had two brothers, George A.
and W. J., who were also living in Dallas, and that their
father is Moses White Carden of Opelika, Alabama, and old
gentleman almost 80 years old. I wrote to him at Opelika but
he has never answered. I thought that as old as he is I might get
some valuable information about the earliest Cardens. This Moses
White Carden is a son of George W. Carden and was born in North
Carolina in 1813 and died at Kingston, Tenn., in November 1893.
He [Geo. W.] was twice married and had fifteen children, seven by
the first wife and eight by the second. He had eight brothers named
Presley, Alexander, Doc, Frank, John
who went to Texas where he died, and the other three names I am
unable to give. Perhaps you know of this branch of the family and
can supply the three names. The nine boys were sons of a James
Carden who was born about 1780. This brings him close to the
original five brothers as you can see. I am inclined to think that
perhaps this James was a brother to your grandfather, Reubin,
and that he was the one referred to in the first part of this letter as
going either to Missouri or Illinois. Could you shed any light
on the matter?
I am going to write to your son in Georgia and perhaps he can
give me some additional information. I am glad that you told me about
him. I wish that you would please send him this letter and the other
one that I wrote you, so that he can have the benefit of the information
I have given you and will thus know of me and my ancestry. If you
will do this it will save me the time required to write all of this information
over again.
Please answer me as soon as possible. I leave on my vacation of
one month the early part of August, but if you will write me soon I will
get it before I leave. Please answer as far as possible the questions
I have asked in this letter, besides giving me any other information that
you can. Also please send these letters to your son as he will understand
my position better. I'm sure that we are related and just as soon
as I can find out which one of the five brothers was the father to my great
grandfather, John, we will be able to determine exactly our relationship.
I hope to take a trip through the south in a year. I have never been
in that section of the country, and then I will have the opportunity of
seeing many of the Cardens. Hoping to hear from you soon, I am,
Very truly yours,
O. C. Carden
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for the purpose of research. I have not proved documentation of all
genealogy material, nor have I kept source notes as I should. But
I had lots of fun and met some great people along the way..
, and I shall try to correct them.