More information on dental care in 1862- from a reader

After a recent post by Cornelia Henry in which she said she was having bad toothaches and the only way she was able to relieve her pain was by “smoking” her teeth, a curator for the NC Department of Cultural Resources, State Historic Sites, began to research using tobacco to relieve tooth pain.  She wrote that she was “intrigued with the idea of using tobacco to stop a toothache.”

After doing some research, Martha discovered a variety of websites with more information.  She feels that “it must have had at least a temporary deadening of some sort as it appears this method was used for a couple of centuries and still exists in more rural areas of the country today.”

Two links from Martha on modern and historical use of tobacco for relief of tooth pain:

http://jy3502.hubpages.com/hub/Origin-and-History-of-Tobacco

http://readynutrition.com/resources/it-aint-just-for-smoking-known-but-beneficial-uses-for-tobacco_27082010/

 

Do you go off on a research tangent after reading one of my posts?  If so, share your findings!  History in a text, not a textbook!

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You said you were sick…I am afraid you are not able to write… Little Matthew says tell Papa to come home #cw150

Germanton

August 25^th 1862

My dearest husband,

I received a letter by William Matthews & is the last I have received.  I have not got one for some time before that.  You said you were sick which I was sorry to hear.  I am afraid you are not able to write.  How are you are you any better or worse.  I want to know if you get no better try and come home.  Write if you can and if not get some friend to write it for you.  I am so afraid you will be ordered away from there.  We are all well and getting along very well.

I have sold your tobacco for twenty dollars per hundred to J.A. Bitting.  He will come after it tomorrow.  He sent after it once before but it was too dry to move and it is now a wet spell.  I wrote to him to come after it.  I am looking for the thrashing machine this week and then I will write to you how much wheat we will make not much I think.  I don’t think I think the corn crops will be tolerable.  I think you had do well let your father know about the land and what you will do if you come home next spring.  I don’t think this war will end some time yet.  I have got out of all patience in waiting for it.  Oh my dear husband, I do want to see you!

Do you remember the last time I wrote to you about Dr. Bitting going over the mountain.  He has never been here to stay since he went over to the spring last week to stay and they sent after his folks last Tuesday to come after him.  They say it took ten men to get him in the wagon he came through here about 12 oclock Saturday.  They said he kept turning his head about.  He had not a particle of sense the night they took him home.  He tried to jump out of the window.  He has dropsy and is swollen very much so much so he cannot bend down.  You have seen him the last time.

My dear husband I would be so glad to see you.  It seems to me it has been a year or two since you left.  If there is any way or chance I will try and send you some socks and something to eat.  I do not believe Mr. Vaughn is going at all.  They say the 21^st Reg is lousy.  They are full of body lice.  Do try to keep them off yourself.  You will have to be very carefull to keep clear of them.  Little Matthew says tell Papa to come home.  Write often to your ever true and devoted wife.

Laura E. Myers

Sources: Christopher Watford, ed. The Civil War in North Carolina: Soldiers’ and Civilians’ Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865, Volume 1. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003). Original in AC Myers Papers, Duke University Special Collections.

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I am tiard of the war & I want to be home with you all #cw150

Camp near Richmond

July the 24th 1862

Dear Wife I take the pleasur of writing you a few lines this eavning to in form you that I am well now and have bin since I left Ncarolina.  I have bin able to kepe up and help to cook tho I cant do any other duty.  I can hop that these few lines will come to hand and find you and the family enjoying the best of health.  I have nothing of importance to write.  Times is quite heer at this time tho I donte now how long the will remain so untill pease is mad.  Som is of the opinin that the most of the fighting is don as to my on parte I cant say tho I am in hospital is far I am tiard of the war & I want to be home with you all and am in hopes of so.

I can in form you that this is the forth letter that I sent to you and have never receive but one from you.  If you haint got enough money for the postage I will send you some then you can write me until you stop.

Dear Wife I want you to send me som soape and tobacco.  Tobaco is wirth one dollar and soape 2 dollars.  We have quite a desir if anything at all and whiskey is too much.  I want you to tell Mr. Plesent that I am in hopes that I will get home in time a nuff to help him drink som of his cider and Brandy.  So I will close nothing more and by remaining your affectionate Husband untill death.

G. A. Williams

Sources: Christopher Watford, ed. The Civil War in North Carolina: Soldiers’ and Civilians’ Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865, Volume 2. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003).  Original in Williams-Womble Papers, NC State Archives, Raleigh.

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She is a great thing to talk about nothing. #cw150

Sunday 16^th [February 1862]

A still cold morning. The snow (though not much fell) is melting. I slept till very late this morning as breakfast is generally late on Sunday. N. Taylor was here this morning after tobacco. The children, Pinck & Zona, are throwing across the bed playing & they can’t get out. They must amuse themselves some way. They are very noisy in the house. I dread for a rainy day to come in the winter. Now they are rolling the large glass marble. I must stop for my feet are very cold. I began a story last night in the Courtiers of Charles III. The book belongs to Mary Moore but has been here some three years. Mrs. Fanning came up before dinner & the children & I went down with her. The roads are very bad, nothing but mud. Louise McKinnish is here tonight. Pinck is asleep & Atheline is getting Willie to sleep so I must stop & put Zona to bed. She has been combing my head since supper. She wants to go to sleep in my lap. Mr. Henry nurses her to sleep when he is here. It is still cloudy with a South East wind. Snow nearly all gone, only on the mountains. I want to write to Lou tonight & perhaps Sister Frank so I must stop. Louise McKinnish stays with me tonight. She is a great thing to talk about nothing. I wrote to Lou & Sister Frank. It has been a cold cloudy day, wind blowing from South.

Source: Diary of Cornelia Henry in Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journal and Letters of the Henry Family. Clinard, Karen L. and Russell, Richard, eds. (Asheville, NC: Reminiscing Books, 2008).

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