Letter 65 Virginia Gordon Tabb Moody to Martha William Wright Moody

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Lowndes County, Mississippi
Surname/tag: Moody

Cobbs’s Switch May 1st

My dear Mother

I am so much obliged to you, and sister Alice for the nice box you sent. Doctor Moody, and the children enjoyed the good things very much, and his slippers and my dress are beautiful. Dear Ma you promised that you would come as soon as Rosa was well her baby will be four weeks old Sunday. Dr. Moody is very anxious to see you, he talks of nothing else. Dear Ma if is impossable for you to come to see us, please let us go to you if only for a little while. I say us for he will not go to Virginia although so anxious without me. I have tryed to persuade him to go and stay a while, but he says he would not be contented if he went. Believe me Ma I have tryed to induce him to go. He is calling on you even in sleep to let us come. Ma if you will only try us. I will not worry in any way I will try to be of some use to you. I will not complain to him of any thing. I can sew for Annie, and will assist you in any way you will let me. Oh Ma it grieves me so to think I am the cause of his not goin home and he is so anxious to go He asked brother Johnnie about our goin to you and he said you were willing to take him but not me It would kill you to live with me you could not stand me. Oh Ma it hurts me so to think of my own Mother–in-law don’t want me in he house. I love him so much and to think I am the cause of his not being able to stay home and he is so crazy to go. Please dear Ma try us he wont go without me, and I will try and not worry you try, and be more endurable, I would be contented here now he is with me if he would only be satisfyed but he is not he is so very very anxious to go you, and they say you will not have me I don’t know what to do. If you will only forget and forgive me for being so disagreeable when you saw me last. I will try, and with God’s help to be more endurable. Please dear Ma pity me and try me for his sake if only for a little while. Love to dear sister Alice, and thank her for her kindnes to us. Love and a kiss to all the children

Your aff--daughter

Sippie

VLR (Virginia Leigh Refo)

Letter to Martha William (Wright) Moody in Petersburg from Virginia Gordon (Tabb) Moody in Lowndes Co MS. She was the wife of Martha’s oldest son, Dr. William Scott Moody. Sippie’s nickname was “Mississippi”, shortened to “Sippie”. Alice is Martha "Alice" (Moody) Leigh, daughter of Martha Moody and wife of Dr. H.G. Leigh of Petersburg. Annie is Martha William Moody’s grand-daughter, Annie Gray Lockhart, daughter of Mary Elizabeth (Moody) Lockhart, sometimes referred to in other letters as "Mollie", and Joseph Gray Lockhart. Mary died in 1871, and Martha William Moody raised Annie. Johnnie is Sippie's brother-in-law, John Mason Moody Jr. who was married first to Sippie’s sister, Laura Tabb, and second to Rosalie Agnes Terry, the "Rosa" mentioned in this letter.

Apparently William returned to Petersburg, even if Sippie did not. He is listed in the 1882-83 City Directory as living with his mother.. He died in Petersburg Sept. 17, 1882 and was buried there. (See letter # 62.)

After the death of Dr. William Scott Moody in 1882, guardianship of the surviving children, Lena Moody, (Virginia Allena Moody) and Charlie Moody (Charles Bolling Tabb Moody) was given to Dr. H.G. and Martha “Alice” Leigh [Lena] and Nathaniel and Laura (Moody) Gregory [Charlie], and the children were raised in their homes, despite the fact that Sippie was living at that time. I am sure that the birth of a child out of wedlock to Sippie was a contributing factor. However, this family took on the raising of children, when their fathers died. Dr. H. G. Leigh and his wife also raised Carolyn Leigh Craddock, child of his sister Mary Alice (Leigh) Craddock, "Maud", (letter #54) after the death of her husband, Col. James Craddock.

Obviously, Sippie did not get along well with her mother-in-law, and probably did not with other family members as well. Her story is very sad. She had another child, Bessie Moody, in October 1884, two years after her husband’s death. She later married William A. Bohannon and had a son, Alec, in 1891. Shortly before her death, she retook the Moody name. She died in 1898 in Chesterfield, Va. During the last 10 years of her life she tried diligently but unsuccessfully to salvage some property or assets from the Tabb Estate for her children, Bessie and Alec. She apparently died in poverty, and her children went to The Bethany Home for Friendless Children in Bon Air, where they appear in the 1900 census, her husband living in the almshouse in Richmond in the same census year.

Date: 1881, referring to the birth of Rosa's second child, John Mason Moody IV, born April 11, 1881.

Acknowledgement

• Many thanks to cousin Virginia Leigh Refo whose research and transcriptions added to this profile. The originals were donated to the Library of Virginia in 2004 by Liz Edens Vermillion with the help of Virginia Refo Moody Family Papers, 1750-1881. Accession 40535, Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.