Website http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/ashe/misc/grybel04.txt accessed 20 Dec 2009: "Letter, John Graybeal to Dona Graybeal."
Letter from John Graybeal of Shell Creek, Tennessee to his grand-daughter Dona Graybeal of Fig, North Carolina. This letter was found among the papers and Letters of Dona Graybeal and her son W. Thomas Graybal, of Emory, Virginia. Dona Graybeal was married to my great-uncle Winfield A. Graybeal, a Methodist Minister.
John Graybeal, son of Andrew Graybeal, and grandson of Henry Graybeal of Ashe County, North Carolina, wrote the letter to his granddaughter Dona Graybeal, daughter of William Asbury Graybeal and Rebecca Graybeal. Both sides of Dona's family trace back to Henry Graybeal.
Notes: The original letter was written in pencil on tablet paper with no punctuation and paragraph breaks. Paragraph breaks have been inserted where it seemed logical to do so for clarity. Periods have also been added at the end of sentences. Spelling remains as it was interpreted except where indicatedby []. References to "Winny" are to Winfield A. Graybeal Dona's husband and son of David Melvin Graybeal and Mary Anne Jones.
Transcribed by Kyle R. Graybeal kgraybeal@erols.com:
'Shell Creek Ten Jan 26 1915
Dona we recv'd your letter was real glad to hear from you all. was glad you was having a good time & Doing some good in the caus of Religion there. Dont seam to be But little good Doing here. We have had some offel Bad weather this winter. the weather was the worst before Christmas i Ever saw. i think we got a litter from pa a few days ago Said Conly & wife had gone to New Mexico Lum has moved in bout 8 miles of us. i Recon Griggs preached a fine Sermon Sunday at Shell Creek We are having a fine day today 26 of Jan
Well you asked me about the Graybeals. My father always told me they came from Penn to NC. My grandfather settled rite on the lands Elihu & your grandpa graybial lived. My granfathers name was Henry. Winnys grate granfathers name was David. he settled probably on the lands that Winnys granfather & Calvin graybeal lived on Hoss creek. the old man Petter settled near Jefferson, they Both maried Birkets
My granmother graybeal was a Henson. ther was one them old graybeals Name was John he never was married. he fell Dead at a wood pile cuting wood. Ther was one Mike he went West long time ago they never could her from him after them Days. So that was all of the old graybeals. they was real Duch.
My father always told me he couldent understand a word they would say when they talked in ther language though they could talk English all rite. i remember seeing all of them they wer Dunkards them days
My grandfather was a Methodist Ex[h]orter a grate scriptonian i remember seeing my grandfather & old man Dav & Peter. My grandmother Died after i was a bot grown her name was Celia
Well Dona i dont guess you can read this letter if you can you can almost Beat me so we hope you are all well and enjoying life. give Winny my Best respects and wishes and trust he may Do much good.
Your grandma has had a Bad cold all this winter and holds rite on so we would glad to here from you all often. We remain your grandparents
John Graybeal write soon'"
Mentioned in grandson William's biography per two sources: www.rootsweb.com/~iaharris/ and FHL book 977.747-H2n, partial excerpt: "History of Harrison County, Iowa," 1891, pp. 686, 687: "William A. Graybill... To learn something of his early career the reader will be informed that he was born July 28, 1840, in Adams County, Ill., and accompanied his parents, who were among the early pioneers to locate in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, coming, as they did, before Council Bluffs had an existence, that location then being known as Miller's Hollow. Our subject remained with his parents until 1864. For nine years prior his father, himself and brothers A. J. & L., kept bachelor's hall in Pottawattamie County. [His father] Simeon P. Graybill was born March 26, 1816, in Jackson County, Ohio, and was the son of Mr. Graybill, a native of New York and of German ancestry. The father, Michael Graybill, was the son of Peter Graybill, who was born in Pennsylvania and married Christena Wampler, who had been taken prisoner by the Delaware Indians when a child and kept with the tribe for seven years and then returned to her parents. Peter Graybill was a son of John Graybill who came from Germany in the days of the Revolutionary War. Simeon Graybill's father, Michael, was married to Polly Stoker, in Ashe County, N. C., May 1811, removed to Jackson County, Ohio, and reared a family of eleven children: David, Catharine, Simeon, Levi, George, Lenore, Julian, Michael, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Sidney."