Just reading thru the letters in my folder labelled Don Allen. It was his folks that I met once in Farley, IA, and we went to the Cottage Hill Cemetary. We also met another distant relative, and I haven't checked back (yet) to see where she comes in, by the name of LaVerne Strief. Anyway, in one of his letters to me he says the letter of A.B. to his mother is in the possession of this LaVerne and on a visit there (he lives in Alberquerque, NM) he made a copy of it and sent it to me. So that's how I got the copy.Of course, I thought it was interesting. So I googled Todd Kimberly, found an address and wrote to him. I received a reply from his wife Nicki, who is also a genealogy buff, and she confirmed that they had the gun and also sent the following pictures in addition to a picture of Francis Marion Allen's family.
He also says that his dad had a gun, the kind that was used in the Civil War. Only his grandpa hadn't been in the war, so he assumed that the gun could have belonged to A.B. He said his dad gave it to a Todd Kimberly, who lives in Waterloo (I checked White Pages), but at the time that Don was writing to me, Todd was 38 and not married so he would have no one to pass it on,too. So he was going to tell him about me, that I had 2 sons (we had exchanged family info) and the gun could be passed on to us. I heard nothing more. This correspondence was all taking place 20 years ago, or so. Don's parents both have died, so then my connection with them kinda stopped.
Interesting?
Civil War era gun. Image courtesy of Nicki Kimberly.
Detail of Civil War era gun. Image courtesy of Nicki Kimberly. Engraving reads, "1864, U. S. Springfield."
We unfortunately have no confirmation that this is A. B.'s gun, but the thought that it might be is certainly exciting.
