Greenfield, Botetourt County, Va.,
February 8th, 1824.
Dear Sister:
The painful duty of informing you of the death of our beloved Sister Lewis devolves on me. She expired on Wednesday the 4th, (Feb. 4th, 1824) at her home at the Sweet Springs. She had lingered for some time but no dangerous symptoms appeared in her complaint, nor was any alarm excited. She, however, became suddenly worse, and sent for Mary Woodville, who set out instantly and took with her Doctor Patterson, of Fincastle, but before they arrived she was struggling with death. She died with all the firmness of a Christian hero, firmly relying on the merits and mediation of an all-sufficient Saviour, and declared that her hope and confidence were so great that death presented not one solitary terror to her, but rather that he appeared to her as a friend who was to conduct her out of this into a far better world that she had long looked forward to with ardor—and called on her relations and friends around her to witness with what composure a real Christian could die, and actually closed her eyes with her own hands.
The family are now dispersed, and the house locked up and the plantation forsaken for awhile.
Sarah, Lynn and Thomas are at Mr. Woodville's, Ben and Polly down at Mr. Massie's. What future disposition will be made of them or the property is not yet decided on. She did not make a will.
My wife is very sick and confined to her bed with something like the nettle-rash. Sarah is well and I am in my general health.
Your affectionate brother,
John Preston.
To Mrs. Elizabeth Madison, Montgomery Co.
[30] From this branch of the Peytons are also descended Mrs. J. M. Ranson, of Jefferson county, W. Va., Captain William L. Clark, of Winchester, Va., Mrs. R. T. W. Duke, of Albemarle, the late Judge J. E. Brown, of Wythe, Mrs. Hunter McGuire, of Richmond, Mrs. Robert Gibson, of Cincinnati, and many others of worth and distinction in Virginia, the South and West.—R. A. B. in Richmond Standard.
[31] Edward Everett's Oration on Washington.