Please email with any questions. 9 3/4" by 8" ecru paper with handwritten letter dated March 1, 1855, sent from "Variety Farm", the letter was written by C B Magruder, sent to merchants in Macon, Georgia and reads: "Gentlemen- In consequence of my being but recently enabled to arouse some of my creditors to a sense of their duty, & my having been necessarily run to a very heavy expense in settling a new place; having no more open land than just enough to make a support for the second year, being among strangers & disposed to liquidate all claims here first, I have been necessarily obliged to impose upon the confidence and good nature of my old friends, and am just now enabled to make you a remittal- Please find enclosed the half of bills of one hundred dollars & notify me of the same and I will remit the other half. We have no bank agency in Thomasville consequently this is the only safe mode of sending money. We are all excitement here now in relation to the old Brunswick Rail road. My investments have been such as to make the coming of the road worth at least six or $8000 to me. We have a glorious country here Bray, I assure you, delightful climate, productive soil etc. Yrs truly C B Magruder.".
I found some info about Mr Magruder on FIND A GRAVE:
"C.B." was born March 26, 1828 in Columbia County, GA, near Augusta. He
was the was the youngest child of George and Susannah (Williams)
Magruder, owners of a large, successful plantation. George died when
C.B. was eight years old, and an older brother became C.B.'s guardian.The
1850 Federal Census shows that when he was 22 years old, C.B. owned a
small plantation in Monroe County, GA, near Forsyth. (His mother lived
with him at that time.) He moved to Thomas County, GA in 1853,
where on 4 Oct 1855, he married Sarah Frances Smith. The first three of
his children were born there: Charles B. in 1856; George Miller in 1858,
and James Bailey in 1859.In December 1859, the family moved to
Jefferson County, FL, near Monticello. Two more children were born:
Susan Ellen ("Jamie") in 1861, and Albert Stuart in 1863.On
15 May 1862, C.B. enlisted in the Confederate Army at Camp Leon, FL as a
private in "K" Company, 5th Florida Infantry. He was discharged the
same day after providing a substitute (a common practice on both sides
of the battle line); there is no evidence that he ever saw any combat.
Nevertheless, he was known as "Major Magruder" for the rest of his life.
(The substitute was killed in combat in August 1862 at the Battle of
Second Manassas near Manassas, VA.)