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2 Autograph Letters Signed. Hendersonville and Hopkinsville, Kentucky.  December 3, 1843 and June 9, 1846.  3pp. and 2pp.+ stampless address leaves.To his brother, Dr. David Davison, Hawesville, Kentucky.

The 30 year-old Davison describes the trials and tribulations of a wandering Methodist preacher, “beating on through the rain and mud” from one small town to another, receiving a “hearty welcome” from poor white farmers and Black slaves alike .

The farmers were “fat as pigs and indeed…live more like pigs than I wish (that is, in the dirt) for they are not as particular as some City folks are.” He was prepared for”skirmishing with the enemy” (alcoholics?), intending to “come upon him about frolicking time and tear him all to smash…”  He rode his little pony “pretty hard through the mud to a  place where the negros love me like a hog does corn…the darkies say ‘God bless dat man’…and to manifest their love they fed my horse till his legs got too proud and stiff to be a circuit rider…” He was popular among the Blacks, white old ladies and children, “but as to the gentlemen and young ladies…I cannot preach well enough for the former and never wait on the latter…”, intending to “enjoy the sweets of Bachelorism”.  His work was “hard and I meet some troubles and difficulties and rose temlations, yet I am cheerful and happy and resigned to my lot…”