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Ebenezer near Memphis Tenn: May 11./57
Jno Armfield, Esq'r
My dear Sir,
Yours of March 29/Duplicate/ superscribed May 2'd reached me to-day. I am surprised that you did not get my reply to your note of March 29, which I received at {struckthrough: Nashville} Memphis on my return from Middle Tennessee the 1st week in April. In that reply I stated to you as in a previous com =munication (I think) that I had proposed to Bp. Polk to join me here about the 18 or 19 of this month, attend our convention at Jackson the 20th and about the 25th set off together for Beersheba so as to be there the first week in June. I also said I expected to be a accom= =panied by Mrs. Otey & my youngest daughter there & now with her sister at Nashville. I have heard nothing from Bp. Polk in answer to my proposition. But the plan as I proposed for myself I expect God willing still to carry out with some little variation. In the first place I have engaged to be at Chapel Hill - University of No.C. - the 1st day of June to preach the {struckthrough: convention} commencement sermon for the grad= =uating class. To do this I leave Jackson the 25 May and as we have a R. Road the whole distance I expect to return and be at Beersheeba or in the neighborhood by the 1st Sunday in June. If I can reach Murfreesboro on that day then I shall be. If not, then the following Sunday or some part of the week, to redeem a promise made to some of the citizens to preach in their town. So then it is my wish & intention as you will understand to accept your & Mrs. Armfield's kind invitation and spend as much of the summer as my duties will permit at your house at Beersheba. I calculate on having my youngest daughter with me. Whether Mrs. Otey will accompany me is somewhat doubtful. She had expected to do so, and had arranged to leave home with me to-morrow-week for Jackson. But last Friday her daughter
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with seven children arrived at our house from Richmond Va. She had not paid us a visit in ten years and this re-union was an occasion of great joy to us all & especially to Mrs Otey. What Mrs Minor's coming may do in the way of altering Mrs Otey's plans, I cannot now say. She does not know herself. Mrs M. hopes to visit her Bro: & Sister in Arkansas, and also her sister Mrs Jones at Nashville: and these visits will all probably be made by the middle of July. Then{underlined}, I think it probably Mrs. Otey will join me {struckthrough: me} at Beersheba. By that time Bp. Polk & myself, as I hope, will have surveyed or examined the different localities for our proposed University. We will have had our meeting at or near Chattanooga, & then I trust I shall be allowed to have a little rest and breathe the pure air of your mountain home at Beersheba. I have thus my dear Sir, given you an outline of my plans wishes & purposes; how near I shall come to accomplishing them remains yet to be seen. But however that may turn out, be assured, that I feel not the less grateful to you for your kind invita= =tion. -- You will allow me to hope that you will accompany Bp. Polk & myself on our tour of exploration as far as convenient to you. I shall take the liberty of proposing your name as one of the lay delegates on the part of the Convention of Tennessee to the meeting at or near Chattanooga. The truth is that we need the experience & practical knowledge of men who have been engaged in wordly pursuits in the formation & execution of many of our plans connected with the advancement of education &c: and I hope you will not withhold from us your aid when we call for it. With Respects to Mrs Armfield I remain very truly
Yr friend Jas H Otey -----------------