Soc***Grove, 29 Nov. 1813
Dear Thomas:
I am told that you are very attentive and study very hard. The first, I am well pleased with, but your study ought to be so regulated as not to injure either your mind or health. I wish you would pay a little more attention to writing & spelling. If you appropriate only two hours in each day you might improve yourself much, and it might also be beneficial by relieving your mind when it is fatigued, which it is as liable to as the body after excessive labor. Learning to write a good hand will qualify you for public life by writing fair you may fill offices that may be lucrative, and such as you nor no other person can fill with dignity without that art.
I have not sent you a saddle by the Boys owing to a neglect of mine when I was in Asheville last; and I think not prudent to trust to them to choose you one, for you ought to have a good one, therefore the first time I go to Asheville I will either purchase you one, if I see any that I think will suit, or otherwise, I will get Westall to make you one, and as soon afterwards as a good opportunity offers, I will send it over to you, until which time you must “live on the Bones”. I want you to send the one back which you have got with you.
Give my best compliments to Genl. Taylor when you seen him.
Ro. Love,
–To-Thos. D. Love,
Note: The above letter was written to my Grandfather, Thomas Dillard Love while in Washington County, East Tennessee. And it was while he was here that he met Alfred Wilson Taylor, the brother, of Anna Taylor. They became quite intimate friends, and Thomas visited Alfred Wilson Taylor’s home, and met Anna Taylor who afterwards (1812) became the wife of Thomas Dillard Love. General Taylor, referred to in the above letter was the Father of Anna Taylor, and at this time the father-in-law of Thomas D. Love, and was a very intimate friend of Col. Robert Love-their friendship having commenced during the existence of the “State of Franklin”, in which event they participated. It will be noted that Col. Robert Love always send his compliments to General Taylor in all the letters addressed to Thomas Dillard Love. I will later on give the genealogy of the Taylor family, and show, parenthetically, the relationship that existed between the families, which at all times was the closest possible. And in that connection, I will give something of the services of General Taylor in the War of 1812, and in the Indian Wars prior to that. It was his services and the exposure incident thereto that caused his death in 1816.(F.D. Love)