Mrs. B.M. Clarke to Governor Pendleton Murrah, November 30, 1863

Hempstead, Nov 30th 1863.

Gov P. Murrah,

Dear Sir;

You will doubtless be somewhat
surprised on the reception of this to find it comes from
one who is a perfect stranger to you, and although written
by a frail and weak female I am sure your generous
heart will not cast it aside without first glancing over
its contents. I write at the earnest solicitation of a distressed
Mother, and her housefull [sic] of dear children, to beg of you
to have our dear and unfortunate father Dr RR Peeble
dealt leniently with[.] [H]e is an old man and has a
large family who love him dearly, and who pray for
his safe and speedy return to comfort and cheer our
breaking hearts[.] [O]f course the extracts from his letters
published in the Houston Telegraph of 27th of this month
have been generaly [sic] read, which will we greatly fear seem
to prejudice public opinion against him. Let me
assure you these letters were never intended to go any
further than to Mr Baldwin, who pretended to be a
a [sic] friend of Dr P. [I]n one extract in this paper of [the] 27[th],