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Office of A. Ruttkay & Co.
Cotton Factors and Commission Merchants,
Galveston, Texas, Jany 13, 1867.

Brevet Maj- Genl. J.B. Kiddoo
Asst. Comr. Freedmens Bureau.
General.

On the 3rd inst we purchased from the Firm of Mann & McMorries(76.) seventy-six Bales of Cotton paying them at that time $2500 in Gold on a/c of said purchase, the balance to be paid after certified weights & samples have been obtained: meanwhile on the 9th inst Mann & McMorries have failed, & a Mr. Underwood of Underwood & Brooks appears & claims the above Cotton as their property; & succeeded upon having 40 Bales (marked 26 bssle & 14 bssle) of the above lot now at Factors' Press transferred subject to their (Underwood & Brooks) order; as he found that we had a lien on the remaining lot by our advance of $2500, as above stated, & that he could not by civil process get possession of the Cotton prior to a settlement of our claim, he has filed an affidavit at your Office requesting the seizure of the 29 Bales under the plea that his freedmen are half interested in the same; we are informed that Underwood did not raise any of this Cotton but that he bought the same from freedmen & Planters for speculation, paying them in part Cash & part in goods from their store, but however this may be, we bought the Cotton from their Factor in an open market & have advanced the amount required by them, it does not therefore stand to reason & justice that we who are certainly the

Transcription Notes:
Corrected a mis-typed word (Ccotton --> Cotton) orrected a mis-typed word (freemen --> freedmen)