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04[[?]]

Memorandum of letter from Wm F. Wickham of Hanover C.H. Va. to Dr. Chas Carter: 

Has rec'd. letter of Jan'y. 25th stating that "O.D. Harris, who lives near North Wales, has given a deposition, on file in the Freedmen's Bureau, in which he charges that Allen, who has rented North Wales for the present year, is a bloody tyrant, a brutal monster, & that the negroes protest against his being allowed to have the plantation, that he shot two negroes down with a pistol, &c &c." In reply to these charges, states that Allen is a highly respectable man, that he lived at North Wales more than a year before the death of Dr. Carter's father, who was a kind & indulgent master, & had not Allen been humane he would not have been permitted to remain on the plantation.- Occasionally there were trifling complaints against Allen, but in no case was it alleged that he was cruel or even harsh to the Negroes-. As to the shoot cases; heard of but one, where a man was wounded in the finger,- Testimony was taken before Lieut. Murphy Provost Marshal, & Allen, after being several weeks on bail, was sent to Charlottesville for trial, where he was dismissed; is not fully informed of the evidence, & does not know if any one was shot, but believes no blame was attached to Allen. Trusts he will have no further interruption. "Harris is a man of the worst reputation, & was thought to gain his living chiefly by trading with the negroes at North Wales, & his employment now is selling whiskey, he did not wish the plantation broken up, for that would destroy his occupation."- 
Wishes the Bureau would order inquiries to be made concerning the characters of Harris & Allen.- The depredations of the Negroes on the crops at North Wales & Broad Neck last year were were very great, 150 bbls of corn were taken from the former place & upwards of 200 bbls, from the latter - some time in the fall the North Wales barn was broken open, more than 160 bushels of wheat stolen, & the building set fire to, fortunately the fire went out without spreading. "General Howard must perceive what difficulties we have to encounter