[Letter excerpts from Eugenia Bass Bertinatti, 1874-1900]
[provided by Nancy Hunt, nancehunt@home.com]

Excerpt of a letter written by Eugenia Bass Bertinatti to her cousins,
Evander and Elizabeth Bate Williams, who lived in Memphis, Tennessee.
"Nashville, Tenn
May 25th, 1874
Maxwell House Hotel

My dear Cousin Van,

The time is approaching for my departure and I have discovered that I
shall have need of an additional amount of money, and wish to sell my
Shelby Co. Bond.  (6 percent) of thousand dollars.  Would you do me the
favor to find out its exact value & have it sold for me?  I wrote to the
Manhattan Bank to know what price it might command me?   I wrote to the
Manhattan Bank to know what price it might command.  They replied, but I
have mislaid the letter, and thus I apply to my kind Cousin Evander to
be aided & assisted in getting as much as possible for this.  My last
Bond in this Bank, which I have kept as a nest egg, and I dislike to
dispose of it now, but have lingered too long in Nashville at this
expensive Hotel, and now have not time to communicate with my Bank in
Turin, Italy.  However, if sold, I would not want to withdraw all the
money.  Would need about $500, five hundred.  The balance would deposit
in the Bank Manhattan at the interest customary, if they would agree to
this.  Would you do me the favor, dear cousin, to attend to this affair:
 I will need for the voyage at least five hundred, the balance could be
deposited in the Bank unless you could suggest some better arrangement. 
I am very anxious to be at home in Italy as the life in a hotel is very
tiresome.  My ship is  yet to be selected, and I am in a state of uncertainty........

Believe me your devoted, Eugenia Bertinatti"

****************
Following is an excerpt from another letter Eugenia Bertinatti wrote
(while she was living in Italy) to her brother , Humphrey Bate, who
lived in Castalian Springs, Sumner Co., Tennessee.  

"Castellamonte - June 15th, 1897

......I regret your inability to rent or have my place cultivated.  As
Birande (?) has suffered as every plantation in that poor fl____(?)
region.  In fact, it was sacrificed before the river rose.  I had hoped
to have sold my place in Tennessee to help balance losses in
Mississippi.  When once misfortune begins, one cannot tell when it will end.........

Eugenia"

*****************
Another excerpt from a letter to Humphrey, her brother:

"Castellamonte, Feb. 11, 1900

.........you must always give me the full particulars of my business you
attend to for me.  You gave me in your last, the quantity of land you
sold of mine recently, but you are not sufficiently  explicit.  I know
when the land was bought from my father & brother Bee, there were two
hundred & sixty acres.  You sold to Parr, fifty, I think.  You have sold
to others four & three-fourths acres.  If more has been sold, I do no
know to whom.  Please inform me.  You also spoke of selling wood without
informing me of the quantity or what you had done with the money.  There
were also other things  you sold.  Some of the fields must have been
rented.  Has no rent been collected?  You said in your letter you had
deposited some money in banks, without naming banks or the amount.  My
plantation does not yield me any revenue & I am obliged to depend in a
great measure, upon other resources.  Pardon me if I appear to insist
upon hearing something from my property in Tennessee.  The money for the
land & other sources, I want sent me by check, on a bank in Turin or
Paris, France.  I wish I could let you have all of it, but I have no one
to work for me, and I must depend on my property in America.  It is now
impossible to keep up the place in Mississippi.  The negros want to be
on the rail road, and the river is caving, and it seems everything is
going down.  My home here is lovely, but unproductive.  So what am I to
do?  I thought by selling my land in Sumner County, I might make myself
a sum of money to invest in something more profitable.  Instead, I find
myself without land or money.  I do not want you to sell anymore without
letting me know before hand.......

Your devoted sister, Eugenia Bertinatti"

*******
"From the Georgetown Courier, February 10, 1866:
Madame Bertinatti, wife of the Italian Minister, has received over
$50,000 for losses sustained by her during the war, on her estate near
Vicksburg, Mississippi.  She was then Mrs. Bass, equally famed for
wealth and beauty."