The following letter describes O. Henry's ancestry--especially focusing on Evelina "Lina" Marie Porter. The original letter from Mrs. G. B. Bush to Mr. C. A. Smith can be located in the "Ancestry -- Correspondence" Folder of the Greensboro Public Library's O. Henry Collection.

Hopkins S. C.
Nov. 4, 1915.
Mr. C. A. Smith
Dear Sir:

Both letters read. Please excuse delay having been so busy during fair week and Company etc. I will ans. both in one. I do not know any thing about Aunt Lina’s mothers relatives in the north but she often spoke of her visits up there. They were the relatives of her father. They lived in Nantucket. She spoke of that place often.

We have a mortar and pestle somewhere in our possession that was made there. If you would consult my cousin[,] Mrs E. E. Moffit[,] 1014 West Franklin St.[,] Richmond, Va.[,] she might give you a more correct history of the family as she will know farther back than I. She is a neice [sic] of Grandma Porter. I have the old family bible and these are the births of O’ Henrys brothers.

Shirley Worth Porter, Aug 6, 1860
{William Sidney Porter, Sept 11, 1862
{O’ Henry
David Weir Porter, Mar. 26, 1865.

This last one died when quite young. I also have the announcement of his first marriage, and the death of his mother.

Yours Truly
Mrs. G. B. Bush.

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Evelina Marie Porter.
Born April 1st 1832.
Died May 28th 1897.

Daughter of Sydney and Ruth Porter. Many of her days were spent with her grandparents, Dr. David and Eunice Worth, at Centre a small village near Greensboro. [A]lways understood she went to Edgeworth, and must have taken art there. [W]e each have a print piece that she painted, and she taught drawing in her school and had extra classes. [H]ave no idea when her school started. Of course you know of her taking her brother's (Algernon['s]) three children after their mother's death & “mothering” them -- Shirley, Will, & David Weir[,] the latter dying in infancy[.]

Only sister, Emily R. Porter[,] married Jabez Newlin April 2nd 1856 – She died in 1863 having 1 son 2 daughters who went to live with paternal grandmother until father's second marriage, then going to live with them until father's death. Then Miss Lina took them from stepmother to her home and cared for them and they were in her school for a while. Not long after this Mr. Clark took the eldest (Lina) to live with them until her marriage in 1888 & went to S.C. to live. [S]ometime later the other daughter Mary Lou [?] married and went to S.C. also[.] These were the nieces Miss Lina went to live with when she went to S.C. in 1896[.] The following May the 28th 1897 she died in the home of her niece Lina Bush[.] Both nieces were with her in her last illness. She requested to be buried in the family burying place of the Bushes so she is buried near Columbia SC.