John Benjamin was born in England in 1823. In 1849, at the age of 26, he immigrated to America with the goal of seeking opportunities in the new world and improving the life of his family. During his immigration and eventual settlement in Hutchinson, Minnesota, John saved many personal letters that were written by and to him. These letters, the subject of this web site, bring to life his immigration and the life of others during this courageous adventure. The most recent letters posted on this sight are on this front page. To see all the earlier letters, keep pressing the “Older Posts” button on the bottom of this page. The earliest letter recorded here is June 20, 1849. The letters…………

May 30,1854 John Benjamin-1823 to Elizabeth Benjamin-1830

Milwaukee
May 30, 1854
My Dear Elizabeth,
You will of course be anxious to hear from me by this time.  Am happy to say that we are both quite well.  Hoping that these few lines will find you all enjoying the same blessings.
We have been very busy since I last wrote in looking round the country.  We left Rockford yesterday morning at 9 ½ AM for Belvedere & from there to Beloit & Janesville in Wisconsin.  We stayed at Janesville last night & left this morning for Milwaukee, which place we reached about 9 o’clock this AM.  We shall leave here tomorrow morning by steamer for Chicago.  When we get there we shall consider ourselves on our way home again, which we expect to see about the first of the next week.   We shall have to stop at different places on the route. 
We are very much pleased with this part of the country so far, but we have not found any place that we like as well as we do Rockford.  You see that we are returning rather sooner than we expected when we left home.  This we are doing for the reason we have about decided what to do.  That you will hear when we see you.
My kindest regards to Edwin & to ____ ____ and my love to you & ___.
Yours most affectionately,
John
……in haste

1 comment:

  1. UnknownSeptember 7, 2013 at 9:37 AM

    John travels west to check things out.............likes Rockford. I'd like to know who he is traveling with, but he does not say.

    Be sure to look at the first page of the original to see the letterhead of the hotel........

    ReplyDelete

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