Lawrence KS Territory
Sept. 5, 1859
Mr. John Benjamin
Your and Mrs. Benjamin’s letter of the 31st of
July as well yours postmarked Aug. 23 all came duly to home and were had with
that interest, which prompted me to have you spread from paper the knowledge you
possessed of matters and things in which, and by which, you are surrounded and
are in themselves pleasurable to be known to ones like myself who has
contemplated for so many years and with such longing desires, the good and
evil, that might result to those emigrating to the far west.
You have now informed me that the number of inhabitants are (in your town) about 400, that your lakes are
clear and generally abounding in excellent fish, a tolerable school, climate,
soil and to what it is best adapted, the country you say is one of the most
beautiful you ever beheld and equally healthy if not more so than Dedham,
and there the doc lacks employment to administer his noxious drugs, the stock
raising is to be one of the principal means the former will have to look to for
one of the best means to put money into his pocket, and you then speak of wool
growing and manufacturing, of a market, and the facility now under
contemplation to ___end deer, wild duck,
and prairie chickens abound.
Bears also come in for a share of notice. I saw one a day or two ago about 3 years
old. At that age they will do very well,
but I believe they are not tameable, and not let me say, living in such close
proximity as I am impressed you do to the dense forest , or if not dense forest,
woods, you should be extremely careful about letting the children get, for with
them I cannot bear to dwell upon the several accounts of children lost in the
woods. A child might be exceedingly
perplexed in getting into a comparatively small patch of wood land, and in a
large wood what a limited space of time they are found miles from home,
sometimes dead, sometimes half-starved and scarcely alive? So be careful.
I discover that some of your people have high and exalted
motives of the comparative worth of claims. $1,000 for a claim in your vicinity
is a large price for a young man to ___ but if he can get it I certainly shall
not be displeased. I can obtain claims
about here for that price having very little improvement. I do not mean to say very near Lawrence. One
was sold a month since, 6 miles from town for $1,000 (unimproved).
I thought I might with properties ask you the curious
questions I may have from time to time put to you, not that I had any fixed
purpose in relation to so doing, that is to say, of changing my present
whereabouts. Nevertheless, Willie seemed
to be pleased with your description of Hutchinson and its vicinity. Fish and game and lake for boat, boylike, and
I am not so much of a man that I am not myself pleased with such descriptions
of nature, and the person who cannot, I might almost say, has no soul. And again, he who cannot see the goodness of
God in such bounteous displays of his pleasure loses much of the pleasure of
this life.
If it was not for hope, it is said, the heart would
break. I find you are hopeful that all
of these schemes of plank roads, rail roads, rivers cleared, large factories,
saw and flour mills, will in time be needed and consummated to your now present
wishes and anticipations, I fully believe will come to pass and in due time. This is an age of progress. Now suppose we in our day man not see all
this accomplished, our children may, and if per adventure we may not live to
see the convenience and blessing which were of necessity flow from them, our
children and children’s children may, so we must not be too selfish.
The Tribune I now send twice a month instead of one a
month. I think they must afford you some
pleasurable reading. The State
Reform school building at Westborough Massachusetts, an extensive establishment
owned and conducted by the State for a lass or boy not to be sent to the prison
or house of correction, was set on fire by one of the boys (a rascal) and all
burned to the ground. Out of spite he
set fire to his ___. I should not have
mentioned this alone were it not for a similar circumstance. The sister of one Michael Riley c,onfined in
the House Of Juvenile Offenders at South Boston, the City establishment
for similar purpose as that of the state, on a visit carried and gave Michael a
newspaper having the account of this burning of the Westborough establishment,
so like and two others (all Irish, so was the Westborough boy) took these straw beds and filled the
ventilation and with a match put the building in flames. I should not have said South Boston, but Deer
Island on which island is also situated the House of Industries, all the city establishments. The House of Industry was ___ to that of the
House of ___. Offending Riley was 16
years, another 16 year, and the other 14 years old. Michael and old offender and had been at the
Westborough establishment. It was done
at breakfast time, but it was intended and planned to be executed in the
nighttime, so the two oldest ones just saved their necks, for setting fire to a
dwelling in the night season is a capital offense. Near 300 boys were in the establishment at
breakfast and if it had been fired at night it is said many must have lost
their lives.
You will by send by tell me what and how much you have
raised this season for I want to know how Mrs. Benjamin crops and she ___ them
done, chickens and all. I have often
had a good laugh about Mrs. B crops, but she must not be offended at the
liberty I take to select her saying to make sport of, for it is seldom I find
much to be pleased with and as she reads this she to will laugh in turn, so why
may not I?
If you have no cellar to put your potatoes in to keep them
from being frozen, you must dry a place in the ground, line it with straw or
prairie hay, cover it with the same, and then on the top throw on the earth to
cover the whole. I have read of such
things being done, nevertheless you must not practice on my say so merely.
You must raise all your hay for oxen and cows,
chickens. Next year you will have a million
(why mama, you want me to starve my chickens?)
By your letter, I find you have ___ heaped upon you in the
way of offices.
William Wills Wait, my son, (Willie) mostly called is still
at Mr. G.W. Bering at $5 dollars per week.
On the 3 of September he just completed his 5 year with Mr. B. service
and has received his 260 dollars not having had a sick day to deduct out, so he
better continue, but if he was out of employ, I think more than likely for his pleasure,
I should acquiesce in your proposition to spend the winter with you and go to
school, but not as you say to cost him nothing.
If such a thing should ever happened as his coming to see you and he has
the means, do you make him pay for it (in reason).
This country, I do not speak very advisably, only from what I
know and that is but little, and to tell the truth , it cannot be spoken
truthfully of as yet, it is entirely too new, nevertheless, I presume it will
be stock raising, wool growing, as well grain and all kinds of fruit. It has been said we have much too much rain
for wheat this summer on account of the wet spoiling that the frequent rain,
and immediately upon them this hot sun, or continued cloudy weather causes the
wheat to ___ and consequently in a more or less degree spoils it.
July and Aug. are very warm months that in my cabin ranging
the most part of each day from 90 to 100 degrees. We have not been used to such
warm weather and it was irksome to bear.
We are still in the cabin 12 by 15 and leaky. I must get out of it, if I live. Next ___ our Episcopal Chapel is finished and
a very pretty one. It is windows with
diamond shaped glass and those painted various colors.
You done well to write me such a long letter. I know your time is all occupied and moreover
this letter writing is hard work for many people. Therefore do not suppose you are under any
obligation to write me even at all. I am
pleased to hear from you at any time. I
should very much like to visit your part of the country, but it must remain
only in the desire to do so, as I fear.
Alluding yourself to the deprivation endured by you, and not
having a yard of my thing since you have been in Hutchinson, and hoping that
such a state of things will not always be so, I respond by also saying that the
direction and that period is the pleasure of divine providence that for your
wants and discomforts now present. You
may in some future be in possession of the comforts of life and to spare. God grant that this may be so with you and
yours, and that I may be carried safely there.
Nevertheless, in whatever state we may be, let us say with the whole
heart & with strong faith: Tho he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
Your friend,
Richard G. Wait
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