Posted by Kelly on 7/11/2007, 7:57 pm Hornellsville Tribune AND YET ANOTHER Mr. Editor: The following is an extract from a letter received by me on the 6th, from a brother-in-law lately from Almond. He went to Kansas in the early part of March last, intending to make his residence, but like many other of the Free State men, was driven out of the Territory and now resides in Crawford County, Iowa. Supposing that his old friends many of them are readers of your paper, and might like to hear from him, I send it to publish at your discretion. M. H. Wygant Boyer River, Iowa, Aug. 13, 1856 This country is not very thickly settled yet, and is filling up rapidly. Businessmen bear a premium, but I would hardly advise any that have a good business to come here at present. Land Warrants can now be located in the North part of the Sioux City district, and in the North part of the Decorah District; all South are closed. Western Iowa goes the Republican Ticket with a rush. Our county went so all but 10 votes. About Kansas: the reports that you get in the papers of the state of affairs there, are not colored too highly, for they do in a great measure utterly fail to convey to the reader a correct idea of the state of things there. No Free State man is safe one moment there. An unguarded word may subject him to a coat of tar and feathers or a hemp neck tie. While I was in Leavenworth City, myself and JOEL C. GREEN, of Alfred Center, went to a meeting of Fire Eaters where Gen. Whitfield was to address the Kickapoo Rangers; but GREEN could not stay there, for these same Rangers had once bought a rope to hang him with at the time they cut BROWN to pieces at Easton. One man tried to get at him again and he had to leave. Language fails to express the contempt and contumely that is heaped upon every man from North of the Mason and Dixon's Line. No man that is a man can go to Kansas and see the outrages that are committed in the name of Law and Order; see Free State men abused, robbed and even murdered, without thinking that something must be done. But the Buchanan and Fillmore papers say these are political yarns. They are not yarns; they are solemn truths. Crime (especially against Free-State men) bears a premium and brings its perpetrators into high favor with the government officials and Southern desperadoes for they are sure then, that they are right on the Goose. The men that murdered DOW, BABCOCK, and BROWN, do not pretend to deny it; but on the contrary are proud of the glory they acquired thereby. The man that killed DOW, now holds a high position under the government as an officer. And the man that killed BARBER is proud to show himself and says these are the hands that killed Barber by G-d. I saw with my own eyes the murderers of BROWN, they were honored and complimented by the Southern Slaveholders and the contemptible Northern dough-faces. I can never get to thinking of the puppy dog actions of some of our Northern men, without getting mad. No man can uphold the contract of the present Administration, or stand quietly by and not raise his voice against the iniquities of the Slave power, as the Fillmore party does, without menting and receiving too, the just contempt of every true friend of American Liberty. I am not a fighting man, but if any thing makes me feel wolfish, it is to see men treated as they are in Kansas. There is no sight for the Free-State men; for the Border Ruffians have the whole power of the executive to block them, and there seems no hope for them to elect a Republican President. You must work in Allegany. I received a letter last night from brothers VINCENT and ROSWELL and they say that part of the west (Wisconsin) is almost entirely Republican. Now a little about this country. It has exceedingly fertile soil. The surface is rather rough, but a large amount of as fine line as I ever saw. I don't think there is 160 acres in the County but what can be plowed. Timber is not so plenty as in Wisconsin, but there is plenty for building purposes, and there are indications of coal significant for fire. A man with a few hundred dollars can make himself independent right away. It is the greatest place for making mercy I ever saw. Your brother By 1900, he was still living in Union, Iowa now age 68 (born July 1831), wife MARY (born Oct. 1842), son Morris (born Sept 1870), daughter-in -law Sarah (born July 1869), granddaughter Mary (born Dec 1875) and grandson Hudson (born 1897). In 1910 he was still living at the ripe old age of 78 with his wife still in Union, Iowa. He must have passed on between 1910 and 1920 as the 1920 census finds his wife Mary a widow living with her son Morris Jr. >
71.11.192.105
I am copying this from the website for you McHenry researchers.
September 11, 1856
Dear Brother:
MORRIS McHENRY227
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