As an illustration of the influence which the emigration of one individual sometimes had on his relatives and friends, it is interesting to note that of the eight brothers and sisters of Gershom Flagg who were younger than himself, five followed him to Illinois, four going directly to Madison county. To the list might also be added a son of Flagg's oldest brother, who moved to PawPaw, Illinois, in 1850. The descndants of these brotherss and sisters are now scattered all over the United States from Vermont to California and thus the history of this family typifies in a way the spread of the American people across the continent. In addition to telling the story of one of the leaders of that great stream of emigrants which flowed from New England to Illinois, these letters are of interest for tthe illustrations which they contain of social, economic and political conditions. Unlike so many of the travelers who wrote for publication, Flagg had no motiive for distorting the things which he saw and experienced, and his pictures can be relied upon so far as they go.
Light is shed also upon a number of incidents of interest in state and local history.
All the letters except one are addressed to one of the two older brothers or to the parents of tthe writer. These letters were first gathered together by Willard C. Flagg, the son of Gershom, and extracts from some of them were published in the Alton Weekly Telegraph beginning April 28, 1876.