The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-03-24
Letter from the vern,ilion valley.

Editor Emigromt Aid Journal:
By request of the farmers in the Vermillion Valley
l would tender our thanks t, the citizens Of Nininger
through your valuable Journal, for the kind hospitality
shown to US while attending The Agricultural meeting
on the goth inst, in your 6ourishing town. Your cit
liens cannot conceive the pleasurable emotions raised
in our breasts at the unexpected kindness exhibited on
tina. OCCASION not for the excellent dinners provided
for us aud other visitors at the Handyside House and
other hotels and at private houses-but for the gentle
manly and unassu.ning manners with which your citi.
Gems received us and made us welcome as farmers. You
did not expect Us t. crafty any selfish interest, as
the times aud circumstances are different from what
they wore when We we're welcomed to expend our money
in other aud no distant towns, from such motives. We
received your kind attentions as they were evidently in
tended, and the impression upon us will be of lasting
aud kindly re remembrance, rs the ~harbinger of enduring
friendship. You have shown US that the hopes We en-.
tertained in leaving our social, intellectual and moral
homes at the east, are not entirely frustrated, and that
there is one community where the love of the almighty
and We may mingle in Il society, that affords greater
satisfaction than amassing wealth in the greedy and
heartless manner too long pursued around us. Such
influences az you exercise are beginning to be apprecia-
ted, and we arc now more inclined to sustain schools,
lyceums, aud religious meetings, than when lately our
feelings were engrOSscd With the Selnsh love OF money
We find than the change is An Improvement, and we
are happier in getting into the old ways Of our early
homes.
We have been too much engrossed, for our good, in
the pursuit of q phantom, and on the car of greedy
gain were rushing to destruction, but the Almighty
Engineer who holds the shaping and starting bar in his
hand, has m%ercifully applied the brakes just in time to
save us from the danger. What seemed to many as a
great calamity will ultimately prove a great blessing,
to the citizens Of this Territory, and tho commercial
panic Of last year, that left US without a dollar, has
replenished our moral and spiritual nature. In this
valley We have had no money, but we have enjoyed our
beautiful winter with greater benefit aud more real
pleasure than any previous one with its abundance of
gold-men, women, and children. We have had schools
for our children, social gatherings, and religious meet
ings, with plenty Of food and to spare. We have neither
starved nor froze to death, as was prognosticated by our
Eastern friends, but have deplored their miserable plight,
making it a common subject Of conversation how much
better for the many thousands to be here, than suffering
for want there. If our money has gone East, we have
a rich treasure in our beautiful soil, that never fails to
supply the hand of industry, and they are welcome to
share it with us, and participate in all our other bless
ings.
But my main object is now to show how we appre-
ciate your late kindly feelings, and say how much It &C.
cords with a newly awakened sentiment for the higher
faculties of social and neighborly relations, which we
desire to see cherished. Yours, truly, A. W.