Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-06-05
CHAPTER /.
THE LETTER.

g. Co., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO.
CHAPTER 1.
THE LETTER.
DEAR MARTIAL can't come home after
you and the babies like hoped to do cause
I'm broke again leastwiso hev ben since l
wrote you last, and amt squarely got onto
my feet yet, but I'm gon ter send you some
money by next steamer; oil l can scrapo
together, and l want you and the babies to
pack up and come out.
know it looks hard fer you to have to make
the trip across the plains alone with the chill.
dren, but l don't sec no way to help 1t unless
we are never to see one another again, and
can't stand that, nor don't believe you want
TO either. And there's Rastus; he must be
gcttn most man now, and will help you n
heap, and I'll do the square thing by the boy
wnen he gets out here.
10 Bronson's. wlfes cousin sy Peters, has
writ 10 that he is gon to come out this sum
mer With u company, and you can come with
him reckon.
You remember Sy. He's a livin UP near
Perkinsv lie now, bein driv Off of his land
long of the rest of us. Sy will be glad 10 do
you a good turn know, for when we was both
broke up back in New England by goin So
curty at the bank, he and swopped sym
pathy with one another, and now that the
railroad corporation has gobblod us both, Sy
Will be wiln to do some more swopin of the
same kind reckon, us swopin sympathy
means swopin help with poor folks.
spose youHl want to know what kind of Q
place onu, am askn Mdn,y you to come to and tell
done AWAY up job when she made this coun
try; just about the best she is capable of doin
j reckon, an all Tn askin for now is to have
You an the babies, an III be satisfied for al
the hard work and losses we've had, and
They've drv us from sea to sea almost a COB
bin up one home after another after we had
made en- by hard work.
Seens to me thet ther must be somethr
wrorg with the law fer the poor don't stan nc
chance with the rich an the more law the lesi
tie fellows that works gifts.
When wrote YOU aiore, was rakin in the
du pretty smart me nm my pard, but some
proposed to form II jint stock company, ant
offered to put in n lot of machinery for histir
out the ore, agin our claim; an bein as we wa
anxious 10 get ut the dust as fast as possible
SO as we could go back to the States fer ou
families, we agreed to 1t, but some way 1
didn't pan out like It ort to a done
directors an pnted one of thelrselve
book-keeper, and pard and me never exactl,
understood how IL was. but there was assess
ments instead of divics, and finally we WI
both froze out of the mine entirely after pay
in back to the company all the dust we hat
taken out aiore we was such fools us to go II
with EN-.
After that l knocked around In the diggin
for spell, nm then hearin of this Susco
Ranch struck out for il, and here am; n
tell you, wife, shes just the most gloriou
bit OF country on this side of the big rang
which nobody doesn't come back from whe
they hev crost Il, and hev took up 100 acre
of land. and Will hev cabin up an n good b
of the sile broke afore you git here, and We
be comfortable in our old age yit, in spite O
every thing.
This here's the finest valley in the State an
would all have been took up long ago Onl
some rich fellows pretended TO have kind o
Spanish claim on to II, ana folks were afra
TO settle here. most of en-, for fear of bel
driv OIL like we have been, but finally som
teller took the case up TO court and 1t was dc
oided in favor of the sauntters; that is, then
as was on the land maxim of themselve
homes; and now everybody is a.rushin in an,
pro emptin quarter sections, and you needn'
be afrl d of bein lonesome, for well hav
noighbors on every SIDE in less than year.
Well, this is an awful long letter, but yo,
see wanted to tell you all about everything
cant come for you. You know Id like to If
ever have we to NOV move agin. They cant d drive sai u
take ship for 1t; an they cant do that, fer tn
courts hes decided that no body hes any CLAIM
on TO this here ranch, ceptin the fellows tina
J think Sy Peters will bo down to see 20,
within aweek from the time you get this 70
wrote him to go at once 80 as to give you a
Hopin this will find you and the babies a
well US 1t leaves me- remain
Your lovln husband,
JOHN PARSONS.
The above letter was read by Marth
Parsons, first silently, and then alou,
to her two little girls, eight and tel
years Of age, as they stood in front O
their mother and listened with breath
less attention and wide open eyes, as
seeing wonderful things, half glorious
half frightful but altogether strang
and uneHplainable.
These were the babies that John Par
sons had left six years before. when
corporation representing railroad lai,
claim to a large tract of land upol
which he and hundreds of others ha,
settled, having bought and paid for il
and holding, as they supposed, incon
testuble titles thereto.
When it first became known to then
that corporation would contest witt
them the right to their homes ant
farms, portion of the settlers threat
ened vengeance and declared they woul,
give up their own only with their lives
but John loved peace better than con
tention, and knew by experience tn
difficulty of fighting bodies that have n,
souls within them, and he had said {.
his wife:
at is no use. Marty. The Philistine
are upon us agin, and we have got t,
git It's hard, know; harder fer yol
ner for me, for you was brought up sor
o tender like and ust to better things
an you've worked hard and gone with
out much, and now when we was JUS
geitin' start agin' after losin' wha
your father civ us an all we had adde,
10 it, on the spot where you was born
it's mighty tough, but wen have I.
stand it.
"They can't put us off tho place for
time. any way, for some of the feller
are goln' to fight en- with the law
though 'tain't no use, for thOJ'll tax
everything they want in the oud; an,
they want it all. But while they arc
doin' it I'll try an win enough to max
another home for you and the babies
Tllgo to California, Marty, and make
fortune, while you stay on the plac
with the youngsters, and by the tim
they git ready to turn you out of this
never fear but I'll come back wit
enough to take you to another hom
an better one. May be 1t is for th
best, after all May be I'll git ric
nough to 60 back East and buy til
old place where You was born"
And SO John Parsons had got te
goiher what money he could by the sal
Of their few head OF cattle and sheer
leaving the fumily with ono COW to sur
ply hem With milk. had kissed u