Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1924-10-23
covered wagon" DAYS
ARE recall Ed IN LETTER
RECEIVED BY A. A. HULL

, ance or Ihe Covered wagon DIT
the AL. Ringing theatre, A. A. Hull.
623 Birch street, brought to light
an old letter written by his uncle,
C. b. Hull, to his father, Morgan
} Hull. The letter was written at
MELVILLE, Cal, and sent to Berlin,
N. ", this being the first news the
relatives had received of the writer
for many years Following an in
troductory the writer of the letter
says as follows:
I started in the fall of 1887 or
J 1888 from Berlin, N. Y, in company
[ with Nelson Grey and Thomas Gar
sen. We travelled by land with
/ two horses and wagon, sometimes
sleigh would have been better,
: but we pressed forward. Often the
snow was two or three feet deep
: and the weather intensely cold.
Nothing of special interest occurred
| so we made the trip in Sc days to
the Mississippi river in Pike Coun-
| ty, Illinois, | remained there some
three or four months, then I went
to see Telemachus, who lived in
Warren county, Illinois. | spent
eight or ten days with him and re-
turned to Pike county, where l got
acquainted with Nancy Shinn,
girl 16 years old, said to be the
oldest white girl born and raised
in military tract located between
the Illinois river and the Missis-
sippi. She says that she can re-
member when she was more afraid
of white strangers than Of Indians.
We were married and sshe is a good
kind companion, and affectionate
mother, but not highly educated.
rented a small farm, sold my
crop in the fall, and moved to War
rem county, where | found Edwin
.. with Telemachus. We got some
COWS and went into the dairy bust
ness, using public land for
pasturage. In the fall Telemachus
left Edwin and went to Iowa where
he rented a farm near Burlington
and went to peddling milk | stay
ed one year, sold my COWS and
bought 100 acres of land in War
rem county, Illinois. While | was
in Iowa Telemachus went to Berlin
and brought mother to Warren
county My land cost $500. | got
soldiers patent, which proved to
be a forgery, and then / fenced 40
. acres and broke it up. l thought |
had a good title but had to buy
, another title or lose it, so sold the
improvement at sacrifice, not be-
: ing able to buy the other title.
Times were very hard. could
: hardly get money enough to pay
my taxes and support my family
(The writer tells of several chill
, dren being born, about some of his
relatives going to California, about
G having the bilious fever and ague,
about being elected coroner two
:. terms in succession, of his appoint
ment as deputy sheriff and collec-
tor, and of his being nominated for
sheriff. His opponent was Steph-
en- r. Grey, democrat, who was
supported by the Wings and beat
the writer of the letter by small
majority. In 1862 with his wife
and six children he started for Or
egon. The letter continues:)
; In Pioneer Country
After getting small outfit a
;, wagon, some oxen, and provisions,
had nothing left We started in
company with two other families
and crossed the Missouri river on
= May at independence. The first
. day out we crossed the state line
in the country now known as Kan
sas, then a wild Indian country. We
soon saw plenty of red skins but
they were very friendly, only they
were untiring beggars. They
) wanted everything we had from OK
/ en- down to matches. l expect that
4 we would have had trouble with
. them but for the crowd of emmi-
e grants that thronged the road that
= year, for there were more on the
q road that year than any previous
S or subsequent years.
L 1t was quite sickly and that year
great many died with the cholera.
had it on the Platte river but
! thanks to a kind Providence, l re-
= covered and went on. Nothing of
= great interest occurred on the east
: side of the Rocky Mountains only
. some difficulty with high waters in
crossing the streams. At the Wa
karusa in Kansas, for instance, we
had to build a raft to get our wag-
ons across. We swan our cattle
over, many of them getting stuck
in the sand and mud getting out.
y / had to unload our wagons and
{: take them apart to get them to the
8 opposite bank Sometimes we had