PETER BRYANT'S FARM BUILDINGS IN 1881
This sketch was published in J. S. Bird's Historical Plat Book of Jackson County. The property was on Sec. 24, T. 7 S., R. 14 E., three miles south and three west of Holton.
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Politically there is not much excitement. Almost all the Republicans are Grant men and the Democrats are all for Greeley. What I think about it is just this. Horace may be a very good sort of man himself, but he is in cussed bad company, and if he is elected by rebels and Tammanyites and Democrats it is going to be a very hard matter to turn his back on his supporters after he is President, and I don't think we are ready to turn the government over to those fellows yet.
I don't know what you think of that matter, but I notice the Chicago Tribune is for Greeley and Uncle John swings his hat for the old Chapaquacker, [109] and I know you have considerable respect for either of them, and for this reason (hoping you will not feel insulted) I did not know but you might lean that way too. If you do I would just call your attention to what kind of an outfit you are training with. I know there is Trumbull & Palmer and Sumner and a few others, and there is also Jeff Davis and every other d--d scalawag that carried a musket on the rebel side during the war. And as for dead stinking rottenness I will put Frank Blair & Gov Warmouth against the meanest men in the Grant party. But I didn't intend to make you a stump speech.
P BRYANT
HOLTON JACKSON CO., KS
Oct. 27th 1872
DEAR BROTHER [MARCUS]
We received your letter of the 6th inst. in due time. Was glad to hear that you are a Grant man. Not that I think that the old Nepot is altogether perfect, but in Western phraseology I think he is a heap the best man of the two. I think I have bothered my brains less about politics this year than I ever did in my life before. In fact I don't believe I have raised a single yell for Grant or any other man this fall. Don't want you to think by that I am dead, for candidates here are just as live as ever they were and excitement just as high, but I have had other irons in the fire. With building my house and the farm work I have just about all that I can attend to, and taking into consideration the immediate proximity of winter I don't know whether I shall be able to attend to all of that or not.
We are getting the building pretty well along now. Will have it plastered this week. Then if I had my potatoes dug and corn husked I would be ready to go into winter quarters. My potatoes are good. Think I will have 200 bushels. Corn is also good. Will have 1800 or 2000 bus[hels] of that. Have a good deal of it cut and in the shock. Fall wheat looks fine, and if we do not have an uncommonly hard winter or some other plaguy mishap turn up there will be a big crop of wheat next year. I think there was about as large a breadth sown this fall as last though perhaps not in so small patches. Many farmers have from 40 to 80 acres, and it was generally got in in pretty good season.
Our Rail Road has made a stop at Holton. Whether it is final or not I am unable to say. In the contract with the county they were to have $60,000 in bonds when they built it to Holton, which has already been paid, [and] $50,000 more when they built a branch to Netawaka and $50,000 more when they finished the main line to the west line of the County. It is said that they have given up the Netawaka branch and they have not yet gone to work on the main line, but they have until the 22nd of Feb 1873 before they forfeit the bonds. It is evident that the company is hard up, and whether they will be able to raise the money to build it all or not is a matter at which outsiders can only guess.
I think the little road is doing pretty good business considering the length of it, for they are bringing in a large amount of freight and carrying away a good deal of produce.
The health of our family is very good now. Marcus [his second son] had a sick spell during the latter part of summer, an attack of bilious fever, but he is around again now, and Dude [his daughter Julia] is fat as a pig. She is learning to spell a little now.
Your Tr
P. BRYANT
HOLTON JACKSON CO., KANSAS
Jany 3d 1873
DEAR BROTHER [MARCUS]
I don't know but you will begin to think pretty soon as Cullen does that I never write to you unless I want money. At any rate that is the case just now. I need a hundred dollars most cussedly, and if you can let me have it, it will accommodate me very much. I have tried hard to make both ends meet, but some how with my building and the low price of everything I had to sell, I could not make it. I have had to borrow $100. at the bank, and it is due in 30 days, and if you can help me please let me know immediately, and if not ditto, for I want to know what to do.
Money is very close here, and some of the best men we have got are not able to pay their tax. We have just had a big snow storm. It is 14 inches deep on a level, and we had the coldest weather just before that that I ever knew in this county. The mercury stood at 20 below Zero. The ground was nearly bare at that time, making it very bad on fall wheat. Cattle are doing very well, but not many feeding in this County this winter, making corn a drug in market. It sells for 15 cts. when it will sell at all. I think there would be a speculation in it if a man had a few dollars to invest.
Our folks are well excepting colds, and I believe all the young ones are afflicted that way.
The episodic is going the rounds here. Some of my horses are coughing a little, though it don't seem to be anything very bad. I have heard of but one death from it in the County, and I do not think, judging from newspaper accounts, that we have it as bad here as they did with you and further east.
Our little Rail Road has come to an end at Holton. They were to have built a branch to Netawaka for $50,000. in Co. Bonds, which they have already forfeited, and the other 50,000 will become forfeit by the 22nd of Feb. if they fail to build the west line of the County by that time, and they are making no effort to save it. That will make it easier on the tax payers, and they all talk as though they wanted things easy as possible.
Yours
P. BRYANT
HOLTON JACKSON CO., KS
July 22nd 1873
DEAR BROTHER [MARCUS]
I received your letter enclosing draft for the payment of your note, and I herewith forward you the note cancelled and receipted.
A few days after I got your letter I received one from Uncle John enclosing your note for $700., over in five years without interest, which he says he was directed by Uncle William to send to me. So it seems that I have got the upper hand yet, although I suppose you got things fixed to suit you and probably got a pretty good lift too. I am glad that he appreciates what his poor relations are trying to do for themselves instead of fooling it away on Ben Rattery or some other poor devil to go and lay his bones on the burning sands of Africa. I think it is a good deal better to give Hixon and the balance of us a little lift, don't you?
I have been very busy for a week past stocking my grass. My wheat is good. Oats not very good. Weather very dry. If we don't get rain soon the corn is gone up. Wife & children are not very well. Have summer complaint.
Yours &c
P. BRYANT
HOLTON JACKSON CO., KS
Jan. 4th 1874
DEAR BROTHER [MARCUS]
I received your letter on New Year Day. Was very glad to hear from you again.
I commenced a letter an evening or two before, but I got sleepy over it and went off to bed without finishing it. Else perhaps you might have had a letter for New Year too. Was glad to hear of the general good health of our friends. My family is well at present and have been all winter except the baby [Emma, b. 1873], who was attacked with the croup a night or two before Christmas and was afterwards threatened with fever, but we broke it up and she is now quite well again. We did not have any company Christmas day nor any turkey. Kit thought she had enough to do without getting dinner, so I got some oysters and we had a stew and the boys enjoyed it well and wondered if Uncle Mark's little girls [110] were having a good time and gots lots of nice things in their stockings.
That evening I got a copy of the "Republican" containing the resolutions adopted by the members of the bar at Oshkosh, Wis. relating to the death of Arthur Everett, [111] which was the first that I had heard of his decease. It happened that about that time they stopped sending me the Republican and I missed four [or] five numbers and then sent for it again, and if they published anything in regard to it I did not see it. I think from the published account that they must have thought very highly of him where he was located.
I saw the notice of Willie Everett's [112] death. It must be a terrible stroke to his young wife.
I am glad to hear that you are doing well in your business. [113] Wish I could say as much for myself, but somehow I can not see that I am getting rich very fast, and neither does the hard work seem to let up a particle. In fact if there is any difference it is on the increase.
I am not feeding any cattle this winter. Have nothing on hand but a few two-year olds. My corn crop was light, not making over 25 bushels per acre. I fattened some hogs and sold some, some time ago. They brought 3 ct. [and] are worth 3½ now, while in Chicago & St. Louis they are quoted at 4½ to 5½. Somebody must make money. There were a good many hogs fattened here, and the most of them went out at 3 cts.
Corn has taken quite a rise lately— is now worth 40 cts. Fall wheat 90 to 1.00. I have about 100 bushels of wheat to sell when it gets high enough to suit me.
My prospect for the new crop is very good at present. Have about 20 acres. It got a good start in the fall. A good deal of the wheat about here was sown late owing to the dry weather in the fall and is considerably damaged. The winter thus far has been mild, although we have had some rather sharp weather since New Year. I do not keep any hired help this winter. Am getting some wool cut, but there is no demand now, and I will have to hold it over until next fall.
Business is dull. In fact, I don't know what a fellow could go at to turn an honest penny unless it is playing poker, and even at that those who make a business of it have got so sharp that an outsider don't stand any chance.
P. BRYANT
HOLTON K[ANSAS] July 27th 1874
DEAR BROTHER [MARCUS]
I have received your letter containing my note and a draft for $280. It is fulfilling a transaction that I did not expect at this time as I did not suppose you had recovered from the effects of your disaster so that you would have the money to spare.
I had need of $300 about the middle of June and was expecting to use that money, but as soon as I heard of your tornado I made other arrangements and had thought no more about it. However, it is all right if it does not cramp you, and I enclose your note—cancelled. It is devilish queer that a fellow can't try to do something for himself without fire, rain or wind or some other cussed thing turns up and wastes all he can make.
I have had one or two little [swipes?] myself, though I never lost quite $4000 at a lick. Still I suppose it is all in a lifetime and not much use to growl.
The weather is very dry here. Wheat and oats are all harvested and stacked, a fair crop. Corn is gone up. We will have none. That breaks into my cattle feeding operations. It will hardly pay me to hold my steers over, and if I can get as much money for them as they cost me I will be satisfied. There is a good crop of fruit, though I don't think apples will be as large as they would with more rain.
There blew a hot wind all day last Saturday from the sand hills in the southwest that dried up the green stuff terribly, and judging from the way it singed things here there can not be much left down in the paradise of this state 200 miles southwest of here. The mercury went to 110 in the shade.
You asked me some time ago in regard to the "Republican." Last August I sent them $2. for one year's subscription, and I see by their label on the outside that there has since been another year added and it runs now until August 1875. Kit has not received any magazines from your wife, though somebody has sent Julia a child's paper, "The Mousy Folks Gem" with a picture. Willie was already taking the paper so that now we have two copies. If that was the paper referred to, Julia sends thanks.
I do not suppose that it will be of any use to mention the fact that we would be glad to see any of our friends and relations that might take a notion to stroll this way this fall or any other time, nor the fact that we would like to take a stroll eastward but find ourselves utterly unable to do so at present.
My family are all well and tearing around.
P. BRYANT
HOLTON JACKSON CO., KS
Oct. 4th 1875
DEAR BROTHER [MARCUS]
I received a letter from you some time since while at Nantucket, Mass., which I neglected to answer at the time, and as it has been so long since, I will send this to Princeton, thinking you have probably got around home by this time and earnestly hoping with improved health and strength. [114] We are as well as usual except Marcus and Willie. They were down with a kind of bilious fever a week or so ago and have not fully recovered yet.
I am very busy just now, though I don't know as any more so than I have been all summer. In fact I have put in more hard nigger work this summer than I have been wont to do for the past three or four years. What the result will be I am hardly able to say. Possibly I may make both ends meet but nothing more. Still I have had first-rate health, less sick headaches than before, and my knee has got stout so that I get pretty well fagged before it makes me limp.
I am putting up prairie hay now. Grass is remarkably good this year, I think as good or better than I ever saw it before. I think I can get up a hundred tons to sell. Dealers bale it and pay $3 per ton delivered at the depot. There is no money in it for me at that price, but we are hoping for something better after a while. My corn is pretty fair. I think it will make from 30 to 50 bushels to the acre, probably average 40. The smallest yield is from the seed I got of Lige. It is a smaller kind than we usually plant here, and earlier. It so happened that there was a dry spell of about two weeks just when it should have had rain. While the other corn, being a larger variety, was more backward and the rain came in time to make a heavy crop. I shall keep that seed of Lige's, for I believe it will hit oftener than it will miss, and some time it may make me a crop when the other would not make anything.
Cattle are plenty and good. Steers can be bought for 3¼ to 3½ cts. per lb. There will be quite a good many fed here. They are paying 25 cts. for corn, and it will probably be down to 20 cts., perhaps less. Hogs are very scarce, worth from 6 to 8 cts. I heard one man offer 9 cts for a choice lot the other day. Those who are lucky enough to have a few will do well. The grasshoppers eating up the corn last year made sad havoc with the hog crop, as they did not winter so well on prairie hay as cattle did. I managed to [bring?] through 17. Will have about 15 to dispose of. I have not got any cattle to feed, but think I shall buy a few [word illegible] and feed from Feb. [word illegible] and let them go on the grass.
My wife came pretty near going to Alton on a visit a short time ago, just as near that she did not go. The R R companies out this way got into a war with each other, and for a few days the Rock Island Co. sold tickets to Chicago and back for $10.00. Kit scrabbled around to get ready, and just as she was about to start they raised the fare to the old figures and she went back on it. Gosh she was mad. I tried to hurry her up a little, told her that kind of fare could not last always, but no, she wasn't going in her old rags and take naked young ones like I did. And the result was she is here yet, but I must close this and look to my wife, for she is forever looking to see what I write and she don't like to hear about it.
Yours
P. BRYANT
Following the correspondence with Marcus, concluded above, there is in the present collection only one letter. This was written by Peter in the year 1906, to Marcus' daughter Grace M. Bryant, who continued to live in the Princeton home until her death in 1950.
It is obvious that between 1875 and 1906 Peter and his family prospered upon the land and that he achieved some eminence as a citizen of Jackson county. The letter below reveals that he had become a police judge and was prominent enough to be chosen as speaker for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Holton. The fact that on this occasion Peter read a poem of his own composition reminds us again of his flair for writing, [115] which had showed itself when he was a schoolboy in Princeton writing verses of longing for "The Far Off West."
OFFICERS
COUNCILMEN
FIRST WARD
W. D. KUHN, Mayor
M. L. VARNER
F. S. SCOTT
E. E. RAFTER, Pres. of Council
SECOND WARD
S. H. NEWELL, SR., City Clerk
C. F. HURREL
W. E. BROWN
PETER BRYANT, Police Judge
THIRD WARD
J. A. ROKES, City Attorney
R. F. GLENN
E. E. RAFTER
CITY OF HOLTON [116]
HOLTON, KANSAS, Sept. 13, 1906
MY DEAR GRACE
I received your letter, the big envelope, several days ago, and from the bulk of the enclosure I felt sure that I had at last found what I was looking for. [117] Imagine then, my disappointment on finding only a lot of old school compositions [118] that I supposed had gone to the flames years ago. Then I waited patiently for your next, but in the meantime fagged my brains and shook my rattlebox for words to fill the vacuum that Cullen had forgotten. Then yesterday morning your letter came, and when I read that you "had done your level best and failed" I felt as if the matter were all right anyhow, and the public would never know the difference, but when I came to where you wrote of a poem that you thought written by your father, just thought I would look at it, for I did not remember of my brother Marcus ever writing a jingle in his life, and when I unfolded the old time-stained sheet, will you believe I found the very thing I was looking for.
Grace, you builded better than you knew, and I can not thank you too much for what you have done. However, your letter did not come until within half an hour of the time I was to make my talk, so I could not use it, but read the piece as I had it fixed up, but it was nowhere near as good as the original.
There was a large crowd out, it was estimated at 5000 people, and to do the best I could, I do not suppose my voice reached half way round, but 'tis all said and done now, and the audience cheered, and clapped their hands vociferously, so I guess they liked it. I do not know whether they will publish my part in the proceedings or not, but if it is done I will send you a copy.
Men [?] Willin was here last spring. He said your mother was in Dixon caring for your grandmother, who was very feeble. Since then we have heard nothing. Is she still there?
Your friends here are all well. Marcus and John are hard at work on their farms and have abundant crops. Emma's husband is traveling in Iowa in the interest of the International School of Correspondence of Chicago, seems to be doing well. [119] Remember me to your mother and all inquiring friends. And if you feel as if you would like to hear from me once in a while just write to me, though I hardly suppose I will be able to put you out so big a job next time. Thanking you again I am
Yours affectionately
PETER BRYANT
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Notes
DONALD M. MURRAY and ROBERT M. RODNEY are professors of English at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Ill.
62. In August, 1861, Col. R. F. Winslow, of Princeton, formed a Bureau county regiment. After a period of training, the men "were not satisfied with . . . having him for a colonel," whereupon they marched off against his orders, for St. Louis. They were arrested, detained for a time at Alton, and then pardoned and allowed to join the 57th regiment. Winslow's war career thus ended abruptly; he subsequently entered the practice of law.—Henry C. Bradsby, History of Bureau County, Illinois (Chicago, 1885), pp. 301, 348-350.
63. Abram Lash, of Princeton, private in Company H, 57th Illinois infantry, deserted November 1, 1861.—William W. Cluett, History of the Fifty-Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry (Princeton, Ill., 1886), p. 136. Two of the other men mentioned in this letter have been identified: Charley Brown was Charles E. Brown, private in Company E, 33d regiment; Elliott was Isaac H. Elliott, at this time captain of Company E, 33d regiment. (See letter of Christmas, 1854, and Footnote in the Autumn issue of the Quarterly.) The engagement mentioned at the end of the letter occurred after the 33d regiment had left St. Louis, crossed the Mississippi and entered debatable ground. Company E and two others were guarding the railroad at the bridge across the Big river, half way between Pilot Knob and St. Louis. On October 15 E Company was suddenly attacked by a large force of Confederates. After a hot skirmish, which resulted in several casualties, Elliott was compelled to surrender. The Confederate commander put him under oath not to take up arms again against the Confederacy during the remainder of the war. Elliott immediately set about trying to effect an exchange; he succeeded in doing so on February 5, 1862.—Isaac H. Elliott, History of the Thirty-Third Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry (Gibson City, Ill., 1902), pp. 22-25, 205.
64. The Northern victories at Fort Henry (February 7) and Fort Donelson (February 15), which practically secured Tennessee for the Union. To use the words of S. E. Morrison and H. S. Commager, "The prairie boys of the new Northwest had tried their mettle with the rangy foresters of the old Southwest; and the legend of Southern invincibility collapsed."—The Growth of the American Republic (New York, 1942), v. 1, p. 676.
65. Charles E. Brown (see letter of January 3, 1862), Edward Wiswall, Samuel Adley, and Isaac M. Hughes were all members of Company E in the 33d regiment. Wiswall and Peter's cousin Julian Bryant became officers in the United States colored infantry, at Vicksburg.— Elliott, op. cit., pp. 138, 140.
66. The American House, a hotel opened in 1855 and still standing. John Howard Bryant had a financial interest in the establishment.—G. B. Harrington, Past and Present of Bureau County (Chicago, 1906), p. 106.
67. Thomas M. Robinson, youngest of the nine children of Capt. David Robinson, of Princeton. Apparently he did make it back again, since he was, in 1896, working as a miner in Colorado. The "George" mentioned in the next sentence is probably George Robinson, another son of Capt. David Robinson; George was a rancher in Colorado from 1860 till his death in 1891.—The Biographical Record of Bureau, Marshall and Putnam Counties (Chicago, 1896), p. 229.
68. Prominent Princeton citizen, first mentioned as a Douglas supporter in letter of November 10, 1854.
69. Federal prison in Boston Harbor, where political prisoners were sent.
70. The Battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862.
71. Stephen Gorham Paddock and Dr. Joseph Shugart were members of the county relief committee at this time; "Fisher" is possibly of the firm of A. and J. M. Fisher, grain merchants of Princeton.—Cluett, op. cit., pp. 12, 13, and Bradsby, op. cit., p. 416.
72. Maj. Norman B. Page and Capt. A. H. Manzer were of the 57th regiment; Capt. Frank B. Ferris and Capt. William T. Swain were of the 12th Illinois volunteer infantry. Both Ferris and Swain died from wounds received at Shiloh.—Cluett, op. cit., p. 115, and Biographical Record, p. 617.
73. Lucien Smith was a friend of Peter's mentioned in the letter from Knox College, Christmas, 1854; Dr. Andrew Swanzy was a Princeton physician (Harrington, op. cit., p. 302). Edward Raymond Bryant (1823-1881) was Peter's cousin, son of Austin and Adeline Bryant; he married Ellen Fields McDuffie, of Cameron, N. Y., May 7, 1882.—Bradsby, op. cit., p. 471.
74. Henrietta Bacon (1839-1927) was a native of Boston, Mass., the daughter of Mercy Crouch Bacon.—Information from Mrs. F. L. Davis, of Holton.
75. Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt, in command of the Department of Kansas in 1862.
76. Clark Gray, second captain of K Company, was dismissed from service January 14, 1863, as a result of court martial proceedings (presumably the matter referred to by Peter in the letters of January 27, 1862, and March 1, 1863). The findings of the court were then set aside by President Lincoln, and Gray was again commissioned, April 3, 1863. He commanded the entire regiment at Allatoona, Ga., in 1884.—Harvey M. Trimble, History of the Ninety-Third Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry . . . (Chicago, 1898), p. 407.
77. "Fisher's Co." was Company I, commanded by Capt. Ellis Fisher; "Norton" was Francis W. Norton, of Peter's company.—Ibid. Norton was mentioned again in the letter of March 1, 1863, and was, in all probability, the F. W. Norton who married Peter's sister Julia.
78. Pvt. Herman Gilbreath, of Company C (commanded by Capt. William J. Brown), died in Memphis on November 26.—Bradsby, op. cit., p. 362.
79. Trimble lists Peter as first sergeant of Company K, discharged for disability January 15, 1863.—Op. cit., p. 408.
80. David Lloyd, a hotel keeper, builder and abolitionist friend of Owen Lovejoy was elected captain of Company K at its organization. He was killed in the Battle of Champion Hill, Miss., May 16, 1863.—Ibid., pp. 397, 398. See letter of April 19, 1863, in which Peter tells about Lloyd's unpopularity, a matter which Trimble does not mention.
81. Harvey M. Trimble, author of the regimental history cited.
82. According to Trimble, the total casualties in Company K, by the end of the war, numbered 56.
83. The soldiers mentioned in this paragraph are William T. Reed, discharged for disability March 10, 1863; Jacob S. Kinnan, commissioned first lieutenant April 23, 1863, and James S. Martin, first sergeant of Company K.—Ibid., pp. 230, 388, 389. Norton, Lieutenant Gray, and David Rackley are identified in previous letters.
84. J. V. Thompson: see letter of November 10, 1854, and following; Kendall: probably Milo Kendall, prominent Princeton lawyer.—Bradsby, op. cit., pp. 344, 565.
85. The secret political organization formed to aid the Republican party and combat the antiwar propaganda of the Knights of the Golden Circle.
86. Amanda Towers. See letters of July 22, 1860; April 19, 1863; September 20, 1863.
87. A channel connecting Moon Lake with Cold Water river, in the delta region, Mississippi. The plan of attack had been to reach the Yazoo river, destroy Confederate transports there and installations at Yazoo City, and establish a position on the high lands above Haines' Bluff. Fortifications at the pass proved impregnable, however, and the Union force had to turn back on April 5.—Trimble, op. cit., pp. 19-21.
88. Tracy was severely wounded.—Ibid., p. 20.
89. Brother of Peter's wife, Henrietta Bacon Bryant.
90. James Smith Everett (1803-1889), of Princeton, brother of Peter's mother, Julia Everett Bryant, and husband of Harriet Cordelia Hyde Everett, the "Aunt Boss" mentioned below.
91. Possibly Tom Paine and Abram Joseph Ryan (1836-1886), the Catholic poet of the Confederacy. Both men might have been anathema to a Massachusetts Protestant.
92. Louisa Charity Bryant Olds (1807-1868), sister of Peter's father and wife of Justin C. Olds, of Princeton.
93. A general store kept by A. and M. Carse, of Princeton.—Harrington, op. cit., p. 378.
94. A family of Gilsum, N. H. There is a letter of January 28, 1865, from Mr. Fish to Cyrus Bryant in N.Y.P.L.
95. Born 1840, son of James Smith Everett and Harriet Everett, of Princeton. See above, letter of April 19, 1863, and Footnote. Arthur Everett died some time prior to January 4, 1874, according to Peter's letter of that date.
96. Chester C. Covell, mentioned by a historian of 1877 as pastor of the Union Church, of Buda, Ill., and as having served several times as county commissioner of schools.—The Voters . . . of Bureau County (Chicago, 1877), p. 332.
97. Probably the Rev. Levi Walker (1802-1869).
98. Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield, commander of a department of the Missouri military district from May 13, 1863, to January 31, 1864, and later secretary of war under President Johnson.
99. The raid and massacre by William Clarke Quantrill, August 21, 1863. The earlier burning of Lawrence was on May 21, 1856.
100. William Cullen Bryant (1863-1912). The other children of Peter and Henrietta Bryant were: Marcus E. (1868-1928); Julia A. (1870-1944); Emma (1873-1928); and John Howard (1877-1915). Julia was married in 1897 to Louis C. Duncan of the U. S. army; Emma was married in 1896 to James F. McColgin (see below, letter of September 13, 1906).—Information from Mrs. F. L. Davis, of Holton.
101. Probably his cousin Emily Everett.—See the Autumn, 1961, number of the Quarterly, pp. 322, 323.
102. See letter of March 2, 1862, and Footnote.
103. Peter's cousin Elijah ("Lige") Wiswall Bryant, son of John Howard Wiswall Bryant. See letters of December 8, 1854, and October 29, 1865. Lige's wife was Laura S. Bryant (1846-1910).
104. Maps of 1867 show an unnamed railroad running through Netawaka, nine miles north of Holton, from Atchison generally N. N. W. to Blue Rapids, in Marshall county. A map of 1877 designates this road as the Central Branch of the Union Pacific. See below, letter of August 28, 1872. By that time the completion of the Kansas Central had made it unnecessary for Peter to go to Netawaka to catch a train.
105. John Dickson, or Dixon, was a friend of Peter's who came west in 1857 and established himself as a farmer near Banner, Kan.—Information from Mrs. F. L. Davis, of Holton.
106. The reference is not to the brothers' father Cyrus Bryant, but to an unidentified Cousin Cyrus, who wrote to Marcus on April 26, 1866, that he had arrived in Nebraska City, Nebraska territory, after a tortuous four-day steamboat trip up the Missouri river from Lawrence, Kan. Although he found Nebraska City "full of Rebs," Cousin Cyrus was encouraged by the prospects of the area. He reported land selling near the city at 50 cents per acre and $456 a section 25 miles out of town. Although he liked this section of Nebraska territory "better than Kansas," he had decided to go on to Omaha. Having sold three sewing machines for William Lea of St. Louis, Cyrus disappears from Peter's correspondence.
107. The business apparently concerned the final disposition of some property left by Peter's father Cyrus, who died in 1865.
108. The Kansas Central railway, which connected Leavenworth and Miltonvale (165.39 miles), reached Holton on August 11, 1872.—Harold Crimmins, A History of the Kansas Central Railway, 1871-1935 Emporia State Research Studies, June, 1954.
109. Greeley kept a farm at Chappaqua, N. Y., and enlisted the interest of Tribune readers in his swamp reclamation and his crop experiments; in 1871 he published a book entitled What I Know About Farming. Persons that Peter associates with Greeley, in this same paragraph, are: Lyman Trumbull, Illinois senator in 1855, 1861, 1867; Joseph Palmer, California financier of Palmer, Cook and Company; Charles Sumner, Massachusetts senator; Francis P. Blair, Jr., whose political activities in St. Louis were supported by the Tribune; and Henry Clay Warmoth (1842-1931), governor of Louisiana, 1868-1872.
110. Grace Mary Bryant (1868-1950) and Alice Bryant Crater (1870-1916).
111. See letter of September 20, 1863, and Footnote.
112. William Law Everett (July 12, 1849-October 16, 1873), son of Dr. Oliver Everett and Bessie Law Everett, of Dixon, Ill. The young wife referred to in the next sentence was Annie Chamberlain, of Princeton, who married Willie, March 31, 1873.—Edward F. Everett, Descendants of Richard Everett of Dedham, Mass. (Boston, 1902), p. 204.
113. The firm of "Glassburn and Bryant, Dealers in Grain, Stock, Flour, Salt, etc.," of Tampico, Ill.—Letterhead used by J. M. Glassburn in letter to Marcus, July 20, 1875, N.Y.P.L.
114. Marcus did not recover from the illness mentioned here. He died February 27, 1876. N.Y.P.L has four letters relating to his trip east and attempted convalescence: two from his business partner, J. M. Glassburn, to Marcus, July 20, 1875, and August 21, 1875; and two from Marcus to his wife, Kezia, July 26, 1875, and August 1, 1875.
115. According to John E. Chandler, publisher of the Holton Recorder, Peter is still remembered in Holton "as having some of the poetic proclivities of his famous uncle."—Letter to the editors of this collection, September 13, 1957.
116. At the left of the list of officers and councilmen, the letterhead bears an engraving of the Holton town hall.
117. The literary composition referred to here may have been "The Old Oak's Story," a narrative poem of over 350 lines concerned with the history and legendary lore of Holton and Jackson county. It was read by Peter at the third reunion of the Bryant family, July 13, 1879, in Princeton, and was printed by the Signal Job Printing Co., of Holton, in the same year. Besides "The Old Oak's Story," there are two other published works by Peter that are known to the present editors: a speech, "The Second Transplanting," delivered at the Bryant family reunion in 1895, and "Reunion Song," written for the reunion of 1898. Both are in The Bryant Record (Princeton, Ill., 1898).
118. Certain school compositions written by Peter at Miss Smith's school are preserved in N.Y.P.L. They include: "The Far Off West" (verse and prose), dated December 2, 1850; "The Effects of the Emancipation of Slavery in the British West Indies," undated; an untitled composition on emancipation in the West Indies, undated; "Pleasures of Hunting," dated January 2, 1851; "Ghosts and Witches," undated; "High Times," undated; "The Prairies" undated; "Lager Beer," undated; an untitled composition about playing with gunpowder, undated.
119. See Footnote on Peter's children, letter of September 20, 1863.
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