Two separate portions of letters follow, probably shortly after the previous - no dates or addressees. First one to a sister.

 

June of 1852?

 

We then travelled on to St. Joseph through Iowa and Missouri States which I like not half as well as I do Ill. We expected Holmes would overtake us before arriving at St. Jo. but he did not. We expected to get a letter from him at St. Jo. and we did not and we knew not what to do. We stayed there two or 3 days then went on as we feared to wait longer for the Cholrea was raging there and various other diseases. After we had been from St Jo some eight or ten days Holmes came up to us and he had his trunk but not mine. His went as directed but mine did not. Why one should miscarry and that one mine when both were directed exactly alike it puzzles me to tell. While I was on Lake Erie having nothing to do and nothing else to read I read Shakespear and I left it in the cabin and also my sash and cloak for I needed them to keep me warm at night as I had no berth and when I left the boat I intended to go back before going to land so I had not packed them up. I got some five or six miles from the boat and others came to me and they said it was dangerous going back and Holmes had directed my trunk and so I concluded to let my sash and cloak go and my Shakespear too which I hated to dreadfully, and they are gone sure and my trunk and clothes too I expect. When Holmes could not get my trunk and had got his he gave a young man who was returning to Delhi an order on the captain of the Ohio for my trunk and he may get it and take it to Delhi. If so I shall yet obtain it. If not I shall mostly likely lose it but I shall write the first opportunity to the proprietors of the boat in reference to it. It is now the 6th of June and I’m among the bluffs bordering the Platte river 75 miles west for fort Kearney and all the company with whom I’m travelling are well and we are in a healthy country but we have passed through a very unhealthy section of country and we have seen many graves. I meant to send this letter from Fort Laramie. June 18th - We are now some 20 miles east of Fort Laramie where we shall be sometime tomorrow I suppose and there I shall leave this to return to my friends that they may not be anxious on my account as I wrote home at St. Joseph that rumor said death was flapping his sable pinions over the plains. 

We have passed many graves, new made graves, and we have seen some sickness and heard of much more. The Cholrea or a disease much like it has prostrated many a vigorous constitution and delivered it over stiff and cold to the pale messenger. We have yet lost none of our number and have had but very little sickness of a young man from Delhi but he is now well. I would like to write to Pa but have not time. Neither can I write to the boys. We have had fine weather and excellent roads since crossing the Missouri, but very little rain and but two or three thunder storms which are fearful with hail.

 

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next portion:

June 19th

 

Tis midnight and I guard the camp till day. We are now 8 miles only from Fort Laramie which we shall reach before 12 oclock today. There is a trading post and Indian encampment about a quarter of a mile off. The old Chief whose name is Bulls Tail visited our encampment last evening and showed us papers asking the White men to treat him with respect as he had ever been their friend. They belong to the Sioux. We have not met with many of the red skins as they keep away from the lines of travel fearing contagious diseases. Three - Yes! four horrid mistakes I’ve made since leaving home at which I am sore vexed. The first was in embarking on the boat Ohio, the second was in leaving her with my baggage on board, the third in not staying at Batavia myself to look up my trunk instead of trusting it to another man and the fourth in purchasing a team in company with Tim Parson for which Heaven forgive me! We have now been travelling two days in sight of Laramie peak, a range of the Rocky mountains, and are yet above 30 miles away.

Our teams are in good condition and we have as yet plenty of grass. The emigration this year must exceed all precedents. On the first day of June, 1800 persons had passed Fort Kearney and I think we have passed the most sickly part of the route and Indeed I cannot see why this whole region of the country may not be healthy. True there have been many deaths on the road but we must bear in mind that there are very many travelling of all ages and of all sorts and many are very imprudent and expose themselves unnecessarily to disease. I shall try to write to Ade before I get to the Fort but may not. Possibly I may add something yet to this.

 

Whit Chase