Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/69



Mechanicsburg, Ill., March 18th, 1850.

Dear Brother:

It is now near one year since you left Springfield, and we have not had a line from you. We are now anxiously looking for letters, as several have received them from friends who started with you last spring.

This leaves my family all well, and all of our friends and relatives in usual health so far as we know. I have not been out to hear much news, as my leg was broken over five weeks ago, and I am now just able to walk a little. Our country has been unusually healthy for two years, though there has been some sickness lately. Edden Lewis has died and some of the Shoups on Sugar Creek, also Bill Taff, our neighbor, and there may be some others, but I do not recall any that you or I would know.

This has been an uncommonly warm winter. I have sown my oats and there is considerable plowing done.

The cholera, that much dreaded disease, did not reach us last year; it did not leave the watercourses and thoroughfares much. Samuel Baker died of it. The citizens of Springfield cleansed their city and I never knew it to be as healthy as it was last year.

Illinois is more prosperous than perhaps at any former period; the influence of the operation of the railroad has given a different aspect to things in the surrounding country, in the way of lumber especially.

They slaughtered a great many hogs here last Fall, the stock on the road from Springfield to Alton has been taken and the work commenced. There seems to be considerable excitement in N. Y. on the subject of railroads.

I think our State will do some better under the present constitution. We had a called session last Fall, the expenditures of the State being so much reduced it gives a general impetus to the minds of the people. Property is higher than