Letters of Julia Louisa Lovejoy, 1856-1864, 1
May 1947 (Vol. 15 No. 2), pages 127 to 142.
Transcribed by lhn;
digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society.
PART ONE, 1856
I. INTRODUCTION
FOUR of Julia Louisa Lovejoy's letters were published in volume 11 of The Kansas Historical Quarterly. They told of the Lovejoys' journey to Kansas and their settling at Manhattan in 1855. The letters that follow continue the story of Mrs. Lovejoy's pioneer experiences, as described in her correspondence to Eastern newspapers and in personal letters to her family in New Hampshire. Letters from her son and husband are also included.
Not long after their arrival in the territory the Rev. Charles H. Lovejoy was placed in charge of the Fort Riley mission. After serving five months he was assigned to Lawrence by the Methodist Episcopal Church conference of November, 1855. [1] The family, however, remained for a time on their claim adjoining Manhattan in order to hold it. Their first winter in the territory was unusually cold and in their "balloon" house, [2] Mrs. Lovejoy had difficulty in keeping her family from freezing. She wrapped her baby in her furs and blankets "to keep him from perishing, near the stove." "O how I sighed," she wrote, "for a comfortable home, in N. E. again." [3] In the spring of 1856 Mr. Lovejoy was sent East to solicit funds to build a church, and when he returned in August he moved his family to Lawrence. For two years they lived in Lawrence when the excitement of the Border trouble was at its height.
The Methodist conference of April, 1857, transferred Mr. Lovejoy to the Oskaloosa mission. Since there was no parsonage on the circuit and houses were scarce, Julia and her small son, Irving, moved to a claim at Palmyra, ten miles south of Lawrence. [4] Here she lived in a little log cabin in the woods. With her two-year-old son she spent many days and nights entirely alone, "in times when strong-minded men feared for their personal safety." [5] She fared
(127)
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better the next year, however, when her husband was sent to Sumner, [6] at that time a thriving town on the Missouri river. On the bluffs overlooking the river he built a frame house and moved his family there. Julia was delighted with her home. She also enjoyed the people of Sumner, the majority of whom had come from New England. For the first time she felt at home in Kansas territory.
The Lovejoys were permitted to stay only two years in Sumner, for in March, 1860, they were assigned to Olathe. [7] Only about a dozen Methodists lived in this circuit and there was but a "faint prospect, of a support for his family." [8] House rent was also high, so Julia and Irving moved back to Palmyra, now called Baldwin City. [9] On June 12, 1860, Julia wrote in her diary:
We are now dwellers in a cozy little cabin 12 by 16 feet, built of unhewed logs, the interstices, daubed with clay, one half a window-frame with a few panes of glass, and aside from the annoyances of mice, and other troublesome vermin, that by right of "pre-emption," & "pre-occupancy" infest our quiet retreat, we should find ourselves, very pleasantly situated for this Conference year. Mr. Lovejoy's field of labor, is 25 miles, from the residence of his family.
Julia had long wanted to visit her family in New Hampshire [10] and at last her desire was realized in August of 1860, when she and Charles made the journey together. Their visit, however, was saddened by the news of the death of their daughter, Mrs. Juliette Whitehorn, at Manhattan in November. [11] They remained two years in the East, returning to Kansas in March, 1862. Charles was assigned to the Wyandotte circuit and Julia and her son again returned to their claim at Baldwin City.
In April, 1863, Charles Lovejoy enlisted in the army, becoming chaplain of the Seventh regiment, Kansas cavalry. [12] His son, Charles J., had previously enlisted and was adjutant in the Twelfth regiment, Kansas Volunteer infantry. [13] Late in the year Chaplain Lovejoy was stationed at the Post Hospital, Corinth, Miss. Julia
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joined him and began teaching a school for white children during the day and one for Negroes in the evening. This proved too strenuous for her and her health began to fail. Early in 1864, when the Post Hospital was moved to Memphis and the Seventh Kansas was ordered to Leavenworth, Julia returned to her home, reaching there some time in February.
In the fall of that year the Lovejoys changed their membership to the Free Methodist church, the Methodist Episcopal church having become too formal for Charles. [14] When the war was over they were sent to a pastorate at Lebanon, Ill. They remained one year, then returned to Kansas, arriving in September, 1866. [15] Although they continued their church work, Charles and Julia Lovejoy made their farm pear Baldwin their permanent home. Here Julia died on February 6, 1882. [16] During the early years Julia Lovejoy had been kept busy looking after her home and family while her husband was away, sometimes weeks at a time, on his circuit. She nevertheless found time to keep up her correspondence for a number of newspapers. In a letter to her family she wrote: "there is not one button, or patch off of anything in my gem of a Cottage, and within less than a week, I have sent to the press at St. Louis, Cleveland, Ohio, and Baldwin City ten communications." [17]
Some of the papers for which she wrote were: The Independent Democrat, Concord, N. H., Granite State Whig, Lebanon, N. H., New York Tribune, Zion's Herald, Boston, Mass., Central Christian Advocate, St. Louis, Mo., and the Christian Messenger, Montpelier, Vt. She was editor of the "Ladies' Department" of The Western Spy, Sumner, and wrote for various other Kansas papers.
Mrs. Lovejoy wrote of events taking place in the territory, the suffering and hardships of the pioneers, relief, crops, the gold rush, etc., but the burden of her song was the political struggle between the Free-State and Proslavery adherents. She and her husband were strong Abolitionists even when the name carried a stigma with it. And the murder of Charles' cousin, Elijah P. Lovejoy, at Alton, Ill., by a Proslavery mob only intensified their hatred of slavery. Julia urged her family and friends to migrate to Kansas to help the Free-State cause. Her letters did much to attract the
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attention of Eastern people to the struggle in the territory. They also brought down the wrath of the Border Ruffians upon her, and attempts were said to have been made to kill her and Mr. Lovejoy. [18] Her descriptions of Border warfare agree in the main with historical accounts. Possibly there are some exaggerations, but she endeavored to get the truth, saying: ". . . We always write things just as they are, to the best of our knowledge, and if we afterwards learn that we are misinformed, we invariably send a correction, if the affair is of any moment." [19] At the time when Julia Lovejoy was writing for newspapers there were few women correspondents in the United States. Women had not yet been emancipated politically and it was considered unladylike to take part in politics. Julia had previously had little use for women politicians and apologized for her activities. In a letter of December 2, 1857, she wrote:
But we want to say a few things with regard to matters politically, in this our adopted home. As much as we once hated the idea of women politicians, no true woman who has been cradled among the liberty loving people of New Hampshire, . . . could be in Kansas, and see what we have seen and feel what we have felt, and not wax enthusiastically zealous for universal freedom. [20]
Copies of Mrs. Lovejoy's personal letters were given to the Historical Society by Mrs. Ellen Emeline Webster, her grandniece. The newspaper clippings and a diary. were the gift of her son, Irving R. Lovejoy.
II. THE LETTERS
LAWRENCE, KANSAS TERRITORY,
September 5th, 1856.
MR. EDITOR- [21] I am not able to sit up but a few moments, having had a severe attack of bilious intermittent fever, and my husband sick with bilious fever at the same time, and our nurse, who kindly proffered his aid, being an old gentleman upwards of 70, crippled with rheumatism. Altogether, in these "`dark days" of crime, we have had a sorry time of it, as every hour almost, of our sickness, some startling intelligence of new murders and depredations saluted our acutely nervous senses. Thanks to an ever watchful Providence, we are both now convalescent.
Our hearts sicken at the atrocities perpetrated daily upon the
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innocent and unoffending.-Ossawattamie has been laid in ashes, every house burned, and four of our men killed.-The gallant Brown, while searching after his saddle, was shot dead in the street. Fifty Ossawattamie families shelterless, are now living in their waggons in the woods, endeavoring to escape these fiends in human form-Heaven and Elijah's ravens to feed them! This was a beautiful town, about the size, I think, of Lawrence. Judge Wakefield's house and four of his neighbor's were burnt night before last. The ruffians have burnt every Free State man's house in Leavenworth, pressed the men into their service, at the peril of their lives, driven the women and children, with just the clothes on their backs, into the boats and sent them down the River. Children with no parents to take care of them, were pushed into the boat and sent off too! Our men have driven their army twice this week, at the North, between here and Lecompton, and near Black Jack, between this place and Westport. At Black Jack the two armies were drawn up in line of battle, a ravine separating them, but after viewing our brave fellows, they concluded that running was the better part of valor, and took to their heels, and put spurs to their horses, as though Lucifer was hard after them, and entered Westport, (as we learned by a lady who came in the stage yesterday from thence) and told the people that "Lane had 10,000 men, and was coming down to destroy the place," and they went to fortifying the town. Lane had about four hundred men with him, all told, and they, 'tis said, numbered five to his one!
What brave fellows these ruffians are when they are not sucking whiskey! Our men took a lot of teams, etc., yesterday, they had arrived within a few miles of Lawrence, and were coming to burn the place. A company met them, and fired once, when every man fled to Lecompton. Not one house have our people burnt here, only the forts that were taken honorably in war-but they are burning houses, stealing, murdering and abusing the prisoners they take, by chaining some, threatening to scalp others and in every way make them miserable, whilst our prisoners are treated as guests. Two seated on their carpeted floors in their nicely furnished room, told a friend of mine who visited them yesterday, "that when they left Platte City to come here to fight, the ladies told them not to come back without bringing some Yankee scalps!" They said "for the future they should pursue a different course."
The people of Westport have great cause for alarm, for the ghosts of murdered victims, we have no doubt, are haunting the place, and
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ere long their blood will be avenged! Our men have gone over the river, to help the Delaware Indians, today. The Ruffians are stealing their horses, and committing other depredations amongst them, burning one of their houses and an Indian boy with it-this will arouse their ire, and they are a powerful tribe. Now these fellows will find they have got somebody besides Yankees to fight! The Sacs that passed through here, we hardly think will dare to fight us, because they will lose their lands by so doing. A scout is now watching on Oread Mount, a few rods from my window, in the direction of Lecompton.
All our men and teams were taken that went to Leavenworth to get us something to eat; when not one sack of flour could be got in town, three men sent down the River, two killed and the teams kept. A lady drove up to Lecompton, and told them "she wanted eleven sacks of flour for the troops." They mistrusted nothing, as she, I think, had been cooking for the troops with Mrs. Robinson. She got her flour, carried it to Governor Robinson's tent, and in due time it came safely here, but the troops will hardly grow fat upon it! What is this to feed so great a multitude? I cannot write half the enormities practised here-I must cease or bring on a reaction of my disease.
If any of our friends feel a disposition to contribute their mite to aid those who are periling their lives and their all for the sake of freedom, it will be very thankfully received. Our losses by border ruffianism fall more heavily now in these times of scarcity for food.Money cannot be sent safely-but a check on any good Bank, St. Louis, Chicago or any other, would answer just as well, let the sum be ever so small.
JULIA LOUISA LOVEJOY.
LAWRENCE, KAN. TERRITORY,
September 19, 1856.
MR. EDITOR [22] :-There have been times in life's history, when under circumstances like those that surround us this moment it would have been impossible for us to have written or even composed our nerves sufficiently to follow one continuous train of thought, but we have of late been so accustomed to murder and bloodshed under the most appalling forms, we can write at the cannon's mouth with men weltering in their gore, hard by, as we do this morning.
The "signs of the times" betoken peace and quiet for our little
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city, at least for a time, after such perils, by day and by night, as we had been through, as had well-nigh worn us out, with incessant excitement, and -watching-our men became lax in keeping their scouts on the lookout. Lane and his men had gone to Grasshopper Creek-others had returned to Topeka, as our new government [Gov. John W. Geary] had been here and promised to stand by us, etc.
Yesterday morning, while the people were attending worship, [23] messengers came in telling us that the ruffian army, 3,000 strong, [24] was at Franklin, and soon the smoke of burning houses at Franklin told us their whereabouts. Our men set to work at once to prepare for defense, as best they could, immediately despatching a messenger to the Government and U. S. troops at Lecompton, twelve miles distant, and soon every favorable position was occupied, and though 100 of our Sharpe's rifles were out of town, and our men were short of ammunition, they were told to divide their cartridges with their neighbor till ALL WAS GONE, then take to their bayonets, and those who had none, to use their pitchforks, as they were liberally distributed from the stores where they were kept for sale. I tell you, Mr. Editor, our men fight like tigers, as the sequel proves, and has proved in all their battles, for their blood for weeks has been at the BOILING POINT. Soon Mt. Oread, was bristling with bayonets, and cannon peering through every port hole or along the summit in our new fort, that looms up high on Mt. Oread, a monument of the industry of our army during their leisure last week.
At this stage a dense volume of black smoke told us our steam; saw and grist mill, where we have been getting our unbolted flour to feed the hungry multitude, was on fire at Franklin, [25] and about 4 o'clock in the afternoon the advanced guard of the enemy, 100 strong, headed by Sheriff Jones, galloped boldly toward the town, followed by the main body with their bloody flag floating in the breeze. 'Twas a sight sublime to see our boys, only eighty strong, headed by the gallant Capt. Walker, gallop out to meet them, and then wheel and turn toward town, as though running from such overwhelming numbers, to decoy them as near as possible, and they in full chase, when our boys turned, spread out to cover as
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much space as possible, and then poured a volley of balls into them-the Missourians returned the fire and then retreated into a ravine behind a cornfield to screen themselves as much as possible --our men then returned to town, and about twenty-five horsemen and fifty foot-men marched out on to a high rolling prairie, and drew themselves up in line of battle-a few shots were exchanged, when our men marched upon them, and they wheeled and fled like frightened sheep, when our men followed hard at their heels, firing as they went, killing three or four, and thus on and on they flew as in a race for life, some two miles toward Franklin till they reached their camp, when our men turned back toward town. Had they then known our weakness, as the troops had not arrived, we should now probably have been murdered, and our city laid in ashes! [George W.] Dietz[l]er, just escaped from prison, shot six times, and he says "he knows they must have taken effect."
Not a man of our company had his hair singed! Two of our boys about the same time shot two of their scouts in a hand-to-hand contest, as they had cocked their guns twice to shoot our boys. When the firing commenced, as our house stands a little out of town, in a direct line from Mt. Oread fort and the enemy, expecting our dwelling to be demolished by cannon balls, though built of stone, I caught my darling babe [Irving] (now a year old) from the bed, burning with fever, from which he has been suffering two weeks, moaning as he went, and though just recovering from the same fever myself and with hardly strength to walk, I rushed to a place of safety out of town as fast as my feeble limbs could carry me until I had walked about two miles; and as I passed from one house to another, in my flight 'twas almost amusing, notwithstanding the awful crisis before us to see the ruling passion strong in such an hour. Here was one arraying herself in a nice dress to secure it from destruction, another seizing a watch or some other valuable to carry with them, and sir, I did clutch hold of a bowie-knife I espied in one house, a lady friend wished me take, but as I was rapidly making my weary way, now through bushes and ravines, and up difficult steeps, I was afraid I would give my own person an unlucky thrust and was right glad to get rid of it. The scene that met our gaze beggars description-women and children fleeing on every hand to a place of safety-men running to secure the best place to fight-cattle as though aware danger was near, huddling together-smoke rolling up in clouds from Franklin, four miles distant-the "smoke and flash" of our well- directed
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rifles, all produced a daguerreotype that will never fade from memory's vision.
Tuesday [Monday], September 15.-Our government and troops arrived yesterday and hastened down to meet the enemy and turn them back as they hove in sight with their blood-red flag waving, bent on our destruction. They have contented themselves during the night in getting all the herds (from our free-state settlers), and horses they could find in that vast bottom, stretching between here and Franklin, and our cow we suppose among the rest, and what we shall all do in these deplorable times heaven only knows. Will not some of the friends of freedom help replace our lost homes, and cow, and these other losses by ruffian hands that have brought devastation and ruin to our homes? Last night two or three young ladies came running into town crying bitterly, daughters of our good brother Anderson, having run four miles from Franklin along a bypath through the timber, bareheaded, dragging along little children by the hand. Their house had been burned and their good, gray-haired mother in Israel shot at, and they feared their brother's wife, the mother of a little family, had been murdered. Think of this, my sisters in New Hampshire, pure-minded, intelligent ladies fleeing from fiends in human form whose brutal lust is infinitely more to be dreaded than death itself.
Last night, about sunset, about two hundred approached the town of Lawrence with three white flags waving ([Ex-Sen. David R.] Atchison was in this gang), they were permitted to come to the foot of Mt. Oread, when the U. S. troops met them and planted their cannon so as to blow them to atoms if they made any attempt to attack us, as they threatened to do, and this morning they left for Lecompton followed by the other portion of the army that stopped at Franklin for the night watched there by a detachment of troops. The government thinks it is policy to let them pass on to Lecompton unmolested. They had just left Lawrence this morning before the troops followed them and shot a Mr. Buffum, one of our men, for trying to rescue his horses they were stealing. [26] Oh, how our men ached to fight them this morning and last night as they just came from Franklin, where they had ruined so many of our people and turned homeless on to the prairies, but the government, for good
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reasons, no doubt, would not permit it. He gives the free state men universal satisfaction, but we are told the ruffians tried to assassinate him at Franklin! It looks ominous to us, after coming upon us to destroy us, so large a force should be permitted to concentrate at Lecompton-for our own part, for the first time in all this commotion unless help speedily comes and our governor gets a stronger force, we have no doubt our doom is sealed! To-day is a trying time for our faith. My husband, by excitement and exposure, has brought on a relapse of bilious fever, from which he has just recovered-my babe is growing worse, his fever is raging dreadfully to-day, and we have but a few dollars left for any emergency. A few months ago prosperity smiled upon us, but war has fallen heavily upon us and now shall we be left single-handed and alone from all our friends to peril our all for freedom and our New England friends stand aloof? We have not received the first dollar from any source to help sustain our losses, and do not expect to, as all are in trouble here, unless our friends in the East help us a little, and hundreds are worse off than we having no house to shelter them. We have good "claims," but who will buy a "claim" in this territory when war is determined to sweep us all out?
LAWRENCE, K. T.,
Monday, Sept. 22, 1856.
MR. EDITOR [27] :-If we recollect rightly, our last thread for the Democrat was broken off abruptly, at the shooting of Mr. Buffum, who lingered a short time in excruciating agony, and expired, having received the whole contents of the ruffian's rifle into his bowels, for no crime, but endeavoring to secure his hard-earned property from being taken before his eyes by murderous thieves. The two brothers lived together and were trying to make them a home-the other a deaf and dumb mute. We know not what will become of him in these perilous times. Captain Thorn, of Maine, living near by, testifies he "had the last article of personal property he owned, taken by them, before the troops arrived," and nothing has been re stored to him, or the surviving Buffum. The troops endeavoring to arrest some of the murderous gang, a wretch, named [W. F.] Donaldson, who was with Titus, at the taking of his fort, with horrid oaths, declared HE should not be arrested, and fired at the troops, hitting one of them in the shoulder, when the other soldiers rode up,
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and with their carbines laid him dead on the spot. Then some of the rest threw his mangled remains into their feed-box, at the back of one of their baggage wagons, carrying him along as though he had been a vile beast of prey! O the demoralizing effects of war!
Titus is not dead as we were informed, but has recovered from his wounds, [28] and with murdered Jones [29] and drunken Davy Atchinson, was along with this army, breathing out destruction and death to those who treated him so kindly when a prisoner. These marauders are still committing their depredations in different parts of the Territory. Report says, "five houses were burnt last Friday, on `Stranger Creek,' and also that five murders were committed; and among them two women, (we know not the truth of this) at Prairie City.-We saw a body of the U. S. troops, go in the direction of the latter place, yesterday. At the time of the murdering, and driving out of Leavenworth, three men were together, between here and Leavenworth, when they were fired upon by a ruffian, killing one instantly, shooting the other through the mouth, who made his escape, and in great pain, made his way to this place, which he reached in two or three days, with his face blackened and burnt by powder, and his teeth knocked out; the ball passing out at the other side of his face! The third man they supposed dead, as he threw himself on the ground, but he was only wounded in the shoulder, when they came up to him and one said, "he would make sure of Him," and with the breech of his gun pounded him on the head, until he was senseless, and left him for dead. How long he lay in an unconscious state he does not know; but when he came to himself they were gone, and he crawled into the bushes, and managed to keep himself secreted, day after day, crawling a little way at a time, living on nuts and melons, not daring to speak to any one, lest he should be a foe, until in twelve days he reached Lawrence, fifteen miles! This case is enough to move a stout heart. His hair is all coming off his head, where it was mauled.
Another incident has moved my indignation as it will every son and daughter of freedom, in the narration. When our men subdued the little pro-slavery town of Dosocca, we are told they found two of our men, (one belonging to the New Haven colony, who had been taken prisoner,) chained like galley-slaves, and had actually been made slaves of-compelled to do the menial drudgery of these task masters! I confess, Sir, I hold a near relationship to a race some
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what inclined to excitability; but if this did not set the blood to galloping through my veins with unwonted velocity, then I never inhaled the air of the Granite Hills, consecrated to freedom forever.
We never turned politician, until the wrongs of Kansas, heaped mountain-high, compelled us to it, and as much as we hate these gadders abroad-these women-lecturers who are continually at the old theme, "woman's rights," while the poor man at home is in a sad plight, and perchance the crown of his hat goes, "flip flap flip," and his pants are all out at the knee, yet, did not the state of my sick and suffering family require my constant attention, I would love to go "home" and try to help bleeding Kansas, whose eyes are turned imploringly to the North, by telling my sisters in the East, from the White Mountains to Casco Bay, from the Canada-line on the North, to the remotest nook of the Granite State, on the South, to exert their individual and associate influence, over their husbands and brothers in favor of freedom and Fremont. We hardly think it advisable to use coercion in the matter, as did the good lady in the days when trap-doors were far more plenty than now-a-days, who planned an important errand into the cellar for her noble lord to execute, previous to his going to the ballot-box, then deliberately shutting it and seating herself thereon, utterly refused to permit him to make his egress, though he called lustily for permission to do so, until he had pledged his word to vote for some favorite candidate she had chosen!
There are ways without number, in which ladies in their own proper sphere, can assist in the coming election. Let little Misses and young ladies in their ornamental work for the parlor, have the names of "Fremont and Jessie" wrought in choicest colors; let the matrons in the dairy-room, make a mammoth "Fremont cheese," to be eaten with a zest, at their annual State or County Fair. Let the name be labelled on every free man's door-posts-any way, only keep it before the people till our object is gained, that the present ungodly Administration may never again curse the Nation, and let all the people say Amen. Let the name of Franklin Pierce be held up to a Nation's scornful gaze, whom the basilisk eyes of the South have already lured to irretrievable ruin, on whom the keen penetrating eyes of Northern freemen have been fixed, during his unprecedented outrages on a scattered, peeled people; and let him understand a day of revenge is just at hand.
When we saw women and children fleeing from their own hearthstones, to escape the murderer's knife, from our "heart of hearts" we
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wished that heaven would raise up some God-fearing Judith, of apocryphal biography, if none else could be found, who would confront this Holofernes at the head of our enemies, and in burning, scathing words, tell him the "Avenger of blood" is on his track, and soon justice, human and divine, will be meted out to him. A time will come, we doubt not, when the manly school-boy, conning his "task" to repeat the list of "Presidents of the United States," will wish the name of Franklin Pierce expunged from among those illustrious worthies, unworthy to be found in such company.
And when he vacates the "White House" for a Nation's choice, "Fremont and Jessie," with all due deference to our "Chief Magistrate," we respectfully suggest that he purchase an estate in the "Dismal Swamp" where all life long, by a "firefly lamp," he may read the "wrongs of Kansas," traced in blood,-let his covert be those impenetrable fastnesses, where the glimmerings of the "North Star" never come-let his nightly concert be the baying of bloodhounds close on the track of some panting fugitive, and his funeral dirge be hissed by deadly reptiles, from their slimy bed, to quicken the speed of the passer-by, when they hear the hated name in those lone wilds.
JULIA LOUISA LOVEJOY.
P. S.-The above is written from a sick bed; and let none of the friends of Julia Louisa Lovejoy attribute this to "malice aforethought," but the "shaking of the fever and ague," which perhaps will "shake" out a few more items, before it passes off.
Dec. 7th/56 LAWRENCE K. T.
DEAR UNCLE AND FAMILY [30] : Father received a letter from you last week. we were very glad to hear from you. I was surprised to hear that you had not reed any letters from us as I have written several times to you myself and I could not understand the reason why you did not answer them. Since the troubles have ceased our mail has been regular. I came down here last week it having been nearly six months since I had seen father and mother. Found them in much better health than they had been for some time. Irving is rather unwell now the rest of the family as well as usual. I have sold my claim on the Big Blue and rented Fathers. I intend living here this winter. Father wished me to say to you-if you would rent your farm and come out here it should not cost you anything after you got here. Mother says tell Colby that Father Hardy nor none of his children have as good
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a house or live any better than she does. There are as good chances now as ever for making claims. The Shawneese have been sectionized, and their lands the garden of Kansas are to be opened for preemption after the first day of Jan. 1857. I design taking one of them myself. Our crops were excellent this year. The weather is delightful, as warm as May. The Dr. [Whitehorn] and Ettie [31] are living at Manhattan. I leave for them tomorrow. If you have any desire like the rest of mankind to get a pleasant home cheap and a chance to make money, I advise you by all means to come to Kansas. Rent your farm. Get a good place for your family-and try the coming season with us. Give my love to all the family relations.- also to Mrs. Lucindy Palmer & husband and tell them -with all my heart I wish them much joy and a happy life. Business has returned with redoubled vigor to this country since the troubles have ceased. I designed to have made a trip to N. H. this fall but could not arrange my business so as to well leave. Father has gone to Franklin to attend his appointment. He says he shall write you a long letter soon.
Yours with respect,
CHARLIE J. LOVEJOY.
[On the last page of her son's letter Julia Lovejoy wrote:]
DEAR C [OLBY]. AND E [LIZA].: I should have answered your very acceptable letter the hour received but was obliged to have the house immediately for the plasterers to work on the house. We have passed thro perilous times but now if our babe was well and our little E[dith]. [32] did not lie in the COLD COLD grave, nothing of a temporal nature would make us sad, if our friends were well. When we write to father and mother we write to the entire family indiscriminately, we wish it so understood. O how I love you all and want to see you all, none can tell. Colby and Daniel [33] let out your farms if you can and come here in March and take a "claim," and with the blessing of God you may make your fortune! We have no object but your temporal good and the cause of freedom in thought. All who can come, will find it for their good. Months we have looked for letters, but in vain. All write immediately, and we will tell you what to do in coming here, if you come. I worry about father and mother daily. O must I never see them on earth? May I meet them in
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heaven! Love to all the family. Wilbur, Egbert, D. Scott [34] and all come, and we will warrant you will be satisfied, if there is no more war! The babe has fussed in my lap all the time I have been writing.
Adieu: JULIA.
LAWRENCE K. T., Dec. 9th, 1856.
HONORED AND BELOVED PARENTS BROTHERS AND SISTERS:
We have waited in painful suspense for months to hear from you and finally concluded some of you were dead when Colby's letter gladdened our hearts then another last night from a well-known trembling hand that makes the eyes of all moist when we read them! These letters are laid away sacredly to be kept in the family as a choice memento of that dear father whom I always loved notwithstanding my waywardness almost as my own soul. O how deeply we feel for Caroline's and Matilda's [35] family! We pray to God to spare the blow that shall write those "little ones" motherless! We cannot answer all the questions you ask, father, in this short letter, for Irving is sick and has been ever since we moved here in Aug. Mr. L. and I have been sick, the most of the time with "fever and ague" but all are pretty well, but the babe and I think he will be running about soon. Went alone when he was nine months old. Charles left for Manhattan this morning with a Mr. Smith of Indiana, who has taken our farm for the coming year. We stock it, find all to carry it on with and have one third of the profit. Glad to do so, to have him hold it for us, to keep it from being jumped, as Charles is a minor. He had to sell his claim, for a tithe of its value, after he had got a new house built, about 20 acres of corn fenced in, to prevent having it jumped! I wish he was of age, so he could hold a claim. He went with a Co. to survey a road from Iowa to Manhattan, hired a man at great price, to watch our crops, but herds of cattle broke in, and out of 500 bushels of corn there is not more than 50 left! Our stolen horse and lost cow and Mr. L's pocket-book, and money are still among the missing, and always will be tho his notes, and nearly $1,000 worth of papers were brought back and carefully wrapped up and laid beside the house! "Honor among thieves!" Our losses are 6 or 7 hundred and would have upset us in the East for awhile but we never felt in better spirits with regard to temporalities. Charles sold our farm horses to be taken to Illinois, a span of matched beauties,
142 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
with the harness, for $365. Two hundred and fifty of this, he paid yesterday to a pro-slavery man here for 8-city lots in Lawrence. The slaveocrats know they must leave and are selling their claims and city stock for half their value. One lot, no better than Charles' was sold for eight hundred dollars. Now is the time to get improved claims, of these fellows, for a little sum, and many at the South of us, have left their corn in the field, houses and all for fear, and any one who is disposed, can take possession. Kansas will be saved, we believe, notwithstanding our defeat in the states. Wealthy men and emigrants are pouring in weekly. Who of you will come, and by helping freedom, help yourselves? Now is the time! Let us know immediately. Our house is of stone, after the same model as the Ferrisburg (Vt.) parsonage, tho larger, the entire finish of black walnut, very nice, costing about $800. I tell you all tho we have felt the horrors of war, if we were not in Kansas already, we would come as soon as steam could bring us. Dear Edith's death is the only drawback. Come on all who can. You need now have no fears on the River. Wilbur and E[gbert]. would make their fortunes, with God's blessing. I want to fill a sheet but must stop. Wish Dr. W [hitehorn ] . could see C[aroline]. & M [atilda] . tell us their symptoms, that he may prescribe. He is a great Dr. in truth. Ette is very fortunate, well and happy.
JULIA L. L.
[Part Two Will Appear in the August, 1947, Issue]
Notes
1. Julia L. Lovejoy, "Diary," May 5, 1856.-MSS. division, Kansas Historical Society.
2. A ready-made house shipped in.-Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., September, 1859. In a letter of May 30, 1857, Julia stated that this was the claim of their son, Charles J. Palmyra was laid out by the Palmyra Town Company in June, 1855. When Baldwin was founded in 1858 adjoining Palmyra on the south, Palmyra's business enterprises soon moved to the new town and Palmyra ceased to exist.-A. T. Andreas and W. G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 355.
5. Julia L. Lovejoy, "Diary," September, 1859.
6. Sumner was surveyed and platted in 1856. From 1856 to 1859 the town had a mushroom growth, but after that it declined rapidly. It is now extinct.-Sheffield Ingalls, History of Atchison County (Lawrence, 1916), pp. 85-90.
7. Julia L. Lovejoy, "Diary," March 20, 1860.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., June 12, 1860.
10. Julia Lovejoy to her parents, July 13, 1859.
11. Juliette whitehorn was the wife of Dr. Samuel whitehorn. She died at Manhattan November 20, 1860, at the age of 21.-Western Kansas Express, Manhattan, December 15, 1860.
12. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 1861-'65 (Topeka, 1896), p. 214.
13. Ibid., p. 420.
14. The Western Home Journal, Lawrence, February 23, 1882; Charles H. Lovejoy to relatives in the East, August 28, 1866.
15. Julia Lovejoy to her parents, September 10, 1866.
16. The Western Home Journal, Lawrence, February 23, 1882.
17. Julia Lovejoy to her father and mother, July 13, 1859.
18. From unidentified newspaper clippings giving the notice of Julia Lovejoy's death, one was written by her brother, A. C. Hardy.
19. Letter of Julia Lovejoy, dated May 26, 1859, in Zion's Herald.
20. Letter to The Independent Democrat, Concord, N. H.
21. The Independent Democrat, Concord, N. H.
22. This letter was republished about 188!7 in an unidentified paper. It may have been first published in The Independent Democrat of Concord in 1856.
23. Sunday, September 14.
24. This was the territorial militia composed chiefly of Border Ruffians that Acting Governor Woodson called into action when he declared the territory in a state of insurrection.Andreas-Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, pp. 144-151.
25. As the disbanded soldiers were returning home they burned the sawmill near Franklin, and on their march to Westport they stole and drove away the horses and cattle that came in their way.-Ibid., p. 151.
26. "A detachment, known as the Kickapoo Rangers, belonging in Atchison and vicinity, returned via Lecompton. On the march, within six miles of that place, a squad, leaving the main party for purposes of plunder, came upon a lame man, David C. Buffum, plowing in the field. They robbed him of his horse, and in answer to his protests, shot him in the abdomen, from which wound he died shortly afterward. With his horse and a pony, also stolen, they rejoined the main party and continued on their journey."-Ibid.
27. The Independent Democrat, Concord, N. H. , p. 126.
28. Col. H. T. Titus was wounded in the head and shoulder at the capture of Fort Titus, August 16, 1856.-Andreas-Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, p. 142.
29. Sheriff Samuel J. Jones was shot, but not fatally wounded, by an unknown person on April 23, 1856, while near Lawrence attempting to arrest Free-State men.-Ibid.
30. From 18-year-old Charles J. Lovejoy to Mrs. Lovejoy's brother, Colby Hardy.
31. Son-in-law and daughter, Juliette, of the Rev. Charles H. and Julia Lovejoy.
32. Edith Lovejoy, youngest daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Charles H. Lovejoy, died near Lawrence on May 4, 1855, en route from Kansas City to Manhattan two months after the family left New England for Kansas. See The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. 11, p. 37.
33. Daniel Hardy, a brother of Mrs. Lovejoy.
34. Wilbur Heath, Egbert Heath and D. Scott were Mrs. Lovejoy's nephews.
35. Caroline and Matilda were Mrs. Lovejoy's sisters.