Bear Family Letter Series |
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Information about this letter:
| Sender: | Henry Bear [See
Henry Bear in Guide to
Individuals]
|
| Recipient: | John Bear [See
John Bear in Guide to
Individuals]
|
| Date Written: | November 24, 1832 |
| Location: | Unidentified, but possibly Cooper County, Missouri |
| Surnames mentioned: | Brubaker, Thornhile |
| Locations mentioned: | Rivers -- Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio Princeton, Virginia |
[Please note that page one of this letter is missing]
"Nov. 24th, 1832
Goodly land, saying that it is entirely too cold there to live. Every year their corn gets frost bitten. Some say that it is too cold in the winter to go about; too muddy in the spring, sho-flys are too bad in summer, and in the fall sickly.
Henry Thornhile came out with me and went on to the Illinois and has returned and bought 5 miles from here in this country. The seasons in the Illinois and Missouri are entirely too short for a summer crop which will forever be an objection to that country. There being so much prairie and no mountains to break the wind makes the country intensely cold in the winter, much colder I suppose than it is at Quebec or Boston. I have made 100 per cent by moving here and would advise all my friends to do the same but will leave them to the volition of their own will, however much I may desire their company and friendship. I never could have owned such a plantation in Virginia as I have here and for people to settle down there on a poor piece of land and always be a starving because the work won't come too, theirs is unpardonable.
The chollerea has been within 40 miles of us at a little place called Princeton. There were 20 cases, only two drunkards died, the rest are on the mend. It is raging on all the towns on the Ohio and Mississippi at New Orleans. They say the mortality of it has never been paralled. I have been told they don't pretend to bury them any more. They just throw them into a ditch and leave them uncovered, but for the authenticity of the above I cannot vouch. I have often thought of you and your family since I have heard that your city has been visited, but have seen in a paper today that it has abated there. I hope you and family have not been visited with it.
I suppose you have heard of the conversion of sister Betsy's husband, Mr. Brubaker, at our camp meeting. If you have not I will just inform you that he received the brightest evidence of his justification that I ever saw which it appears to me was providential, as he was raised a Baptist. When I left Va. He had joined our society. It was strongly in favor of the Methodists but the Baptists were using their influence to get him down into the water and as they had made a side-step toward the Methodists in doctrine and working with their tools I don't know where he will go but as long as Betsy can fight she will keep him from joining the Baptists; but if you have not, I wish you and it is also Sister Betsy's request, to write to him and try to stay his mind from their refuge of lies. We are all well and have enjoyed good health since we left Virginia, for which we desire to be thankful. We are still trying to get to Heaven and hope should we never be so happy as to see each other again in the flesh that our immortalized bodys will be so happy as to recognize each other where the parting tear will never be shed nor diseases consequent upon sin will never be experienced and where Jesus will wipe all tears from our eyes eternally with God shut in. Your brother until death
H. Bear, Jr.
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