Typewritten copy of letter from Laura Stiles Dunning to her sister Emeline Stiles Emmons, who lived in Missouri. This copy was made by Alice Dunning Flick, granddaughter of Laura Stiles Dunning.The original letter was given to Mrs. Paroda Dunning by the daughters of Emeline Stiles Emmons.
Mt. Ayr, Ia.
Oct. 19,1862Dear Sister:
When I take my pen to write to you I always feel my hand unnerved for the task. It is of no use for me to make propositions for you to come here. If you are alive you always think that you have always got along some way.
I know not what danger you are in but it seems to me that you should know. Are you going to stay where you are and let the cold weather set in, then come what will, you know you cannot get away?
You ask me what makes me write short letters. My hand is always.... (illegible) I have to keep a girl all the time to do my house work.
Mr. Dunning is from home a good part of the time. Walter is in the Army. I have a good deal of care and as I grow old, I think less interested in other people's business and think others care less about mine.
We have got into our house once more and we are comfortably suited. It has been a very hard effort. If I had a printing press and a sheet of paper as large as the Tribune I would try to describe the hardships of getting settled in a new land.
When we moved here we had to travel the last 22 miles without seeing but one cabin. Of course we did not expect to see a house. The track that we followed was made by Indians.
At last I arrived (April 1855) at my pole cabin that Walter and Mr. Dunning had thrown up. It made me think of mother saying that she would rather live among the Indians or in a hollow log than have the noise of so many children.
Here we located on a lot. The next October, the village was surveyed.
It was a very dry season or we never could have crossed the streams. It was a mile to water or to a stream and it was so stagnant that the water was in little puddles.
I strained the wrigglers out and made coffee and burnt corn meal and made beer to drink through the day. We soon commenced digging a well. got down 25 feet, when one day as I was sitting quiet my neighbors came rolling in, bag and baggage, most of them living ten miles off.
I inquired what was up. They said they would not live scattered while a tribe of Indians lived 7 miles from the county seat. All came together and camped while the men went to Bedford, the county west, and to Missouri, got 100 men and went to the Indians, told them they had to leave. They showed no resistance and our men went with them across the Missouri River into Kansas.
While they were doing this our well caved in, the multitude had eaten us out of house and home. What we had we brought from Brunswick on the Missouri River.
Of course Mr. Dunning had to start for supplies, was gone 2 weeks. I did not get my well until fall. I felt sometimes that I could go 10 miles for a drink of water. This well cost us $80.
When we sold our farm (Feb. 1855) we sold everything but 1 bed, 1 carpet, 1 bureau.
We went to St. Louis. Mr. Dunning had our location picked in his mind. It was to settle in the southwest part of Mo. He somehow changed his mind and we traveled north. I started with him and we stopped in Brunswick, Mo. He went on until he found the place. In 3 weeks he returned to Brunswick, got me and the children and we came to Decatur, the county east, until he put up the cabin.
I was taken sick at Brunswick with chills and fever and was so sick I did not care where he took me.
In our little cabin we put in 5 loads of dry goods and groceries, my bed and table. When my table was set I had to go out one door and go around the house to get into the other side of the house.
People always come at dinner time to trade. At night the land speculators come to enter the land up around the county seat so you see we had plenty to feed, bringing all we had from Keokuk 80 miles.
In the fall the county seat was laid out and the next fall the price was fixed by the govt and we gave $400 for 3 lots on the public square.
We never were satisfied with the price they made us pay but we have got our house up and our well and here I will tell you that half of the county seat was owned by the county and half owned by private individuals. Our money was paid into the treasury and made improvements for the county.
The courts were held in my room, the judge not living at the county seat. This gave us the opportunity of giving away from 15 to 30 meals a day, I doing the work.
Charles was born that fall (1855). He loves watermelons, because they have the most water in them of anything but a well. Everything that came here the first two years used water from our well. If I live to be as old as Methuslah I think this county owes me my living. Still we have 2 improved farms and this property in town and Mr. Dunning has bought (illegible) worth of steers. He is now in Missouri buying mules.
I have just commenced my fall sewing. Cut a coat out yesterday. If he had a tailor I would never cut out another.
I have just written to Walter. He is at Camp Dodge at the bluffs. I cannot feel reconciled to his going into the Army. If there are enough young men to get a victory I will not complain. Hardships are the portion of some if they ever so much property. I never expect anything else.
If you can read this you will get along with one hard job.
From your affectionate sister
L. Dunning