Rev. Ephraim Nute, minister of the Lawrence Unitarian Church, wrote from Lawrence, Kansas Territory to Edward Everett Hale, a member of the New England Emigrant Aid Company's Executive Committee. Nute observed that Francis Serenbetz, a German Congregational minister, and his party of thirty German immigrants were in Lawrence and getting ready to head south to establish a colony on the Neosho River that they planned to name Humboldt. Nute was not optimistic that the Serenbetz party would succeed due to their lack of financial resources. Nute commented that immigration into Kansas continued to increase and estimated that nearly 1,000 people per day entered the territory. He stated that most of the new immigrants were from Western states and "of the right kind to stay." Nute also commented on the lack of saw and grist mills in the territory and blamed the New England Emigrant Aid Company for the deficiency.