After spending part of much of the winter back East, Wells returned to Kansas Territory in April, 1856, beginning this letter home from aboard the steamer "James H. Lucas" and finishing it on April 13 at Juniata, near Fort Riley, Kansas Territory. He comments on the trip by rail and boat and on the fact that there are "Quite a number of people on board from South Carolina and Georgia going to Kansas." But they would not last long, he states, and "The free state people must eventually conquer--the South cannot compete with the North in sending emigrants." Wells' plans upon his return are to sell his Juniata property and take one closer to Manhattan, Kansas Territory, which he describes as having done in a subsequent letter.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Thomas C. Wells to Sarah Elizabeth Clarke Wells - p. 11