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Born and raised in Rhode Island, twenty-three-year-old Thomas C. Wells apparently was a reluctant Kansas immigrant. His initial ambivalence is reflected in his first letter from Providence, Rhode Island, on March 12, 1855, where he wrote: "I may yet see it best to return [home from Boston] and not go [to Kansas] at all." This, Wells's first letter from "the far famed Kanzas Territory," is to his mother from Topeka, Kansas Territory. It describes the journey from the border via Lawrence and reports his intention to "start for Big Blue, where Mr. Goodnow is tomorrow." Part of the journey was made in the company of some well-armed Missourians "who were going to Lawrence to vote," presumably in the March 30 legislative election. All of Thomas C. Wells's extensive correspondence from Kansas Territory was published in 1936 in the "Kansas Historical Quarterly."
Creator: Wells, Thomas Clarke, 1832-
Date: April 1, 1855
Item Number: 90476
Call Number: Thomas Wells Coll. #537
KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 90476
Collections - Manuscript - Wells, Thomas
Date - 1854-1860 - 1855
Government and Politics - Elections
Government and Politics - Reform and Protest - Antislavery
Government and Politics - Reform and Protest - Pro-Slavery
Home and Family - Daily life - Settlement
Objects and Artifacts - Communication Artifacts - Documentary Artifact - Letter
Places - Cities and towns - Lawrence
Places - Cities and towns - Topeka
Places - Counties - Douglas
Places - Counties - Shawnee
Places - Other States - Missouri
Thematic Time Period - Bleeding Kansas, 1854 - 1861
Thematic Time Period - Immigration and Settlement, 1854 - 1890
Type of Material - Unpublished documents - Letters
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/90476