Nov 17, 2016 - Sale 2432

Sale 2432 - Lot 184

Price Realized: $ 375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(KANSAS.) Holden, Elijah. Letters from an early settler of western Kansas. 5 Autograph Letters Signed to brother Thomas Holden of Union City, PA; minimal wear, each with original stamped and postmarked envelopes. Randolph and Bassettville, KS, 1885-88
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Additional Details

Elijah Holden (1821-1895) wrote the first three of these letters from Randolph in northeastern Kansas, where he ran a ferry. In July 1887, he purchased 160 acres in Bassettville in the northwestern corner of the state (present population 26), carving out a farmstead at the age of 66: "It is a good healthy country, this, and about all a man has to do is to brake your land and plant it. Corn is the most profitable crop here, and when that fails it makes it pretty hard to get along. . . . The chintz bug was too many for us this year, and they pretty near cleand us out."