(MISSOURI) Jonathan Koiner Letter describing extensive trave

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(MISSOURI.) Jonathan Koiner. Letter describing extensive travels in central Missouri. Autograph Letter Signed to brother Absalom Koiner. 4 pages, 10 x 7 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet, with no cover or postal markings; minimal wear. Flatwoods, WV, 10 December 1855

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Jonathan Koiner (1820-1889) of Flatwoods, WV and his brother Absalom went on a western tour in 1855 to scout potential emigration destinations. Absalom quite abruptly stepped off a steamboat in northern Iowa, leaving Jonathan to continue alone. Most of this letter describes his travels in Missouri: from Hannibal by hack to Paris, and then 25 miles on foot to Mexico. There he saw a prairie fire, a bustling courthouse with judges and lawyers chomping on cigars, and several relatives of his wife's. From there, it was 30 miles by carriage to Columbia, "the Athens of the state, where the state university is situated & several fine female institutions." At Marshall, his westernmost point, he saw the 300-acre hemp farm of a man named Bruce who "has a good many slaves, but he is one of the largest hemp growers in the U.S." He also witnessed "scores of wild cranes & wild geese one cloudy day in the corn fields above Marshall." He met the well-known pro-slavery jurist William Barclay Napton, "the great antagonist of T.H. Benton"; former governor Meredith Miles Marmaduke; and numerous extended family members and friends who had already made the move west. On his way home, he was inspired by St. Louis and Cincinnati, with their "living moving masses of men & things!" He concludes with his decision to sell his Virginia land and move his young family west. Census records suggest that he never went.