Manuscript letter from S.W.C., in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Thomas Case, in New Albany, Indiana, 1839 August 4

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Folder 1

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Case writes about rising violence in Fayetteville, and describes the increased tension among the Cherokee Nation as well as the 1839 Cane Hill Murders and their aftermath.

Some quotes: "The state of the Cherokee Nation at this time is dreadful, a civil war is on the point of commencing, the nation is divided into factions and the head of one part has been assassinated by the orders of the other where it will end no body knows.... the arms, ammunition etc. in the arsenal at this place have been distributed to the different colunteer companies, so that almost every man is completely armed, and altogether our own and country has a very warlike and savage appearance."

He continues: "The Indian alarm has, however, been almost swallowed up in the many murders which have lately taken place, for within the last five weeks in this country no less than fourteen persons have gome to violent deaths, exclusive of three that were hung last Monday on Cane Hill. ... These men were suspected of being the ones that murdered, a whole family sometime since, the evidence against them was entirely (so I understood) circumstantial, and would not have hung them in a court of law, but they were men of bad character and the people were so excited that the voice of moderation was not heard at all.... Proceedings of this committee that condemned these men were not characterized by that tumultuous and mobbish spirit that the generality of Judge Lynch usually are, on the contrary every thing was conducted with the greatest coolness and propriety...."

Case then describes another violent feud and exchange he witnessed in the town square, which resulted in two men shot dead, and a third man stabbed. Case describes watching the murder from his store.

The letter ends with Case summarizing that his health is good, the weather is hot, and that "sometimes I get thinking that I will maybe come home this fall, more especially since these last murders, they have put me out of concert of Arkansas altogether and I think I will leave her certain next spring and go to Texas...."

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