Manuscript letter from S. Walter Case, in Oakland, Arkansas, to Thomas Case, New Albany, Indiana, 1838 July 6

Containers:

Folder 1

Scope and content:

Case describes his travels since leaving New Albany, and details the location of a small farm that Mr. Wilson recently purchased "near the boundary line between the Neosho Territory and Arkansas state.... Wilson bought this place for its natural advantages (it being well supplied with water) and the Indian trade in the neighborhood, our customers being a great many of them Indians or Mix'd Blood, which is 'all one in Dutch'." Case includes a list of current prices, remarking that prices are inflated due to the recent arrival of "Cherokee Emigrants" who brought money but had no supplies. He also includes a description of the area, describing it as "beautiful country," and says Fayetteville "is small yet, but very tastefully laid out...."

Case writes at length about the different groups of people he's encountered, and shares his opinions about the various Indigenous tribes arriving and moving through the Fayetteville area. "Some of them are very fine people, a great many White People are mixed with Indians, a White man with a Black wife, an occurance not at all uncommon here, and vice versa. A good many of the people on this side of the line are seriously alarmed about the Creek Indians, as tis said they have showed a hostile spirit toward the Whites." He also describes the Seminoles, "just fetched from Florida in Irons same as the Creeks were. They were fighting the whites just before they left and they are trying to stir it up again. I have no doubt but there will be an Indian War here at no distant date. Any person will think so, that knows the circumstances under which they came, many of them in Irons, and when the boat lands they are not suffered to go ashore at all, also the greater part of them removed from their homes in Florida forcibly, and it is natural that men treated so must come here with very embittered feelings against the whites and more particularly the Creek Indians who are noted for being 'treacherous, cruel, and revengeful.'"

The letter includes crosshatch text.

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