July 28, 1889:  Letter by William F. Trent in Weskan, Wallace Co., Kansas to
his brother John Wesley Trent in Owen Co., Indiana.  They were both sons of
Josiah & Clarissa Trent, who buried in Pleasant Bethel Cemetery.

Submitted by Russ Bickers

Weskan
Wallace Co.
Kan
July 28, 1889

Sunday morning.  Your letter
    found ____ not us not as well as we might be   Ross has bin sick for 3 days
I can scarcely gow my self   Trust this will find you all well & doing same
O wish we had enough Blackberrys to make and old fashioned coblar   Wish
could have some of your extra rain   We were burnt out [can’t] raise
anything  corn gone   If it should rain soon would have some Pumpkins
squashes & mellons   Tis hot to day   I am having considerable of bad luck
lost a good cow   had her litle over one year   her yearling calf took sick
in a few day  but we saved it.  I think was the ____ near as I can Judge   I
never saw as hardatimes in my life as I do now.  Evry thing to buy   Flour
is ____ high & so is meat.  Evry thing els I can by here on time tis all for
cash   dont know what to do   I cant get away & got nothing to stay upon
Starvation will rein if not achange soon.  You may think your having ahard
time but you have not come to that point yet I hope   If you had nothing
agrowing now   money nor any work to do you would feel blue
John what has Vada got  anything yet.  Cant Ed & Jim do the work that the Ol
man has to keep ahred hand   How is David child & the Big Girls & Boys   I
guess Mitchel chuck is getting rich   I written him aletter last summer
hasn’t answered it yet   they blowed what corn they had   I written to E___
last spring   did not get any answer yet   Tell her & Ed to write.  Did they
put in aroller prosses in the Mill at Freedom   How are the Bees a doing   I
wis you could sell some of the truks I left  Couldnt you of sold the cyths &
cradle to some body during Harvest.
My Children often wishes they could see your & be at ther old home as they
call it   O dont know as we will ever see ____ again   How is mother getting
along   why dont she write   does She ever say any thing about us.
What has be come of Grandma  What ___ John Crow who is Post Master at
Freedom now   I will gow to town tomorrow to see if I can het some work.
Who did Buster get his House of   guess they are glad I am in Kansas on the
Buffalo plains   This is afine country to look at to see wild Horses
Antelopes & wolves roaming over the prarrie in daylight   John you see Cub
Keeller & het Hens postofice address for me   I want to leave here if I can
get away.   Has any boght the Whitmon place yet  wis it was mine   Tell
Mitchel I know of two Whitemon airs if he doubts it   can give ther P.O.
address
                                W F Trent
Write soon as you can.