| Show IN INDIAN TERRITORY by courtesy of elder andrew kimball we are enabled to publish the following from a letter sent to him by elder W T jack now on a mission to the indian territory Du DELAWARE LAWARE DISTRICT C N I 1 indian nthan territory may 80 30 1889 1 am thankful to te be able to let you know knovs that we are in the best beet of health now BOW which has been the case since you heard from us last brother J M ashton is himself once more h hale ale and hearty and rejoicing in the goodness of the lord since writing to you last we have had bad much joy and satisfaction in our labors A week ago today we crossed the line from the cherokee Cho into the seneca nation As our elders had not been among those small tribes which inhabit the northeastern corner of this territory pry we were entirely ignorant of what we would meet in this new field to our joy we found a people highly civilized many of f whom had migrated from canada the number souls and mccu occupy seres acres of land from which zey they are to be allotted soon as follows eighty acres to each head of a family and forty acres to each child three years was given gi ven in which they were to make their choice of lands this time will be out in a year when it is understood the balance of lands will be sold and the means invested in schools these people have large substantial residences esi dences box houses plastered inside and kept very clean and neat they are industrious and very sociable they do not marry with the whites as 48 much as do the cherokees or Choctaw sand negroes are unknown among them about the only form of religion that they have is that quakers or friends which is taught among them by preachers hired by the united states government comparatively few of the Se as far as we could learn learus are re members of this sect pagans is a common appellation given to those who are not members of the religious i 0 11 order ve we saw more enterprise in this nation than we had seen for a long time almost the birst place we w came to was on the south bank of the river biver owned by mr mathias splitlog Split tog a frenchman by birth and a man of great energy who has for many years been laboring to elevate his people to a high standard of civilization and to set before them examples that if followed properly will bring wealth prosperity and the blessings of heaven upon a any community there we had no difficulty faculty in getting permission pe assion to hold 0 d a meeting owned at night in a nice large hall owned by this gentleman and afi M which a school is conducted we had a splendid attendance and good order throughout at the close of our services we appointed another meeting for the following ni night ht this was also alio well attended mile while here we learned that mr S owned three sawmills three threshing machines machine several self binders etc besides mines and interests in railroads in kansas he has one of the finest blacksmith shops in the territory and is erecting a nice large factory where he expects to manufacture wagons farm implements etc his three sons live within a few miles and are good in iii circumstances we visited the chief of the nation wm win spicer who is a gentleman of medium height and speaks good english as do the majority of his people he received us kindly and willingly gave us ua permission to preach in Council the acil Hou houseye had the pleasure of eating a nice dinner with him and were highly pleased with the results of our visit on sunday afternoon we held services in the council house and hadtke had the privilege of laying before the people the gospel of jesus christ in its ancient purity and testify testifying ing to the restoration of the same much interest was noticeable among t the e hearers and we are of the belief that great good may be accomplished in that part of the territory we are thankful to our heavenly father for his hia sustaining sustaining hand that has been over us and an realize that he is ever keeping watch above his own we hope to visit this summer all the tribes that are located in this corner of the territory we feel that our visit thus far has as been crowned with success tor for we have made many good friends and some are investigating the truth we returned to this nation as we had some baptisms to attend to about next sunday we may baptize tiresome some esome six or eight we will then return to the seneca nation where there is a prospect of baptizing 11 some more there will probably ab 13 y be a company of about twenty start for utah in a week or so the crops look well and promise A good harvest the weather is cold indian winter WYANDOTTE NATION 1 I T june 6 1889 As we have not yet come to a post postoffice office I 1 will add a supple sup ment to my letter we are both in good health and have been all 0 along we are on our way to the line where these people people the lynches will meet the balance of their families when all expect to be baptized we aie traveling by team and when we stop atop at night we get the people around where we stay to come together and we hold a meeting by this means we are opening up a wide field and are an making friends and stopping places in a new country there is a large field up here to work in and from all appearances there is a good class of people |
