Show century old letters R history history has a way of fading into romance with the passing of a century centary even though the facts are kept meticulously aligned so it Is that when one thinks of the development of michigan ohio and the rest of the northwest territory he Is apt to think in terms of gold braided boundary jugglers caps long rifles and buttered rum nun alvin hamer detroit bookseller has discovered a collection of letters written by the five sons of josiah colburn a dour yankee of the early nineteenth century to let us know the first of the was not altogether a time ot of the grand gesture and political powwow these were men whose letters reveal that they were hardworking hard working journeymen and laborers and seafarers whose main concern was not with the dangers of frontier life but with the ordinary business of getting jobs and founding homes out of new york state these boys came to spread as far north as ontario as far west as st louis and south to new orleans with the bible reading father always in the background giving good scriptural counsel ate jobs homes first there was thomas a roistering wanderer in sail whose papers show that he sailed in 1010 from kingston XIng ston ont with a cargo of 40 barrels of beer and pounds of cheese at a time when memories of the war with britain were still fresh it was jeremiah lah who wrote of tho the boom which followed the war in buffalo Bui lalo only to complain three years later that jobs were hard to find he had just finished his apprenticeship as a carpenter and was starting out on his own 1 I am this day pretty good looking halt half white and 21 years ot of age half indian perhaps I 1 am now square with the world I 1 owe nobody and nobody owes me jery jerry wrote to his sailor brother thomas had evidently cautioned him on the folly ot of wandering for he continued free and independent you have advised me to refrain from rambling and be steady I 1 should bo be glad if you would take a little to yourself tor for I 1 believe you stand in need of becoming more steady than what you have been for these six years past for you have traveled thousands of miles and I 1 have not traveled half of one |