Letter signed Lemon Parker, Ohio River, Steamboat Favorite, to Miss Hannah Parker, Putney, Vermont. I have recently taken an interest in a town site on the Missouri River 14 miles below Franklin where we shall probably make the attempt to establish a town sometime next year. The site is the most eligible on the River from the mouth to the source, taking into view all those circumstances necessary to make a town. Have no doubt of it ultimately becoming valuable, say in time for my children, tho’ as yet I have no wife. I have concluded that if I had on the spot a Yankee girl that pleased me I should take her if I could get her. The state of Missouri, particularly that part of it where I reside, is rapidly prospering and progressing in wealth and improvement. The soil is the finest in the world and the climate, for so rich a country, healthy. New Orleans is 1400 miles distant, the time required to go down from 7 to 9 days. Our River, which was a few years ago considered extremely dangerous, is now navigated without apprehension from Franklin to New Orleans. In addition to our good soil, climate, and navigable water, we have rich and extensive mines of iron, lead, salt and salt petre, coal, etc.; also fur trade, steamboat trade, also a large military establishment above us which circulates among us much cash. These and many other circumstances give our country the preference over any other in my knowledge for the man who has his fortune to make. I shall never leave it., 1825 Apr 9, Box: 1. Parker-Russell Family Papers, A1181. Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center.

Letter signed Lemon Parker, Ohio River, Steamboat Favorite, to Miss Hannah Parker, Putney, Vermont. I have recently taken an interest in a town site on the Missouri River 14 miles below Franklin where we shall probably make the attempt to establish a town sometime next year. The site is the most eligible on the River from the mouth to the source, taking into view all those circumstances necessary to make a town. Have no doubt of it ultimately becoming valuable, say in time for my children, tho’ as yet I have no wife. I have concluded that if I had on the spot a Yankee girl that pleased me I should take her if I could get her. The state of Missouri, particularly that part of it where I reside, is rapidly prospering and progressing in wealth and improvement. The soil is the finest in the world and the climate, for so rich a country, healthy. New Orleans is 1400 miles distant, the time required to go down from 7 to 9 days. Our River, which was a few years ago considered extremely dangerous, is now navigated without apprehension from Franklin to New Orleans. In addition to our good soil, climate, and navigable water, we have rich and extensive mines of iron, lead, salt and salt petre, coal, etc.; also fur trade, steamboat trade, also a large military establishment above us which circulates among us much cash. These and many other circumstances give our country the preference over any other in my knowledge for the man who has his fortune to make. I shall never leave it., 1825 Apr 9, Box: 1. Parker-Russell Family Papers, A1181. Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center. https://mohistory.mobiusconsortium.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/51078 Accessed September 19, 2024.