Civil War Surgeon - Biography of James Langstaff Dunn, Md

By Paul B. Kerr

This book is a Biography of James Langstaff Dunn, MD, Civil War Surgeon and unwavering Patriot, from Medical Student 1846 to War End 1865.

A modern doctor, Paul B Kerr, MD, obtained 140 letters Dunn wrote to his dear wife, Temperance, and children, from his College and War years. Dr Kerr interprets the letters as relates to surgery, diseases, tent life, prisons, hospitals and logistics in the light of life and medicine today, and his own experiences in Army Medicine in WW II and Korea. Dr Kerr also discusses the knowledge of anesthesia in the 1800s, and how it evolved during 40 years of his own practice of anesthesia.

Dunn was the Surgeon of the 109th PA Volunteers of Infantry for three years, a Batallion that carried many central assignments and battles. Fighting for 1 1/2 years with the Army of the Potomac, his unit did a second 1 1/2 years with the Army of the Tennessee. Dunn describes first-hand the Battles for Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Chattanooga, Atlanta and the occupancy of Savannah. You won't forget his exhausting personal help for women and babies in the fiery destruction of Columbia, South Carolina. Nor will his description of first entry into Atlanta be forgotten.

Dunn personally names Clara Barton "The Angel of the Battlefield." He witnesses the amazing assault on Lookout Mountain, visits relatives in Cincinnati and Nashville. In Washington, he observes President Lincoln and the huge tent city with thousands of marching men there. We have from him a dateline Washington, DC on the very day Lincoln was shot.

We meet his boss and friend, General John Geary, who from Mayor of San Francisco and Governor of Kansas, becomes his Commandant, and, after the War, Governor of Pennsylvania.

We learn first hand about drunkenness, "Hospital Gangrene;" and Dunn's encounters with slaves, the aristocracy of Virginia and the primitive whites of the Tennessee Mountains.

Throughout, Dr Dunn keeps his morals, his devotion to the Union and his disgust with pacifists at home in Pennsylvania and in Congress. He discusses the Conscription Laws and means of substitution. His letters are full of Military Information that in other wars were subject to censorship. His 140 letters are as a "War Correspondent."

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468559798

Paul B. Kerr

Paul B Kerr, MD is a Physician practicing in Northern Pennsylvania, near the border of Upstate New York, and west of the Pocono Mountains. His current medical interest is in Consulting with the elderly. He married a Registered Nurse, Donna Smith, while an intern at the Guthrie Clinic, Sayre, PA. They have 3 happily married children; there are 7 grandchildren. The entire family are active and practicing Christian believers. All live nearby. Many are in medical activities. His birth and growing up was in Titusville, PA, known for "Birth of the Oil Industry." Drafted into the US Army, he was in infantry, medics and basic engineering. Using the GI Bill for help, he completed college and Medical School - Northwestern University in Chicago. After specialty training in Internal Medicine he was again drafted into the US Army, serving as Commander of the Eighth Army Headquarters Dispensary in Seoul, Korea. There he gained a first-hand knowledge of Orientals, and of far-away travel. He, with Donna, later including children, began a lifetime of short travels to five continents, visiting many cultures, usually visiting in peoples homes, through relations with Rotary International Youths who had lived in the Kerr's home. Kerrs lead cultural missions to Philippines, Portugal and Malta. Dr Kerr has been an officer in Masonic Orders, Rotary International, Gideons International and Medical Societies. Dr Kerr helped to found Montrose General Hospital; delivered 3000 babies; and did anesthesia practice for 40 years; while also doing house calls, office, emergency and administrative work. Certified as a Specialist in Family Practice, he developed a keen interest in continuing medical education and evidence-based medicine. He also has an interest in his Scotch and Pilgrim ancestors.

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© 2012 Paul B. Kerr, MD. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 3/22/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-5979-8 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-5980-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-5981-1 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012904371

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Seven Letters dated before 1860

Eight Letters dated 1861

Twenty-Eight Letters dated 1862

Fifty-Two Letters dated 1863

Thirty-Three Letters dated 1864

Seven Letters dated 1865

Topical Subjects

Epilogue

Bibliography

Introduction

Synopsis

This book is a Biography of James Langstaff Dunn, MD, Civil War Surgeon and unwavering Patriot, from Medical Student 1846 to War End 1865.

A modern doctor, Paul B Kerr, MD, obtained 140 letters Dunn wrote to his dear wife, Temperance, and children, from his College and War years. Dr Kerr interprets the letters as relates to surgery, diseases, tent life, prisons, hospitals and logistics in the light of life and medicine today, and his own experiences in Army Medicine in WW II and Korea. Dr Kerr also discusses the knowledge of anesthesia in the 1800s, and how it evolved during 40 years of his own practice of anesthesia.

Dunn was the Surgeon of the 109th PA Volunteers of Infantry for three years, a Batallion that carried many central assignments and battles. Fighting for 1 1/2 years with the Army of the Potomac, his unit did a second 1 1/2 years with the Army of the Tennessee. Dunn describes first-hand the Battles for Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Chattanooga, Atlanta and the occupancy of Savannah. You won’t forget his exhausting personal help for women and babies in the fiery destruction of Columbia, South Carolina. Nor will his description of first entry into Atlanta be forgotten.

Dunn personally names Clara Barton The Angel of the Battlefield. He witnesses the amazing assault on Lookout Mountain, visits relatives in Cincinnati and Nashville. In Washington, he observes President Lincoln and the huge tent city with thousands of marching men there. We have from him a dateline Washington, DC on the very day Lincoln was shot.

We meet his boss and friend, General John Geary, who from Mayor of San Francisco and Governor of Kansas, becomes his Commandant, and, after the War, Governor of Pennsylvania.

We learn first hand about drunkenness, Hospital Gangrene; and Dunn’s encounters with slaves, the aristocracy of Virginia and the primitive whites of the Tennessee Mountains.

Throughout, Dr. Dunn keeps his morals, his devotion to the Union and his disgust with pacifists at home in Pennsylvania and in Congress. He discusses the Conscription Laws and means of substitution. His letters are full of Military Information that in other wars were subject to censorship. His 140 letters are as a War Correspondent.

Preface

I never heard of the doctors Dunn in my growing up years in Titusville, PA, although they had practiced medicine contemporary with my doctor-grandfather in Titusville.

My grandfather’s widow, Myra, told me many things, but not about Dunns. And one of her best friends was Jessie Dunn, Librarian and Dr J L Dunn’s daughter.

Further, I was quite close to my Aunt Josie in Titusville, and corresponded with her and her husband after they moved to Charlottesville, VA. Aunt Jo never told me about Dr James L Dunn, her Grandfather.

Yet close to my relatives in the Titusville Cemetery are the Stones of Dr James L Dunn, Temperance Dunn, Dr James Alfred Dunn and Jessie Dunn. The latter two are on the same stone. It took research to know they were brother and sister, and neither ever married.

The first event was in 2001 when my brother found a trove of family letters in Myra’s attic and gave them to me. Among Benedicts and Johnstons were 35 letters from the Civil War written by Surgeon James L Dunn to his wife, Temperance. The times of the letters encompassed nearly four years of Civil War days. They were in poor shape but could be read.

Searches of libraries, and obituaries on microfiche told me much, and I proceeded to study the War. In books there was a Commendation Letter dated four days before Appomattox, written by General Geary, thanking Dr. Dunn on his retirement from military and naming 19 battles where he took part. And a letter by Dunn to newspapers praising his acquaintance, Clara Barton, whom he named The Angel of the Battlefield.

Then in the Spring of 2004 as Donna and I were traveling on the Civil War train tour, we visited the newer museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD where we learned of more letters - it turned out to be 110 more - at the U of VA in Charlottesville. They had been donated in 1988 by my aunt Josephine Johnston on her death. The photocopies they made for me weighed 30 pounds. With difficulty I have read them all, am integrating the two collections, and now it is possible to have Dr. Dunn tell his own amazing story in his own wonderful prose. He was a true hero. I believe the collection is now complete. A few were almost unreadable; some I needed to photo enhance, often used the hand lens.

In editing I have always used Dr. Dunn’s words. Sometimes I insert a clarification but it is bracketed. Sometimes I clarify spelling but often use his, as staid for stayed. Sometime omitted are comments about finances, folks back home, flowery closes. Sometimes I rearrange sentences for continuity.

Consider the breaks in dates: for the most part these are when Dunn managed to go home on leave. Of course he didn’t write his wife when he was with her.

Historic Overview

Dr. Dunn was commissioned a Surgeon. He had to amputate wounded limbs before they became infected, treat the sick, advise his officers on sanitation. He knew how to amputate well, and usually had ether or chloroform available. I read that these agents were less available to the surgeons of the South. Often for them it was get them drunk, have four men to hold them down, operate very fast The Rebels were short on much. If they killed a Yank, they often took his shoes.

In 1860 our USA population was 42 million, 25 north, 17 south, and that includes slaves. Life expectancy was less than 50. 99 % of births occurred at home. Most deaths were due to infections (Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, diarrhea).

Steam railroad miles were more that twice in the North vs. the South. The transcontinental Railroad was linked in 1859. The South was agricultural, the North industrial. The North actually prospered during the War.

The first soldiers were volunteers, but soon the South resorted to drafting whites, and later the North did likewise. By Jan 1864 all white Southern males 17 to 50 are conscripted; now the crops go untended, the only available replacements are slaves, and the rebels finally used them as soldiers. In nearly 4 years 650,000 died in our Civil War, more than half for medical reasons. This number exceeds WW I, WW II, Korea and Viet Nam combined. And then there were only 1/6 as many people as today.

Heard of Oliver Wendell Holmes of Boston? A better doctor than a poet, back in the 1840s this crazy-like-a-fox man preached washing hands. He found this simple act prevented most new mothers from getting the fatal puerperal sepsis. Today we know the killer is the streptococcus, highly infectious. Dr. Dunn washed his hands.

Enlisted men walked, officers had to buy and care for their own horses. Horses were expensive. Cars were unknown.

Doctors were in short supply. The good ones had 2 to 3 years of Medical College. Over half had only apprenticeships, many were incompetent, some on drugs, plenty alcoholic. Yes, doctors.

Think of this - only 85 years earlier, in 1777, the Revolution War Hero, Gen Herkimer, up in the Mohawk Valley, Battle of Oriskany, was shot in the leg, required amputation. The barber did it. By the next AM Herkimer had bled to death.

Lincoln was elected in 1860 by a plurality. The Democrats had split into Northern and Southern factions and put up two candidates, thus giving Lincoln the victory. Within weeks, even before his inauguration, ten Southern states had seceded (rebelled), and formed the Confederate States. When Lincoln then called for volunteers, Dr. Dunn rounded up a Company of his local people, he was the Captain, and they enlisted for three months. They expected that would do it.

Civil War Medicine

The first big battle, July 1861 was 25 miles south of Washington. It pitted thousands of troops on each side. Folks from the capitol came in their buggies, brought their kids, their lunch, and prepared to watch a quick defeat. Instead, the rebels won, the Northern troops bolted, carnage was great, and the roads back to the city were blocked. There was almost no preparation to care for the dead and wounded, the latter laying in the fields, crying most pitifully.

Gen Rob’t E Lee was very competent. In subsequent battles in Virginia, thousands were killed and wounded, but little was accomplished. Lincoln kept changing commanders, trying to find one who would really fight. Finally he hit on Ulysses S Grant, who had really fought hard in the West. Grant was probably an alcoholic, but he did fight. Lee’s one big mistake lead to the turning point — At Gettysburg, as he invaded the North. he ordered Pickett to charge, with thousands of men advancing a mile over an open field into the hills where the Union were entrenched and could use cannon down onto that open field. Most were killed or wounded. It was awful! Further unnecessary deaths came from hemorrhage, exposure, gangrene. Lee now had to retreat, slowly, with wagonloads of wounded, and had to cross back over the Potomac. The victorious Gen’l Meade did not pursue, and lost the chance to end the war then and there, by capturing Lee’s army pinned against the river. So the awful War dragged on two more years.

As the troops encamped, little was done for sanitation, crowding, hygiene. Open sewers, few latrines, imagine the smell! The men stunk too. And the contaminated water accounted much for the fact that 36 % of the troops were sick at any given time. The disease death rate was 58/1000 per season. (And at this point, I would comment from my doctor-grandfather’s letters from Puerto Rico. in 1898 that the amount of sickness in the camps was about as bad 40 years later). In Civil War camps it was typhoid and dysentery, as well as colds, diphtheria and flu. When one outfit broke camp a new outfit would stupidly set up on the already contaminated site.

Food rations were hard tack (crackers), fat salt pork, beans, peas and flour. Stealing and misdirection of supplies was common. Usual rations contained no fresh food, resulting in scurvy (which was treated by some who knew, with cabbages and carrots). Some soldiers would forage, and if they could~ buy decent food. Each soldier had to cook for himself, so camps smelled of wood smoke. And yep, soldiers on pay day ($13 per month) often used their little funds for whiskey and women. Doctors doing sick call had to cope with DTs, VDs, and such mundane things as lice and chiggers (red mites). For medicines they had quinine, ipecac and paregoric. When he himself was sick with fever, Dr. Dunn’s comment was, 1 took quinine by the spoonful.

After burning Atlanta in 1864, Sherman, and Dr. Dunn, marched mostly unopposed, to the sea (Savannah). Two days march brought these troops into regions of such abundance as were scarcely supposed. With the Rebel RRs destroyed and field hands conscripted, supplies and food were abundant — sweet potatoes, poultry and hogs, full granaries of oats and corn for the horses. They continued north to the Carolinas. Richmond had fallen.

Malnutrition and disease were especially ugly for prisoners. Most notorious was Andersonville, GA, where 25,000 northern troops were behind double fencing, and water was scarce and filthy. Ninety men died there daily. And nearly as bad was the prison camp in Elmira, NY, with 10,000 Rebel prisoners, half of whom died; that was at a rate of 25 daily.

When the south was totally exhausted, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox in VA, in the spring of 1865. Grant was generous. By this time Lincoln was reelected, along with a political hack named Johnson, for V Pres. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural address is sublime, even better than the Gettysburg Address. Read the ending. He intended for quick reconciliation.

Five weeks later he wad dead, killed in Ford’s Theater (which is restored, you can visit, even attend a performance there). Johnson feebly tried, but Congress was vindictive. After serving out Lincoln’s four years, the next eight were under Pres U S Grant, again a man poorly capable of the leadership needed, to bind up the nation’s wounds.

Can the Civil War ever really be over?

About the Author

Paul B Kerr, MD is a Physician practicing in Northern Pennsylvania, near the border of Upstate New York, and west of the Pocono Mountains. His current medical interest is in Consulting with the elderly.

He married a Registered Nurse, Donna Smith, while an intern at the Guthrie Clinic, Sayre, PA. They have 3 happily married children; there are 7 grandchildren. The entire family are active and practicing Christian believers. All live nearby. Many are in medical activities.

His birth and growing up was in Titusville, PA, known for Birth of the Oil Industry.

Drafted into the US Army, he was in infantry, medics and basic engineering. Using the GI Bill for help, he completed college and Medical School - Northwestern University in Chicago.

After specialty training in Internal Medicine he was again drafted into the US Army, serving as Commander of the Eighth Army Headquarters Dispensary in Seoul, Korea. There he gained a first-hand knowledge of Orientals, and of far-away travel.

He, with Donna, later including children, began a lifetime of short travels to five continents, visiting many cultures, usually visiting in peoples homes, through relations with Rotary International Youths who had lived in the Kerr’s home. Kerrs lead cultural missions to Philippines, Portugal and Malta.

Dr Kerr has been an officer in Masonic Orders, Rotary International, Gideons International and Medical Societies.

Dr Kerr helped to found Montrose General Hospital; delivered 3000 babies; and did anesthesia practice for 40 years; while also doing house calls, office, emergency and administrative work. Certified as a Specialist in Family Practice, he developed a keen interest in continuing medical education and evidence-based medicine. He also has an interest in his Scotch and Pilgrim ancestors.

Front Royal

MAY 19 - 24, 2004 From Paul & Donna Kerr, To our Family & Friends -

Why are we staying 5 days at Front Royal, VA? It’s all about Dr. Dunn.

We are now central to where he and the 109th PA Volunteers traveled and fought. We are also at the start of the 1000 mile Blue Ridge Mountain Skyline Drive. Here are the bicycle goers and the Appalachian Trail walkers. Also such nice places as Glen Burnie Mansion in Winchester, where we heard and saw great swarms of Cicadas (17-year locusts — see Exodus Chapter 10); and the lovely Bavarian Inn in West Virginia on the Potomac, near to Antietam.

Our key visits were to National Park sites, called Manassas, Antietam and Harpers Ferry, where Dr. Dunn began his 3 1/2 years of warfare. And also to Culpepper near where his very first battle occurred at a place called Slaughter’s Mountain, or Cedar Mountain. Culpepper has a splendid Civil War historical museum.

In March by train we had visited Washington, Richmond, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg and Savannah. We have visited Gettysburg; it will take another trip to visit Chattanooga.

The National Park Service (NPS) has been most helpful with superb lecturers and search documents relating to Dunn, Lincoln, Clara Barton, Gen Geary and the 109th Brigade from PA.

Reading Dunn’s letters lodged in the Special Collections Dept of the University of VA in Charlottesville is a real joy. We are getting to know this splendid surgeon and patriot. His story is the story of WHY we are America, one nation under God.

Our plan is to integrate Dunn’s letters to his wife Temperance, the earlier 35 found in Grandma Myra’s attic, with the 100 or so donated to UVA by my Aunt Jo (Josie) Johnston, who was Dunn’s granddaughter. We obtained the latter in photocopy

Seven Letters dated before 1860

11-18-1846 Cleveland, Oh.

To Miss Temperance Osborn, Mayfield, Crawford Co, Pa

Wax seal - this is before postage stamps.

Dear Temperance,

I am pleased to sit to address a few lines to you so you will know I’m living and enjoying a reasonable degree of health and strength.

It seems an age since I left home. The night before I started I felt some lonesome and downhearted, so I kind of naturally strayed over toward your house, and lo and behold! you were not there. I felt some disappointed in not seeing you but fate deemed it otherwise.

I arrived here on the fourth day after leaving home, being detained in Erie longer than I expected, and having to take the stage made my trip somewhat disagreeable.

I’m much pleased with the school, a good deal more so than I expected to be. I find myself associated with students once more, those students whose minds are directed in the same channels, whose hopes and fears are the same, whose desires are to benefit the human family and leave a name among the philanthropists of the world. Such, my dear, is the sentiments of the writer of this humble epistle, the one with whom you have chosen to link your life, in passing through the changing scenes of this world. And I hope that in that choice you would not be disappointed, that I shall prove to you all that you could expect or desire.

Temperance, you don’t know how bad I want to see you. I have a thousand things to tell you, which I cannot without we were sitting in that old Rocking Chair. In imagination I see true affection beaming from your eye, telling me that there was one who loved me with true and holy love.

I have become acquainted with some first rate people since I came here, and among the rest some fine girls, but I don’t find much time to devote to them, so I pass along the best way that I can. They have parties nearly every night and as a general thing I’m invited, but I didn’t come here to go to parties. The brightness of the gay circles could not detract one jot or one title of that love I bore to you, love which was cherished in boyhood days.

Give my love to all enquiring friends and don’t forget to reserve enough for yourself. I remain the same old coon, true to the core, which always will be the characteristics of your humble servant,

Lank

12-25-1846 Cleveland, Oh.

Dear Temperance,

Yes, ‘tis Christmas today, and yet 100 miles of snow and Lake Erie storms keep us apart.

I hope you have a Merry time for I’m going to. I’m going to a party this evening at the house of one of the professors. It is made for the special benefit of the students. I think it will be a loud time; but to tell the truth I would rather be over to your house, resting with you in that Old Rocking Chair that to attend all the parties in the City of Cleveland.

It cost rather too much or it would be paying too dear for the whistle.

I found Phor Johanson here, the one who married Rosanna Dunn. He is a rich and independent fellow and keeps the best of company. Since I board with him I swing in a pretty good crowd. I attend the Roman Catholic Church and can pray in Lattin with a vengeance.

Write when you get this, tell me all about matters at home; let me know whether the Telegraf is in operation or not.

Tempy, I shall be home the first of March and then we’ll have a Jubilee.

I remain the same, true to the girl I left behind me.

Yours affectionately, Lank

01-16-1850 Cleveland, Oh.

Records tell that James (Lank) and Temperance (Tempy) were married in the Osburn’s parlor in Mayfield on November 15, 1849.

Dear Temperance,

I have been waiting for a letter from my little wife, and also waiting and hoping for one from my folks. It is almost two months since I left, and I have had only the one letter from you in that period, yet I go to the post office every day in hopes. How are things in our old distracted country?

I’ve been down sick with the home fever for some time, and found it necessary to get bled, but I don’t hardly believe that even bleeding will cure me.

If I come forward to Graduate I shall not be home until the first of March. I don’t visit any but stick to my books. The midnight oil has to burn and the buckwheat cakes to suffer.

I was out to Mary Ann’s father last week. They told me they were going out home, would go see you and give you an idea of the manner your man was conducting himself. I had the pleasure of helping them eat a roasted turkey.

My dear I must close. Believe me, Tempy, the same both now and forever. Lank

{I interpret this letter as from the DARK AGES of Medicine. Here it appears that in 1850 a medical student in his senior year gets himself phlebotomized (blood letting) as therapy for his homesickness. This historically had been a time-honored treatment, but it is never mentioned in Dr. Dunn’s letters from the 1860s. I’m sure there was enough blood letting on the battlefields to convince anybody it wasn’t therapeutic. Paul Kerr}

{The name Alfred runs through the families. The following three letters are from Temperance Osburn’s brother, Alfred Osburn, who appears to have left the farm and gone West to seek his fortune in the Gold Rush times. Temperance and James Dunn’s only son is named James Alfred Dunn, and called Fred or Freddie in the letters. In later years he becomes a doctor. The Dunn doctors worked in Titusville as did my grandfather, Doctor William G Johnston. The first of the three Johnston children married Dunn’s granddaughter. The second was my mother. The third was named Alfred.}

12-07-1850 Mooretown, Jefferson Co, Oh.

Dear sister,

This is the first letter where I addressed you. Since I left Geneva I have written once each to Walter and to Mother. They wrote to say you are doing well which was a delight to learn. I think often of them and wonder how they would get along if John also will leave the farm. For our parents live happily there with peace and plenty; it would look very strange to see the last of their young men leave a place like that.

So I think two hopes, that John will stay, and that Father would forget that strong degree of worldliness that seems deeply seated in his nature, and enjoy the comforts of old age with that which his industry and economy have already achieved. Thus they would live happily and pleasantly together and enjoy old age as it was no doubt intended to be enjoyed. For there is certainly a season to sew, a time to reap and a time to enjoy the harvest.

No doubt you know their minds. David heard Father say that he would rather see me keeping the same course which I am now pursuing than any other. I would like to remain agreeable to their wishes, so would like you to tell me what you know.

I was considerably disappointed by not seeing you the morning of my departure, for I had wished to have a long talk with you.

Your affectionate brother, Alfred

??-??-185? (undated) Moore’s Saltworks, Jefferson Co, Oh.

Dear Temperance,

I have employed myself well since I left home, and enjoyed reasonable well that great blessing, health. Also had connections with admirable, generous and kindly people.

The second day after we left school we went to Chester, there to enjoy the hospitality of the Crawfords. They are very respectable here, upright and intelligent. Admirable culinary satiability in their home. Their house contains a splendid assortment of books including some from James’ intellectual study at Yale College; beautiful drapery of bed and window hangings that they take great pride in, as well as vases that give ornament to a terrestrial hall.

With my adopted and well trusted brother Gary, our trip from Chester to the Ohio River was very pleasant. This is the most beautiful stream that I ever saw. Its appearance as it glides majestically along seems to awaken a high sensation of moral feelings and love for nature.

The people here are very different in general character from those of Crawford Co. Among the many homes which I have been at in Jefferson Co, I have found but two where family worship was not directly attended to, night and morning. I think them to be far more openhearted and hospitable that where I came from.

I shall perhaps go with James on New Years Day to visit his Father’s grave. Lamentably, he was one who, had he been spared, would have been able to remove many rude obstacles which now obstruct James’ way. Purer minds that have passed from earth often were worthy of escaping a polluted and corrupt world for one of redemption.

Now Temperance, do not neglect writing. I feel among strangers except for my reliable brother, Gary. He and I send best wishes to you and your folks.

Your affectionate brother, Alfred

04-27-1854 Coloma, Northern Ca.

Dear Sister,

I sometimes reprove myself for not taking time to write you oftener. Indeed I remember your past faithfulness as a kind sister. I was a bad boy at home and must have led a miserable life; now having gone among strangers and with the passing of time, I have learned to appreciate the kind ways of home, to esteem the toilsome caring of parents and the counsel of intelligent sisters as the choicest of early gifts.

Whatever is true confirms the belief in my mind that there is a higher than human intelligence and a strength surpassing the combined force of nations, that there is one Great Source of all knowledge and one Fountain from which flows all that is lovely and conducive to real happiness; that there is one Center from which emanates all things.

To It we must look - upon It we depend. Life is but a passing day at best. That there is an Other I have not the least doubt. There is a vista more to be desired than earthly conquest.

Our recent trials just prepare us for the sterner conflicts of life. There is a pleasure in trials that seem to strengthen rather than exhaust us. We need the discipline.

I presume most of you feel anxious of my return. If hardly know what to say, but will remark that I have strong thoughts of making my future home in the extreme West. Home ties are pleasant yet they will inevitably be broken. We are warned and instructed by the stern monitor of death. Though we die, we shall live again, I believe it and rely on it. It is but trivial that many rolling years and thousands of miles should sever us. I conclude we may all then live, then die, and then we may join those loved ones gone before, rendering endless songs of praise to Him who died that we might live again.

Since John left I have been thinking more of my own intentions and future plans of life. I have thought some of going up into Oregon to commence as a teacher. This Western climate agrees with me so well that it seems to me I can accomplish much more here than Ii could possibly a home. However I have not decided nor will I soon, but I am inclined to resolve to live and labor and die in this Land of the Stranger.

Give my love to all and a buckwheat to the little ones, and believe me ever your affectionate brother Alfred H Osburn

{This single letter to Dr. Dunn’s wife in 1852 from a young niece has several insights including a description of Panama from a relative; that Pa and brothers are planning to go to the Gold Fields in California; and about chores and health.

{The Isthmus of Panama is now the trans-shipment place for sailing ships; from New York to Panama, cross by horse carriage, another ship on the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. Two thirds of the migrants to the Gold Fields came this way. The rest either sailed about Cape Horn or did a wagon train through the Indian-infested midland of North America. Panama is the safest way, quickest way, but also the most expensive.

{Temperance is now married and Josie, her first child, has been born.}

03-13-1852 Meadville, Pa.

To Mrs T Dunn, care of Dr J L Dunn,

Crossingville, Crawford Co. Pa

I suppose that your little baby has grown a good deal since I saw it. and my grandmother told me that you called it Maiy Josephien. I wish when you come to Hayfield again that you would come to town and pay us a visit.

The last that was heard from the isthmus was on the twelth. The first that Pa heard was from Alexander. He said that the bread was a year old and that the natives resemble our niggrows and that they speak spanish. He said that their houses was made of canebreaks tied together with bark. He said that panama was the durtiest place that he ever saw.

I do not go to school now but I went one quarter. I studdy at home the lessons that