A Kansas Memory Podcast

The Rocky Road to Kansas, Part 2, Ellen Goodnow and Maria Felt: "advise those young men who brough such doleful reports about Kansas, not to leave the sight of their father & mothers dwelling again."

The documents used in the Rocky Road 2 podcast are available on Earlier Kansas Memory podcasts used documents from Territorial Kansas Online: A Virtual Repository for Territorial Kansas History, 1854-1861.

• Letter, Ellen [Goodnow] to Dear Sister Harriet [Goodnow]
  July 21, 1855
  Ellen Goodnow, recently arrived at her homestead near Manhattan, Kansas Territory, wrote to her sister-in-law Harriet Goodnow in New England, regarding her trip West and her impressions of Kansas Territory. Ellen described her journey in a detailed but concise manner, and, in her first impressions, likened Kansas to "another garden of Eden. . .too good for bondage, or for the oppressor's rod [references to slavery]." A devout Christian woman, she also expressed her opinion that Satan held influence over the Missourians. Despite this ominous presence, Ellen still tried to convince Harriet to join them in the Territory
• Letter, Ms. Maria Felt to Dear Mr. [Thomas] Higginson
  June 25, 1858
  Miss Felt wrote this letter to Thomas Higginson, telling of her journey from Clinton, Massachusetts to Lawrence, Kansas Territory. Apparently, she was emigrating to Kansas in order to teach school. Miss Felt and her party traveled by train until they reached Alton, Illinois, where they took a steamer along the Mississippi to St. Louis. From there they traveled to Jefferson City and finally reached Leavenworth, Kansas Territory. At that point they traveled to Lawrence by stagecoach and Indian canoe. Once she had arrived in Lawrence, which she found to be a pretty town, she became acquainted with James Redpath, R. J. Hinton, Samuel Tappan, and George Stearns. She also called on Ephraim Nute, but she disliked both him and his wife, writing that they "sat up like two icicles." This letter appears to have been edited at some later date.