Cleveland_Herald_Feb_24_1887 (67K)

As published in Cleveland, Tennesse newspaper, 1887 - Editor Herald.
This letter was sent back to her hometown of Cleveland in Bradley County Tennessee by Mary Spriggs. She apparently resided just east of the Wagoner area along with her cousins the Norman, Cobb and Clingan families (also from Cleveland, TN area).


INDIAN TERRITORY

Interesting Letter From a Bradley County Girl.

Thalequah, I.T., Feb. 16,1887.

EDITOR HERALD:

Perhaps a few notes from the Indian Territory would be interesting to a great many of your readers.

The fertility of the greater part of the Cherokee lands cannot be realized by any one, only by personal investigation of the country.

This black, rich soil, which produces thirty and forty bushels of wheat, fifty and sixty bushels of corn per acre, is an object of admiration to me.

All we need here to develop the latent wealth and beauty of our Nation is more railroads. A competing line is needed in order to reduce the fare and freight; fare now being five cents per mile. But the majority of the Indians oppose any more rairoads.

Their reason is this: They fear the United States will take the country from them, if the U.S. get an extensive railroad system in here.

So far as the educational standing of the Nation is concerned, it is equal to any of the States, necording [sic] to population.

Your writer had the pleasure of witnessing a brilliant wedding on the 10th inst. [sic] That of Dr. G. A. McBride and Miss Mary Norman, at the residence of the brides father. The bride is the only daughter of Cyrus A. Norman, formerly of East Tennessee. She is a graduate of the National Female College, and quite a belle of society. The groom is a prominent young doctor of Boonsboro, Ark.

They are now in the act of starting to China, he being called as a missionary physician.

If this letter escapes the waste basket, and proves to be acceptable, I may give you another some time in the future.

Yours truly,

MARY SPRIGGS


 

The above information was provided by Bryan Reed, Associate Professor, History;
Cleveland State Community College. Thank you!

Norman History Link