Memory-1839, Winter

Jerome Berryman writes:

   “It was in the winter of 1839 that I was commissioned by Rev. Thomas Johnson to go to Pittsburg, Pa., to purchase materials for the Shawnee Manual Labor School. This trip to Pittsburg was made as far as Louisville, Ky., on horseback. Taking my Kickapoo interpreter, Eneas, with me, we passed down through Missouri, Illinois, and a portion of Kentucky, giving Missionary talks by the way. This put $500 or $600 in hand for the benefit -of our mission….

   “It was while on this errand I met and made the acquaintance of Rev. Wesley Browning and his excellent wife, being by them most hospitably entertained during my detention of a full month in Pittsburg. [Wesley Browning arrived at Shawnee Manual Labor School Oct. 14, 1839, according to an extract from his journal.] Brother Browning was a valuable assistant to me in the purchase and shipment of what we needed, which in bulk and value amounted to a steamboat load. For the transportation of this freight I chartered a new boat just built by Captain Eizer for the Missouri river. The cargo was safely delivered by the Shawnee, for that was her name, at Kansas Landing, now Kansas City, and Brother Johnson was much pleased with the manner in which the trust had been discharged.”

[Berryman MSS. in K.S.H.S.]