OSAWATOMIE, KANSAS, Sept . 9, 1858.
DEAR WIFE AND CHILDREN, ALL, — I received Henry's letter of the 21st July a long time ago, but was too sick to answer it at the time, and have been ever since till now. I am still very weak, but gaining pretty well. I was never any more sick. I left the Missouri line about six weeks since; soon after, I was taken down. Things are now very quiet, so far as I know. What course I shall next take, I cannot tell, till I have more strength. I have learned with pain that the flour did not go on, and shall try to send you some money instead of it, so that Mr. Allen may be well paid for the barrel he lent. I can write you no more now, but I want to know how you all get along. Enclose everything to Augustus Wattles, Moneka, Linn County, Kansas, in sealed envelope, with my name only on it. God bless you all!
Your affectionate husband and father.
[JOHN BROWN.]
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 478
I wonder what his illness was. I know people were sick all the time in those days from something or other ...
If a letter or diary mentions that a woman “was sick,” it usually means she was giving birth.