p. 3

436
[418]
1840.

book I am compiling is a "Documentary History of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal," compiled with explanatory remarks by order of the Board of Directors of the Canal Co. You shall have a copy of each. I have about one hundred pages of the Gazetteer [Gazetteer] written and notes sufficient to write fifty or sixty more.

Hans Crocker Esq., is to write a history of Wisconsin of some twenty or thirty pages to be included in the work. The book is to embrace some account of the natural productions and a catalogue of the animals, plants and minerals.

Good by. Long life, health and happiness to you all.

Increase.

Milwaukee, Wis., March 15, 1840.

My dear Brother--

We have just received your good old-fashioned letter of the 20th of February in answer to my Sunday letter. It is the best filled sheet you have sent me for many a day, and it afforded us much real pleasure and satisfaction in its perusal.*** I am going to give you a description of a discovery made about a month since in the county, about thirty miles or so from any place; and such has been the rapidity with which the news has spread and such the general belief in its transcendental utility that you can scarcely enter a house without bursting into a laugh, at seeing one of these invaluable machines in successful operations. As you Buckeyes may wish to profit by our Wisconsin inventions, I will give you a detailed description of the apparatus or machine without any hesitation, for we of Wisconsin despise the Yankee notions about patent rights. Our inventions are made for the good of mankind in general, and we are actuated always by the purest and highest principles of universal benevolence.