ABSTRACT
William Henry Evans wrote this letter from Indiana to his uncle back in England nearly thirty years after his emigration in 1817, and it records his long-term adjustment to American life. Starting out as a tanner for the first ten years, Evans then turned to farming and now had an impressive farm of 186 acres. Part of his success he attributes to his marrying a Kentucky gal, who ‘saved me from poverty’. It had been fifteen years since he last received a letter from England, which suggests his cutting of ties there, or perhaps his complete assimilation to American life.
