Well guess what I got in my mail today, something from Tyler Public Library - I had asked about James Turney who arrived there around 1857 or so. Info cost me $2.50 and that was postage and handling, so it is a good place to get info, and they are very, very nice. I can not copy the full material - afraid of copyright problems, but this is from a letter reprinted in CHRONICLES of Smith County Texas Volume 7, Number 2 Published by the Smith County Historical Society/ Tyler, Texas Fall 1968 A young lawyer born in TN, educated in KY, his family lived in Arkansas. He had moved to Tyler, Smith Co Texas around December 1856. He wrote a letter back home to father in Arkansas in September 1858 saying how he did not think his mother and father would like to live in Tyler - it was so different from what they were used to in Arkansas. But he loved it. He talks about many of the people in town, and then says this: "Louisiana you know is of French origin in its settlement, and that fact has effected its laws, habits, usages and customs in a thousand ways. Texas, in a great many respects, is stil as much a Spanish province as it was before its independence was achieved. They all seemed very strange to me at first. What would you think of a woman standing her husband's security on a note of hand, as a recognisance for his appearance at court? Of a merchant keeping three accounts against a person the same year -- one for what he got for his own use, another for what he fot for his wife's use, and a third for the goods they both got for their joint benefit and then of their keeping account between themselves of their separate property and their joint property, and trading with each other. It''s all very Spanish to me. If a man marries in Texas, or marrys anywhere else with the intention of coming to Texas no matter how rich his wife may be the property dont become his at all, but remains her own, except what she may be willing to give him, just precisely like it did before marriage. It aint liable for a single one of his debts anymore than anybody else's property would be. It is the greatest country for married women so far as the laws are concerned in the Union -- and as a general rule I am told that the ladies like it very much, and indeed they do have a better chance to get along well, and have a little feeling of independence. I only mention these as instances of the difference from what it is in Arkansas." He goes on to say how everyone is making money, crops are good, life so much better for people than back in Arkansas. Says people use money to buy goods, not like in Arkansas, and that money is very available. Legal rate of interest was 8 percent and as high as 12 percent can be collected if stipulated in the note. Seemed to be a lot of land speuclation. He mentions how fine the Texas people were, wanted to visit his family next year and bring some of his Texas friends. Said "Texas was the greatest place for getting married. Tyler had some very find young ladies, but they are generally mightly wild. Balls and parties come off in Tyler pretty often and the girls come far and near to dance." People he mentions in town were from NC, SC, TN, AR, LA, MS.....all over it seemed. It sounds like the town was very new. He also said "I candidly believe it is the finest and most desirable country in the south." So now we know some of the reasons for the move. I know this is not about migration routes, but I just loved reading about this place written by someone living there in 1858. There is so much flavor in his description of the town and people. Mary [email protected]