John Vansickle wrote from Bourbon County to his Father and Mother outside Kansas Territory. Vansickle spoke of a recent trip to Iowa, though it was short because he was anxious to return home. He added that grain crops in the area were doing the best he had ever seen. Vansickle also told his parents of his marriage three days earlier to Martha Stevenson, and invited them both for a visit, as the current climate of "perfect peas" [sic, peace] made the journey a safer one.