S.T. Learnard, a farmer and occasional state legislator from Bakersfield, Vermont, wrote from Granville, Ohio, to his son, Oscar E. Learnard, in Kansas Territory. S.T. Learnard requested that his son meet him upon his arrival in Lawrence. He also referred to the defeat of the Lecompton Constitution in the U. S. House of Representatives, a move which he dubbed "a victory for freedom."