Almon and George Hunter set out in the early 1850s for Heart Prairie, Wisconsin, where their uncle Shubil Chappell had previously settled. Almon seems to have had a good deal of wanderlust, leaving Wisconsin very shortly afterward first for Iowa, and then for Kansas Territory in the mid 1850s. Almon worked first on a surveying party, and then settled north of Topeka, claiming land and farms.

In 1860, after a period of working in the lumber business, Almon headed to the Colorado mines (then still part of the Kansas territory) during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. There are two letters to his mother relating his experiences, one written while on the trail: (1) On the Road to the Mountains, May 1860; (2) Mill Citty Moris District, June 11, 1861.

George Hunter appears to have gone to Wisconsin at a slightly later time than his brother Almon. In March of 1855, he reported that he had hired himself out "to learn the tinner's trade" in Whitewater, Wisconsin. George, however, seems to have had nearly the same degree of wanderlust as his brother, and this apprenticeship does not seem to have lasted long, for he soon traveled to Illinois and announced his intentions of going to Kansas. However, George delayed going to Kansas, perhaps due to the bloodshed and tensions occurring in Kansas in 1856. His letters reveal some of these fears.

George was disappointed by Kansas when he finally joined his brother, who in 1857 was living in Holton, Kansas, located on Elk Creek, 30 miles north of Topeka. George eventually settled in Minnesota. One of his last letters from the 1890s relates the tragic nervous breakdown and suicide attempt of his wife.

Shubil D. Chappel's letters describe the trials and tribulations of an emigrant of limited means, and his attempts to get a start in a new country with his wife Mary Ann.