Dear Brother, Bro's Swenson and Cushman with my self are Battling away on the “old Battle grounds” of those days of yore, but thanks to kind providence not with shot and shell as in the 30's We came here the 14 with the Dist Tent and have had good attendance and remarkable good interest We have had services every evening at 8. Since Sat and 3 times Sunday. In the mean time we have visited many historical spots and by the way, I have visited and examined some places of interest quite closely, and one was the place where Joseph the Seer lived the well is filled up pretty near but 3 or 4 big cotton wood trees mark the spot. One or 2 of them Mr John Sloan (who owns the 160 acres cornering South West from the Temple lot) has cut down and out of one of them his daughter Sr. Shearar got 83 leaden Bullets Shot there by the [page 2] mob. I found one my self in the stump. Bro Swenson and I visited Mrs Kerr a daughter of John Whitmer who talked at length on the old times as she had been informed by her parents. She with her daughter Miss Johnson belong to the Whitmerites. She showed us an oil painting of Oliver Cowdery and Wife they were fine pieces of work. She also showed some pictures of old time Saints among them a good likeness so she says of her uncle David Whitmer. The people have changed wonderfully here We are treated kindly and the people appear to be interested in the work there are six members of the church here at Kerr. . . . Your Brother in Gospel Bonds, Walter W. Smith, Stewartsville, Mo.

  [Walter W. Smith, Old Far West, to E. L. Kelley, 19 September 1900, P21, f81, Community of Christ Library-Archives].