"...the wolves are very bold here..." 

Autograph letter signed by "Seth," to his "Dear Old Couz." Brownsville, [Texas], 27 December 1857. 4 pages, 4to. 

A lively and enthusiastic letter written from Brownsville, Texas by a frontiersman named Seth to his cousin in the eastern United States.

At the time the letter was written, Brownsville and the surrounding region remained only lightly settled. The area had recently gained national attention during the Mexican–American War, when American forces under Zachary Taylorestablished a temporary fort near the Rio Grande in early 1846. Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the territory was firmly incorporated into the United States as part of Texas. In the years that followed, the small frontier settlement rapidly expanded as refugees from nearby Matamoros, migrants traveling west during the California Gold Rush, and settlers from the eastern states poured into the region.

Writing to his cousin, Seth offers an upbeat and optimistic account of life on the frontier, praising the climate and the region’s agricultural promise. He declares confidently that the weather is the “finest” he has ever experienced and that the soil offers excellent prospects for farming. Far from longing for home, he insists: “I am not homesick in the least, and I do not know who could be homesick.”

The letter also provides colorful descriptions of the local wildlife. Seth recounts the abundance of wolves and prairie hens in the surrounding countryside:

“Wolves and prairie hens are very plenty here but I haven’t spent a half day hunting since I came here. If I were to hunt I could not shoot a prairie hen no more than I could that block of wood that were thrown up in the air. Wolves are very bold and I could shoot once and a while one if I had a gun. One came very near chasing a hen into the house the other morning and would [have] if I had not met him at the door. Oh how I wanted a gun then I would [have] put a hole through his gizzard.”

He also remarks on the presence of Native Americans moving through the region, noting that “we have lots of Indians in the Territory and they often pop through here 50 and a 100 in a company.”

Beyond its entertaining anecdotes, the letter provides a vivid glimpse into everyday life on the Texas frontier during a period of rapid transformation. In the decade following the Mexican–American War, communities along the Rio Grande were shaped by migration, military activity, and the influx of settlers seeking land and opportunity. Personal letters such as this offer valuable firsthand testimony of how newcomers perceived the landscape, wildlife, and peoples of the region as the American frontier expanded westward.

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