Gilchrist, R. J. B., Letter, 1826 | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

Scope and Contents: Writing on Jan. 5, 1826, to his brother in Union County, Kentucky, R. J. B. Gilchrist reported on his slow progress over the sandbars and the ice- and sawyer-choked Ohio River. After passing Shawneetown, Ill., he was "3 miles above Golconda." With sufficient luck, he hoped to "sell out" his boatload of corn before reaching a point on the Mississippi one hundred miles below Natchez.