This is a letter written by Harry Percival Adams Smith, Lecompton, Kansas Territory, to Hugh _______. Smith tells about the difficulties and unrest at Fort Scott, Kansas Territory. He describes Kansas as a "beautiful country in the summer and a great agricultural country" and "it will compare favorable with any land in the world." He writes about settlers and their reliance on money from aid societies rather than by working. Smith was born in Franconia, New Hampshire in 1820. He was an attorney and was admitted to the bar in Maine. After being admitted to the bar, he migrated to the west coast to practice law. In the early 1850s, Smith won election to California's state assembly. In 1855, he traveled to Kansas where he served as U. S. Marshall at Fort Scott, Kansas Territory. The territorial governor appointed Smith and three others to organize Arapahoe County. In November, 1858 the four men proceeded to lay out a town site on both banks of Cherry Creek. The frontier settlement proposed by Smith and others was called Denver, and it became part of Colorado Territory. Not long after Denver was founded, Smith and fellow attorney Samuel McClean went to the northern mines. In 1870, Smith died in Helena, Montana.
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