484 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW
LETTERS OF GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM TO
JAMES S. ROLLINS
EDITED BY C. B. ROLLINS
PART IV
LETTERS: JUNE 6, 1859—JUNE 29, 1861
Dusseldorf Prussia June 6 1859
Maj J. S. Rollins
My dear Sir
After quite a fair weather voyage across the Atlantic
I reached this city safely about a week since. I found Eliza
and Clara and Horace all well. Your kind letter of May 10
came to hand a day or two after, having been promptly
forwarded from New York. And to day I received letters
from Doctor Thomas of Columbia, and brother John of
Kansas [City] of a still later date, giving encouraging accounts
of the condition both of Mr Thomas and Mrs Moore. We
flatter ourselves with the hope that we may soon hear of
their complete restoration to health.
When I left Kansas City Mr Thomas was in usual health.
Being desirous of making the most advantageous investment
of what funds I had in possession, I left with him thirty
five hundred dollars to be loaned out at interest upon real
estate security. The Babtist society in Kansas City erected
a large church, and expended on it about $6,000. They still
wanted $2000 to complete it, and the trustees proposed to
pay 15 per cent for the use of that sum, and place a deed of
trust upon the building for security. Regarding it a safe
arrangement I authorized Mr Thomas to enter into it, but
Brother John tells me that the matter was not consumated
when his fathers health gave way, although he thinks the
church had received about a thousand dollars upon the personal security [of one] of its most reliable members. I have
