text clean, binding tight, jacket is like new, hardcover, 2012, inscribed note by author on front end paper, 664 pages, Additional Details ------------------------------ Product description: "Letters from The 1855 to 1913 Correspondence of a Colorado Pioneer" is a compilation of letters, which chronicle the life of John Demo Miller. Each letter is reproduced in exactitude and transcribed. J.D. Miller was a patriot. At the age of twenty-one he moved west expressly to ensure Kansas Territory entered the union as a free state. When war broke out several years later, J.D. volunteered with the union army. He was a hard worker. He homesteaded in Kansas, built a cabin and farmed the land to make a living. J.D. was an adventurer. When it became clear that Kansas would enter the union as a free state, he turned his boots westward once more. As part of the famed Lawrence Party, J.D. prospected for gold in Colorado and led the ascent of Pikes Peak. He was one of the first white men to do so. He established himself as a merchant, a civil servant, a miner, a land investor, a philanthropist, and a prominent part of civic life in early Colorado Territory. Armed with conviction and a revolver, J.D. Miller set out to make the world a better place. "Letters from Home" includes excerpts from three biographies of J.D.'s life written and published during his lifetime plus ""Reminiscences of Early Days", J.D.'s own account of his early years. "New, first-person accounts from the 1800s are virtually unknown today. The treasure trove of letters lovingly preserved by the family of John Demo Miller is extraordinary. Those interested in the pioneer history of the American frontier will be the glad recipients of this wonderful book" - Roy B. Young "'Letters from Home' is a marvelous, half-century look at the life and times of Colorado pioneer John Demo Miller and his family. The several hundred letters are a rare find, and tell a story that stretches from Kansas to Colorado and as far south as Chile." - Daniel Buck