Source: Dick, Everett, "The Sod House Frontier, 1854-1890: A Social History of the Northern Plains from the Creation of Kansas and Nebraska to the Admission of the Dakotas (Bison Books)

Jan Hendrik te Selle wants to assure his family back in the Netherlands that the new territory of Nebraska is safe and prosperous. He describes the rich soil and extensive grassland. He describes the good profit he made by selling his Wisconsin land, and then moving to Nebraska, where he could get 80 acres of land for free, just by occupying and farming it for 5 years. He sounds very pleased with his decision to leave Wisconsin, and to venture southwest to Nebraska.