Edwin Bottomley (1809-1850) was born in Lancaster, England; the son of a manager of a cotton mill. As a young man Edwin became a skilled pattern-maker in the mills, marrying in 1829 the orphan grand-daughter of a physician. In 1842, with five children, the couple decided to change the future for all of them and emigrate to America.

This book consists of the letters that Edwin wrote to his father from the time the family boarded for departure in 1842 until his untimely death in 1850 in Burlington, Racine county. The Wisconsin Historical Society chose to publish the collection of letters not because Bottomley became an important personage, but because he didn’t. He was very typical of early Wisconsin immigrants, except that a detailed written record of his experience was preserved.