Sumner, Joseph, b. ca. 1832.

South Dedham, Mass., resident who travelled to Iowa and Illinois during the winter and spring of 1856.

Sumner journeyed by rail from Boston via Detroit and Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois. He visited Davenport and Dubuque, Iowa, and Chicago before settling in Burlington, Iowa, apparently with the intention of judging whether he would like to emigrate to the region. Sumner returned to Boston by steamboat down the Mississippi and up the Ohio, and by rail. He visited St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia en route.

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