Prudence Ward writes to her sister Caroline Ward Sewall:
Mrs. John Thoreau’s children are soon to leave her; Helen and Sophia to keep school in Roxbury. John and Henry to go West. They purpose instructing there, but have no fixed plan. They will go as far as Louisville in Kentucky, unless employment can be found nearer . . . To-day, April 13, Henry has had a letter from President Quincy, of Harvard, speaking of a school in Alexandria, Virginia, to be opened the 5th of May. He is willing to take it, and if accepted, this may alter or delay their journey.
