The link below will take you to a series of 27 letters from John and Sarah Kenyon to family members in Iowa. Their letters are an excellent first-hand account of life in frontier Iowa. The Kenyons lived in Delaware County in eastern Iowa. The letters have a handy topic list on the right-hand side, so you can easily find material in the letters on 'migration', 'land sales,' 'snakes,' 'prairie fires,' 'weather,' 'health,' etc. These letters provide a great introduction to daily life in mid-19th Century Iowa. (UNI Iowa History project online.)
https://iowahist.uni.edu/Frontier_Life/Farm_Letters/letters_of_john_and_sarah_kenyon.htm