ENcams_HBFlagg_b15_F007_001_004
Facsimile
Transcription
about sixty to one hundred miles from Stocton Stockton
when even any of you went direct to San Francisco I want
soome [some] of you to send Belinda a blank sheet of letter
paper pen ink and wafer as I suppose than is nown [known]
Cambriadge [Cambridge] that is the reson [reason] I have not heard from
her but I will finish if Brother Charles come
this summer try and make him stop until I
get back, tell Mr Gove his son is upon Fether [Feather] river
I herd [heard] was doing well give my respects to all enquiring [inquiring] friends
Notes and Questions
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This letter has special resonance for me, as my gr gr grandfather came to this same area - at the same time - from Hanover. Married a local woman; sired at least 10 children. Too bad that no letters, if ever written home, survive: Only family lore.
It's always interesting to me to read these letters and think about the people who left everything behind to come across the country seeking Gold. I wonder what made their families save these letters and then donate them to the California State Library. I hope that some day someone will stumble across these collections and find letters written by their gr gr grandfather or any family member, just so that they can prove the Family Lore!
Before transcribing Flagg's letter, read it to see what it contained re: Indians. Of interest to me as the woman my gr gr grandfather married was of CA Indigenous and Mexican parentage. Aware at some level of the toll that the Missions, the Gold Rush and the years after took on the tribes, but not fully understood the reality until I started reading 'An American Genocide' [having a hard time reading it]. Glad that you put Flagg's letter out for transcription: he was a lonely young man who returned home and married in 1852, living a long life in MA.