Gold Rush Era Letters

son to be sick in who has no home, nor friends to care for him. Thus far I have been very fortunate to escape sickness, for the past two years, for which I feel thankful. ---

Three Steamers have now arrived here within the past week about three thousand persons from the Atlantic States. What inducement they find to tempt them to come to this country I can form no idea of certainly the chances for doing well here, at the present time, are not one half as good as they were when I left home & there are now thousands in the country who are out of employment & worse than this many of them are out of money, & it is a mystery to me, how they manage to live from one day to another.

Owing to the low price of fare, from here to New York many are returning home by every Steamer, who have money enough left to get them there & I think it the best move they can make. I do not doubt but what many of them who have arrived here the past week after looking about and finding business of all kinds as dull as it really is, will return home within three months satisfied that California is not the place after all the fuss that is made about it to make a pile in a few months, & that for comfort & a good home it is not to be compared with those places which they left on the Atlantic side of the United States.

This last remark I can testify to myself --

I received the papers which Chas. sent me the 20th Feby. [February] also the ones which he sent the 5th & in return for them have written him, and will also send him some California papers. The Cultivator looks as natural as can be, and the Semi monthly Advertiser (or semi weekly I should have said) brought to mind the interior of the store when I was wont to find it regularly twice a week, then occupied by J. A. Tucker proprietor, H. A. Parker [Henry A. Parker]clerk, now occupied by Crosby Lewis with Chas (Charles) F. Parker for clerk.

I used then to think that Mr T. put a great deal of confidence in me & my doings, but I must say that Mr. Lewis places more in Chas. than Mr T did in me, but C. is honest and industrious & deserves the confidence of every one, having never done anything to injure his character, would that I could say the same of myself, although I know that I have yet got friends left at home & I think I have friends here. By what I wrote in my last letter you may see that Mr T. still entertains an "exalted opinion" of me, as least one would judge so, from what he writes.

But enough of myself -- henceforth I will leave my actions to relate the sincerity of my intentions of doing as well as I am capable of doing, as well as to prove it --

I yet hope to regain my good name and be an honor to you and our friends in general, which I think I can do, by forming good resolutions & adhering to them ---

as he does, for his wife writes that she and the children are well, and are well provided for, and we are doing well here, so that he will be able to send her money whenever she wants any

Since the first of this month our trade has been better than it had been before for several weeks, and I think we shall be able to do well throughout the summer.

For a week past we have cleared free from all our expenses, on an averadge [average] six dollars apiece each day, which I consider doing well when almost every one is complaining of dull times. --

I have not heard from Sam Tucker [Samuel P. Tucker] since last January, and I do not know as he intends to write again, but hope he will, and that, soon.

I saw Mr Shipley today. He is comfortably well, as are all of my acquaintances here in California. Please give my love to Charles & Harriet, and to all my relations and friends Mrs. Sawtelle, particularly, whenever you see her. Hoping that you may long continue to enjoy health & I remain Your affc [affectionate] Son H. A. Parker [Henry A. Parker]

To Mrs Ann Parker E Pepperell

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You will see an account, in the paper which I shall send Charles, of the death, at Honolulu S. I. of Edmund P. Hutchinson of Pepperell. It appears that he died twenty days after his arrival there from Boston --

Poor fellow! Instead of regaining his health as he hoped to do, he only left home to die among strangers in a strange land.

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Mr. William Walton will leave here tomorrow, accompanied by his wife and one child, on a visit of a few months, to the Atlantic States.

He would willingly take this letter to you, but I think I will not trouble him with it for you will receive it as soon, if not sooner, if I send it by mail, than you would if I sent it by him. --

Large handbills have been posted about the streets this week announcing that a certain firm in this city were prepared to sell nice, dry sound Potatoes for 20 cts per bushel -- Cheap enough for California.

There are plenty of chestnuts now in market brought from the Atlantic States which sell readily at retail for $1.00 a pound or 25 cts for a small tumbler full. They do not taste much however like chestnuts at home although they are very good. Wishing you all health and happiness I remain

Your affectionate Son H. A. Parker [Henry A. Parker]

Mrs. Ann Parker E Pepperell Mass

[written vertically in the left margin] Give my love to Charles & Hattie -- My regards to friends in general.

Chas. H. Valaitine [Charles H. Valaitine], an acquaintance of mine who worked in the mines with Sam Tucker [Samuel P. Tucker] last summer and who took my furs on to Boston last October arrived back here again by last Steamer --

I was pleased to see him, for he was able to tell me all about Mr. Tucker, and family, as he had seen them nearly every day, while he was at home. I was able to gain a great deal of information from him with regard to many people, and localities, that I well remembered although I have heard but little or nothing from them since I left Boston.

Mr. S. A. Jewett sent me a present of a Pocket Knife by Mr. V. and Mr Tucker sent me a comb, of course they were very acceptably recieved [received] and will be long retained in memory of the donors --

The next day after he arrived Mr V. left this city for Columbia, where Sam and Chas. Wright [Charles Wright] are at work and where he formerly was before he left for the Atlantic States. I have not heard from him since he went away neither have I heard from Sam but have concluded that he has given up the idea of coming down here for the present.

V. tells me that Daniel Wright's health has improved very much of late and that he has given up the idea of returning to California this year and that it is doubtful about he or his brother coming at all