Gold Rush Era Letters

him about it & I will also write him & have him send it as he did the other through H. A. Walton. I want to have you also write me how much I have had as you will find it put down in the book where I used to keep my accounts

I have seen Mr Wm Shipley [William Shepley]] two or three times this last week & he tells me that Frank Mason is out here & is clerk in a wholesale Grocery Store. He also told me where Samul Tucker [Samuel P. Tucker] was so that I wrote him day before yesterday. I think Shipley is doing pretty well here now as he has left off drinking & he looks very well.

There has been considerable excitement here for the last 4 or 5 weeks caused by the news of the Presidential Nominations also a depression of business caused by the news of the death of Henry Clay & the stores are now draped with black & there is to be a funeral procession next Tuesday in honor of his memory.

I am now living as economical as possible. I still board at Mrs Millers & get along with two meals per day for which I pay her 7$ per week. We have fitted up some bunks in our store where we sleep. We bought us a Palm Leaf Mattress which with our blankets make us a very good bed & we have lessened our expenses from 15$ to 7$ per week. We do our own washing with the exception of our shirts & we are bound to live as cheap as possible & to make & have money if we can do it. Sunday Eve.

I have just returned from church where I heard an excellent discourse by Rev Mr Hunt of the congregational church. His text was taken from Exodus 20 chap 13 ver. "Thou shall not kill" also Matthew 5 chap [chapter] & a part of the 39 ver "whosoever smites thee on the right-cheek turn to him the other also" The selection of these words was suggested by the fight-

shifting about but has never got ahead any. Still I am in hope that he will pay me bye & bye as then an no hard feelings between us & he is now tending Bar for $80 pr month & found. For my part I am going to commence work for Wm Shipley [William Shipley] this afternoon & work a few days till I can do better which I think I can do soon, as I have written to Mr Tucker for goods & when I recieve [receive] them I can make money & I wish you would speak in favor of his sending them. What I have written above please keep every word of to yourselves as I have written Mr Tucker all I wish him to know about the matter & if you should see O. W. Fisk or write him do not hint a single word but what every thing is all right as far as you knows.

Samuel Tucker came down here from up country last week monday night having met with rather poor success & he has not as yet decided what to do but will now soon make up his mind. We were pleased to see each other & he told me a great deal of news about P. which I had not heard of before. He is well but like myself, feels anxious to hear from some of you folks as he is no better off than I am as he has not as yet recieved [received] a single letter from his folks since he arrived here although there is one here for him now somewhere but he has not got it yet as it was sent up country to him so that he just missed it.

There has been a splendid ring manufactured here which is to be presented by three or four gentlemen of this city to Genl Frank Pierce [General Frank Pierce] of N.H. the democratic Nominee for President. It is of solid gold & weighs a

satisfied & I think contented to remain at home, as had I done as I ought I should probably have been there at the present time but I hope everything will yet turn out for the best. Since I commenced writing this letter I have received a call from Sam Tucker [Samuel P. Tucker]. He is quite smart this evening much more so than any time before since he returned from the mines. He is at work for Wm Shipley [William Shipley] having been with him nearly a fortnight but how long he will stay I do not know.

He intends writing his mother & Augustus tomorrow.

He was sorry to hear of the illness of his mother but we hope she is now better. Sam was anxious to receive a letter from Augustus or some of his folks but failed to do so but now thinks he shall do so by next mail which will probably arrive here in the course of a week. As I am growing sleepy & was thinking about going to bed I happened to think of the pair of blankets you gave me just befor [before] I left home & which I value very highly as they have done me a great deal of good.

While doubling Cape Horn I found them very serviceable as the weather was very cold. & the ship was but scantily supplied with extra bedding. Then when I went into the country I used them for both bed & bedding as I had nothing else then when Fisk & I fitted up our store we partitioned off a little corner of it for a sleeping room & put up three berths one above the other. Got some palm leaf mattresses & I then made the blankets again answer for bed clothes. After we sold out the store I went and stopped with Mr John Keep a fortnight as he kindly invited me to do so & as Sam T. [Samuel P. Tucker] & his brother Wm Keep [William Keep] were stopping with him too we enjoyed ourselves very well & when they left for the mines he refused to take

14th Your kind letters of the 15th April & 31st May answer in due season, the former the 31st May. The letter the 2nd inst which continued the unwelcome news of the great conflagration which so suddenly reduced to ashes three fine buildings beside destroying the fine yards & gardens connected with them. I think Mr. Perry is the greatest sufferer by this fire as he had just got nicely located & his buildings so arranged as to conveniently accommodate his pupils. It was by far the largest fire I ever knew of in P. & its effects will long be seen. I suppose however that the houses will all be rebuilt soon but probably not as large as before & it will take not only money but a long time to restore to those yards & gardens, the beauty they once could boast of. Mrs Tucker wrote that she thought quite likely that Dr. Howe would purchase the old place where his father used to live, & enlarge it for his patients as long as he had moved there. I think it would be a very good location for him, & that he would like to own the place as it was once his father's. You of course will write me from time to time what is being done toward rebuilding.

I know of but little news to write you. I am not now in any particular business but work around some by the day for the most I can get which is much better than doing nothing as i can very easily make enough to pay my expenses. I hope however that I shall be able to get into some kind of business again soon that will pay me better

Sam I suppose is at Columbia, what he is doing I cannot say. Wm Shipley [William Shipley] is at work about, painting & paper hanging & I sometimes work with. He is quite well

Reading what you wrote about "the death of E. P. Hutchinson" and his wife who she was &c [etc.] brings to mind what Mr Wm Shipley [William Shipley] told me a few days ago that be recieved [received] a letter from her from the Sandwich Islands now after the death of her husband ---

He says she is an excellent writer in every respect and he should judge her to be a very fine woman

She wrote him that she should return to Boston in the same ship in which they come out in "The Waverly" I understand that Saml. Hutchinson [Samuel Hutchinson] is very feeble and that in all probability he can never regain perfect health. It is singular how all of that family seem to die very young -- Do you not think so? Thus far I believe they have all died with consumption a disease which seems to run in the family and sooner or later proves fatal --

Wm T. Fisk [William T. Fisk] is here in San Francisco and keeps his drinking saloon, the same as last year. I have not seen him for several weeks, but expect he is doing very well. From what you write, every few weeks I think the girls in P. are in an awful stew to get married when they marry anything. I should have hardly thought Fannie Parker would have married an old widower, but perhaps after all, he is good enough for her ---

Give my love to Charles & Harriet -- also to those of my friends, that you choose to.

From your affct [Affectionate] Son H. A. Parker [Henry A. Parker]

Mrs Ann Parker East Pepperill Mass