Gold Rush Era Letters

New York Feb 26th 1853

Dear Mother, Brother, & Sister,

I arrived here this afternoon about four O'clock rather used up by my journey but feel pretty smart this evening.

After C. left me at Lyngston I went directly to Boston. Arrived safe, saw Mr. Tucker went round with him for an hour or two and then started for Dedham and arrived at Mr. Fiskes about 5. Oclock [O'clock] P.M. and found them well.

Started from there this morning, came in to Boston and started for N.Y.

Found Mr. W. T. Fisk at Springfield waiting, then left there and arrived here in N.Y. safe and sound. As it is twelve O'clock I must tell short stories.

Has H. G. H. paid you that $8.? How did Chas [Charles] get home with Jenney?

Is there any thing said about me? My Baggage came along nicely I think although I have not examined it. I shall enclose this to Mr. Tucker and you will please write a few lines in return by next mail and I will write you again before I sail which will not probably be before the middle or last of next week. Charles mend the Tinker, Harriett fingers out of the sugar bowl. Did you find my memorandum.

In great-haste Yours affctly [affectionately]

H A Parker [Henry A. Parker]

San Francisco Sunday Morn Aug. 8th/52

My Dear Mother, Sister, & Brother

It is a beautiful morning & as I sat meditating my thoughts as they often do wandered to my distant home — that home where I hope you are all still living in the enjoyment — of good health & happiness.

I still enjoy good health & am getting along very well considering how I am situated but should feel much happier if I could hear from you often as I hope to do as soon as you once hear from me. The mail Steamer is due here now from New York & I expect to hear from you when she arrives.

I have already written you twice — once by the mail of the 15th July & once by the mail of the 31st July & the next mail Steamer leaves here next Saturday the 14th inst when I shall send these few lines which I hope will be acceptable & be answered as soon as convenient — as I long to hear from you very much & to know what is going on in Pepperell & vicinity

We are now having beautiful weather here most of the time with the exception of the disagreeable wind which blows in from the ocean every afternoon. The mornings are beautifully warm & pleasant — until about noon when the wind springs up & blows the sand from the hills back of the city making it very uncomfortable & disagreeable on the streets. There are neither trees nor grass in the city but the streets are all planked so that it is very good travelling about. The city is built on a side hill that slopes gently from the waters edge to the highest summit fronting on

the beautiful harbor of San Francisco into which the city is being fast extended by filling in with the dirt obtained from the hills back & there are now may handsome brick stones where but a year ago large ships floated. A month here is about the same as a year in the states. There is about as much done & one seems to see as much in a month as he would in a year in New York or Boston Five stores are commenced here one week & the next week are occupied by merchants having in the mean time been built & finished. Rents here too amount to as much in a month here as they do in the States in a year. For instance Fisk & I pay for our store which is a room 20 x 50 ft one story 200$ per month or 3000$ a year which would buy a good farm in the town of Pepperell.

The water underneath our Store is about 20 ft deep & we are on the outside street so that there two streets above us that the water flows back under. The building is built on piles driven into the mud until they touch the solid bottom & the lot which it sets on which is the same size as the building is valued at 4000$ although 20 ft under water. We have not as yet got our business fairly started but I think we shall do well soon after the streets are built alongside of our store & if I had a little more money I think I could do a good business here in the Ship Stores & Liquor Trade. So I am going to send to Esq. Jewett for money enough with what I have already had from time to time to make the amount 1500$ for I shall have it any way in about 11 months & I think I may as well have it now & be making 40 or 50 per client on it as to have it lying in his hands & be recieving but 5 percent for it so I should like if you will to have you see him & talk with

time he began to be neglectful, & was off too much evenings &c for my fancy & I was wise enough to see that if we kept on at that rate that we should soon be reduced to nothing. Still I could not make F believe it & for a long time he would not agree to sell out which hindered me from doing so but I was determined to get out of it at some rate or other & at last I told him so & he finally agreed to sell out which we did do without losing any thing providing that I get all my pay of him as I have got about $200. deposited in the Bank & which I am bond [bound] to hold on to so that I can get to the States at any time.

All of the above, please say not a word about to any one not even to Friend Tucker as I shall endeavor to come out right yet in time, & I have about made up my mind that "Contentment is the best fortune" You wrote that a copy of the Journal I kept during the voyage from New York to this place would be very interesting to you & I would gladly send it to you but I have not as yet got it copied and as the original one is written with a pencil & hardly intel= ligible you must excuse my sending it at present but I will promise to copy it as soon as I have time & save it for you. I think you must have felt somewhat anxious for my safety when you heard by way of Sam Tucker [Samuel P. Tucker] that I had not arrived here the last of June & that the Stag Hound had then been due 20 days, but if you had known the fact that vessels are often due 40, 50 or even 60 days before they arrive you would not have felt alarmed as such is often the case owing to calms, adverse winds &c [etc.]. While on our way out here we thought our living was not fit for brutes

& I think upon consideration had I fully explained all in my letter of the 7th July you would never had occasion to have written me in the manner you have written. But I will now explain all & will adhere to the truth in all my statements & will keep nothing back from you that is at all connected with the affair.

Let the following words which shall be true settle all & inform you of my honest intentions which I shall adhere to strongly. Of my doings in P you know all about. After leaving there & on arriving at New York I wrote a letter to Lize Tr [abbreviated last name] just previous to my sailing for this place. On my arrival here I received a letter from her but none from Ames as you suspected

I then wrote her an answer in return & then determined that I would never write her again & thus far I have not broken my resolution, which grows stronger day by day. This is probably the letter she made such a parade about in P. & well might she do so for it is the last she will ever receive from me. Last Friday however I received a letter from her dated at Boston Sept 1st but you must have no fears of my answering it as I shall never do so for I care nothing about her & I never for a moment thought of marrying her, far from it I assure you. Let them talk as much as they have a mind to but pay no attention to what they say for they know nothing whatever of my affairs. When she first wrote me March 18th, she wrote me to direct her letters to Pepperell & when I wrote her July 6th I directed to P. & not to Nashua as you intimated. This is the only letter I have written