Gold Rush Era Letters

San Francisco Jany [January] 14th 1853

Dear Mother,

Your kind letter dated Nov. 29th was received the 7th inst. & I was very happy to hear that you were all well & I hope you will continue so.

Was pleased to hear that Thanksgiving passed so pleasantly with you & that you were obliged to wait upon no one but yourselves. The manoeuvers [maneuvers] of our aristocratic relations for the purpose of being invited to partake of your nice dinner were truly laughable, but after all it appears that they were obliged to prepare their dinners themselves. Hope they enjoyed it & that Mr T. got his pay for the turkey & fixins. Should judge from what you wrote that you all had a considerable fun out of it. I was not a little surprised to hear of the marriage of "Miss Mary Hall" in fact should not have been more so to have heard of the marriage of Aunt Lydia Chase or Miss May Bowers, but I suppose Miss Hall thought that twas "better late than never" then took up with the very last chance.

You also wrote that Wm. Hantwell [William Hantwell] was married & I think that on my return home I shall find most of my old acquaintances married off, especially if they go on at the rate they have been going the past season. My health continues good with the exception of a cold I have had for 3 or 4 days past which is better however today & I feel quite smart again