Gold Rush Era Letters

she has grown out of my recollection altogether, & if I stay out here much longer I am afraid that all of my acquaintances will have changed so that it will be difficult for me to recognise [recognize] them. I expect that Charles is now larger than I am, & Harriet I suppose she has grown so that I should scarcely know her, as for yourself, it seemed to me as though you had changed but little, as I do not think you have altered much for the past ten years.

As for myself, I look just the same as when I left home & weigh just the same, so if you know how I looked when I left home, you know how I look now.

I suppose that Chas. & Harriet now attend the district school the same as they usually do as I expect that the old custom of commencing school the first Monday after Thanksgiving is still kept up. I think Chas. wrote me that he thought Abel P. Lawrence would teach this winter & if he does they will probably have a good school.

Yesterday was "Christmas" & a lovely day too. Early in the morning it was cool & frosty, but after the Sun got up it was warm & pleasant. The day passed with me the same as all holidays do although Public Worship was held in All the churches both day & evening but I did not attend nor have I been inside a church for over a year & but two or three times since I left home, which is now nearly two years although it does not seem hardly so long --

I was glad you wrote me about Mrs Betsey Tucker and Mr. Samuel Chase, as Sam Tucker [Samuel P. Tucker] being here just now, I was able to tell him what you wrote concerning them. He was glad to hear that his mother continued so smart during the cold weather.

Then you wrote that Henrietta Parker was married about a year ago, which was news to me or else if I ever knew that she was finally married I had forgotten it ere now.

Then again you wrote that Mrs Sewell, heard from Abel P. Lawrence quite often, so I conclude that he is at present away from home although I had never heard of it before, and now you did not write whereabouts he is but merely said he was teaching school and getting $28.00 per month for doing so.

When you answer this, please write me where he is teaching.

Give my love to Charles and Harriet and remember me to Uncle Bradly [Bradley] and family and all others of my friends. Tell them all that I am well, and intend to come home sometime, if I can get there.

Sam, and Chas, do not know for a certainty when they shall start for home, but I guess not at present. Mrs Graves (formerly Miss Chapin) is living at Columbia and Louis C. lives there with them, Augustine (I believe I wrote you) went home about two months ago,)

Your loving son

H A Parker [Henry A. Parker]

[written vertically in left margin] Monday eve, Jany 15th I am as well as usual this evening. Sam. [Samuel P. Tucker] & Charles left here for Columbia this afternoon, all well. - I noticed a few days since, the marriage of Jackson Lewis, of San Jose, Brother to Crosby Lewis. --