Gold Rush Era Letters

14th John & William Keep are at work mining on the Feather River. H. Leighton & his father I suppose are at Auburn. John Griffin & Silas Stone are here in town as also is J. Spaulding Elliott, Henry Bowen (Jack's son) has been out here & have now gone home again & his brother Sampson has come out, so you see there are quite a number of us out here who know something about Pepperell

I was glad to hear by your letter of the 1tth April that you had got such a nice lot of wood into the shed again in good order for the coming year, & I hope you will succeed as well with all your out door work throughout the year, was also glad to hear by your last letter that you were all well (although H. had but just got well of a severe cold) & I hope you may all continue to enjoy good health

I believe I wrote in my last that I had miss Harriets letter dated April 17th & I shall try & answer it by this mail --

You wrote that you received a call from Miss Jennings & Mrs S. J. Billings --- wish they would call upon me ---

When you see them again please give them my kind regards, & tell them I was hoping to hear that they had not forgotten me. Remember me also to Nelly Z. who you will remember gave me the ring about a month before I left home, & which I have worn constantly ever since, nearly 17 months. --- You say I am dismissed which was the first I had heard of it & the letter of dismissal you spoke of has not as yet been recieved [received] but probably will be soon & I shall preserve it for you. Her maneuvers are very interesting I think, & I suppose she will soon pick up a new beau. Hope he will be as fortunate as I was.

I received a few lines from Mr Silas Stone, saying that he arrived home safely and was enjoying himself very well. He wrote that he saw Hattie the day after he got home ---

I have been expecting to see Mr Noyes [Ephraim Noyes] tonight, but as yet he has not made his appearance. The Steamer that he is to come in is now fully due and will probably arrive within the next twenty four hours, when I hope he will feel like taking hold of business and assisting me. Trade is rather dull this month as well as last

During the month of Feby. [February] the Schooners that I am interested in only made enough to pay their expenses, and a few small bills for repairs. The Stands cleared us $100 apiece, which was a falling off from the previous months still I think we are doing very well now considering how dull business is, of all kinds, with every one, so I think we had better remain just as we are through this coming summer and make the most we can out of our business and take things as they come

home so I think that I shall write him ere long. If you see him give him my best respects. Have you ever seen his wife?

What has become of Mr. Silas Stone? I have not received but one letter from him since he left here and that one was written soon after he arrived home. Then you have written nothing about him of late, so I do not know whether he is at home or where he is. Please write me of him, and if you see him give him my kind regards, and ask me to write me ---

My health remains good, and so does our business. We are not open today.

The past year we have kept one stand open every Sunday nearly, and have now come to the conclusion to do business one year without opening on the Sabbath.

We shall like it much better I know and I have no doubt, shall be as well off at the end of the year in a pecuniary view as we should if we kept open Sundays. Six days from six oclock [o'clock]in the morning until ten or eleven at night ought to pass for a weeks work without keeping open ten hours every Sunday, for if it will not pay us by working that length of time I do not consider the business worth following ----

[written vertically in the left margin]

Friday Evening June 15th I am as well as usual this evening. Was in hopes to have received a letter from you ere now by the Mail which left New York the 25th May, but the Steamer has not yet arrived, although she is hourly expected.

Mr Noyes [Ephraim Noyes] has not felt quite as well as usual for a few days past so he concluded to take another short sea trip and recruit up again, -- so he left yesterday morning from Santa Cruz in the Schooner "Ostolern"

He will probably get back in a week from today, until which time Mr Millet and I shall be alone, but I think we can manage business, for Mr M. is a smart honest man, and seems to take an interest in our business as well as his own and seems to work hard to assist us.

Whenever Mr N. and I sell out our stands we shall probably sell them to Mr Millet as he seems to talk as though he wanted them whenever we left them.

Since I last wrote you I have sold Mr Noyes [Ephraim Noyes] one sixteenth of the Schooners "S. D. Bailey" and "Ostolern" and bought one half of a sloop called the "Emma."

The Sloop is doing well just at the present time, and the Schooners are beginning to do better also, so I hope to do pretty well out of them for the next six months.

Sunday July 15th 1855. Yesterday I received a letter from J. A. Tucker also one from Mr Silas Stone but none from you, which disappointed me very much. I was pained and pleased at the same time when I read the following paragraph in