Gold Rush Era Letters

Camp on the Platt River [Platte River] 6 miles west of Deer Creek [Deer Creek, Missouri] June 17th 1849

Dear Beloved Wife

Sunday again brings us a day of rest and me an opportunity of fullfilling [fulfilling] a most pleasant duty of inform= ing you of our progress, and to tell you again & again how much I love you. Oh dear sweet wife I wish it were possible for me to give you some Idea of the change that has come over my feelings since I left you. I thought that I loved you before I left home, but I dont [don't] think compared with my present feelings the sentiment I then Entertained deserved to be called by so Holy a name as love. If I loved then then I adore you now. Dear wife if I am spared and should again be permitted to Embrace you to the most faithfull [faithful] of hearts you will be repaid for our temporary seperation [separation] by the tender love which I shall lavish on you & our dear children. It may be from the long delay that must occur before you can possibly receive this that you will have become again a mother, oh sweet, & bitter reflection, sweet because the little angel will add another bond to cem= =ent our hearts together, sweet because you will have it to love & Cherish during the absence of its father. Sweet because the sight of the dear Cherub will but increase your love for the author of its being & when I return I shall be very greedy & shall expect you to pour out to me a rich store of love, a bitter reflection because I can= not be with you to cheer and strengthen you by being with you during your hard trials but may the good Lord carry you safely through the ordeal. I left my last letters my dear for you at Fort Larimie [Laramie] but I sometimes fear you will never receive them for I have not much confidence in the honesty of the peo= ple of the Fort. They are generally a rough set of men who have spent most of their lives among the children of the wilds & who have lost if they ever possessed those fine sen= sibilities which would make them respect the Epistle of an absent Husband to his wife. Though they may not destroy them or they have received so many to transmit to the states it might be a serious business for them if they should not faithfully perform their duty. Now for description of the Fort it is built of sun dried brick or as the Mexicans call it ("Adobe") in the form of a square containing something like an acre of ground. There is a Court in the Center, the walls are very thick Capable of resisting any effects of the Indians against it. The wall is pierced with loop holes for rifle men, all around the square on the inside is occupied as store houses, work shops [workshops], stables, apartments for the men all of whom are blessed with copper coloured [colored] spouses and all that