12:08 PM 






















Welcome back to my blog! Sorry my blog's layout has spacing issues, but its
like wrestling with a snake editing the HTML code- but I am learning. CLICK
LETTER TO ENLARGE






















As I mentioned in my last blog- I am waiting for
Filley's letter written in April 1850 where he mentions, "Our People
here have been much disappointed in business this spring except perhaps the
outfitting of California Emigrants. In this part of the country almost every
available man has gone.." 
I know many were leaving the city due to the
California Gold Rush, but other fled due to the the Cholera epidemic. Read this
letter written by a man headed for the gold rush fields. He mentioned
outfitting which means he has purchased all the tools and food [provisions] for
his trip west. He is headed for St. Joseph and promises to write after he
arrives. There is a note in pencil showing that he is still alive in 1857 and
repays the money he borrowed for the trip. He writes,"St Louis is afflicted with Cholera to a
considerable extent. The citizens deny its ravages, but the truth is not to be
thus hoodwinked the stable hearse and the mourning crape [black silk fabric]
proclaims, beyond all carre [carry], the truth that death stalks the busy
streets of this commercial city."








Enjoy this letter, it is excellent practice at reading the penmanship....(my grandfather George Saunders taught me how to do this (1886-1985).There is some repeat in the text because this is 9 scans- but you can handle it and build up those researcher muscles. (HINT-Don't be fooled thinking the looping at the end of words is another letter- it is just penmanship styles)