Dear Brother --
I take this opportunity to
inform you that I have written an answer to every letter that I have
received of yours. This is the fourth letter since July from you.
And I am happy to receive them.
Last mail I received two
letters: one from Daniel Smith, of 26th Aug., and the other from my
cousin George McCall, of the same date. He says his folks are all
well, and the rest of my friends on Talbot street, and that he has
some notion of coming here to Chicago to work at his trade. It would
be a good thing for he can get good wages here, from one dollar to
three of a day. There is a good many carpenters here now, but there
is work enough for as many more.
Mr. Smith tells me of a good
deal of funny news of the marriages and courtships that have
happened since I left. How Miss Phoebe Price is married to A.
Hucheson, and Mr. D. W. Freeman to some young lady in that place.
Also the postmaster of Vittoria to Miss Lamport. If that is the
case, I wish you would write and let me know something about her,
who she is and where she came from, or what her occupation is, or
whether she is a sister to Thomas Lamport or not. And how the rest
of the young men make out amongst the girls of Long Point, and how
my dear brother, John H. McCall, is about, and all the rest of my
brothers and sisters, and how Big Dan, as they call him, is. I send
my best respects to him.
I am glad to hear that
grandmother is getting better. I hope she will regain her health
again. But I am sorry to hear that my old friend Thom Allen is no
better, and that Mr. John Green is very ill. If I was in that neighborhood
I would go and see them both and try to encourage them all I could,
but I am too far away at present, and I would beg one favor of you
if they are alive. When you get the news, I wish you would please go
down some Sunday if you can any other time, or if you can't, you
please write each of them a line and tell them of the love that I
have for them. Dear beloved friends that I wish with all my heart
that they will recover their health again, and that I may rejoice
with them once in this life, but, if I can't, that I hope I will at
the last day, when I hope we will all be happy. Give my best
respects to Mr. Doan's family and the neighborhood round. Tell them
I am as well as when I left there, and in much better humor, that I
am well-pleased with my undertakings.
I am finisher of leather for
John Miller in Chicago. I began to work for him the 8th of Sept.,
and I think it will take me till Nov. to finish out my last stock.
The reason of his throwing up the trade is, this, it don't agree
with him, and he thinks he can do better with a sawmill. He has now
bought two lots of land about 12 miles from Chicago, and is building
a mill on the north branch of the Chicago river.
Almost any kind of business
is good in this vicinity, such as lumbering, tanning, farming, or
merchandising; wages are high and workmen scarce. I am earning $1
and a half per day. I think this middling well considering. Mr. J.
Miller and several more of the gentlemen of this place want me to
start the business here. They will assist me to anything I want if I
will make a move towards it. In the fine settled country around this
vicinity there is no tanner short of eighty miles of here, though
there is no end to the hides. They fetch them 100 and 30 miles and
sell them for 3 cents and 4 cents for green hides and 6 to 8 dry,
and take trade for them at that. There is no doubt but a tanner
would do well here.
There is three Butcher yards
in this town now and they kill from 3 to 8 head and as high as 12
and 18 cattle per day at the present time. When I came here last
fall there was only fifty frame houses in Chicago, and I counted
them last Friday and there was 600 and 28, and there is started from
3 to 5 a day. About two hundred of them stores and groceries. There
is 7 taverns, but board is high for all, from $2½ to $3 per week. I
don't give them my custom. I could board myself for $1 per week here
as well as any of them. Mr. Miller gives 12 shillings a day and
boards me in the bargain.
I have nothing more at
present. I think I shall come home this winter and see you all
perhaps for the last time. Give my Best Respects to my Dear Mother,
Grandmother, Brothers, Sisters, and all the rest of friends and
relatives in Long Point and vicinity. I add no more, but remain,
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