January 30, 1853
Jan[uary] the 30 1853
My Dear Sarah:
I now embrace the opportunity once more of writing to you a few lines to let you know that I am well. Hoping these few lines will find you the same as it leaves me at present.
I received your letter January the 16 and was very glad to hear from you. Sarah, I believe I mentioned in my last letter that I had bought a share in Stoney Bar Company and the rainy season set in so that we could not work any more ‘til next Spring.
You wanted to know when I was coming home. That I am not able to answer at the present time as I want to try it one Summer more, but I will send you word when I am coming. So my dear Sarah I will be home as soon as I can make it conveniently.
You mentioned that you saw [my brother] Robert, that he had given up coming. I think it is just as well for him, for he would soon wish himself back.
I received a letter from the old man, as I call him, the same time I received yours.
Sarah, that was the time I come pretty near being drowned in the Yuba River. There were 4 of us in the boat; 2 of them [made it] ashore. But we had hard swimming for it. You can guess the bodies of the deceased is not yet found, nor it is not likely to do.
Sarah, I don’t think it would look well of me to come home destitute of money, nor I don’t think I will ‘til I have some money, unless my health fails me and then it is time enough.
Your brother is well and we are mining a little on the banks of the bar. Not making much, but expect to strike something good before long. He talks very strong of coming home next Fall and there is not doubt but he will if he can get money enough.
Sarah it is a very hard winter for the miners. This has been the hardest winter in the mines that was ever known to be. The snow on the mountains has been from 10 to fifty feet deep. Flour has been as high as $200 per hundred pounds. Everything else in proportion.
I am boiling some corned beef today and beans. George is a poor cook. I wanted him to stay and cook, but he has given me the slip and run off. I guess he has gone to see A. Payne. I have to do all the cooking and chop all the wood. He has just now come back. It is a great country, this.
I am very sorry mother has been sick and Harriet. George has his best love to you all. Sarah, the keros[ene?] is very scarce here. I don’t know of anything else at present. Give my respects to all the old folks at home, not forgetting the young, and accept the most of it yourself from your most affectionate lover,
John Bryden
Excuse this pen. It is the best one I can get and my handwriting this time and all mistakes, for there is a good many to come. From,
John Bryden
Write soon my own true love,
John Bry[den]
Written in ink on blue 8.5” x 14” landscape-ruled rag paper, folded along the short axis into a 4-page signature. Watermark in top left corner of the first page in the shape of a decorative plaque.
This letter has the recipient’s name and address (Miss Sarah Bowles, Lairdsville, Oneida County, New York State) on the last page. From the fold lines, wear marks, and round, red stains, it appears to have been folded and sealed, rather than placed in an envelope.
The Yuba River runs through the Central Valley north of Sacramento. Stoney Bar apparently no longer exists as a community.
On the coast at Bernicia, flour was selling at $0.25 per pound in 1852, but much higher in the gold fields. Meat appears to have sold for about 50% more. I’m not certain about the reference to kerosene. It was produced in Los Angeles by the early 1850s, but I don’t know if it was in common use farther inland.
